Outsider Inpatient

Book excerpt: Outsider Inpatient is an anthology of perspectives about the value of art and creativity within psychiatric environments. It specifically shines the light on experiences at Lillhagen Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, where inpatients were allowed to paint and decorate the entire walls of long corridors in the basements of the hospital. Also included are valuable thoughts about creativity in general from clinicians, art historians, psychoanalysts, and artists. What constitutes "outsider" art? How can creativity be used in the treatment of (in)patients? Why do certain artists create the way they do, and how does it affect them? Outsider Inpatient is an informative study about a topic that has created as much controversy and criticism as it has support and adherents, in environments as diverse as clinical psychiatry and psychology, art theory, social sciences, psychoanalysis and philosophy. This book has been produced in cooperation with the Center for Critical Heritage Studies and the University of Gothenburg, and contains texts by Elisabeth Punzi, Per Magnus Johansson, Johannes Nordholm, Inez Edström, Christian Munthe, Carl Abrahamsson, Vanessa Sinclair, and Val Denham.Trapart Books 2021, 6 x 9" paperback, 100 pages, illustrated.