The Systems Approach in "Art"

(This blog was originally posted on January 16, 2016)

(Spoiler Alert: I reveal an important plot detail in this blog. Please

do not read this essay if you plan to see the it!)

What would you do if one of your best friends spent a fortune—€100 million to be exact—to invest in a painting? Not just any painting, mind you; this one is a white pallet painted white and features a bunch of tiny diagonal white lines all the way across. The artist is famous for his Avant Gard subjects and this piece is characterized (in the catalog, anyway) as a “one-in-a-million” collector’s item. Be that as it may, anyone’s willingness to pay so much money, let alone actually liking the painting—is beyond your comprehension. But this is exactly what your friend has done, and all hell has broken loose.

This is the plot of Art, a comedy by Yasmina Reza and currently running at The Old Vic Theatre in London. It stars Tim Key (Yvan), Paul Ritter (Marc) and Rufus Sewell (Serge) as three longtime friends whose relationship literally melts down when Serge purchases the painting in question. Somehow, an essentially blank canvas sparks new and reignites old resentments. Petty irritations with each other (and their respective romantic partners) bubble to the surface until Marc makes a stunning confession: he always considered his friendship with Serge as one of mentor and mentee. He cannot understand or even forgive Serge (the mentee) for drifting so far out of his influence to have bought, let alone actually like that painting, an attraction that Marc doesn’t even understand. Needless to say, Serge is stunned and hurt to learn about the true nature/basis of his relationship with Marc. Can this friendship be saved?

This dilemma is best characterized through the Systems Theory model. Here, changes in one person’s behavior can affect the basic structure of the relationship or system with other people in the relationship, thus creating resistance within it. Even a tiny change in the social/emotional system will affect every part of the entire system. In other words, you cannot separate one component of the system from the sub-total or entire system.

In Art, the presenting issue is one friend’s (questionable) investment in a painting. However, the true conflict is actually each man’s perceived lack of control over the personal areas of their own and each other’s lives in contrast with their successful professional ones. According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., no matter what a person’s problem or issue happens to be, the systems approach infiltrates all areas of therapy. Even if only one of these men sought hypnotherapy to work through this conflict about Serge’s painting, it would have to be dealt with within the context of the person’s friendship with the other men. Therefore, the hypnotherapist must address components in his work, relationships, family past, the hypnotherapy he is receiving, plus specific aspects of that conflict in the friendship. Unless these other issues are taken into account, the overall therapy won’t be successful and only the issue being addressed in therapy would be “treated” (improved or eliminated) without achieving genuine resolution of the conflict, Dr. Kappas warned.

A final caveat: In legal, ethical and practical terms the hypnotherapist would not and could hypnotize Serge to stop liking the painting unless he wanted to do so. To remain friends with him, Marc and Yvan need to accept their friend’s attachment to the painting or their relationship will eventually, naturally dissolve.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2018

The Systems Approach in 'Art'

(Spoiler Alert: I reveal an important plot detail in this blog. Please

do not read this essay if you plan to see the it!)

What would you do if one of your best friends spent a fortune—€100 million to be exact—to invest in a painting? Not just any painting, mind you; this one is a white pallet painted white and features a bunch of tiny diagonal white lines all the way across. The artist is famous for his Avant Gard subjects and this piece is characterized (in the catalog, anyway) as a “one-in-a-million” collector’s item. Be that as it may, anyone’s willingness to pay so much money, let alone actually liking the painting—is beyond your comprehension. But this is exactly what your friend has done, and all hell has broken loose.

This is the plot of Art, a comedy by Yasmina Reza and currently running at The Old Vic Theatre in London. It stars Tim Key (Yvan), Paul Ritter (Marc) and Rufus Sewell (Serge) as three longtime friends whose relationship literally melts down when Serge purchases the painting in question. Somehow, an essentially blank canvas sparks new and reignites old resentments. Petty irritations with each other (and their respective romantic partners) bubble to the surface until Marc makes a stunning confession: he always considered his friendship with Serge as one of mentor and mentee. He cannot understand or even forgive Serge (the mentee) for drifting so far out of his influence to have bought, let alone actually like that painting, an attraction that Marc doesn’t even understand. Needless to say, Serge is stunned and hurt to learn about the true nature/basis of his relationship with Marc. Can this friendship be saved?

This dilemma is best characterized through the Systems Theory model. Here, changes in one person’s behavior can affect the basic structure of the relationship or system with other people in the relationship, thus creating resistance within it. Even a tiny change in the social/emotional system will affect every part of the entire system. In other words, you cannot separate one component of the system from the sub-total or entire system.

In Art, the presenting issue is one friend’s (questionable) investment in a painting. However, the true conflict is actually each man’s perceived lack of control over the personal areas of their own and each others' lives in contrast with their successful professional ones. According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., no matter what a person’s problem or issue happens to be, the systems approach infiltrates all areas of therapy. Even if only one of these men sought hypnotherapy to work through this conflict about Serge’s painting, it would have to be dealt with within the context of the person’s friendship with the other men. Therefore, the hypnotherapist must address components in his work, relationships, family past, the hypnotherapy he is receiving, plus specific aspects of that conflict in the friendship. Unless these other issues are taken into account, the overall therapy won’t be successful and only the issue being addressed in therapy would be “treated” (improved or eliminated) without achieving genuine resolution of the conflict, Dr. Kappas warned.

A final caveat: In legal, ethical and practical terms the hypnotherapist would not and could not hypnotize Serge to stop liking the painting unless he wanted to do so. To remain friends with him, Marc and Yvan need to accept their friend’s attachment to the painting, or their relationship will eventually, naturally dissolve.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2017

Isn't It Interesting...?

(This blog was originally posted on April 1, 2014)

 

 

 

 

                During my senior year at college I took an art (drawing) class as one of my electives. I preferred to look at and create portraits of people, animals and even scenery; “modern art” was not my thing. However, one of the class projects entailed using more abstract techniques such as lines, angles, shapes and bold splashes of color so that the specific object I drew would be virtually unrecognizable. The instructor even took the class on a field trip to check out a modern-art display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The excursion was meant to inspire the class and get everyone thinking not just about the specific techniques the artist used to create his or her masterpiece. In addition, we were supposed to consider the meaning or interpretation of a few specific pieces that “spoke” to us.

                I admit that I felt a little panicked and completely out of my element during most of this excursion. (Did I mention that modern art was not my thing?) I spent a lot of time staring, squinting and moving around different paintings trying to figure out what I was supposed to “get” out of them. What was I looking at? What was I supposed to see? I made notes about artistic techniques I recognized from the class. I did quick sketches of what I was looking at and scribbled questions to myself beside the illustrations. Nothing so far was really speaking to me; none of these works even made any sense to me. Time was ticking away and the field trip was almost over. Finally, I did the only thing I could think of: I put aside all of my expectations and preconceptions about what I should be seeing so I could just observe the details in front of my eyes. There would be plenty of time to assess and analyze everything, later. So, I looked.

                My eyes were opened that day. The second I stopped trying to categorize everything I saw, I could see and appreciate the tiny details of artistic technique—the slightest feathering of a brush stroke at the end of a line; was this intentional or accidental?—that I might never have noticed. I considered the angles and geometric shapes, shade and lightening of the color, in terms of how I might or could create a similar effect in my next project. And then I was able to wonder: What could or would these effects mean for the image I was trying to represent?

One of my friends has a favorite expression that I have started to use a lot, too: “Isn’t it interesting…” As in, isn’t it interesting how someone with physical suggestibility hears a question directly and literally but will make a statement that is full of metaphor and inference? Or, isn’t it interesting how two people with the same self-improvement goal can have completely different triggers for the unwanted behavior? Looking back, that field trip was the first time I was intentionally, consciously noticing and appreciating interesting and unique aspects of an otherwise-familiar situation. I looked at lines, smudges and shapes drawn in charcoal pencil. I regarded splashes of watercolor paint, or heavy lines and smudges of acrylic paint smeared onto canvas screens and sheets of metal. And then, somehow, all of this information (message units) coalesced into some kind of recognizable image in my subconscious mind. Suddenly, many individual pictures came together to create a story in my mind.

Isn’t that interesting?

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014