The relationship between fine arts and psychology: The use of painting in psychotherapy

In this study, techniques that are used in the painting art and the role of the painting art are analyzed within the context of art therapy. The art was born from the feeling of reaching the beauty in human and getting spiritual pleasure from this beauty. Since the art's existence, the issue of definition of art that is an activity of human and is at the same age with humanity has varied by ages, nations and the kinds of art. The art brings thousands years past to present by exceeding the destructive rules of the real world. Today, we know and judge the past via the unaccesible power of the art. Painting can be defined as "is the art of telling a piece of nature or the inner world of the artist with the lines and colors on a flat surface. Painting occurs with the combination of design elements like line, form, color, texture, dimension, interval, direction, light and shade in a narrative and harmonic way. Painting is one of the art branches that has the most variety in terms of application methods and tools when compared with the other art branches. The studies show that only verbal communication is not sufficient to understand human, the use of the art in the process of therapy provides more information about the human then the words, in the light of these developments the art therapy was founded and the importance of art therapy was understood. The outpicturing and the effects of the inner world are discussed in art and psychology. The painting in psychology can be considered as an indicator of the description type of the complicated inner world of the human that try to organize himself and the mental development. From clinical point of view, it is seen that the painting is a useful tool to evaluate personalities or to recognize mental disorders. Because the painting reflects and gives a hint about the patients evolution, skills, thinking styles and the relations with others besides being easy to do and is percieved as a game activity. The art therapy has shown healing effects on identifying and revealing the problem clearly, expressing the emotional disagreements and increasing the awareness, developing the social abilities, reducing anxiety via expression, directing the human to truth and increasing the self esteem. The art therapy is especially used to boost the vi treatment process, simplify the self expression of the patients in mental disorder treatments and rehabilitations. Key Words: Art, Psychotherapy, Psychology, Painting, Therapy.