Presentation Information
[P-27-03]Psychiatry in art: The Scream of Edvard Munch
*Michael Yafi (UTHealth, The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston(United States of America))
Keywords:
Art,Edvard Munch,Anxiety
The artworks of Edvard Munch are often used as an example of the association between creativity and mental illnesses. His most famous painting, The Scream, is always considered as an example of anxiety disorder in art. The Scream is an example of autobiography in art, as the artist sensed an "infinite scream passing through nature". The background of the painting clearly shows unsettled curves, corresponding to human body curves, representing anxiety. Traumatized by the death of his mother when he was only five -year old [The Dead Mother, Death and a Child], Munch remained scarred throughout his life. He lingered in a neurotic -childhood fixated state all through adulthood. In the first stage of childhood psychological development, trust versus mistrust is the rule. Munch as a child never successfully developed trust, he never felt safe and secure in the world. Death continued to haunt Munch, his sister died when he was around 14 the scene of illness in [The Sick Child ] shows this clearly: a pale, frail girl looking for help while an adult person, knowing that death was on its way, was next to her in a silent breakdown despair. Munch himself almost died of tuberculosis (which killed his mother and sister). This vivid image kept haunting him throughout his life, as he made a series of six similar paintings throughout 40 years. The two paintings [At the Death Bed] and [Death in the Sickroom] were also a reflection of the artist's struggle with death that kept him hanging between the nightmares of the past and the uncertainties of the future. Munch remained a child, he sought happiness and he tried to understand life [The Dance of Life, Dance on the Shore] but his depression and anxiety led him to alcoholism and social isolation.