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Museum Objects, Health and Healing provides an innovative and interdisciplinary study of the relationship between objects, health and healing. Shedding light on the primacy of the human need for relationships with objects, the book explores what kind of implications these relationships might have on the exhibition experience.
Merging museum and object studies, as well as psychotherapy and the psychology of well-being, the authors present a new theory entitled Psychotherapeutic Object Dynamics, which provides a cross- disciplinary study of the relationship between objects, health and well-being. Drawing on primary research in museums, psychotherapeutic settings and professional practice throughout the US, Canada, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the UK, the book provides an overview of the theory's origins, the breadth of its practical applications on a global level, and a framework for further understanding the potency of objects in exhibitions and daily life.
Museum Objects, Health and Healing will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students interested in museum studies, material culture, mental health, psychotherapy, art therapies and anthropology. It should also be valuable reading for a wide range of practitioners, including curators, exhibition designers, psychologists, and psychotherapists.
List of contents
Introduction
Part I Our Primal Dialogue with Objects
1. Ordinary Portents
2. Object Scholars and the Literature
3. The Power of Objects
Part II The Theory of Psychotherapeutic Object Dynamics
4. Origin of the Theory: Brenda Cowan
5. The Theory and Framework
Part III Therapeutic Object Practices in Clinical and Educational Settings
6. The Wilderness Within: Jason McKeown
7. Creativity and the True Teacher: Ross Laird
Part IV Health and Healing in the Museum Setting
8. Seeing Through a New Lens: the Empirical Research
9. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum
10. The War Childhood Museum
11. The Derby Museum and Art Gallery
12. The Museum @ FIT
Part V Implications for Museums
13. The Museum—Wellness Connection
14. Working with Trauma, Grief, and Related Challenges
About the author
Brenda Cowan is Associate Professor in the Exhibition and Experience Design Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York in the USA.
Ross Laird is an independent author, scholar, and clinical consultant in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Jason McKeown is a Marriage and Family Therapist, Parenting Educator, Clinical Program Consultant, and an Adjunct Instructor at Lenior-Rhyne University, Center for Graduate Studies of Asheville, North Carolina.
Summary
The Role of Museum Exhibitions in Health and Healing sheds light on the primacy of the human need for relationships with objects, defines the fundamental healthful and healing impact of human-object dynamics, and explores what kind of implications these relationships might have on the exhibition experience.
