Posts

Showing posts from December, 2021

Mental Health and Art: Narcissism

Image
"Narcissistic personality disorder" is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own significance, a desire for excessive attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. This particular mental condition is highly interconnected with the art world. Yi Zhou claims that artists who are narcissistic, have higher prices and recognition in the art world and she supports her claim by investigating artists' signature sizes. Apparently, in psychology, there is a certain correlation between signature size and self-regard. Zhou measures over hundreds of signatures and compares the results to historical auction price data, numbers of museum shows, and "artistic reputation". She also looks at the number of self-portraits done by the artist and the frequency of the use of the words "I" and "me" in published interviews. In the analysis of hundreds of pre and post-war artworks, Zhou found that narcissistic artists' wo

Mental Health and Art: Art Therapy and Covid-19

Image
 Art and emotions have been very much interconnected throughout history. Humans have used artistic expression to convey ideas and communicate through stories. Therefore, one can claim that art can have a healing effect when it comes to emotionally challenging situations and for that, art therapy emerged in the mid-20th century in Europe.  The term "art therapy" was attributed to British artist Adrian Hill in 1942. Art therapy was also being practiced in the United States around the same time by Margaret Naumburg and Edith Kramer. Naumburg linked art to the unconscious expression of emotions and Kramer created a ground for art therapy as a legitimate education. As the practice of art therapy became more widespread, it has also gained ground as a solid psychotherapy practice. Again, in the mid 20th century, Gestalt therapists also gained interest in art therapy. For them, art is an excellent tool to articulate fears and anxieties and also a way to fulfill the intrinsic human de