Is There a Connection Between Art and Mental Illness?

Art is a non-verbal communication tool. Through art activities, it provides a concrete rather than spoken platform, so that people can freely communicate his self-consciousness and subconsciousness, and become the most like and most affinity in psychological analysis. Way of interaction.

Artistic psychoanalysis

What is important is that the natural artistic behavior is equivalent to the process of free association, which is a spontaneous mental image released from the subconscious mind.

Symbolism _____ Freud once said: "Only things that are suppressed or need to be repelled can be symbolized." This view is too narrow, and most scholars do not agree with it. ".Symbol" is especially a visual symbol. It has been one of the normal expressions of human beings since ancient times, and may not be the product of repression.

From the perspective of Jung's so-called `` collective subconsciousness '' and `` individual subconsciousness '', the symbol should be divided into (general symbol) and (personal symbol). The former is a symbol shared by all nations in the world. I can roughly understand its symbolic meanings, such as the fatherhood and masculine with the sun; motherhood and feminine with the moon; passion with red; death with black. The latter is usually only for individuals and has special meaning. If the author does not explain it, others often cannot understand its symbolic meaning.

In other words, (universal symbolism) has a communicable trait, while (personal symbolism) has a meaning that cannot be communicated. Only (personal symbolism) is the focus of psychological analysis of art.

If the visitor has the following expressions, he may have a sub-healthy psychological complex.

Distortion performance _____ includes mismatch of size and shape, etc. Sometimes it is difficult to know whether these distortions are caused by "ignorance" (like children's drawings) or "morbid" (like mental painting) or " Purposeful emphasis "(mostly primitive art and modern painting).

There are two ways of transparent expression _____. One is to overlap different structures (shapes or lines), and the other is to change the shape to transparent and present its external and internal structure.

Simultaneous performance _____ This is divided into two types: "temporal simultaneity" and "spatial simultaneity", as our dream is the best example of the former. It interweaves past, present, and future, and appears at the same time. It is also expressed in the stream of consciousness novels and movies. Painting is the best feature of the latter. There is no spatial directivity, angle, horizontality, and verticality. Even if only the sides are drawn, they still exist at the same time. On the "spatial simultaneity" of mental patients, the most common is the disappearance of "stereoscopy". Horizontal and vertical exist in a composition at the same time.

Over-inclusive performance _____ Some visitors never leave blank. The places where the picture can be used are often added and are irrelevant to the theme. Serious patients will repeat painting on the original drawing paper until the whole The painting is blacked out.

The double contour expression _____ is the contour of one object and the contour of another object, such as (some people). This expression is the psychological defense mechanism of the visitor's subconscious. There is an extra line of defense, which can sometimes evolve into (multiple contours).

Geometric representation _____ The entire picture is divided into different geometric figures.

Decorative performance _____ In order to beautify the picture, the visitor used a lot of lines and patterns, but seemed stiff and lifeless, like a (decoration).

From the above several functions, we can analyze and evaluate the psychological crux behind the client's works. Of course, the above-mentioned various functions are also reflected in contemporary art, but to varying degrees.

From a psychological point of view, if a person wants to live happily, he has some basic desires that must be satisfied. In addition to physical food and clothing, psychological sense of belonging, self-esteem, and accomplishment, etc., if not satisfied, it is easy to worry and produce frustration.

Therefore, in order to alleviate the state of inner imbalance, it is possible to have a venting channel to maintain self-emotion. This internal psychological approach is called "psychological defense mechanism". This psychological self-defense method is mostly carried out subconsciously and unknowingly. Normal people generally do this to some extent, but if they are used too much, there will be problems.

These various types of psychological conflicts stored in the subconscious, although not known to the consciousness, always affect our daily behavior and do many inexplicable things. We call this the "repressive effect", as such (purposeful oblivion) is different from ordinary (natural oblivion).

There is another similar to the "depressive effect", but it is not to forget what has happened (purposely forget), but to use the "negative effect" to think that it has never happened at all to avoid inner pain. If the patient is deeply trapped, it will sometimes reach the level of delusion.

Isolate part of the facts from the subconscious, and do not let yourself be aware, so as not to cause unpleasant feelings inside. The most commonly isolated is the sensory part related to the fact. This separation of ideas and feelings, leaving only the concepts that everyone can understand, is called "isolation effect".

Sometimes we feel like a certain thing, whether we like it, hate it, or anger.For some reason, we can't confess to our target, sometimes we use the `` transfer effect '' to change the goal Safe, more in line with social norms.

Passing on one's own character, attitude, motivation, desire or unacceptable character, attitude, motivation, desire to other objects is called "projection effect".

When a phenomenon or event occurs, you can find many reasons to explain it, choose the reason that meets your inner needs, emphasize it and ignore other reasons, in order to avoid mental illness and obtain peace of mind, called "rationalization."

The above-mentioned psychological defense functions will be inadvertently distributed among the people, things, and objects in the composition when the visitor is painting.The analyst has mastered this search direction, which can help him understand the subconscious motivation, understand his psychological complex, and how to Adapt to realistic ideas.

Through the method of artistic psychoanalysis, understand the "psychological defense mechanism" in the painting content, let him understand the real situation, recognize the current problem, and take effective actions to save his soul.