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Some artists have an inclination towards violence, with art helping to mitigate or redirect their destructive energy. For others, their art helps them gain power over or make sense of violent environs. Finally, for some violent perpetrators, art simply mirrors and even perpetuates their psychopathic cycles. Through it all,
The Frenzied Dance of Art and Violence explores - and seeks to understand - these interrelated paths of destruction and creation.
List of contents
- Prologue: Just What is This Dance?
- Part I: The Dance Between Creation and Destruction
- Introduction: Art of Violence/ Violence of Art
- Chapter 1: Angelic Demons: The Capricious Creators
- Chapter 2: Creating in Conflict: Art Amidst Environmental and Societal Violence
- Chapter 3: Art of the Perpetrator and the Oppressed: Unveiling the Art of the Holocaust
- Part II: Art of Psychopathy
- Interlogue: Examining Psychopathy
- Chapter 4: Wielding a New Weapon: Perpetuating the Multiple Murderer's Psychopathic Cycle Through Art
- Chapter 5: Extremes on the Same Continuum: Comparing the Art of Gacy and Manson
- Part III: Art for Change
- Chapter 6: Charles Bronson Becomes Charlie Salvador: 'The Most Violent Inmate' Liberated through Art
- Chapter 7: Guernica: Painted From Violence, A Palette for Peace
- Chapter 8: Continuing the Dance: How Art Therapy Can Reveal and Mitigate Violent Tendencies
- Epilogue: Bringing the Dance to a Close
About the author
David E. Gussak, PhD, ATR-BC is Professor for the Florida State University's Graduate Art Therapy Program and the Project Coordinator for the FSU/FL Dept of Correction's Art Therapy in Prisons program. As an art therapist for almost 30 years, Dr. Gussak has presented and published extensively internationally and nationally on forensic art therapy and art therapy in forensic settings. These include, among others, Art on Trial (2015) and Art and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned (2019). He is also the co-editor, with Dr. Marcia Rosal, and contributing author for The Wiley Handbook of Art Therapy (2015).
Summary
Some artists have an inclination towards violence, with art helping to mitigate or redirect their destructive energy. For others, their art helps them gain power over or make sense of violent environs. Finally, for some violent perpetrators, art simply mirrors and even perpetuates their psychopathic cycles. Through it all, The Frenzied Dance of Art and Violence explores - and seeks to understand - these interrelated paths of destruction and creation.
To inform this dynamic, Dr. David E. Gussak relies on various psychological and sociological perspectives of violence and aggression. Beginning with brief psychobiographies of violent artists, such as Caravaggio, Cellini, Pollock, and Dali, and those whose work emerged from violence, such as Goya, Beckmann, Picasso, and Vann Nath, among others, Gussak illustrates a potent dual nature of art-making: as a way to mitigate violent inclinations and as a tool to regain control amidst turmoil. From here, the book provides an in-depth look at our society's fascination with the products of violent perpetrators in the form of murderabilia, as the art of serial killers such as Gacy, Manson, and Rolling finds its way to art collections, feeding into perpetrators' narcissism and psychopathy. The book concludes with Gussak's reflections from his thirty years as an art therapist working with violent offenders on how art can be used as a therapeutic tool to assuage violence and aggression and promote peace in volatile situations. The Frenzied Dance of Art and Violence is a far-reaching and thought-provoking examination of the competing and complex impulses motivating artwork and those who make it.
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Many questions arise from the marvelous and troubling intersection of violence and art. Through stories, illustrations, and philosophical debates, Gussak offers a sustained opportunity to ponder them. This wide-ranging tome pairs best with reflection, discussion, and visits to art exhibits."-Dr. Katherine Ramsland, Professor of Forensic Psychology at DeSales University, Bestselling author of Confession of a Serial Killer
