What constitutes valid therapy? It depends on who you ask. Some will say that if a treatment works, it is valid. This is why there might be those who regret the unemployment of Tribal Shamen or magic amulet manufacturers - they were associated with success just often enough to stay in business.
Art makes many people feel better, as does music or Boggle, but is it valid therapy or just a happy coincidence?
Elizaberta López Pérez, a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Doctor in Painting at the University of Granada, has carried out a study on the use of art therapy for the treatment of acute mentally ill people. Her work, based on psychoanalysis principles, starts with a basic premise: A work of art is a sign formed as a vital trace and its essential material is the humanity of the human being who leaves his memory in the world.
Art therapy (or therapy through art), started in the middle of the 20th century and uses visual arts for therapeutic purposes. It is based on the idea that visual representations, objectified through plastic material, contribute to the construction of a meaning of the psychic conflicts, and can help with its resolution. Plastic representation would be, from this point of view, a process for thought construction.