The purpose of this study is to grasp not only the traditional intellectual structure and a key researcher,
who is recently active in the research activity, and is further to understand the transitional process of
research topic according to a change in the times, through the author co-citation analysis. The analytical
subjects of this study were used 431 theses, which were recorded from 1994(Vol. 1 No. 1) to 2011(Vol. 18
No. 53) for the first issue of『Research of Art Therapy』in Korean Art Therapy Association, 79 theses,
which were recorded in『Journal for Korea Arts Therapy Institute』of Korea Arts Therapy Institute,
additionally 292 theses, which were recorded as art therapy in the registered journal(registered candidate
included) for National Research Foundation of Korea, and 3,856 quoted documents. An analytical method
was selected the core authors with high citation frequency through citation data. It coupled the pair in
authors after selecting the core author, thereby having prepared the author co-citation frequency matrix and
the Pearson's correlation coefficient matrix. To closely examine the author-based relationship and the
research theme, the author cluster was visualized with author map by using cluster analysis and
multi-dimensional scaling analysis. The conclusions, which were obtained through the results of this study,
are as follows. First, the tendency of intellectual structure in the current art therapy was indicated the
tendency of intellectual structure with the therapy process performance, the therapy performance, case study
& theme research, and personality & adjustment research. Second, with regard to the research theme of art
therapy, the research activity, which is performed centering on the therapy process performance and the
specific theme research in the period before 2000 and on 'therapy performance research' in the period after
2000, according to historical interest and flow, was changed into ‘personality characteristic & adjustment
research' and 'case study' in addition to 'therapy performance research' and ‘special theme research.