Abstract
The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine has published an extraordinary perspective on art created by the mentally ill, highlighting our changing notions of art and madness. ‘Outsider art’, ‘psychotic art’, or ‘art extraordinary’, is highly prized and has awakened the interest of psychiatrists, artists and historians, who attempt to describe the nature of its distinctiveness. The paper traces the origin of such art, transporting us to the romantic period of the 19th century, when subjectivity and individualism were at their peak, and the madman (schizophrenic) was privileged and unrestrained by convention or reason. Psychiatric treatment was seen as an enemy of creativity, and the asylum thought to be the perfect setting for an artist to create. The postmodernist tendency to focus on marginalized groups, and the aversion to mainstream western art, influenced the emergence of a novel type of art, represented by the works of Moog, Klee, and Van Gogh. Although mental illness has been equated with genius, its existence has been challenged throughout history and an explanation of its creations remains elusive. (J. R. Soc. Med. 94, 595–599) SS
Published Version
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