The psychopathology of everyday art: a quantitative Study - World ...

eliefs to depression. cannot be matched to specific artworks, yet the author feels it is
revealed in many paintings.
13 Picasso and pathology of
cubism.
Represents less stylistic or formal revolution than partially
successful attempt to come to terms with certain conflicts.
Unwittingly therapeutic, gave him psychological control.
14 Modigliani's works Illustrates expression of psychodynamic forces, principally
resistance against emotional closeness and indications of
superego pathology. Paintings exemplify defense mechanisms
which dealt with anxiety.
15 Van Gogh, diagnosed by
Gachet as melancholic.
16 Goya - reviews the literature
on illness and dynamic
interpretations.
17 Mondrian. Determines
connection between the man
and the art.
18 Compares schizo-phreniform
symptoms, aspects of modern
art and literature, to emphasise
the defensive /disruptive role of
forms of self-consciousness
(pathological reflexivity).
19 M. Ramirez, little known
Mexican final 25 years of
severe psychosis.
20 Correlation between early life
of Munch and subsequent
psychodynamics as revealed in
his life and art.
21 Jochen Seidel
Psychotic episodes
22 Prevalence of mood an mind
disorders in 14 modern abstract
expressionist artists who, using
psychic automatism to reveal
unconscious material, created
psychologically and spiritually
significant art that addressed
mythic themes of creation,
birth, life and death.
23 Mark Gertler
Viccitudes of his career,
depression and suicide with
reference to primal scene
trauma.
24 Meaning of images of doors in
20th C. paintings of mostly
completely normal artists.
Portrait of Cachet is discussed as to how it expresses Gachet's
own melancholia.
Detailed knowledge and depictions of mental hospital scenes
and recent data from Real y General Hospital in Zaragoza
support affective psychosis indicate mental illness in family.
Symbolistic and psychiatric perspective. To best appreciate the
art, his personality should be disregarded. Artists' bio-graphical
data considered poor indicators of creation.
Challenges view of disordered thought of schizophrenia as
manifestation of developmentally primitive modes of
consciousness.
Similarities in theme and formal structures of patients to modern
art and thought are delineated.
Artwork is more than clinical material, but has expressive
vitality and coherence from which one can relate its testimony
to the universal psychological meaning of the struggle to be born
from the forces of nonbeing and chaos. Expresses the
archetypal movements within our personal psychology that can
be construed as sickness, but may be that which ultimately heals
blindness to the depths of the soul.
Munch's art reflected his attempts to recreate the image of his
dead sister. Disappointing relationships with women resulted in
heavily affect laden paintings. Later work showed women
more positively and aggression. Munches transitional
relationship with his paintings helped him deal with his fear of
ego-fragmentation, serving function of completion and
autonomy.
Artist attempted to resolve deep-seated psychological conflicts
through painting. Material from life illustrates efforts to deal
with loss, depression, guilt and anxiety through art. Creative
work is a response to loss and an effort at self-healing.
Negative relationship between creativity and psychosis assumed
by psychoanalytic studies is challenged.
Data collected from published biographies and archival
material. Over 50% of artists had some psychopathology,
predominately mood disorders and preoccupation with death,
often compounded by alcohol abuse. Subjects tended to die
young from suicide, accidents, other causes. 40% sought
treatment and 20% were hospitalised for psychiatric problems.
Results suggest depression inevitably leads to turning inward and
to painful reexamination of the purpose of living and the
possibility of dying and may have put these artists in touch with
the mystery that lies at the heart of the tragic and timeless art
that the abstract expressionists tried to produce.
Psychoanalytic interpretation using historical material and work.
Gertler's art expresses the tensions between stillness and
motion, inanimate and animate and the one and the many
represented a struggle with the sequelae of early primal scene
trauma.
Human being's relationship to the environment are explored and
balance, intimacy separation, limits and boundaries are
considered. Doorways are seen as metaphors for the artists'
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