posted on July 10, 2004 07:08:15 PM newMental patients' art gets museum showing
It doesn't bother me. Because these guys have mental problems,doesn't mean they can't be great artists. A friend of mines husband is a psychiatric therapist and one of his patients is a super artist, that his therapist (the husband of my friend) takes them, and sells them for him, usually to friends and family, and they go for hundreds. So, he gets money for extras like cigarettes and stuff. He's in lockdown (schziophrenic), probably for the rest of his life.
posted on July 10, 2004 08:08:53 PM new
An informing article. A good friends son is autistic and an incredible artist. He's won a number of design competitions and can really draw up a storm. In some ways I envy his talent.
As to mental patients creating art, some are probably good and some are probably not so good. What's the point.
posted on July 11, 2004 04:47:08 AM new
I consider writers and composers to be artists as well. Here's an interesting list of people with mental illness whose works we've enjoyed over the years:
Abraham Lincoln
The revered sixteenth President of the United States suffered from severe and incapacitating depressions that occasionally led to thoughts of suicide, as documented in numerous biographies by Carl Sandburg.
Virginia Woolf
The British novelist who wrote To the Lighthouse and Orlando experienced the mood swings of bipolar disorder characterized by feverish periods of writing and weeks immersed in gloom. Her story is discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr.
Eugene O'Neill
The famous playwright, author of Long Day's Journey Into Night and Ah, Wilderness!, suffered from clinical depression, as documented in Eugene O'Neill by Olivia E. Coolidge.
Ludwig van Beethoven
The brilliant composer experienced bipolar disorder, as documented in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb.
Gaetano Donizetti
The famous opera singer suffered from bipolar disorder, as documented in Donizetti and the World Opera in Italy, Paris and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century by Herbert Weinstock.
Robert Schumann
The "inspired poet of human suffering" experienced bipolar disorder, as discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr.
Leo Tolstoy
Author of War and Peace, Tolstoy revealed the extent of his own mental illness in the memoir Confession. His experiences is also discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr and The Inner World of Mental Illness: A Series of First Person Accounts of What It Was Like by Bert Kaplan.
Vaslov Nijinsky
The dancer's battle with schizophrenia is documented in his autobiography, The Diary of Vaslov Nijinksy.
John Keats
The renowned poet's mental illness is documented in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr and The Broken Brain: The biological Revolution in Psychiatry by Nancy Andreasen, M.D.
Tennessee Williams
The playwright gave a personal account of his struggle with clinical depression in his own Memoirs. His experience is also documented in Five O'Clock Angel: Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982; The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams by Donald Spoto, and Tennessee: Cry of the Heart by Dotson.
Vincent Van Gogh
The celebrated artist's bipolar disorder is discussed in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb and Dear Theo, The Autobiography of Van Gogh.
Isaac Newton
The scientist's mental illness is discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr and The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb.
Ernest Hemingway
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist's suicidal depression is examined in the True Gen: An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingway by Those Who Knew Him by Denis Brian.
Sylvia Plath
The poet and novelist ended her lifelong struggle with clinical depresion by taking own life, as reported in A Closer Look at Ariel: A Memory of Sylvia Plath by nancy Hunter-Steiner.
Michelangelo
The mental illness of one of the world's greatest artistic geniuses is discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr.
Winston Churchill
"Had he been a stable and equable man, he could never have inspired the nation. In 1940, when all the odds were against Britain, a leader of sober judgment might well have concluded that we were finished," wrote Anthony Storr about Churchill's bipolar disorder in Churchill's Black Dog, Kafka's Mice, and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind.
Vivien Leigh
The Gone with the Wind star suffered from mental illness, as documented in Vivien Leigh: A Biography by Ann Edwards.
Jimmy Piersall
The baseball player for the Boston Red Sox who suffered from bipolar disorder detailed his experience in The Truth Hurts.
Patty Duke
The Academy Award-winning actress told of her bipolar disorder in her autobiography and made-for-TV move Call Me Anna and A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic-Depressive Illness, co-authored by Gloria Hochman.
Charles Dickens
One of the greatest authors in the English language suffered from clinical depression, as documented in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb, and Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph by Edgar Johnson.
posted on July 11, 2004 05:37:38 AM new
Since debilitating mental "illnesses" are genetic, which has been proven, I, imo, think a word other than "illness" should be used. "Illness" implies a "sickness", which implies it could be cured.
posted on July 11, 2004 06:12:10 AM new
They are mental patients... nothing wrong there... they are trying to do something good... why are you attempting to destroy that kraft?
Being negative about the article and trying to place a negative spin on something that these people should be very proud of is beneath you... but then the left is beneath everyone...
posted on July 11, 2004 06:58:48 AM new
bhouses glad to see you posting more... been registered since 2000 and 9 posts with the last one being directed at me... I feel honored...
posted on July 11, 2004 07:37:44 AM new
I don't understand the problem with the title, "Mental patient". As far as I know it doesn't have a derogatory meaning except possibly on a chat board. lol.
Many great artists, writers and musicians with bipolar illness appear to be very creative especially during the manic phase when they believe that they can do anything without inhibitions that most people without the illness have. I suspect that a little booze may serve to decrease inhibitions and improve creativity in a similar manner. LOL! Diane Arbus, a good photographer who focused on people who lived on the edge of society suffered from mental illness while her brother, Howard Nemerov, also very creative was apparently not affected with mental illness.
posted on July 11, 2004 08:53:45 AM new
The term "mental" sounds kind of passé to me. I find most are referred to as bipolar and schizophrenic patients or patients with psychiatric disorders.
posted on July 11, 2004 10:53:05 AM new
Maybe it's just me... I found it odd that to describe such a talented person, regardless of what handicap they have, they would use the term "mental patient" in the headline. To me, it would be like saying "retard wins the lottery". To explain his handicaps in the article would have been fine, but the headline to me almost says, "a mental person took these pictures - can you believe it?" I just thought it was tasteless.
posted on July 11, 2004 12:13:01 PM new
I would prefer my accomplishments be noted without any referrals to my handicaps. But I wouldn't be concerned with the relative PCness of the article. If you didn't include the wowzer in the headline, it wouldn't meet a 2500 word deadline for an oped article.
________________
You know...the best way to defeat a liberal is to let them speak.
posted on July 11, 2004 12:18:17 PM new
The name of the exhibit is ""Brushes With Life: Art, Artists and Mental Illnesses."
The only way to get your art into this exhibit is if you have a mental illness...
So just how can an article about this exhibit NOT refer to mental illness?!?
____________________
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. -- John F. Kennedy
posted on July 11, 2004 12:22:12 PM new
Oh, wait! One could refer to the artists as "special." A term I abhor.
If you have a mental illness you have a mental illness and no euphemisms are going to change that fact. I get really irked with all the PC terms people are forced to use when referring to mental or physical handicaps. A local newspaper recently referred to a boy being "mobility challenged." He's confined to a wheelchair, for Pete's sake! Just when did it become a bad thing to say "wheelchair"?
edited to put in a space or two--darn keyboard...
____________________
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. -- John F. Kennedy
[ edited by bunnicula on Jul 11, 2004 12:23 PM ]
