Healing power of art therapy on display at mental health center's new gallery

• Published date: 03 September 2021
• Publication title: Shanghai Daily

IN the corridor of the Rehabilitation Daycare Center at Shanghai Mental Health Center (SMHC), a special art facility called "No. 600 Gallery" opens its doors to the public with its first exhibition "Art Brut: Lines, Colors, Stories."

"This is the first art gallery established in a mental health clinic on the Chinese mainland," said Chen Zhimin, resident doctor in SMHC's Clinical Psychology Department, who is also the exhibition's curator.

ccording to Chen, the aim behind the gallery is to raise public awareness and eliminate misunderstanding about mental health, as well as open a new gate for the public to get closer to the inner world of the center's patients.

"I call them patient artists because I really feel their artwork has artistic values," Chen said. "They express their interpretation of the world around us through paintings. When you look at their artwork, you feel subtle emotions, you feel shock and you sense imagination."

ll 60 paintings on show were created by inpatients who have been living with mental illness during their daily art therapy sessions, according to Zhong Na, deputy director of SMHC's Rehabilitation Department.

The rehabilitation center is dedicated to building an innovative mental rehabilitation and recovery management mode. Because it's a non-invasive form of intervention and doesn't require special, expensive medical equipment, art therapy is a great method to help patients enhance their self-expression and improve their emotional health and interpersonal connections.

ccording to relevant studies, after one year of drawing therapy, patients with schizophrenia can significantly increase their self-awareness, confidence and dignity, helping them regain social functions. It also helps patients with autism, anxiety, depression, Alzheimer's, bulimia nervosa and substance abuse issues.

"Generally, the goal of art therapy for patients with mental disorders is more focused on the process. But I think if we can help them establish self-confidence and social recognition through an exhibition, it will have a more profound mental impact on them," Chen said.

The universe, sky and stars are primary subjects of many artworks.

"This phenomenon has a philosophical touch, don't you think? For those patients who physically spend most of their lives in very constricted spaces, they have such a vast vision internally," said Chen.

rt Brut, or Outsider Art, is the term for self-taught artists presenting their experiences outside the restrictive bounds of...