The British Journal of Psychiatry (2001) 179: 0
© 2001 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychiatry in pictures
ROBERT HOWARD
2001: A Mind Odyssey is a celebration of the arts, psychiatry and
the mind. For further information see http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/campaigns/2001/
or e-mail: awedderburn@rcpsych.ac.uk
Broach Schizophrene
The paintings of Brian Charnley (1949-1991) are now widely known,
particularly his final sequence of pictures, painted while he took himself off
medication in order to experience his schizophrenia in an unadulterated form,
which culminated in his suicide. Broach Schizophrene formed part of
his portrayal of his own personal experience of his illness. In an
‘Artist's statement’ to accompany his pictures, he wrote in 1988:
"Sigmund Freud, commenting on his work on the mind, said that wherever
he had been, an artist or poet had been there before him. I hope, to some
extent, my work might exist in a similar way. I try to avoid being too direct
about the privations suffered as a schizophrene and try instead for more
oblique poetic metaphors as I feel the truth can be more nearly approached
this way. My work is also a much needed form of exorcism. Apart from my
pictures, I regard my illness as completely negative, involving the sufferer
in a vicious downward spiral. Current medical practice attempts to suppress
both the patient and his symptoms, convenient but evasive. My paintings stand
as an attempt to penetrate this wall of silence and I hope they can throw some
light on a condition which has largely eluded medical
science".
