This study examined the potential psychotherapeutic effects of famous paintings appreciation based on
the aesthetics of reception by applying an appreciation program to the adolescents with psychological
problems. We developed the famous paintings appreciation program after classifying and selecting proper
conditions, such as famous paintings appropriate for the subjects, questions of the therapists for expectation
horizon change/facilitation and activities after the appreciation, through a review of previous research. The
participants were two adolescent patients in a local mental hospital with a chief complaint of depression
and emotional dysregulation. Eight 1-hour weekly sessions were provided to them from Oct. 19 to Dec. 8,
2013. To identify the psychotherapeutic effects of famous paintings appreciation based on the aesthetics of
reception, we analyzed the psychological responses in expectation horizon change during the appreciation of
each session, the psychological responses in parody works after the appreciation of each session and
observation on the change in problematic behavior by both the therapist and the participant's mother.
Including the author, 4 people of PhDs and Masters majored in adolescent counselling and art therapy
analyzed the data. The result showed that the famous arts appreciation program based on the aesthetics of
reception helped to relieve negative emotion (the cause of depression and emotional dysregulation) and also
brought insight to self and other perception, which eventually led to decrease of depression and withdrawn
behavior and improvement of interpersonal relationship.