The Science of Stephen King

Kelly:“How did you become interested in art therapy?”

Theresa Hoglund Mueller: “I have a strong background in both art and in human services. I have also always been fascinated with the ‘flow’ state that art-making involves which brings people to ‘center,’ if you will. Also, the symbolism of dreams fascinated me. I never met one of my grandfathers but I knew him very well through his art, including a series of humorous yet gory cartoons he drew to cope with his stomach cancer that killed him.”

Kelly: “Wow! I’d love to see those.”

Meg:“What training do you need to become an art therapist?”

Theresa Hoglund Mueller: “It requires a clinical master’s degree with an intensive internship of about eight hundred hours and post-supervision work of a thousand hours. Prerequisites for the masters include specific undergrad work in psychology and art classes and proving competence in a variety of mediums with a submitted portfolio. Credentialing only occurs after the post-supervision work starting with registration and after passing an intensive exam to prove competence and skills for those who are board certified.”

Kelly:“In Stephen King’s bookDuma Key, the main character begins painting and starts to feel better mentally and physically. How can art therapy improve a person’s mood and/or physical health?”

Theresa Hoglund Mueller: “Doing art can be both very cathartic and meditative given the right application. It can help someone in getting in a flow or altered state of mind. In such states, the mind can stop racing thoughts and the body can begin to relax. A person becomes ready to problem solve in this more relaxed, less judgmental state.”

Meg:“How have you seen art therapy impact people?”

Theresa Hoglund Mueller: “I have seen profound catharsis, needed calming, and much insight from my clients allowing them to see themselves in new ways that allow them to be open to needed change and/or acceptance.”

After speaking with Theresa Hoglund Mueller, it becomes clear that art therapy can have an immense impact on people as it did with Edgar in the book. Although, not in the supernatural way!

Elizabeth Eastlake, a character that lives on Duma Key, has experienced much of what Edgar is going through. She has Alzheimer’s disease, though, and this causes Edgar to not trust the things she is saying initially. How does Alzheimer’s affect the brain? In a healthy brain, neurons communicate with each other and transmit information via electrical and chemical signals. The brain then sends messages to the rest of the body including muscles and organs. Alzheimer’s gets in the way of this communication and, in turn, causes cell death and loss of function. People with this disease lose their ability to function and live independently and will eventually die from it.

Elizabeth, like Edgar, believes that the art created on Duma Key can change the fate of the subjects painted. Could they be suffering from a shared delusion? According to research, most people who suffer from folie-a-deux, or a madness shared by two, tend to have a strong emotional connection or family ties. They also tend to be isolated in some way either geographically or culturally. One study revealed that even a family dog shared in the delusions! This occurrence was documented in The American Journal of Psychiatry:

Ms. A, an eighty-three-year-old widow who had lived alone for fifteen years, complained that the occupant of an upstairs flat was excessively noisy and that he moved furniture around late at night to disturb her. Over a period of six months, she developed delusionary persecutory ideas about this man. He wanted to frighten her from her home and had started to transmit “violet rays” through the ceiling to harm her and her ten-year-old female mongrel dog. Ms. A attributed a sprained back and chest pains to the effect of the rays and had become concerned that her dog had started scratching at night when the ray activity was at its greatest. For protection, she had placed her mattress under the kitchen table and slept there at night. She constructed what she called an “air raid shelter” for her dog from a small table and a pile of suitcases and insisted that the dog sleep in it. When I visited Ms. A at her home, it was apparent that the dog’s behavior had become so conditioned by that of its owner that upon hearing any sound from the flat upstairs, such as a door closing, it would immediately go to the kitchen and enter the shelter.9