Color Psychology And Color Therapy

by Faber Birren

American writer Faber Birren devoted his life to color and it's effects on human life. After writing around 25 texts on the topic, it would be safe to say his work is considered highly among color experts and psychologists around the world. Birren's work has a strong focus on linking how humans perceive colors to how it makes them react. He writes, "Good smelling colors are pink, lilac, orchid, cool green, aqua blue." Birren explores the work of several physicians, scientists and doctors, mainly the German psychoanalyst and physician Felix Deutsch, whose findings throw important light not only on medical practice with references to color but on the whole psychology of color. Birren states that if a person prefers warmer colors such as hues of red and oranges, they are likely to me more aware of their social environment. He labels these as "warm color dominant subjects." On the other hand, those preferring cooler colous such as blues and greens, are categorized generally as "cold color dominant subjects" and are recognized as finding it challenging to adapt themselves to new environments and situations". By splitting people into separate categories, based on their color preferences, Birren finds himself able to establish a greater understanding of their personalities and characteristics. One experiment Birren explores in his text, courtesy of Kurt Goldstein, involves a subject standing before a black wall with his eyes shut and arms outstretched to touch the wall in front. When the subject is influenced by a warm color such as the color red, his arms deviate away from each other, whereas when under the influence of a cooler colour such as green or blue, even though the reaction is a subtle one, the subject will move his arms closer together. I find this experiment, simple as it is, to be fascinating in highlighting the strong effects colors have on our minds and bodies. As well as distinguishing the differences in peoples' character through his use of color psychology, Birren also touches on the effects colors can have on the mentally ill. This section was the most interesting and involved a series of complex experiments such as discovering which neurological disorders were linked to which colors. Courtesy of the work by Hans Huber, it was proven that patients suffering manic tendencies preferred the color red, a symbol of blood and anger. Hysterical patients were more sensitive to green, "perhaps as an escape", the color linked to paranoid subjects was found to be brown and schizophrenics are sensitive to yellow. Birren states that persons troubled with "nervous (neurotic) and mental (psychotic) disturbances are greatly affected by color and are responsive to it". Therefore color becomes much more significant to them, and affects them in a completely different way than those without such neurological disturbances. Chapter 12 "Neurotics and Psychotics" is the most compelling in the text as it relates to my dissertation topic. After struggling to find texts specific to my research subject, this text and its contents came as a welcomed discovery and I will be referring to Birren's work throughout my further research.

Genres: Psychology, Design, Art, Nonfiction, Science

Hardcover

First published September 10, 2010

About the author

Faber Birren makes his living by prescribing color. He is a consultant on the use of color in industrial and other applications and has advised governments, schools and the armed forces as well as industry and commerce.

Reviews

[Vincy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I was looking for some facts about colors and how they affect human mind and emotion, most of the book was irrelevant. If you are looking for the same thing, just read part 4 and 5.

[Araminta Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is clearly dated science, but much of the science it purports has not changed dramatically. Some of the experiments were particularly interesting (such as the apparent electromagnetic effect of color on blindfolded humans whose arms are drawn closer or further apart depending on which side of the color spectrum is the color placed in front of them). One note toward the end I found laughable was the scientific study Birren references that the sex of an offspring can be affected well into the third trimester simply by exposing the mother to colored light. Haha. What we know now...

The impact of color on the human organism...that's pretty interesting. I was definitely intrigued by the practice of altering perception with color, to be sure. I mean, most of us already knew color had an impact on the psyche when we learned the so-called reasoning that fast food chains painted themselves red or orange (to give the impression of speed and to speed up patron's use of the space), or that hospitals are painted blue (to create a sensation of serenity). So it's pretty reasonable (or at least sociologically accepted) that color has a great impact on the observer. I found this book very interesting, to be sure.

[Tigg · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting something slightly different. I ejoyed the chapters dealing with early applications of colour by the early scientists and mystics. Birren was objective and it was interesting.

For the rest of the book, I was expecting more of a sceientic perspective on the ideas that the mystics laid down but what I found was that the book was more about 'how we see' with ocular vision and seemed to me to be always leading up to his own particular baby of his achievements in colour coding the industrial and corporate environments.

[Zulugoat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped midway, author's style has not aged well, and the research presented seems either obsolete or dubious... pass

[Charlie]

I'm on page 27. Reading this out of pure fascination. I'm learning a lot about the history of color and how people used to interpret color with so much more mysticism than we do now.

[Tedi Beemer · Rating 4 out of 5]

did not answer why Green best color

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very inclusive and thorough. I read it as research for my novel. Chapters 7 (Growth of Plants), 11 (emotional reactions), and 20 (prescriptions of color) were informative.