A Critical Review on the Book "Art as Therapy"

In different periods, man has turned art into a tool with the help of which he can express his inner feelings and overcome his fears. The book "Art as Therapy" has been compiled and written by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong in the field of art therapy and has been translated into Persian by Mehrnaz Mesbah. This book has been written with the aim of explaining the various functions of art in various fields of psychology, economics, etc., and although in some of the topics of art some treatment is sacrificed and reduces its true value, in some cases it offers valuable approaches. The present study has criticized the book with a descriptive-analytical method. The present article is about the quality of form and content of the Persian translation of this book and the review of the main book will not be the focus. After reading this book, it can be concluded that the purpose of the authors in writing it is to bring art down from its original position. Hence, art lovers who believe in the theory of "art for art's sake" may disagree with the contents of this book. The present book has a Platonic view of art and considers art valuable only if it can cure the mental problems of human beings.