The fact that the specific topic of “Madness and Creativity” is taught as a course in at least two universities in the U.S., suggests that the “twin” themes, whether or not there is a causal link between them, are compelling subjects for...
moreThe fact that the specific topic of “Madness and Creativity” is taught as a course in at least two universities in the U.S., suggests that the “twin” themes, whether or not there is a causal link between them, are compelling subjects for discussion in a world where the sciences and the humanities are attempting to bridge fields of learning. The question as to whether “insane” people are more creative than their sane counterparts has been at the heart of theories and therapies since their inception, from Philippe Pinel, the father of modern psychiatry, to clinicians and thinkers like Hans Prinzhorn and R. D. Laing. Because critical perceptions of derangement or mental instability among artists have, chronologically speaking, been far in advance of medical science, the attempt at a rapprochement between the disciplines might enable a more fruitful discussion to evolve. This talk is offered on the way clinical space affects creativity and madness will address resistances among doctors to regard literature and the other arts, such as architecture, as sources of material on mental disorder which can carry the diagnostic weight of their own disciplines.
OBJECTIVES: At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to will be able to:
• Explain historical developments in asylum architecture that bear upon mental health care outcomes.
• Compare case studies in psychiatric space as rethought by patients suffering from severe mental illness.
• Discuss the importance of space for creativity.
SPEAKERS: Michael Uebel, PhD, LCSW
FORMAT: Didactic lecture enhanced by PowerPoint presentation
ABSTRACT: This presentation looks at how the space of the 19th- and 20th-century asylum shapes—and unshapes—the artistic creativity of institutionalized psychotic and neurasthenic patients. The architecture of the asylums was considered integral and essential to curing “madness,” and this presentation will examine how the built environment contributed to the structures and themes of two institutionalized patients, Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930) and Martin Ramirez (1895-1963). While focusing on the work of Wölfli and Ramirez, other drawings and paintings from psychotic artists will be shown as points of comparison and to support a fuller look at the principal themes emerging: how the divisions between sanity/insanity, freedom/confinement, privacy/the public, and creativity/destruction are negotiated by patients, their treating clinicians, and the architects of the environment in which they lived.
References:
Spoerri, E. (Ed.) (1997). Adolf Wolfli: Draughtsman, writer, poet, composer. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Topp, L., Moran, J. E., & Andrews, J. (Eds.) (2007). Madness, architecture and the built environment: Psychiatric spaces in historical context. New York: Routledge.
Yanni, C. (2007). The Architecture of madness: Insane asylums in the United States. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
