Etty Buzyn

Born 1935 Paris

Etty Buzyn is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, as well as the author of several books on the psychology of parents and early childhood. In the past writing notes during her patients’ sessions was often accompanied by automatic mark making on the cardboard folders of her patients’ files. Beginning at the central crease, an unpredictable shape gradually develops over the course of the patient’s treatment, some taking years to complete. Without prior intention, she just lets her hand draw, the graphic forms inspired by the patient’s voice. The hand listens, Etty explains, and over the course of the sessions, the words emerge from the unconscious, fleetingly crossing the conscious mind before finding visual forms in the drawings. It is a joint operation and for both parties, communication transforms into creation. The drawings are usually accompanied by a small quote from the patient which forms the essence of the artwork.

Etty spent three years at the École Nationale des Beaux Arts, attending the sculpture workshop of Etienne Martin and Antoine Gilli. She also studied for a Clinical Psychology degree at the University of Paris VII as a disciple of Françoise Dolto and subsequently worked in several institutions including St. Vincent de Paul Hospital in Paris, while holding a seminar as part of the “Association Espace Analytique.” It was during her private consultations that she began drawing on her patients’ files during psychoanalysis sessions. Joséphine Chevry, sculptor and Prix de Rome winner, teaching at the École Boulle, noticed her drawings and encouraged her to persevere.

In 2007, she was invited to take part in “Teleportation” organized by ARTELAB and artists Delphine and Yoran Leibovici. at the Centre Pompidou as part of a multidisciplinary experience bringing together different forms of artistic creativity (19 artists, a sculptor, architect, designer and dancer), each occupying a telephone booth facing the Pompidou’s forecourt. Etty’s drawings were projected onto a screen inside the booth and the viewer is invited to pick up the telephone receiver to hear the comments of former patients who accompany her drawings. An interactive experience the visitors were then invited to leave a spontaneous written record of their reaction.

Etty’s keen interest in the processes of creativity has led her to give numerous lectures in France, Europe, Asia, and Canada on the theme of “The Importance of Dreams and the Imagination in the Individual’s Psychological Development.”

This is the first time that Etty’s art has been seen outside of Paris.

Selected exhibitions:

2025 Tranceducers: Art of Visionaries, Mediums and Automatists, GPS Gallery, London
2025 Etty Buzyn at Halle Saint Pierre, Paris
2023 Frontiers of Art brut at Halle Saint Pierre, Paris
2007 Teleportation Centre Pompidou