Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Can Psychiatrists Recognize Mental Illness in Paintings?

Can Psychiatrists Recognize Mental Illness in Paintings? It is widely believed that mental illness is reflected in paintings of mentally ill artists (1). Examples include Van Gogh’s "blue" period (depression) and "pink" period (manic phase of bipolar disorder) (2) and Louis Wain’s cat paintings (progressive deterioration to complete incoherence, paralleling schizophrenia) (3). However, when we asked 12 psychiatrists to evaluate randomly selected paintings created by individuals with 1) schizophrenia, 2) bipolar disorder, and 3) no psychiatric illness (N=10 for each), they were unable to differentiate paintings by artists with and without mental illness. We then randomly selected paintings of four artists with known bipolar disorder (Paul Gauguin, Edward Münch, Vincent van Gogh, Mark Rothko). We asked 12 psychiatrists and 12 laypersons matched for education to determine the period of creation (before or after onset of mental illness), first for individual paintings grouped by artist and then for sets of paintings for each artist. Psychiatrists could reliably identify paintings created before and after onset of mental illness both individually (2=31.42, df=1, p<0.001) and in sets (2=17.34, df=1, p<0.01). In contrast, laypersons were able to recognize mental illness only from sets of paintings (2=4.32, df=1, p<0.05), not from individual paintings. The potential clinical significance of psychiatrists’ ability http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Journal of Psychiatry American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc (Journal)

Can Psychiatrists Recognize Mental Illness in Paintings?

American Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 (4): 599 – Apr 1, 2006

Can Psychiatrists Recognize Mental Illness in Paintings?

American Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 (4): 599 – Apr 1, 2006

Abstract

It is widely believed that mental illness is reflected in paintings of mentally ill artists (1). Examples include Van Gogh’s "blue" period (depression) and "pink" period (manic phase of bipolar disorder) (2) and Louis Wain’s cat paintings (progressive deterioration to complete incoherence, paralleling schizophrenia) (3). However, when we asked 12 psychiatrists to evaluate randomly selected paintings created by individuals with 1) schizophrenia, 2) bipolar disorder, and 3) no psychiatric illness (N=10 for each), they were unable to differentiate paintings by artists with and without mental illness. We then randomly selected paintings of four artists with known bipolar disorder (Paul Gauguin, Edward Münch, Vincent van Gogh, Mark Rothko). We asked 12 psychiatrists and 12 laypersons matched for education to determine the period of creation (before or after onset of mental illness), first for individual paintings grouped by artist and then for sets of paintings for each artist. Psychiatrists could reliably identify paintings created before and after onset of mental illness both individually (2=31.42, df=1, p<0.001) and in sets (2=17.34, df=1, p<0.01). In contrast, laypersons were able to recognize mental illness only from sets of paintings (2=4.32, df=1, p<0.05), not from individual paintings. The potential clinical significance of psychiatrists’ ability

Loading next page...
 
/lp/american-psychiatric-publishing-inc-journal/can-psychiatrists-recognize-mental-illness-in-paintings-BrYLfi25Jh

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc (Journal)
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 American Psychiatric Association. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0002-953X
DOI
10.1176/appi.ajp.163.4.599
pmid
16585433
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

It is widely believed that mental illness is reflected in paintings of mentally ill artists (1). Examples include Van Gogh’s "blue" period (depression) and "pink" period (manic phase of bipolar disorder) (2) and Louis Wain’s cat paintings (progressive deterioration to complete incoherence, paralleling schizophrenia) (3). However, when we asked 12 psychiatrists to evaluate randomly selected paintings created by individuals with 1) schizophrenia, 2) bipolar disorder, and 3) no psychiatric illness (N=10 for each), they were unable to differentiate paintings by artists with and without mental illness. We then randomly selected paintings of four artists with known bipolar disorder (Paul Gauguin, Edward Münch, Vincent van Gogh, Mark Rothko). We asked 12 psychiatrists and 12 laypersons matched for education to determine the period of creation (before or after onset of mental illness), first for individual paintings grouped by artist and then for sets of paintings for each artist. Psychiatrists could reliably identify paintings created before and after onset of mental illness both individually (2=31.42, df=1, p<0.001) and in sets (2=17.34, df=1, p<0.01). In contrast, laypersons were able to recognize mental illness only from sets of paintings (2=4.32, df=1, p<0.05), not from individual paintings. The potential clinical significance of psychiatrists’ ability

Journal

American Journal of PsychiatryAmerican Psychiatric Publishing, Inc (Journal)

Published: Apr 1, 2006

There are no references for this article.