Insanity, Art, and Culture

Insanity, Art, and Culture reviews the pictorial products of the mentally ill from a cultural point of view. This book investigates the artistic abilities of the mentally ill. Organized into six chapters, this book begins with an overview of the definition of terms used in the study and the features of the art of the insane within the western hemisphere. This text then explains the hypothesis of cultural conditioning and discusses the schizophrenic characteristics in paintings. Other chapters consider the symptomatic value of psychotic art from the point of views of cultural anthropology. This book examines as well the art products of great artists who in the course of their lives suffered from mental illness. The final chapter deals with the negative interrelation between art and illness, which arise when refined cognitive activities were preserved intact. This book is a valuable resource for artists, psychiatrists, cultural anthropologists, and occupational therapists.