Psychiatry in pictures

Photographs by Moira Blackwell (b. 1943)

This month's pictures, by photographer Moira Blackwell, were created during a collaborative project entitled ‘Reality Matters’, funded by the Arts Council and set up with Professor David Kingdon of Southampton University and Hampshire Partnership Trust, in which schizophrenia and related issues were explored. The mirror image photograph was taken in the Baring Room of Southampton City Art Gallery and is part of a series of interactive photographs, in which the client relived feelings which the paintings evoked in him. The client has had a long-term relationship with the paintings, entitled The Perseus Story by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. He said that the paintings gave him a mystic feeling and that ‘perhaps there was a lot in this world that we can't see but that is very real…' In conversations, photographer and client discussed reality testing and he found the visual exploration of his beliefs particularly helpful. This image formed part of an exhibition in the entrance hall of the Department of Psychiatry in Southampton (November-December 2004) and drew an audience from across the Trust, voluntary sector and local arts community.

The project has now been extended to investigate clients' use of mental images in the maintenance of delusional belief and continued association with these images. The hands and text image is one that Professor Kingdon uses with lay and healthcare audiences to illustrate clients' difficulties in speaking about schizophrenia. This is one facet of stigmatisation that has been reinforced by admonishments from others, including psychiatrists, not to talk about the concerns they have. The use of cognitive therapy is now changing that position but the terminology used remains stigmatising. Professor Kingdon is currently working in this area with colleagues in Southampton, Manchester and Newcastle. The group is exploring the use of positive images and explanatory language (e.g. trauma, drug-related, anxiety and sensitivity psychoses) to communicate more effectively with clients, carers and the general population (including taxi drivers).