Art-Based Research

The standard approach in the research of creative arts therapies has been to adopt a scientific method of investigation. However, here Shaun McNiff argues that such a method should not be the only form of enquiry and that the creative arts themselves have for too long been absent from the profession's discourse about research. This text traces three principle themes: it seeks to promote a better understanding of the difference between scientific and artistic forms of knowing; it highlights a need for research methods and questions which derive from artistic experience and its application to therapy; and it proposes that using these methods should help to determine the place for conventional behaviour science research forms in furthering awareness of creative experience in therapy.