Siri Hustvedt - How do art therapies work?

A conversation on art, mental health and the limits of the medical model.

In this conversation recorded for The Big Anxiety, acclaimed writer, Siri Hustvedt talks with festival director, Jill Bennett, extending on their chapter in the book, The Big Anxiety: Taking Care of Mental Health in Times of Crisis (Bloomsbury, 2022).

They discuss why and how creative practice is therapeutic, what the arts offer that medical interventions do not, and why we need to be wary of measuring the impact of art in medical terms. Rather than focusing on mechanistic measures that fail to capture the nuances of creative process, they argue that we need to attend to the messiness of lived experience and to the social and ecological factors that shape that experience.

Photo: Herve Bruhat

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.