Art therapy postcards How does a personal arts-based process inform the development of an art therapy protocol to address intergenerational perpetrator trauma?

Abstract

This research article draws on a master’s thesis. This historical narrative emerges from a familial relationship with the artist Irmin Henkel, the author’s step-grandfather. Henkel was known as the official portrait painter of the 1960s apartheid government Cabinet. The approach repurposed family photographs into postcards to reflect on the past. The analytical framing of the study is grounded in inherited perpetrator trauma theories that reverberate with conditions in post-apartheid South Africa. A gap in the literature on trauma beyond apartheid is the enduring relationship between inherited perpetrator trauma and toxic shame. A heuristic self-study and arts-based approach were used as the vehicle through which I convey personal insights of my family history and drive home their meaning. My analytical approach derives from dialectical thinking as a way of grappling with more than one perspective. The creation of postcards from historical family narratives successfully uncovered three main themes: guilt, denial, and toxic shame. Because toxic shame is avoided, shunned, and kept secret, I advance a five-step protocol that art therapists could use to address inherited perpetrator trauma. However, the protocol has not been tested beyond the self-study. In extending this protocol to a broader South African society, the larger contribution of this study is to suggest the advantages of the use of the protocol in confronting inherited trauma and making toxic shame conscious, thereby preventing a repeat of past historical transgressions and encouraging healthier relationships to self, family, community and a broader South African society.