You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In this second book on art and psychosis, written shortly before his death, Dr. Reitman continues to interpret organic defects as the sole source of mental illness. He regarded art merely as a biological function of man. In justifying his own scientific approach to psychotic art, he points to a 'misleading psychiatric concept that affected the evaluation of abnormal drawing behavior … the term functional… It has been used to deny an "organic basis" of certain mental illnesses. The contradictory nature of such a term is self-evident: function must be related to an organ; in this special case, to the brain. Art then, is a manifestation of human brain functions.'
Dr. Reitman, as a neurologist, believed that the only truly scientific method of investigating psychotic art must be 'quantitative and statistical. Only the anthropological and social sciences [should be employed] in the study of psychopathological phenomena.' As in his previous book, Dr. Reitman again criticizes both the freudian and Jungian evaluation of symbolism in relation to psychotic art as both a subjective and qualitative approach, and therefore neither objective nor scientific.
The early chapters purport to illustrate an objective investigation of psychotic art. Such a study should '… deal with the diagnostic value of psychotic paintings in particular, whether their symptomatic significance is of universal or relative character'. With this objective in mind, Dr. Reitman states, 'I shall first examine psychotic art products originating from various cultures other than the Western'.
To carry out this so-called statistical investigation, the author requested from two hundred and fifty hospitals in all parts of the world the loan of examples of psychotic art, with accompanying descriptions concerning the history, diagnosis, and treatment of each patient. The