Whoever Said Art Doesn’t Have a Point? | Ellen Desmond

  Ellen Desmond describes the growing role played by creative arts as mental health therapies.Art and mental illness have always had a link - it’s surprising it has taken us this long to get moving on a scientifically accepted field of study pertaining to it. When you think of all the greats; Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Picasso, Jackson Pollok, Goya, Edvard Munch…they’ve all been shown or thought to have had experiences of mental illnesses. Even the famous psychologist Freud has written about art; “Only rarely does the psychoanalyst feel impelled to engage in aesthetic investigations…yet now and then it happens that he has to take an interest in a particular area…and then it is usually a marginal one” (The Uncanny). In fact Freud wrote an entire paper devoted solely to Leonardo da Vinci’s mind and works. But why have mental health professional been so keen to avoid embracing the creative arts? Fortunately, for those of us interested, things are appearing to take a turn in the right direction and it certainly applies to anyone with any creative interest while embarking in third level courses.This week sees Cork’s very own Mental Health Foundation’s “Reflecting Through Art” Exhibition, opening in Cork International Airport. It will then be relocating around different locations in Cork over the coming weeks. Sixty artists have works on display in this exhibition and all of them have them have experienced mental health issues in some way or another. This new exhibition is in line with the upcoming fresh new field of Creative Art Therapies being used in addition to the already established modes of mental health care.Brendan McCarthy, development manager at Cork Mental Health Foundation was quoted in the Irish Examiner saying of the Exhibition that “any of the artists will tell you it empowers them and gives them a sense of purpose”.  Through art these people are given the opportunity to publicly own the recognition they deserve for the ordeals they have been through. They use their difficult experiences to create something beautiful in a process that heals, ends in understanding, and hopefully, gives better insights for professionals to advance in the provision of adequate and suitable help for their specific needs. It has been demonstrated that Creative Therapies are superb in helping people who find it specifically difficult to convey emotions face to face by talking, but it’s aimed to help everybody. It really is a remarkable area to try and get involved in. It’s not just Art Therapy either; a new field is developing for Music Therapists, Dance Therapists and Creative Writing Therapists…anything that could help a person with an interest in your discipline.You might sneer and think of this as one of those wishy-washy fads that will be at an end sooner than your stint selling paintings on the corner of Oliver Plunkett Street. However, there has been phenomenal support and encouragement for the development of Art Therapies in relation to mental healthcare. All practicing Art Therapists are trained to Masters Level in both psychology, their art form and in related health disciplines. So I’m not lying at all, it’s very much a real grown-up profession! There’s now also an Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists who adhere to the strict, national health code of ethics and standard of work. Research into the effect of Art Therapies began in 1970 by examining the effect of these creative methods for people with schizophrenia and today the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) supports Arts Therapies to the extent that it says all mental health professionals should offer Arts Therapies to all people diagnosed with schizophrenia.The findings, when investigated, have been positive and NICE in 2010 reported that the effects of these therapies reduced negative symptoms such as lack of energy, loss of motivation, loss of interest in activities, memory problems and concentration difficulties. It is encouraged for use by all ages from children (to boost self-confidence, self-esteem, reduce the feeling of exclusion) to the very elderly, in whom it has been shown to reduce the feeling of isolation and boost cooping and emotional expression in the case of neuro-degenerative illnesses (Aldridge, 2001) or just about anyone in between with any sort of issue at all!Earlier this year the “First Fortnight”, Ireland’s mental health arts festival, took place in January and was a stunning illustration of what is at the core of Creative Art Therapies. The festival aimed to challenge mental health stigma and prejudice through the creative arts. First Fortnight 2013 was partnered by Amnesty International, Mental Health Reform and See Change, the national mental health stigma reduction partnership. First Fortnight’s key aim was to challenge the image associated with mental health pertaining to prejudice through expression in the creative arts. A charity-based organisation, First Fortnight is run entirely by seven volunteers who believe the arts allow the creation of a space where people can talk about mental health issues in a very “non-scripted manner and help to change people’s perceptions about an issue that has an impact on us all in some way.”During the festival there were mini-plays, concerts, film screenings and exhibitions that all related to creative art therapy disciplines. From December 2012, they have become an official a mental health service provider with the launch of their First Fortnight Centre for Creative Therapies. First Fortnight is an entirely volunteer based service and it is actually possible for anyone to sign up in attempt to help out. During the Festival, Street artists were incorporated to raise awareness of the fact that mental health is all around us. They covered streets, buildings and car parks in striking works to demonstrate the message. Some artists focused in on a “you are not alone” theme with the hope that it would be of comfort, while others used emotional images intended to stir a realization or evoke empathy in the onlooker.Whatever your opinion on this matter, it is unavoidable to acknowledge it has some form of position in the future of the mental health field and the fact that as far as it can be seen, it is doing a lot of good for a lot of people. Anyone interested in a career along these lines might find they are lucky enough to be here in UCC where the School of Applied Psychology offers an ideal undergraduate BA in Applied Psychology as a starting point. The CIT Crawford College of Art and design offer a follow up MA in Art Therapy to holders of a BA in Applied Psychology (along with a few other credentials) and I’m sure information relating to other creative therapy disciplines isn’t too hard to come by once you know what you’re looking for.Even if this isn’t an area that’s on the cards for you in the future it’s still an eye opener just simply to understand the need for its presence. Keep a thought of the link between art and the basic human need for self-expression at the back of your mind and the next time you see Michelangelo’s iconic image of God and Adam reaching out to each other maybe you’ll wonder was he really simply portraying the moment following Adam’s creation? Or try someday to empathize with the bold, unsettling, suffocating atmosphere of Munch’s The Scream. You might find that art has much more of a point than you ever believed possible.