Portraits of Mental Illness

Aline Cenoz
PORTRAITS OF MENTAL ILLNESS
SCHIZOPHRENIA
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“I can see there's a connection between not following
normal thinking and doing creative thinking. I wouldn't
have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more
normally. One could be very successful in life and be
very normal, but if you're Van Gogh or artists like that
you may be a little off.” John Nash
Patients often describe shadowy figures and voices –
auditory and visual hallucinations
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The voices may be command auditory hallucinations,
ordering patients to commit an act they wouldn’t otherwise
be inclined to, derogatory, or
SCHIZOPHRENIA
SCHIZOPHRENIA
A young woman is sitting on a radio with a knife
at her feet, surrounded by the shadows that tell
her to end her life.
 The hallucinations reach out to encircle her,
overpowering her and pushing her to the point
of no return
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SUBSTANCE ABUSE
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"If I don't choose this moment to do the right thing and
do something that's going to give me life, all of the
things I'm scared of losing, I'm going to lose anyway.“
Keith Urban
DSM-IV – The distinction between abuse and
dependence was based on the concept of abuse as a
mild or early phase and dependence as the more severe
manifestation.
Most people link dependence with “addiction”
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Dependence can be a normal body response to a
substance.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
A still young girl with blond hair is seen on a couch
with a monster figure looming over her, while a
container of empty pills lay on the floor beneath
her, and a wine bottle has been knocked over.
 She has succumbed to the monster of the drugs,
and whether she lives or dies depends on those
who may find her in time.
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MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER
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“That’s the thing about depression: a human being can
survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in
sight. But depression is so insidious and it compounds daily,
that it’s impossible to ever see the end. The fog is like a cage
without a key.” Elizabeth Wurtzel
DSM-5 diagnosis: 5/9 symptoms must persist for greater
than two weeks: Sleep changes, Interest (loss of), Guilt
(worthlessness), Energy (lack of), Cognition/concentration
(decrease), Appetite (loss of), Psychomotor agitation or
retardation, Suicide ideation
May present with psychosomatic complaints – cold
hands/feet, body aches
MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER
MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER
A man and woman are surrounded by people
whom they cannot see, for they are too
engrossed in their own worlds.
 As they pass by each other without noticing that
there is another like them who is suffering, they
keep going into the dreary night, where cold
rain threatens to pour down on them.
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BIPOLAR DISORDER
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“Which of my feelings are real? Which of the me's is
me? The wild, impulsive, chaotic, energetic, and crazy
one? Or the shy, withdrawn, desperate, suicidal,
doomed, and tired one? Probably a bit of both, hopefully
much that is neither.” Kay Redfield Jamison
Symptoms: Distractibility, Irresponsibility or Irritability,
Grandiosity, Flight of ideas, Activity increased, Sleep
decreased, Talkativeness (also known as DIG FAST).
BIPOLAR DISORDER
BIPOLAR DISORDER
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A young woman with raven hair staring across a
glass at her other self. Which is the real girl:
The bright one in her purple dress, feeling like a
duchess at a grand ball or is it the one in the
fading gray dress that cannot see past the
darkness? Their masks make it hard to see
past their own existence and beyond the glass.
ANOREXIA NERVOSA
“And when, after fifteen years of bingeing, barfing,
starving, needles and tubes and terror and rage,
and medical crises and personal failure and loss
after loss - when, after all this, you are in your early
twenties and staring down a vastly abbreviated life
expectancy [….]” Marya Hornbacher
 Ideas of beautiful figures have changed from
Ruben’s full bodied women to today’s thin models.
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ANOREXIA NERVOSA
ANOREXIA NERVOSA
An emaciated man looks in the mirror and sees
his obese body, filling him with disgust.
 The image he sees in front is of mounds of
flesh that spill over the sweatpants, while in
reality his sweatpants barely cling to his jutting
hip bones.
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WORKS CITED
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Association, A. P. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Services Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed.
Burroughs, W. S. (1953). Junkie. New York City: Ace Books.
Caddy, L., Crawford, F., & Page, A. (2012). 'Painting a path to wellness’: correlations between participating
in a creative activity group and improved measured mental health outcome. Journal of Psychiatric and
Mental Health Nursing , 327-333.
Crawford, M., & Sue, P. (2007). Arts therapies for people with schizophrenia: an emerging evidence base.
EBMH , 69-70.
Freud, S. (n.d.). Five Lecture on Psycho-Analysis.
Harris, J. C. (2012). Albrecht Du¨ rer’s Melencolia I. Arch Gen Psychiatry , 874.
Hornbacher, M. (2006). Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia. New York: Harper Collins .
Jamison, K. R. (1996). An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness . New York City: Vintage.
Nash, J. F. (2005, April 10). Glimpsing inside a beautiful mind. (S. Hegarty, Interviewer)
Nash, J. F. (n.d.). Interview with John Nash: The Downward Spiral. (PBS, Interviewer)
Sheppard Pratt Health Care System. (n.d.). Retrieved 12 20, 2016, from Moses Sheppard:
https://www.sheppardpratt.org/about/history/moses-sheppard/
Sussman, A. (2007). Mental Illness and Creativity: A Neurological View of the "Tortured Artist". Stanford
Journal of Neuroscience , 21-24.
Urban, K. (2007, November 12). "I was going to lose it all". (P. Magazine, Interviewer)
Wurtzel, E. (1994). Prozac Nation. New York City: Riverhead Trade.