Translation for – Svetlana Bodrik

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness, the symptoms of which may include inadequate social behavior, auditory hallucinations and characteristic disorders of perception of reality. It is often accompanied by other, less serious mental disorders such as depression and anxiety.

It goes without saying that people suffering from schizophrenia usually find themselves unable to work or maintain relationships with other people. 50% of people diagnosed with schizophrenia also abuse alcohol or drugs to cope with the illness.

But there are other people who seek solace not in drugs and alcohol, but in art.

The drawings presented here were created by people suffering from schizophrenia. Looking at some of them, an ordinary person may feel a sense of anxiety, but for the creators, these works help make visible what worries, torments, and haunts them. The desire to draw is an attempt to shape and organize your inner world.

“Electricity Makes You Float” is a drawing by Karen Blair, who suffers from schizophrenia.

Pay attention to the variety of moods that were displayed on the faces of the creatures-growths on the head of this person - a clear example of the confusion a person with schizophrenia can be in.

These two photographs were taken by an unknown schizophrenic artist who was trying to capture the oppressive nightmare of his thoughts.

This complex drawing of a jumble of faces was done by artist Edmund Moncel in the early 1900s. He is believed to have been schizophrenic.

This drawing was found in an oldth psychiatric hospital, hiscreator suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

This is how Eric Bauman portrayed his vile illness.

In 1950, Charles Steffen, while being treated in a psychiatric hospital, zealously took up art, even drawing on wrapping paper. His drawings indicate that he was apparently obsessed with the idea of ​​reincarnation.

This artist suffers from a rare form of paranoid schizophrenia, an illness that causes him to experience visual hallucinations. In the drawing, one of his visions is a figure called “Decrepitude.”

Creepy, strange, but probably an accurate depiction of what a person with schizophrenia feels.

This drawing, entitled "The Essence of Mania," depicts schizophrenia as a phantom threat.

The “crazy” drawings and paintings of Karen May Sorensen, who suffers from schizophrenia, have recently become available for viewing by a huge number of people, because... she posted them on her blog.

Louis Wain's cats are drawings dating back to the early 1900s. The artist’s works changed during his illness, but the themes remained the same. Louis's series of fractal-like cats is often used as a dynamic illustration of the changing nature of creativity during the development of schizophrenia.

Drawing by Jofra Draak.

In this painting, the artist brings to life the auditory hallucinations associated with this disease.

This sick artist feels as if he is his own trap.

Jofra Draak painted this in 1967. This is how hell, described in Dante’s work, looks like from the point of view of a person with schizophrenia.

We may never know what goes on in the minds of those suffering from schizophrenia. The furthest we can advance in understanding this is when we become acquainted with this kind of art. Most of these drawings and paintings may seem scary and filled with negativity to us, but for the artist himself, the positive thing is that he found a way to get rid of this negativity by throwing out his anxieties and fears on paper.

Talented and mentally ill people- it's like two sides of the same coin. It’s not for nothing that out-of-the-box thinking, extraordinary, special people are called abnormal and crazy, and artists whose paintings do not fit into the generally accepted framework and remain misunderstood by the viewer are advised to undergo a course of medication and psychotherapy. Of course, you can blame the narrow-mindedness and narrow-mindedness of such “advisers” as much as you like, but in some ways they are right. And to be convinced of this, you just have to look at the pictures they paint patients of psychoneurological clinics and dispensaries.

We once wrote about creativity in Cultural Studies, drawing parallels with the paintings of Bosch, Dali and modern surrealists. And they were not far from the truth. As you know, Salvador Dali was a shocking madman with unconventional behavior and strange reactions to others. And for inspiration, he often visited mental hospitals, where he looked at pictures of patients, who seemed to open doors for him to another world, far from the earthly one, real world. Van Gogh's mental health is also in question, because it was not without reason that he lost his ear. But we admire his paintings to this day. Perhaps, over time, the paintings of one of the current patients of the psychoneurology department, whose works we are introducing our readers to today, will be just as popular.

The authors of these paintings are people with a difficult, often tragic fate, and the same tragic diagnosis in their medical records. Schizophrenia and manic depression, neuroses and personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and alcoholic psychosis, the consequences of addiction to drugs and potent medications, all this leaves a deep imprint on the patient’s personality, significantly distorts his thinking and view of the world, and spills out in the form of paintings and schematic drawings or other type of creativity. It’s not for nothing that mentally ill people are required to undergo a course of art therapy, and their creative works collected and exhibited in museums and galleries not only in Russia, but also in foreign countries.

Back in the mid-70s, the first (and probably the only) Museum of Art of the Mentally Ill was opened in Russia. Today it is assigned to the Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, and continues to open its doors to both curious visitors and those engaged in scientific research into human madness and genius.

Guys, we put our soul into the site. Thank you for that
that you are discovering this beauty. Thanks for the inspiration and goosebumps.
Join us on Facebook And In contact with

Genius and madness go hand in hand. Gifted people perceive the world somewhat differently, and their creation sometimes encounters the unknown, forbidden and mysterious. Perhaps this is what distinguishes their work and makes it truly brilliant.

website remembered several amazing artists who suffered in different years their lives with mental disorders, which, however, could not prevent them from leaving behind real masterpieces.

Mikhail Vrubel

Mikhail Vrubel, “Lilac” (1900)

They don’t even try to copy the special aesthetics of his paintings - Vrubel’s work was so original. Madness overtook him in adulthood - the first signs of the disease appeared when the artist was 46 years old. This was facilitated by family grief - Mikhail had a son with a cleft lip, and 2 years later the child died. The bouts of violence that began alternated with absolute apathy; his relatives were forced to place him in a hospital, where he died a few years later.

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch, "The Scream" (1893)

The painting “The Scream” was painted in several versions, each of which was made using different techniques. There is a version that this picture is the fruit of a mental disorder. It is assumed that the artist suffered from manic-depressive psychosis. Munch rewrote “The Scream” four times until he underwent treatment at the clinic. This was not the only time Munch ended up in hospital with a mental disorder.

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night (1889)

Van Gogh's extraordinary painting reflects the spiritual search and torment that tormented him all his life. Now experts find it difficult to say what kind of mental illness tormented the artist - schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but he ended up in the clinic more than once. The illness eventually led him to commit suicide at age 36. His brother Theo, by the way, also died in a mental hospital.

Pavel Fedotov

Pavel Fedotov, “Major's Matchmaking” (1848)

Not everyone knows that the author of genre satirical painting died in a psychiatric hospital. He was so loved by his contemporaries and admirers that many people took care of him, and the Tsar himself allocated funds for his maintenance. But, unfortunately, they could not help him - there was no adequate treatment for schizophrenia at that time. The artist died very young - at 37 years old.

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel, "Waltz" (1893)

In her youth, the girl sculptor was very pretty and unusually talented. Master Auguste Rodin could not help but pay attention to her. The crazy relationship between student and master exhausted both - Rodin could not leave his common-law wife, with whom he lived for many years. Ultimately, they broke up with Claudel, and she was never able to recover from the breakup. Since 1905, she began to have violent seizures, and she spent 30 years in a psychiatric hospital.

Francois Lemoine

François Lemoine, “Time Protecting Truth from Lies and Envy” (1737)

Physical exhaustion from hard work, constant court intrigues of envious people in Versailles and the death of his beloved wife affected the artist’s health and drove him to madness. As a result, in June 1737, a few hours after finishing work on the next painting, “Time Protecting Truth from Lies and Envy,” during a paranoid attack, Lemoine committed suicide by stabbing himself with nine blows of a dagger.

Louis Wayne

Some of Wayne's last works (presented chronologically), clearly illustrating mental disorders artist

Louis was most inspired by cats, to whom he attributed human behavior in his cartoons. Wayne was considered a strange man. Gradually, his eccentricity turned into a serious mental illness, which began to progress over the years. In 1924, Louis was committed to a mental institution after throwing one of his sisters down the stairs. A year later he was discovered by the press and transferred to Knapsbury Hospital in London. This clinic was relatively cozy, there was a garden and a whole cattery, and Wayne spent his time there last years. Although the disease progressed, his gentle nature returned to him and he continued to paint. Its main theme - cats - remained unchanged for a long time until it was finally replaced by fractal-like patterns.

Alexey Chernyshev

Fine art is one of the earliest and most ancient forms of art, ways of human self-expression. Painting helps us penetrate into the world of thoughts, feelings and images of the artist’s personality. Therefore, the possibilities of drawing are used by doctors when working with patients with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

Schizophrenia is a complex and still poorly understood disease. Doctors need a lot of time to correctly diagnose it; for this, a large amount of information about the patient is collected. And of course, it is impossible to determine such a disease only from drawings.

However, they can serve as a starting point, a signal for loved ones to pay attention to the developing mental illness of a child, relative or friend.

You need to take a closer look at creativity especially if a person shows other signs of mental disorders: prone to depression, withdrawal, obsessed with delusional ideas, reports strange phenomena that do not exist in reality (hallucinations), etc. Drawings of people with schizophrenia are usually have a number of differences and characteristic features.

Under no circumstances should you engage in self-diagnosis, much less turn a blind eye to the signs of mental disorder in your loved one. Remember that they themselves perceive the manifestations of the disease simply as personality traits, and often only close people can convince them to see a doctor.

When the illness is precisely established, it is the drawing that often helps psychiatrists track the dynamics of the development of the pathology, the internal state of the patient, especially when he is not available for productive contact. Pictures of schizophrenics with a description of the author's medical history are usually found in any textbook on psychiatry.

What is the difference between the drawings of mentally ill and healthy people?

The painting of a mentally ill person is a reflection of his mental state at the current moment, a “cast” of his complex world of delusional ideas, hallucinations, an attempt to understand himself and his place in the world.

Psychiatrists identify features and characteristics characteristic of schizophrenics, which are clearly visible in their visual creativity. Doctors even have a classification of pictures of mentally ill patients according to the main characteristics:

1. With the manifestation of stereotypy.
2. With splitting, breaking of associative connections.
3. With unidentified (unexplained) forms.
4. Symbolic.

Stereotypy in drawing

Patients with schizophrenia may draw the same figures, outlines, objects, symbols or signs for a very long period of time. Each time we end up with some kind of stereotypical sketch. This is also evident in the same style of execution and color scheme.

During periods of exacerbation of psychotic symptoms, the stereotypicality of the patient's drawings usually increases, but again becomes less pronounced during periods of remission. For example, a patient, absorbed in the idea of ​​her relationships with men, often depicted people and phallic symbols in the form of mountains, pillars, and other elongated objects. The repetition of the plot was traced from work to work.

The subject of the pictures will reflect the most intimate and painful problem of relationships with the world: conflicts with people, hallucinatory visions, delusional ideas.

Unlike a healthy person who enthusiastically draws in one genre - for example, portraits, landscapes, marine themes, etc. - the drawings of schizophrenics will necessarily demonstrate other striking features characteristic of the painting of mentally ill people.

In the photo, drawings of a patient with schizophrenia. A recurring stereotypical image he called the "lemon bird". You can trace the characteristic features of the work of a mentally ill person: symbolism, ornamentalism in execution, line drawing, etc.

Drawings with breaking of associative connections, splitting

The effect of splitting and rupture is clearly manifested in the specific fragmentation of artistic creativity of patients with schizophrenia. Parts of the body or other object are depicted separately from each other, they can be separated by lines or even objects.

Healthy children draw the entire cat; a schizophrenic child can draw its individual “parts” either in different corners of the sheet, or even on separate pages. When depicting a house, a schizophrenic draws the roof, facade and windows as separate parts that are not connected to each other, etc.

Alternatively, a separate fragment or any insignificant detail will be the main object of the image, which is also not typical for the work of mentally balanced people. For example, a patient, depicting himself, draws a single squiggle-wrinkle on his forehead (“these are my thoughts”, “this is me - sad”).

Drawings with unclear (undetected) forms

This is the name for visual works consisting of various details that are not related to each other. These images are unfinished, the objects in them are unclearly outlined, and strokes of indeterminate shape predominate. For example, animals drawn by schizophrenics will have strange looks and shapes that are not found in real life. They also see objects, people, events.

Symbolic drawings

In symbolic sketches, patients express their thoughts and feelings not directly, but in images - symbols, which can only be understood with the help of the patient himself. The images seem to be encrypted by the mentally ill, and this code is not only unclear to others, but is often incomprehensible to the artist himself.

At the same time, the paintings of schizophrenics are characterized by:

• ornamentalism, frequent use of symmetrical images;
• lack of logic, combination of incompatible things;
• incompleteness, lack of integrity of the composition;
• no empty spaces;
• line drawing;
• immobility of images (no movement);
• too careful drawing of the smallest details.

Note! In comparison with the paintings of healthy people, the creativity of schizophrenics clearly demonstrates a picture of mental confusion, fragmentation, and splitting of consciousness characteristic of pathology. This will be especially noticeable as the mental state deteriorates. The creativity of a healthy person will be distinguished, on the contrary, by the integrity of the composition, the coherence and consistency of details, and the variety of colors.

More works by people with schizophrenia can be seen in the video:

Paintings of famous schizophrenics

Of course, for the person himself, illness of the mind is a difficult test. However, there is a fairly widespread belief that talent and mental illness often go hand in hand. A non-trivial view of life through the prism of a seemingly defective consciousness gave the world paintings by schizophrenic artists recognized as geniuses. It is believed that Vincent Van Gogh, Mikhail Vrubel, and Salvador Dali suffered from this disease.

From the point of view of depicting the development of the disease, the works of the English artist Louis Wain (1860–1939) are of particular interest in creativity. Throughout his life, Wayne painted exclusively cats, which were completely humanized in his painting.

The artist created a whole cat world. They walk on their hind legs, wear clothes, create families, and live in human homes. His works were very popular during his lifetime. Funny “cat” pictures were printed mainly on postcards, which sold well.

Louis Wayne suffered from schizophrenia, which did not greatly affect his early works. But in the last years of his life, the disease increasingly took hold of him, and he was even placed in a psychiatric hospital.

The subject of his paintings remained unchanged - cats, but the paintings themselves gradually lost their composition, coherence, and richness of meaning. All this is replacing ornamentalism, complex abstract patterns - features that distinguish the paintings of schizophrenics.

The works of Louis Wayne are often published in textbooks on psychiatry as a striking example of changes in painting under the influence of the development of a disease of consciousness.

Conclusion

The visual heritage of geniuses with schizophrenia is priceless. However, contrary to the popular belief about the mass genius of schizophrenics, it is worth noting that a possible surge of creative potential occurs in the first, gentle stages of the disease. Subsequently, especially after an attack of psychosis and under the influence of mental degradation, a person often loses the ability for productive creativity.

There are amazing drawings, maybe these people are still unrecognized geniuses?

M.N., 36 years old, paranoid form of schizophrenia. Education - three classes. Despite the initially low intellectual level, the patient developed a complex delusional concept. The content of the delusion was very peculiar: the patient believed that a laboratory called the “Pluto system” had been brought to Earth from some planet. This laboratory is located at alien ship, and its goal is the study and enslavement of earthlings. She drew in the “automatic writing” mode: she put a dot on the sheet and then “her hand moved along the paper itself.” At the same time, she often could not explain the meaning of what was drawn; she said that the content of the drawing was not hers, that “he who moves his hand knows the meaning.”

M.N., paranoid schizophrenia - “Smoking electronic man.”

M.N., paranoid schizophrenia - “Ugloed. I don’t laugh, but I do my job?!+.”

M.N., paranoid schizophrenia - “Who am I now? Freak: either a pig or a man. I need privacy from the whole world.”

M.N., paranoid schizophrenia - “To control a person and his thoughts, they put on an invisible spacesuit connected to an apparatus for constructing thoughts.”

Sketching visual hallucinations. The patient was a polydrug addict, used hashish, opium, ether, and cocaine.

A.Z., schizophrenia - “It is difficult and very difficult to escape. But we have to! You need to live. Everyone!”

A.Z., schizophrenia - “One did not receive the spoils. Crashed on a rock.”

A.Z., schizophrenia - “We also need to save the old man! Even the bird knows it.”

L.T., schizophrenia. The disease occurred in the form of attacks, varying in structure. These were phase depressions or manic-ecstatic states, accompanied by visions of vivid fantastic images, fairy-tale, cosmic, alien plots. Her drawings and comments on them were reproduced by her brother, a man who is a professional painter. The patient vividly and emotionally told him that she “was present at the death of the world,” when everything around was exploding and collapsing, “in the smoke and roar, human skulls were flying in huge rows” and “strung” on her head, “hordes of all kinds of evil spirits, snakes, settled in her head.” and other things, they waged war among themselves.”

L.T., schizophrenia - “Death of the world and horror.”

L.T., schizophrenia - “Flower of Melancholy.”

L.T., schizophrenia - “Madness”.

L.T., schizophrenia - “I lose my physical shell and only one thing remains - the great, harmonious, divinely bright and beautiful mental “I”.”

A.B., 20 years old, schizophrenia. Only a few drawings by this author have survived. They reflect such phenomena characteristic of this disease as the “materialization” of thoughts, felt by the patient as something material, schizis (splitting of the psyche): “everything here is scattered - the senses, the heart, time and space.”

A.B., schizophrenia - “Beyond time and space.”

A.B., schizophrenia - “Thoughts are things (reification of thoughts).”

N.P., schizophrenia with delusional ideas of invention. He believed that it was quite possible to invent devices that, without fuel, only thanks to the chosen shape and “gravity”, would provide movement.

S.N., 20 years old, paranoid schizophrenia. The disease manifested itself during military service. Perhaps, in contrast to the cruel and brutal reality, the patient began to have thoughts about something else, better world, about God.

S.N., paranoid schizophrenia - “My thoughts are heard and visible: what I think about is heard by everyone, and thought-pictures appear on the screen.”

S.N., paranoid schizophrenia - “I hear the voice of God. He puts into my head the entire structure of the world and soul.”

And here's another:

A.Sh., 19 years old, schizophrenia. The disease began at the age of 13-14 with changes in character: he became withdrawn, lost all contact with friends and family, stopped going to school, left home, spent time in churches, monasteries, libraries, where he “studied philosophy”, he himself wrote “philosophical treatises,” in which he outlined his vision of the world. It was at this time that he began to draw in a very strange manner. According to his parents, he had never drawn before, and it was unexpected for them that their son discovered a talent as a painter, although his drawings were strange and incomprehensible.

Medicine, "I" and "Lemon Bird"

"He Will Die Soon (Self-Portrait)"

At the age of 18 he was drafted into the army and began serving in the city of Arkhangelsk. It was here that the disease manifested itself: delusions, hallucinations, depression appeared, and he made repeated attempts at suicide. Upon entering the department, he was practically inaccessible for contact, but only in conversations with the attending physician (Muratova I.D.) did he reveal the world of his psychopathological experiences. He drew a lot: some of the drawings he brought with him, others were drawn already in the hospital. The attending physician encouraged his desire to draw and provided him with paper and paints. Upon discharge, he presented the doctor with a collection of his drawings. Subsequently, this collection became the basis of the museum of creativity of the mentally ill, and is still used for educational purposes today.

In many drawings by A.Sh. there is an image of a bird he called “lemon”. This is a figurative and symbolic display inner world the patient, what he lives by, isolating himself from reality. (He usually depicted the latter in an irritating red color)

"Substance"

"The Essence of a Painter"

"Woman with a cat"

"Perverts"

disease

"alcoholic and alcoholism"

"headache"

"My head"

Psychiatric clinic patient A.R. I first took up paints and pencils in the hospital. His works will undoubtedly be of interest not only to the attending physician, but also to a wide range of art connoisseurs.

A.R. - "Labyrinths of Dreams"

Vl.T., 35 years old, chronic alcoholism. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital several times due to repeated alcoholic psychoses. His illness was aggravated by unfortunate heredity - his sister suffered from schizophrenia. All drawings reflecting psychopathological experiences were made upon recovery from psychosis and in a light period (outside of binge drinking). The author had an incomplete art education and was professional in painting techniques.

The drawing “My hands occupy the whole room” reflects the pathology of perception, autometamorphopsia (somatoagnosia, “violation of the body diagram”), impaired perception of the size of one’s own body and its individual parts. The arms, legs or head appear very large/small or very long/short. This sensation is corrected by the patient's gaze on the limbs or by touch. It is observed in schizophrenia, organic brain damage, intoxication and in other cases.

Drawings against the background of taking LSD

The first drawing was ready 20 minutes after the first dose (50 mcg)

The experiment took place as part of the US government program to study mind-altering drugs in the late 50s of the last century. The artist received a dose of LSD-25 and a box of pencils and pens. He had to draw a picture of the doctor who gave him the injection.
According to the patient: “The condition is normal... no effects yet”