Art As Therapy - Alain de Botton and John Armstrong

Art As Therapy by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong involves reframing and recontextualising a series of art works from across the ages and genres, so that they can be approached as tools for the resolution of difficult issues in individual life. The purpose of this book is to introduce a new method of interpreting art: art as a form of therapy. It's the authors' contention that certain art works provide powerful solutions to our problems, but that in order for this potential to be released, the audience's attention has to be directed towards it in a new way, rather than towards the more normal historical or stylistic concerns with which art books and museum captions are traditionally associated.