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http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-healing-arts/200901/art-and-

mental-illness-stop-the-insanity

 Arts and Health The integrative, reparative and restorative powers of the artsby Cathy Malchiodi

 Art and Mental Illness: Stop the Insanity!Let's lay to rest the stereotypes about art and mental illness.

Published on January 5, 2009 by Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT in Arts and Health 

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 A recent article in the New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope uses the work of Martin

Ramirez, an artist with schizophrenia, as a platform to promote and ponder once again the

well-worn perception that artistic creativity and mental illness are somehow inevitably

linked. Emotional disorders are not afflictions that sometimes come with a built-in creativity

boost,NY Times. It's time to lay this stereotypical viewpoint to rest and the stigmatizing

statements that often come along with it.

Possibly one of the more offensive statements is credited to curator Brook Anderson of the

 American Folk Art Museum in New York City where Ramirez's work has been shown.

 Anderson observes, "His reliance on motifs and animals indicate a more sane and less

mentally ill part of Ramírez." Perhaps the quote was taken out of context, but is there really

creative content reserved only for the sane? And just what is the "less mentally ill part" of

any individual, artist or not? This type of statement typifies what people with mental illness

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must endure from the public and what artists who also happen to have a disability or illness

encounter from even the most educated individuals in the art world itself.

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In looking at Martin Ramirez through another framework, he is one of many creative

individuals defined as "outsider artists," people who are self-taught and making art outsidethe mainstream art world. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, although what

his exact illness is debatable, and he spent much of his adult life in an institution. In the

early 1950s, Tarmo Pasto, professor of art and psychology, saw Ramirez's drawings,

recognized their merit, and began to supply him with art materials. Ramirez became the

subject of Pasto's research into the relationship between mental illness and creativity, a

fascination that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and continues today. In

essence, Parker-Pope's and Anderson's references reflect that ever-present human desire

to anecdotally explain just why artists make the visual art they make. To some extent, the

field of  art therapy has also focused on finding meaning in various symbols and content in

artwork by people with various emotional disorders; while some tenuous connections havebeen made, more often it's difficult at best to link specific characteristics in drawings or

paintings to a diagnostic category.

The relationship of  bipolar disorder  to creativity is one of the more accepted premises

(see Touched by Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison). Manic states may provide the catalyst for

heightened creativity; I know and agree with that premise from my own involvement with art

making. There are indeed geniuses who happen to also have bipolar disorder and whose

creative contributions have made a significant impact on the arts, science, medicine, and

other fields. The changes in

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brain function that occur during manic episodes are conducive to creative endeavor; artists

and writers recount of periods of inspiration, euphoria, and novel associations during

hypomania. Research also suggests that creative individuals do share

mor epersonality traits with people with mental illness than people who are less inclined to

creative activities.

There may be some hope on the horizon as we all learn to be more culturally competent,

including our worldviews of mental illness. In a previous post, I wrote about the possibility

that "neurodiversity" could be one explanation for unusual artistic abilities, such as the work

of artist Stephen Wiltshire who also happens to be a person with autism. Arts researchers

offer an alternative lens through which to view artists categorized as disabled, noting that

philosophies such as "social role valorization" propose that people not be seen as "sick,"

but as "socially devalued." This type of research and exploration within the contexts of art

and mental illness is helping to reshape perceptions and bring needed humanism to the

fields of psychology, psychiatry, art therapy, art curating, and art criticism.

Let's make a resolution for 2009 to stop the pathology-driven analysis of the art of artists

who happen to have mental illness. Instead, let's celebrate artists who have struggled, for

whatever reason including physical health, addictions, mental illness, socioeconomics,

culture, or gender  by instead reflecting on the power of the art they have created and

meaning of creativity in their lives. People with emotional disorders are not some defective

subset of the human race nor do they differentiate disease and health. Human creativity is

complex and ultimately, it is appreciated for its merit, innovation, and imagination.

© 2009 Cathy Malchiodi 

Visit the growing community of art therapists from around the world at the International Art

Therapy Organization [IATO],www.internationalarttherapy.org. One world, many

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