Helping Anorexia’s Treatment through Design: an interview with Guylaine Sauvaget-Lasserre, clinician psychologist
At first, I was puzzled by design’s tendency to gain a foothold in various fields. Then, I realized that for a relatively young discipline, it was important to nurture its potential, and encourage its growth into other sectors.
Jean-Patrick Péché: Yes, that’s the paradox inherent to our profession: Our activities go just as far back to those of engineering and architecture, and yet only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the trade’s notoriety in France has been scraped despite its origins dating back to the birth of industry. The very first designers, devoid of such a title back then, appeared in the early nineteenth century, and strangely, design is still deemed an emerging profession. This is a French paradox whose image is less visible in neighboring countries. That said, this paradox hasn’t kept our industry from evolving or our young peers from finding their own voice in today’s economy.
Design’s potential is limitless despite the general public’s tendency to associate it mostly to the luxury goods market. I am glad to have discovered how design can impact the food sector and latch on to myriad disciplines. A closer look shows design to be far-reaching and versatile.
Art therapy as a way to “give shape to the shapeless” through relationship mediation
Jean-Patrick Péché: That’s absolutely right. You, as a psychologist, took an interest in art therapy. What brought you down this road? What was your motivation? Do you think art therapy contributes, in part, to the way you treat your patients?
Guylaine Sauvaget-Lasserre: Art therapy is, no doubt, a type of psychotherapy, but I am referring here to expressive workshops conducted in therapeutic environments such as those developed by J. Broustra. I began organizing this type of workshop as a result of my interest in group therapy, and after having practiced psychodrama.
Because teenagers often find it hard to only associate words to their feelings during treatment, it becomes interesting to mediate the relationship between them and therapists. I set up therapy sessions during which objects and techniques are transformed into mediating items, including clay, painting, collage, and all that can be handled in visual arts. However, I only resort to this as part of therapeutic schemes with the goal to complement what teenagers express based on what they feel as they yield to the creative process.
When she worked alongside Professor Marcel Rufo, Aurore used the same kinds of techniques and objects to conduct applied art workshops with a very different purpose in mind. From this standpoint, people forge bonds through the item they’re creating and subsequently sharing. This allows for thought not only on the work created but also the culture, an action that is not typically part of the therapeutic field. These are, in fact, two very distinct yet complementary types of intervention, each providing its own insight. Creative workshops − Aurore’s was packaging-oriented − can have an impact on the pathology expressed by the participant to the group, but this is but an induced effect, or rather an outcome of the creative process. Here lies the difference between therapeutic effect and intent.
What I really liked about Aurore’s approach was her following a different methodology from the one she had been taught. This proved to me that a designer is someone who knows how to listen carefully to his/her research object, which happens to target, in this case, teenagers with eating disorders. In her workshop, Aurore’s idea to have participants dissociate container from content related quite well to the issue of anorexia. Anorexia is a rather tricky symptom that primarily affects teenage girls. The body is the symptom’s means of expression. Having worked on the food packaging was a good idea that led to defining a therapeutic effect for the container was reminiscent of the subconscious body image, the body envelope. The container, thus, became a metaphor for the body.
Jean-Patrick Péché: This echoes a significant point in what you’ve said. You used the word “object” to describe what you did during your expressive workshops, and I understood that materializing these objects was a way to either mediate the pathology or the perception that the patient has of it. The notion of “objet” is, undoubtedly, common ground for designers and psychotherapists. Designers are often required to make or shape objects.
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