Insanity
Insanity has had a significant influence over modern and contemporary Art. The
absurd and the bizarre have always intrigued artists and constituted a valuable
source of inspiration. From Rafael and Hieronymus Bosch (16th century) to Kirchner
and Heckel (18th -19th century) and up to our present day, the perceptions of
madness of each time period and society have been widely expressed. As a whole
they are perceived in a sense of stigma, which accompanies mental disturbance.
Every era had had a different interpretation for insanity. In the past, it was
considered that there was a demonic presence, it was connected with sin, the
corrupt, the violent, the dangerous, the baffling and the unreal. Even nowadays the
social stigmatization isolates and alienates people with mental disorders. Therefore,
the conceptual trigger for many artists has been that of madness, as a condition, a
behavior, a physical and emotional expression. However, in my personal point of
view, the main interest isn’t only about the part that is called insanity, but the limit
that separates it from sanity and which was the position that has taken place over
the years. Is it that the limit is basically non-existent and it is us who pose it? What is
insanity? What is sanity? The great mathematician John Nash, who was battling with
schizophrenia, claimed that mental disorders could be incredibly revealing if
someone could manage to overcome and control these experiences, because other
aspects of reality are revealed that exist but we are not aware of, due to the fact that
logic imposes barriers to the mind.
Most psychiatrists consider that mental disturbances are caused by a disturbance of
the chemistry of the brain, an opinion that is supported by recent discoveries in
neurology. There are also, many empirical elements which show that psychological
tension may trigger changes in the chemistry of the brain. This fortified the creation
of a bio-psycho-sociological model of mental disorder, where genetic and dynamic
factors are combined. However, the fundamental question “what is the mind” still
remains without a definite answer, like a field where everything is taking place.
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