Version 1
: Received: 21 June 2024 / Approved: 22 June 2024 / Online: 24 June 2024 (11:56:00 CEST)
How to cite:
Bettelheim, E.; Liu, J.; Dazzan, P.; Turkheimer, F. Painting Schizophrenia: An Empirical Investigation of the Self-Portraits and Portraits of Edvard Munch. Preprints2024, 2024061631. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.1631.v1
Bettelheim, E.; Liu, J.; Dazzan, P.; Turkheimer, F. Painting Schizophrenia: An Empirical Investigation of the Self-Portraits and Portraits of Edvard Munch. Preprints 2024, 2024061631. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.1631.v1
Bettelheim, E.; Liu, J.; Dazzan, P.; Turkheimer, F. Painting Schizophrenia: An Empirical Investigation of the Self-Portraits and Portraits of Edvard Munch. Preprints2024, 2024061631. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.1631.v1
APA Style
Bettelheim, E., Liu, J., Dazzan, P., & Turkheimer, F. (2024). Painting Schizophrenia: An Empirical Investigation of the Self-Portraits and Portraits of Edvard Munch. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.1631.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Bettelheim, E., Paola Dazzan and Federico Turkheimer. 2024 "Painting Schizophrenia: An Empirical Investigation of the Self-Portraits and Portraits of Edvard Munch" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.1631.v1
Abstract
Edvard Munch, a founder of Expressionism was pre-occupied with depicting his subjective experience and the most prolific painter of self-portraits since Rembrandt. Based on evidence that faces and self-related images are more salient than other objects it is plausible that self-portraits, in which the subject and object are the same, reflect the artist’s state of mind. Although he suffered from a variety of physical and psychological illness Munch was not diagnosed with any specificity in his lifetime. Posthumous diagnoses include schizophrenia, anxiety, bipolar and other disorders. Recent research has revealed altered visual perception in such patients. The present study empirically analysed three stylistic elements of Munch’s painted self-portraits and portraits: contrast, colour and fractal dimension and his painted productivity, to determine if variations correlate with critical life events and if so whether they indicate states of mind. It found significant increases in contrast and colour brightness and persistent high complexity during critical periods supporting the conclusion that Munch is diagnostically best described as suffering from early onset schizophrenia and comorbid social anxiety disorder.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
