Confinia Psychiatrica: Patient Art and the Diagnosis of Mental Illness

Abstract

Abstract.In 1950 in Paris, the inaugural World Conference on Psychiatry hosted an exhibit of artwork by patients, including 150 works from 22 patients of Montreal’s Dr. Ewen Cameron. This event marked the inception of a vigorous but short-lived movement in the history of psychiatry and its relationship to art – not as therapy but as a tool for diagnosis. Two theses elevated the topic to the realm of serious research; their authors became leaders in the field: Robert Volmat (1953) and Irene Jakab (1956).Identifying roots in the earlier works of Ambroise Tardieu and Hans Prinzhorn and with connections to the Art Brut movement of artist Jean Dubuffet, a group of adherents formed the Société International de la Psychopathologie de l’Expression (SIPE) in Verona, Italy, in 1959. Members sought to release the hidden diagnostic potential of patient art through research on symbols, colour, structure, and content, deriving codes that would point to specific epistemic categories of evolving psychiatric nosology. National societies also arose in many countries. The related journal Confinia Psychiatrica ( Borderland of Psychiatry) ran from 1958 to 1980.If patient art could be diagnostic, changes in it could be used to assess therapeutic progress. Perhaps for this reason, the pharmaceutical company Sandoz took a particular interest in SIPE, publishing, small collections of patient art of various diagnostic categories and scholarly analysis for distribution to practitioners. We argue that this publishing exercise was a form of corporate advertising – attractive, informative, avant-garde.This paper traces the history of Confinia and SIPE through the publications and meetings, showing how the attempt to use art for “diagnosis” evolved into the more durable process of art as therapy.