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Margaret Naumburg (May 14, 1890-February 26, 1983) was an American psychologist, educator, artist, author and among the first major theoreticians of art therapy. She named her approach dynamically oriented art therapy. Prior to working in art therapy, she founded the Walden School of New York City.

Life and Work

Naumburg finished undergraduate studies at Vassar and Barnard colleges in New York. She did graduate work at Columbia University with John Dewey in education and at the London School of Economics. While in Italy she studied with Maria Montessori. She opened Walden School in New York City. It began with two teachers and ten students focusing on letting children develop their own interests and ideas. Naumburg believed children would not only learn knowledge, but learn how to use knowledge to their advantage .

Many notable individuals taught at the Walden School including Lewis Mumford, Hendrik van Loon, and Ernest Bloch are among those where taught at the Walden School.

Married writer Waldo Frank.

Naumburg utilized art for diagnosis and therapy. However she was not alone in this endeavor. She was unique in using it as a primary agent rather than an auxiliary tool. She called her approach Dynamically Oriented Art Therapy based primarily on Freudian theory. She was also sympathetic to Jungian notions of universal symbolism and Harry Stack Sullivan's ideas about interpersonal psychiatry. Naumburg insisted the only valid interpretation of anyone's art came from them. She was skeptical about simple or rigid approaches to symbolic meaning consistent with Freud's teaching about dream analysis . Naumburg's directive of choice was scribble drawing. Naumburg would have her client close their eyes and then scribble on a piece of paper. She would then ask the client to develop the images they saw in the scribble. Scribble drawing was developed by her sister Florence Cane. She used this technique believing it helped release unconscious imagery .

Dynamically Oriented Art Therapy is based on recognizing that man's fundamental thoughts and feelings come from the unconscious. Often thoughts and feelings are reached through expression in images rather than words. Like psychoanalytic procedures, images may deal with dreams, fantasies, daydreams, fears, conflicts and memories. Whether trained or untrained individuals have the capacity to project their inner conflicts into visual form. In this approach, the therapist withholds interpretation encouraging clients to discover what their picture means to them.. Naumburg used art as the means for clients to visually project their conflicts.

Books

• The child and the world: dialogues in modern education, Harcourt, Brace and company, 1928 (Digitized Oct 29, 2007)
• Studies of the "Free" Expression of Behavior Problem Children as a Means of Diagnosis and Therapy, Publisher Coolidge Foundation, 1947 - Art - 225 pages
• Schizophrenic Art: Its Meaning in Psychotherapy (1950)
• Psychoneurtic Art, Its Function in Psychotherapy: correlation of the patient's Rorschach and other tests with the patient's art productions, by Adolpf G. Woltmann., Published 1953
• Dynamically Oriented Art Therapy,(Copyriihgt 1966 by Gune & Stratton, Inc.), Publisher:MAGNOLIA STREET PUBLISHERS, 1987, ISBN 0-9613309-1-0

See also

Sigmund Freud

Carl Jung

Adrian Hill

Edward Adamson

Rawley Silver

Edith Kramer

Florence Cane

Bruce Moon

Rhodha Kellogg

Harriet Wadeson

John Dewey

Maria Montessori

Waldo Frank

Lewis Mumford

Hendrik van Loon

Ernest Bloch

Notes

1. Brorowsky Junge, Maxine (2010). "Margaret Naumburg". The Modern History of Art Therapy: In the United States Biography. Charles C Thomas-Publisher, LTD. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-398-07940-6.
2. Cane, K. D., Frank, T., Kniazzeh, C. R., Robinson, M. C., Rubin, J. A., & Ulman, E. (1983). Roots of art therapy; margaret naumburg (1890-1983) and florence cane (1882-1952) a family portrait. American Journal of Art Therapy, 22, 111-123.
3. Milite, G.A. (2011) "Naumburg, margaret (1890-1983)". Encyclopedia of Psychology. FindArticles.com.
4. Cane et al. (1983)
5. Rubin, J. A. (2001). Approaches to art therapy Theory and technique. New York, NY. Brunner-Routledge.
6. Rubin, J. A.(2001)
7. Naumburg, M. (1966). Dynamically oriented art therapy; its principles and practices. New York, NY. Grune and Stratton.
8. Naumburg, Margaret (1928). The child and the world: dialogues in modern education Biography. University of California. p. 328.

References

• Cane, K. D., Frank, T., Kniazzeh, C. R., Robinson, M. C., Rubin, J. A., & Ulman, E. (1983). Roots of art therapy; margaret naumburg (1890-1983) and florence cane (1882-1952) a family portrait. American Journal of Art Therapy, 22, 111-123.
• Naumburg, M. (1966). Dynamically oriented art therapy; its principles and practices. New York, NY. Grune and Stratton.
• Milite, G.A. (2011) Naumburg, margaret (1890-1983). Encyclopedia of Psychology. FindArticles.com.
• Rubin, J. A. (2001). Approaches to art therapy Theory and technique. New York, NY. Brunner-Routledge.

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