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"Perhaps the quality most needed by the art therapist is courage"
(Ulman, 1975, as cited by Gannt, 1992).
Elinor Ulman
Compiled by Rachel Morrison
Life Overview
Biography
Early Life - Born in Baltimore, Maryland (1910); BA in English from Wellesley College (graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1930), BA in Landscape Architecture from Iowa State College (1943)
1945 - 1950s- Moved to Washington; "'Drifted' into art therapy because she had become a "frustrated painter'" (Gantt, 1992)
1951 - Began working for the District of Columbia Health Department (considered herself an art teacher)
1955 - Director of the Art Therapy Program at the District of Columbia General Hospital (until 1965), Ulman Personality Assessment Procedure
1961 - Launched the Bulletin of Art Therapy; joined the faculty at the Washington School of Psychiatry (taught art therapy courses until 1973)
1968 - Assistant Professorial Lecturer at The George Washinton University (retired in 1988 and AJAY and GW established the Elinor Ulman Prize for Writing. Adjunct Professor Emeritus in her death)
1971 - Launched a graduate training program as adjunct Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Training; Education Chair and Board member of AATA
? - Consultant of Art Therapy for the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute
1973 - Wrote the first Guidelines for Art Therapy; First Honorary Doctorate of Art Therapy by Norwich University
1984 - Permanent position of Executive Editor of AJAT and she worked on it until her death
1990- Presented at the AATA Conference in Washington
December 11, 1991 - Died of congestive heart failure
Elinor's Mentors, Influencers, and Friends
Brief apprenticeship under Frank Lloyd Wright who was considered the "greatest American architect of all time" (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, n.d.)
Florence Cane and Henry Schaefer-Simmern's writings on art education guided her early journey from identifying as an art teacher to an art therapist. Elinor did not feel qualified to "follow in the footsteps" of Margaret Naumburg at that time, but Naumburg's work guided and inspired her development (Ulman, 1975, p. 20).
Influencers
(Naumberg, 1983, retrieved online December 2022)
(National Gallery of Art, Cane, 1922, retrieved online December 2022)
Dr. Bernard Levy
Encouraged Elinor to standardize her method and materials for her assessment procedure the Ulman Personality Assessment Procedure
The Levys
Aided Elinor in launching the Bulletin of Art Therapy and served on the Editorial Board
Wife, Claire Levy became the Booke Review Editor, Editorial Assistant, and Office Manager
(Gantt, 1992)
(Photo, Retrieved December 9, 2022)
Edith Kramer
Kramer
"I have often told Elinor that she is the Eleanor Roosevelt of art therapy, brilliant, incorruptible, and ready to do battle. As all just individuals she has not hesitated to prod and mobilize those who shared her ideas but would have avoided battle and retired into discontented intertia" (Kramer, 1988, as cited by Gantt, 1992).
Elinor Ulman's Influence
Influence
"One of them said, "Miss Ulman, what is art, anyway?" "Art," I answered, "is the meeting ground of the world inside and the world outside" (Ulman, 1975, p. 21)
Equaliser
equaliser. / (ˈiːkwəˌlaɪzə) / noun. a person or thing that equalizes, esp a device to counterbalance opposing forces.
(THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® SCIENCE DICTIONARY, 2011)
Equaliser
"if you spot a fancy word...where a plain one would serve" (Ulman, 1962, as cited in Grantt, 1992)
She refused to raise the subscription rates for the, now, American Journal of Art Therapy even though the subscirptions never covered "the considerable costs of editing and production" (Gantt, 1992, p. 8) because she wnated it to be available to everyone.
Challenged the AATA's recognition as a certified registered member under its grandfather clause as she did not feel she had been asked nor provided sufficient evidence as outlined and challenged the certification requirements
(F. Cohen, personal communication, October 20. 1970)
(F. Cohen, personal communication, November 9, 1970)
(M. Howard, personal communication, August 10, 1970)
(E. Ulman, personal communication, November 3, 1970)
(E. Ulman, personal communication, October 26, 1970)
Fierce Leader
"On a very personal note, I was shocked to discover that being a strong and forthwright leader is not necessarily a means of becoming loved" (Ulman, 1986, p. 90).
"But she had no need to be liked by large numbers of others. She accepted conflict as an innate part of human existance (Ulman, 1986, p. 125) and never shrank from it, be it internal or external" (Gantt, 1992, p. 10)
Described as the "backbone of art therapy" and "an extrodinary woman, [who] had rare attributes -- not of compromise and diplomacy but of intelligence and tenacity" (Gantt, 1992, p. 10)
Mentor and Teacher
"The striking influence Elinor has had in shaping my professional life has been as profound as it has been wide-ranging. My indebtedness to her had steadily increased over the twenty years that we were friends and colleagues" (Agell, 1992, p. 13)
Mentor
and
TEacher
Commencement Speaker for the 1986 Art Therapists graduating class at Vermont College of Norwich University
The Ulman Personality Assessment Procedure (UPAP) is a historical art therapy tool based on a series of experiential directives that consists of 4 drawings completed in a single session. The UPAP provides multiple ways of viewing a client’s psychological state and symbolic expression. Despite its often marginalized and seemingly antiquated psychoanalytic roots, the UPAP has contemporary relevance when integrated with relational, somatic, and trauma-informed theory. Some benefits of the assessment include offering a series of images instead of a single drawing, including movement, providing a range of directives, and ensuring shared interpretation. The author describes learning the procedure as a student of Ulman in 1978 and presents a contemporary case study for an expanded use of this protocol" (Tripp, 2019).
Ulman Personality Assessment Procedure
(Photo, 2022, Ulman, 1975, p. 372 and 375)
Focus on the Healing Quality of the
Creative Process
"Anything that is to be called art therapy must genuinely partake of both art and therapy" (Ulman, 1975, p. 13)
"Insights were thus derived from experience of an artistic process more often than from verbal translation of symbolic imagery" (Ulman, 1975, p. 22).
"Therapists can deserve and gain respect only if they themsleves respect their medium" (Ulman, 1975, p. 32).
Therapeutic
Framework
"Its motive power comes from within the personality; it is a way of bringing order out of the chaos - chaotic feelings and impulses within, the bewildering mass of impressions from without. It is a means to discover both the self and the world, and to establish a relation between the two. In the complete creative process, inner and outer realities are fused into a new entity" (Ulman, 1975, p. 13).
Elinor's Art
Identified as a representational painter (Ulman, 1986, p. 91)
Her teachers included George Grosz, Maurice Sterne, and Othone Coubine. She studied oil painting in France (1932-1934) brush painting in China (1934-1936)
Her work was exhibited at the New York World's Fair (1939), the Corcoran Gallery of art and the Phillips Gallery in Washington, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. (Gantt, 1992)
Art
(Mutual Art, retrieved online December 2022)
Reference Page
References
Art Therapy on Hudson. (n.d.). Edith Kramer's Memorial. https://www.artxonhudson.com/whats-new/edith-kramers-memorial-several-generations-of-art-therapists-april-26-2014
Agell, G. (1992). Elinor Ulman (1910-1991). Art Therapy, Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 9(1), 12-13.
(E. Ulman, personal communication, November 3, 1970)
(E. Ulman, personal communication, October 26, 1970)
(F. Cohen, personal communication, October 20. 1970)
(F. Cohen, personal communication, November 9, 1970)
Floyd Wright Foundation. (n.d.). About Frank Lloyd Wright. https://franklloydwright.org/frank-lloyd-wright/
Gantt, L., (1992). In Memory of Elinor Ulman. Art Therapy, Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 9(1), 6-11.
(M. Howard, personal communication, August 10, 1970)
Mutual Art. (n.d.). Elinor Ulman. https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Elinor-Ulman/209931536F6BF63C
National Gallery of Art. (2022). Florence Cane, 1922. https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.35634.html
Rubin, J. (1983). DAYENU: A Tribute to Margaret Naumburg. Journal of the American Art Therapy Associationy, 1(1). 4-5, DOI: 10.1080/07421656.1983.10758730
The George Washington University. (n.d). History. https://arttherapy.columbian.gwu.edu/history
Tripp, T. (2019). More Than an Image: Revisiting the Ulman Personality Assessment Procedure, Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 36(3), 133-140, DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2019.1649546
Ulman, E. (1986). Your Garden Is the World. American Journal of Art Therapy, 24(3), 90-91
Ulman, E. (1975). Art Therapy: Problems of Definition. In E.U. & P.D (eds.), Art Therapy. Schoken Books.
Ulman, E. (1975). Therapy Is Not Enough: The Contribution of Art to General Hospital Psychiatry. In E.U. & P.D (eds.), Art Therapy. Schoken Books.
Ulman, E. (1975). A New Use of Art in Psychiatric Diagnosis. In E.U. & P.D (eds.), Art Therapy. Schoken Books.