TRANSFORMING THE PLACEBO-EFFECT IN ART-THERAPY

The placebo effect is an unacknowledged self-healing process that uses mimicry, an instinctive, preverbal mechanism of the brain. This same preverbal mimicry mechanism is involved in emotion, nonverbal communic ation, the transitional object effect, empathy, and the esthetic respo nse. Art therapy mobilizes the same nonspecific healing as does the pl acebo effect because it assesses or explains the client's condition an d involves a task that relies on the patient's involvement to perform. It is possible to test whether specific art therapy techniques might replace the mysterious placebo effect with a high rate of success and predictability.