Man in horror drawing. Mentally ill art. Pictures of people suffering from mental illness. Pictures of famous schizophrenics

There are amazing drawings, maybe these people are still unrecognized geniuses?

MN, 36 years old, paranoid form of schizophrenia. Education - three classes. Despite the initially low intellectual level, the patient developed a complex delusional concept. The content of the delirium was very peculiar: the patient believed that a laboratory called the “Pluto system” had been brought to Earth from some planet. This laboratory is located on an alien ship, and its purpose is to study and enslave earthlings. She drew in the “automatic writing” mode: she put a dot on the sheet and then “the hand itself drove over the paper”. At the same time, she often could not explain the meaning of what was drawn, she said that the content of the drawing was not hers, that "he who moves his hand knows the meaning."

MN, paranoid schizophrenia - "Smoking electronic man".

MN, paranoid schizophrenia - “Carbon eater. I am not laughing, but I am doing my job?!+.”

MN, paranoid schizophrenia - “Who am I now? Freak: either a pig, or a person. I need seclusion from the whole world.”

M.N., paranoid schizophrenia - “To control a person, his thoughts, they put on him an invisible spacesuit connected to an apparatus for constructing thoughts.”

Drawing visual hallucinations. The patient is a polydrug addict, used hashish, opium, ether, cocaine.

A.Z., schizophrenia - “It is difficult and very difficult to be saved. But we have to! Need to live. Everyone!”.

A.Z., schizophrenia - “One did not get prey. Hit the rock."

A.Z., schizophrenia - “You also need to save the old man! Even the bird knows it.”

L.T., schizophrenia. The disease proceeded in the form of seizures, different in structure. These were phase depressions or manic-ecstatic states, accompanied by the vision of vivid fantastic images, fabulous, cosmic, alien plots. Her drawings and commentaries were reproduced by her brother, a professional painter. The patient vividly, emotionally told him that she “was present at the death of the world”, when everything around exploded and collapsed, “human skulls flew in smoke and roar in huge strings” and “strung” on her head, “hordes of all evil spirits settled in her head, snakes and other things, they were at war with each other.”

L.T., schizophrenia - “Death of the world and horror”.

L.T., schizophrenia - “Flower of longing”.

L.T., schizophrenia - “Madness”.

L.T., schizophrenia - “I lose my physical shell and only one thing remains - a great, harmonious, divinely bright and beautiful mental “I””.

A.B., 20 years old, schizophrenia. Only a few drawings by this author have survived. They reflect such phenomena characteristic of this disease as the “materialization” of thoughts felt by the patient as something material, schism (splitting of the psyche): “everything is scattered here - the senses, the heart, time and space”.

AB, schizophrenia - “Out of time and space”.

AB, schizophrenia - “Thoughts are things (reification of thoughts)”.

NP, schizophrenia with delusional ideas of invention. He believed that it is quite possible to invent devices that, without fuel, only thanks to the chosen form and “gravity”, will provide movement.

S.N., 20 years old, paranoid schizophrenia. The disease manifested itself while serving in the army. Perhaps, in contrast to the cruel and rough reality of the patient, thoughts about something else began to visit, better world, about God.

S.N., paranoid schizophrenia - “My thoughts are heard and seen: what I think, everyone hears, and thought-pictures appear on the screen.”

SN, paranoid schizophrenia - “I hear the voice of God. He puts into my head the whole arrangement of the world and the soul.”

And here's more:

A.Sh., 19 years old, schizophrenia. The disease began at the age of 13-14 with changes in character: he became withdrawn, lost all contacts with friends, relatives, stopped going to school, left home, spent time in churches, monasteries, libraries, where he “was engaged in philosophy”, he himself wrote “philosophical treatises”, in which he expounded his vision of the world. It was at this time that he began to draw in a very strange manner. According to his parents, he had never painted before, and it was unexpected for them that the talent of a painter was revealed in his son, although his drawings were strange, incomprehensible.

Medicine, "Me" and "Lemon Bird"

"He will die soon (Self-portrait)"

At the age of 18 he was drafted into the army, began his service in the city of Arkhangelsk. It was here that the manifestation of the disease occurred: delusional ideas, hallucinations, depression appeared, he made repeated suicide attempts. Having entered the department, he was practically unavailable for contact, but only in conversations with the attending physician (Muratova ID) did he reveal the world of his psychopathological experiences. He drew a lot: he brought some of the drawings with him, others were drawn already in the hospital. The attending physician encouraged his desire to draw, provided paper, paints. When he was discharged, he presented the doctor with a collection of his drawings. In the future, this collection became the basis of the museum of creativity of the mentally ill, and to this day it is used for educational purposes.

In many drawings by A.Sh. there is an image of a bird, which he called "lemon". This is a figurative and symbolic reflection of the inner world of the patient, what he lives by, fenced off from reality. (He usually depicted the latter in annoying red)

"Substance"

"The essence of the painter"

"Woman with a cat

"Perverts"

disease

"alcoholic and alcoholism"

"headache"

"My Head"

Psychiatric clinic patient A.R. I took up paints and pencils for the first time already in the hospital. His works will undoubtedly be of interest not only to the attending physician, but also to a wide range of art connoisseurs.

A.R. - "Labyrinths of Dreams"

Vl.T., 35 years old, chronic alcoholism. He was repeatedly admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to repeated alcoholic psychoses. His illness was aggravated by unfavorable heredity - his sister suffered from schizophrenia. All drawings reflecting psychopathological experiences were made after coming out of psychosis and in the light period (out of binge). The author had an unfinished art education, professionally mastered the technique of painting.

The picture “My hands occupy the whole room” reflects the pathology of perception, autometamorphopsia (somatognosia, “violation of the body schema”), a violation of the perception of the size of one’s own body, its individual parts. Arms, legs or head appear very large/small or very long/short. This sensation is corrected by the patient's gaze at the limbs or by touch. It is observed in schizophrenia, organic brain damage, intoxication and in other cases.

Drawings while taking LSD

The first drawing was ready 20 minutes after the first dose (50 mcg)

The experiment was part of the US government's program to research mind-altering drugs in the late 1950s. The artist received a dose of LSD-25 and a box of pencils and pens. He needed to draw a doctor who gave him an injection.
According to the patient: “The condition is normal .. so far no effects”

Before you are drawings of an 18-year-old girl named Kate, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia a year ago. She sees strange hallucinations, which she then draws to try to sort out her thoughts. Kate decided to show everyone what she has to live with and accompanied her drawings with explanatory comments.

"Over the years I have been diagnosed with several diagnoses. At the age of 17, I was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia when my parents realized that my mental health getting worse."

"I draw a lot of my hallucinations because drawing helps me deal with it."

"Inanimate objects will look like a Van Gogh painting: twisted and harsh."

"It's a bird, she sings to me."

"This is a quote from an artist named Jory and that was what spoke to me. My depression makes me feel worthless like a fly. These illustrations reflect my illness."

"This person crawls out of a vent in my ceiling and makes a clicking sound, or I see him crawl out from under things."

"It's a self-portrait."

"Here is an example from the disembodied eyes that I see. They appear in mounds or on my walls or floors. They deform and move."

"My self-esteem is at its lowest point and I feel insignificant. I would always like to turn into a 'beautiful' person."

"Organization, communication, paranoia, depression, anxiety and managing my emotions - they are fighting a big fight for me."

"What I live with isn't easy and it can be exhausting, but I don't live on the streets screaming about alien abductions. It doesn't mean there aren't people like me - there are. However, there are people like me "who just sit at home, locked in their room. It's a spectrum of symptoms with varying degrees of severity. Each person's experience is unique."

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Genius and madness go hand in hand. Gifted people perceive the world around them in a slightly different way, and their creation sometimes encounters the unknown, forbidden and mysterious. Perhaps this is what distinguishes their work and makes it truly brilliant.

website remembered several amazing artists who suffered in different years their lives with mental disorders, which, however, could not prevent them from leaving behind real masterpieces.

Mikhail Vrubel

Mikhail Vrubel, Lilac (1900)

They don’t even try to copy the special aesthetics of his paintings - Vrubel’s work was so original. Madness overtook him in adulthood - the first signs of the disease appeared when the artist was 46 years old. Family grief contributed to this - Mikhail had a son with a cleft lip, and after 2 years the child died. The attacks of violence that began alternated with absolute apathy; relatives were forced to place him in a hospital, where he died a few years later.

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch, "The Scream" (1893)

The painting "The Scream" was painted in several versions, each of which was made using different techniques. There is a version that this picture is the fruit of a mental disorder. It is assumed that the artist suffered from manic-depressive psychosis. "Scream" Munch rewrote four times until he was treated in the clinic. This case was not the only one when Munch found himself with a mental disorder in the hospital.

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night (1889)

The extraordinary painting of Van Gogh reflects the spiritual quest and torment that tormented him all his life. Now experts find it difficult to say what mental illness tormented the artist - schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but he ended up in the clinic more than once. The illness eventually led him to commit suicide at age 36. His brother Theo, by the way, also died in a lunatic asylum.

Pavel Fedotov

Pavel Fedotov, Major's Matchmaking (1848)

Not everyone knows that the author of genre satirical painting died in a psychiatric hospital. He was so loved by contemporaries and admirers that many fussed about him, the king himself allocated funds for his maintenance. But, unfortunately, they could not help him - there was no adequate treatment for schizophrenia at that time. The artist died very young - at 37 years old.

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel, "Waltz" (1893)

In her youth, the sculptor girl was very pretty and unusually talented. Master Auguste Rodin could not help but pay attention to her. The insane connection between the student and the master exhausted both - Rodin could not leave his common-law wife, with whom he had lived for many years. In the end, they broke up with Claudel, and she was never able to recover from the breakup. Since 1905, she began violent seizures, and she spent 30 years in a psychiatric hospital.

Francois Lemoine

François Lemoine, "Time guarding the Truth from Falsehood and Envy" (1737)

Physical overwork from hard work, constant court intrigues of envious people in Versailles and the death of his beloved wife affected the artist's health and drove him to madness. As a result, in June 1737, a few hours after finishing work on the next painting, Time Protecting Truth from Lies and Envy, during a paranoid attack, Lemoine committed suicide by stabbing himself with nine stabs of a dagger.

Louis Wayne

One of Wayne's latest works (presented chronologically), clearly illustrating the artist's mental disorders

Louis was most inspired by cats, to which he attributed human behavior in his cartoons. Wayne was considered a strange person. Gradually, his eccentricity turned into a serious mental illness that began to progress over the years. In 1924, Louis was committed to a psychiatric hospital after he pushed one of his sisters down the stairs. A year later, he was discovered by the press and transferred to Napsbury Hospital in London. This clinic was relatively cozy, there was a garden and a whole cattery, and Wayne spent his last years. Although the disease progressed, his gentle nature returned to him and he continued to paint. Its main theme - cats - remained unchanged for a long time, until it was finally supplanted by fractal-like patterns.

Alexey Chernyshev

Fine art is one of the earliest and most ancient types of art, ways of human self-expression. Painting helps us to penetrate into the world of thoughts, feelings and images of the artist's personality. Therefore, the possibilities of drawing are used by doctors when working with patients with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

Schizophrenia is a complex and still poorly understood disease. Doctors need a lot of time to correctly diagnose it, for this a large amount of information about the patient is collected. And of course, it is impossible to determine such a disease only from the drawings.

However, they can serve as a starting point, a signal for loved ones to pay attention to the developing mental illness of a child, relative or friend.

You should especially look at creativity carefully if a person shows other signs of mental disorders: prone to depression, withdrawing into himself, obsessed with delusional ideas, reports strange phenomena that do not exist in reality (hallucinations), etc. Drawings of people with schizophrenia usually have a number of differences and characteristic features.

In no case should you engage in self-diagnosis, and even more so close your eyes to the signs of a mental disorder in your loved one. Remember that they themselves perceive the manifestations of the disease simply as personality traits, and often only close people can convince them to see a doctor.

When the illness is precisely established, it is the drawing that often helps psychiatrists to track the dynamics of the development of the pathology, the internal state of the patient, especially when he is not available for productive contact. Pictures of schizophrenics with a description of the author's medical history are usually found in any manual on psychiatry.

What is the difference between drawings of mentally ill and healthy people

The painting of a mentally ill person is a reflection of his mental state at the current moment, a "cast" of his complex world of delusional ideas, hallucinations, an attempt to realize himself and his place in the world.

Psychiatrists single out traits and features characteristic of schizophrenics, clearly visible in their fine art. Doctors even have a classification of pictures of mental patients according to the main features:

1. With the manifestation of stereotypy.
2. With splitting, breaking of associative links.
3. With unrevealed (unclarified) forms.
4. Symbolic.

Stereotype in drawing

Patients with schizophrenia can draw the same figures, contours, objects, symbols or signs for a very long period of time. Each time, a certain stereotypical sketch is obtained. This also manifests itself in the same manner of execution and colors.

During the period of exacerbation of psychotic symptoms, the stereotype of the patient's drawings usually increases, but again becomes more mild during periods of remission. For example, the patient, absorbed in the idea of ​​her relationships with men, often depicted people and phallic symbols in the form of mountains, pillars, and other elongated objects. The repetition of the plot was traced from work to work.

The theme of the pictures will reflect the very innermost and painful problem of relationships with the world: conflicts with people, hallucinatory visions, delusional ideas.

Unlike a healthy person who enthusiastically draws in one genre - for example, portraits, landscapes, marine themes, etc. - the drawings of schizophrenics will certainly demonstrate other striking features that are characteristic of the painting of mentally ill people.

In the photo, drawings of a patient with schizophrenia. A recurring stereotypical image he called "the lemon bird". can be traced character traits creativity of a mentally ill person: symbolism, ornamentalism in execution, drawing with a stroke, etc.

Drawings with breaking associative links, splitting

The effect of splitting, rupture is clearly manifested in the specific fragmentation of the artistic creativity of patients with schizophrenia. Parts of the body or other object are depicted separately from each other, can be separated by lines or even objects.

Healthy children draw the whole cat, a schizophrenic child can depict its separate "parts" either in different corners of the sheet, or even on separate pages. Depicting a house, a schizophrenic draws a roof, facade and windows in separate, unrelated parts, etc.

Alternatively, a separate fragment or any insignificant detail will be the main object of the image, which is also not typical for the work of mentally balanced people. For example, a patient, displaying himself, draws a single squiggle-wrinkle on his forehead ("these are my thoughts", "this is me - sad").

Drawings with unexplained (undetected) forms

This is the name of graphic works, consisting of a variety of parts that are not interconnected. These images are unfinished, the objects on them are not clearly outlined, strokes of an indefinite shape predominate. For example, animals drawn by schizophrenics will have strange shapes and forms that are not found in real life. They also see objects, people, events.

Symbolic drawings

In symbolic sketches, patients do not express their thoughts and feelings directly, but in images - symbols, which can be understood only with the help of the patient himself. The images seem to be encrypted by the mentally ill, and this cipher is not only unclear to others, but often incomprehensible to the artist himself.

At the same time, the pictures of schizophrenics are characterized by:

• ornamentalism, frequent use of symmetrical images;
• lack of logic, a combination of incompatible;
• incompleteness, lack of integrity of the composition;
• lack of empty seats;
• stroke drawing;
• immobility of images (no movement);
• too careful drawing of the smallest details.

Note! In comparison with the painting of healthy people, the work of schizophrenics clearly demonstrates a picture of mental confusion, fragmentation, splitting of consciousness, characteristic of pathology. This will be especially noticeable in the process of deterioration of the mental state. The creativity of a healthy person will be distinguished, on the contrary, by the integrity of the composition, the coherence and consistency of details, and the variety of colors.

More work of people with schizophrenia can be viewed in the video:

Pictures of famous schizophrenics

Of course, for the person himself, the disease of the mind is a severe test. However, there is a fairly common belief that talent and mental illness often go hand in hand. A non-trivial view of life through the prism of a seemingly defective consciousness gave the world paintings by schizophrenic artists who are recognized as brilliant. It is believed that Vincent van Gogh, Mikhail Vrubel, Salvador Dali suffered from this disease.

From the point of view of displaying the development of the disease, the works of the English artist Louis Wayne (1860-1939) are of particular interest in creativity. All his life, Wayne painted exclusively cats, which were absolutely humanized in his painting.

The artist has created a whole cat world. They move on their hind legs, wear clothes, create families, live in human homes. His work was very popular during his lifetime. Funny "cat" pictures were printed mainly on postcards, which sold well.

Louis Wayne suffered from schizophrenia, which did not greatly affect his early work. But in the last years of his life, the disease took possession of him more and more, and he was even placed in a psychiatric hospital.

The plot of his paintings remained unchanged - cats, but the paintings themselves are gradually losing their composition, connectedness, richness of meanings. All this supplants ornamentalism, complex abstract patterns - the features that distinguish the paintings of schizophrenics.

The works of Louis Wayne are often published in textbooks on psychiatry just as a vivid example of the change in painting under the influence of the development of a disease of consciousness.

Conclusion

The visual heritage of geniuses with schizophrenia is priceless. However, contrary to popular belief about the mass genius of schizophrenics, it is worth noting that a possible surge of creativity occurs in the first, sparing stages of the disease. Subsequently, especially after an attack of psychosis and under the influence of the degradation of the psyche, a person often loses the ability for productive creativity.