Presentation Information
[SY-34]Experience-Based Medicine and the Healing Power of Art: Narratives and Resilience in Global Psychiatry
Itsuo Asai1, Ayaka Shima, Yayoi Imamura2, Alberto Velasco3, Jaswant Guzder4,5 (1.Heart Clinic Medical Corporation(Japan), 2.Kyorin University School of Medicine,(Japan), 3.Sainte-Anne Hospital Center, GHU Paris Psychiatrie & Neurosciences(France), 4.University of British Columbia(Canada), 5.MacGill University(Canada))
Keywords:
Art Therapy,Narrative Medicine,Cultural Psychiatry,Experience Based Medicine,Indigenous Mental Health
This symposium explores the transformative role of arts-based and narrative practices in psychiatry through a structured arc of healing extending from the individual self to the wider community. Drawing on clinical, narrative, and cultural psychiatry, the session illustrates how diverse artistic modalities foster agency, insight, and resilience across human experience.
The opening presentation by Ms. Ayaka Shima (Japan) offers an autoethnographic exploration of artmaking as a therapeutic process for the therapist herself. Through visual expression, she narrates a cross-cultural journey of self-awareness, linguistic dislocation, and emotional integration.
Dr. Yayoi Imamura (Japan) then explores the realm of individual meaning-making through her pathographic analysis of ONE PIECE, a globally influential manga. Her interpretation reveals how characters mirror neurodevelopmental struggles and trauma, positioning manga as a vehicle for psychiatric empathy and symbolic healing.
Next, Dr. Jaswant Guzder (Canada) shifts the focus to the community, reflecting on decades of visual narrative work in Indigenous mental health. Her presentation affirms the importance of culturally rooted, trauma-informed art interventions and highlights how community-based projects foster resilience and cultural continuity.
Finally, Dr. Alberto Velasco (France) broadens the discussion with “Experience-Based Medicine: A Bridge Between Scientific Knowledge and Lived Experience.” This talk situates cultural psychiatry as a field uniquely poised to integrate scientific, experiential, and cultural knowledge. Dr. Velasco underscores how Experience-Based Medicine (ExBM) values patients’ subjective experiences as evidence, complementing Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). He will discuss anthropological and psychiatric dimensions of ExBM, participatory methods, and how qualitative approaches can inform care and policy.
Together, these contributions advocate for a model of Experience-Based Medicine grounded in narrative, cultural meaning, and creative expression—an approach essential for reimagining mental health care in a pluralistic world. At the same time, the symposium acknowledges that future work must further explore how Evidence-Based and Experience-Based models can collaborate to strengthen psychiatric care.
The opening presentation by Ms. Ayaka Shima (Japan) offers an autoethnographic exploration of artmaking as a therapeutic process for the therapist herself. Through visual expression, she narrates a cross-cultural journey of self-awareness, linguistic dislocation, and emotional integration.
Dr. Yayoi Imamura (Japan) then explores the realm of individual meaning-making through her pathographic analysis of ONE PIECE, a globally influential manga. Her interpretation reveals how characters mirror neurodevelopmental struggles and trauma, positioning manga as a vehicle for psychiatric empathy and symbolic healing.
Next, Dr. Jaswant Guzder (Canada) shifts the focus to the community, reflecting on decades of visual narrative work in Indigenous mental health. Her presentation affirms the importance of culturally rooted, trauma-informed art interventions and highlights how community-based projects foster resilience and cultural continuity.
Finally, Dr. Alberto Velasco (France) broadens the discussion with “Experience-Based Medicine: A Bridge Between Scientific Knowledge and Lived Experience.” This talk situates cultural psychiatry as a field uniquely poised to integrate scientific, experiential, and cultural knowledge. Dr. Velasco underscores how Experience-Based Medicine (ExBM) values patients’ subjective experiences as evidence, complementing Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). He will discuss anthropological and psychiatric dimensions of ExBM, participatory methods, and how qualitative approaches can inform care and policy.
Together, these contributions advocate for a model of Experience-Based Medicine grounded in narrative, cultural meaning, and creative expression—an approach essential for reimagining mental health care in a pluralistic world. At the same time, the symposium acknowledges that future work must further explore how Evidence-Based and Experience-Based models can collaborate to strengthen psychiatric care.