Midterms happened… so I fell off the face of the Earth. I haven’t posted in a month. To be honest, I knew it would happen. So I’ll summarize major happenings (again):
Art Therapy History and Philosophy had an exam that covered 70 years of history. The next few weeks were followed by group presentations on chosen psychological approaches in mental health treatment applied to a particular population. Groups presented on topics such as OCD, trauma resulting from physical and/or sexual abuse, Alzheimer’s (our group presented an art therapy directive with this population utilizing a humanistic approach), eating disorders and addiction utilizing various humanistic approaches or CBT treatments. Most of them were pretty interesting. My main positive I am taking from it is that it allowed us all to get to know classmates work ethics, experience, and verbal and visual presentation skills. Nothing says “this peer has been skating by” like watching them flounder in front of the entire class or overhearing their teammates bitch in the parking lot about “how lazy/clueless/awful she is”.
“ Everyone talks about how competitive men are… but I can argue they’ve got nothing on twenty something year old females clambering for a masters.”
Sidenote: Everyone talks about how competitive men are… but I can argue they’ve got nothing on twenty something year old females clambering for a masters. The social dynamics here are not my cup of tea and I am tempted every day to become a recluse. A lot of emotions and personal shit gets brought into therapy courses. I also want to admit that I am as competitive as they come. I did not quit my full time job, add 60K to my debt and give up time with friends and family to deal with lazy peers that can’t even pay attention for half an hour. If you have made it to your twenties and still expect your professors to tell you exactly what is on the exam and then still throw a fit when you get a B, I promise that the real world will be very tough for you. Also, I am not the person that is going to baby you. Get your shit together.
In my eyes, group projects, especially when you are assigned to a group, are never fun. I have a difficult time trusting other group members to put in the effort that I do, especially when I don’t know those members on a personal level. Regardless, I survived it and am still praying to the Grad School Gods that I/we get an A. Both the project and the exam (well… what happened when we got the exam back anyways) were both “I’m surprised this is happening in a graduate school setting” moment, due to the fact that the professor gave us all a curve. You read that right. Graduate school students were given a curve on a test. Upon hearing other students use words such as “nice”and “lucky” I rolled my eyes. Yet again the people who don’t prepare are being thrown some pity points. I never understood the point of curves if it means students are getting over 100%, but I guess I shouldn’t complain since 1. their test grades don’t effect mine and 2. it benefits me.
“Imagination is absolutely critical to the quality of our lives. Our imagination enables us to leave our routine everyday existence by fantasizing about travel, food, sex, falling in love, or having the last word—all the things that make life interesting. Imagination gives us the opportunity to envision new possibilities—it is an essential launchpad for making our hopes come true. It fires our creativity, relieves our boredom, alleviates our pain, enhances our pleasure, and enriches our most intimate relationships.”
EDC class had a weird, falling apart at the seams stretch. We had class cancelled because the professor had a home emergency (gas leak). Then the following week about a third of the class apparently forgot how to read a syllabus and simultaneously decided they had no idea what was going on. This lead to a bunch of rapid fire questions at our professor about due dates and assignment requirements. It also lead to embarrassment, frustration and anxiety because the class as a whole sounded like a bunch of immature high school wanderers that just happened to sit down in a graduate level course. There was bad mojo coming off of every single person in that room. I think if the professor wasn’t so experienced in dealing with literal psychotic people, he would have lost his mind that night. Nevertheless, the following week was much more calm, and he began class stating he “burned sage” throughout the room before anyone else got there. Let’s hope this improves.
As for Art Therapy Theories, Object Relations Theory is… complicated. It’s very applicable to certain populations and I have learned a lot about it, but this unit of study was stressful for me. I had a difficult time understanding this material. We had an exam that I left feeling like I ran a 5K (the kind where Michael Scott ate fetticini alfredo beforehand). I was sick and shaking and sweaty and exhausted. Let’s just say I didn’t ace that one.
We also had to make sculptures based out of a material of our choosing depicting “mother and child” (most people chose to do a ceramic sculpture). I ended up choosing paper because I feel it’s delicate yet strong characteristics are similar to that of a mother and her child’s relationship. Whenever I hear “mother and child” I think of Madonna and Child and the countless of representations throughout art history, particularly in painting. To get away from that, I went a more abstract route. The mother envelops the child, providing comfort, warmth and guidance as she grows. There are moments in the sculpture where the smaller figure exists within its own space, unsupported by the larger forms and creating its own structure. Eventually, the smaller part of the sculpture will be able to stand as its own piece.
