When art therapy went chemical: Alfred Bader, pharmacology, and art brut, c.1950-1970s.
Jelena Martinovic
Historia, Ciencias, Saude--Manguinhos 2023 DOI: 10.1590/s0104-59702022000500007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | psilocybin |
| Keywords | Psychedelic-research Art-therapy Psychiatry-history Experimental-medicine Outsider-art |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Argues that the origins of art therapy are rooted in psychopharmacology and that post-war psilocybin experiments helped reframe madness as a social disease through a neurobiological lens. |
Abstract
This article analyzes how psychopharmacology transformed the relationship between art and psychiatry. It outlines a novel genealogy of art therapy, repositioning its origins in the context of evolving clinical practices and discourses on mind-altering drugs. Evaluating the use of psychotropic drugs in connection with psychopathology of art in the first half of the twentieth century, the article then focuses on two post-Second World War experiments involving psilocybin conducted by psychiatrist Alfred Bader and pharmacologist Roland Fischer. Illustrating how consciousness was foregrounded in discussions about mental health and illness, the examples showcase how psychotherapists increasingly sought to articulate art brut and modernist aesthetics in a neurobiological fashion to define madness as a social disease.