Abstract
UNDER the auspices of the Government Federal Art Project and of the Bellevue Hospital psychiatric department, the Harlem Art Centre in New York City has organized the first exhibition of its kind in the United States, consisting of pictures showing the work of disordered minds. The artists include moronic children, chronic alcoholics, advanced epileptics, manic-depressives and general paralytics. Most of the exhibits indicate mental conflict, being shapeless, lurid and grotesque. The idea underlying the art classes at Bellevue Hospital is to attempt a cure of the mentally sick by encouraging them to express their conflicts and at the same time to give psychiatrists a clearer picture of their patients' emotional life.
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Art and Psychiatry. Nature 143, 238 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143238a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143238a0