Welcome

Dear members of the WACP,

Dear colleagues interested in Cultural Psychiatry,

We had a newsletter for many years, whose publication was interrupted several years ago.  We would like to relaunch this initiative since it increases our communication so that it’s the first of the new series of newsletter

The first official newsletter of new series of our newsletter.

A lot happens within our community, we are thriving (!), and it is about time that we inform each other about what is going on. With this new initiative, a newsletter, we want to come closer to each other, and, to be better informed about our cherished field of cultural psychiatry. We also want to increase our members, so please send this newsletter to at least one other colleague of yours who you think might be interested.

As Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo told me, we had a newsletter before. Due to unclear reasons it did not continue but it should. Informing each other is very important for our field. As President of the WACP I want to devote a lot of attention to these kind of communication. Ideas are more than welcome (mario.braakman@outlook.com).

Mario H. Braakman, President WACP

News

Update website

Our website https://waculturalpsy.org/ needs an update. We allocated funds to redesign our main website and we let you know the launch date. We asked young experts from Pakistan to assist us. It is still in the preliminary phase.

Special Interest Groups (SIG’s)

Our past-president Roberto Lewis-Fernández was willing to coordinate and stimulate SIG-activities. However since we want to share efforts among more people than just Roberto we are asking our Board of Directors to take care of one of the SIG’s.

Renato D. Alarcón

In our try-out edition of prominent members and former WACP Officers we informed you that Prof. Dr. Renato Alarcon, emeritus professor of Psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, was  treasurer of the WACP, however Sergio Villasenor Bayardo informed me that he was the secretary and not the treasurer. Sorry for this.  

International conference

We as WACP decided to introduce a new initiative: the International Conference. In between our large congresses, these are 3 years apart from each other, we thought it would be a good idea to have an additional scientific gathering, smaller but as inspiring as the large congress. The first one was planned in Shanghai, China but very unfortunately, due to COVID, we had to cancel it. However, now we just finished our international conference in Paris, and the theme was CULTURAL PSYCHIATRY & ART. Alberto Velasco and his SIG was very active in organizing this and he planned also online seminars in preparation for that event.

To inform you what happened is the program:

 International Conference « Art and its Benefits in Mental Health and Psychiatry »

Simultaneous translation provided

 Thursday, September 19, 2024

 MC : Federico Ossola, former President of The Franco-Argentine Association of Psychiatry and Mental Health

13h30-14h00 : Welcome of participants

14h-14h15 : Introduction

Jean Luc Roelandt, former Director of the WHO Coordination Center, Medical Consultant at CCOMS, in charge of international actions

Prof. Dr. Mario H. Braakman, President of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP)

14h15-15h45 : Theme 1 

History and Institutional Links Between Hospitals, Patients, and Museums

Chair : Pr Philip Gorwood, Head of the CMME Department at GHU Paris, President of the International Relations Commission of GHU Paris

Moderator : Claire Lécole, Cultural Mediator at GHU Paris, graduate in art history and public art, working at GHU since 2021

• From “Art of the Mad” to Contemporary Art: The Example of the Museum of Art and History at Sainte Anne Hospital

Anne Marie Dubois, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Scientific Director of MAHHSA – France

• Visits for People with Psychological Disabilities: Activities and Research at the Musée d’Orsay

Yannick Le Pape, Engineer of Cultural Services and Heritage, Research Officer at the Musée d’Orsay

Dr Bérangère Thirioux Clinical Research Unit Pierre Deniker, Henri Laborit Hospital Center (Poitiers) – France

• Cultural Rights of Patients

Isabelle Rouls, Isabelle Rouls, Director of Audiences, Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Musée du Quai Branly – France

• Victor Hugo Meets Lucienne Forest: Interplay of Gazes and Legitimacy Stakes

Inga Walc-Bezombes, Historian, Director of Public Services at the Maison de Victor Hugo, PhD student at the Department of Slavic Studies, Sorbonne University – France

15H45-16h00 : Break

 16h00-17h30 : Theme 2

Use of Art as Therapy and as a Tool in Psychosocial Rehabilitation

Chair : Dr Martin Reca, President of the Franco-Argentine Association of Psychiatry and Mental Health, member of COFALP

Moderator : Julie Laurenge, Project Manager for the Development of the Contemporary Art Fund Frontière$, EPSM Lille Métropole, 59G21.

 • Introduction to Psychosocial Rehabilitation

Camille Hamon, Psychologist specializing in neuropsychology, expert in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) and learning disabilities in children from 6 years old

Chloé Lunel, Psychologist specializing in neuropsychology, evaluating and supporting patients in their psychosocial rehabilitation projects

Isabelle Amado, Hospital Practitioner, Head of c3rp, National Resource Center for Cognitive Remediation and Psychosocial Rehabilitation – France

• Fostering Resilience: Japan’s Challenge in Psychotherapy Arts

Rieko Shioji, Psychiatrist, Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University

Kanako Shimizu, Psychiatrist, Rokubancho Psychiatric Clinic

Naoko Miyaji, Psychiatrist, Professor of Cultural Psychiatry and Medical Anthropology, Hitotsubashi University

Yuichiro Abe, Psychiatrist, Ishiki Hospital – Japan

• Creation Process and Therapeutic Relationship: Art in Art Therapies

Paula Martinez Takegami and François Trably, Artistic Mediation Therapy Unit of CMME, GHU Paris – France

• Icarus: The Takeoff Process. Working with Clay

Antonio Diaz Quiroz, Coordinator of the Therapeutic Support Center (CAT)

Galilea Carranza Monreal, Artist

Emma Cerecer, Workshop Supervisor

Rubi Muñoz, Head of the Art Workshop at CAT Monterrey Nuevo Leon – Mexico

17h30-17h35 :

Testimonial Resonating with the Work: Alice Vinçon-Leite

 Friday, September 20, 2024

MC : Federico Ossola, former President of the The Franco-Argentine Association of Psychiatry and Mental Health

 8h30-9h00 : Welcoming of participants

 9h00-9h15 : Introduction

Guillaume Couillard, Director of GHU Paris

9h15-10h45 : Theme 3

Conceiving Art as a Creative Methodology of Investigation and as an Institutional Tool

Chair : Emmanuelle Remond, President of UNAFAM France

Moderator : Dr Hans Rohlof, Psychiatrist, former Treasurer and Board Member of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP)

 • CHiMEs Collective: “Using Artistic Methodologies in Mental Health Research”

Harsimran Sansoy, ATTUNE, Project Manager of the CHiMEs Collective, University of Oxford – United Kingdom

• Noah’s Ark: Painting and Allegory, Joint Creation of Care in an Outpatient Medical-Psychological Center

Brigitte Gadeyne, Hospital Practitioner Psychiatrist responsible for outpatient care units, Pole 16, GHU Paris, member of the Higher Medical Council, Ministry of Health – France

• The Artist and Their Work: “Lessons for a Research Methodology in Mental Health and Social Links”

Julia Martin, Director General of Mental Health in Berazategui, Professor and Researcher at the National University of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Vice-President of the Argentine Section – Argentina

• The Oath of Opera

Myriam Mazouzi, Director of the Paris National Opera Academy

Alberto Velasco, Head of Service S4 of Pole 5/6/7 at GHU Paris, Board Member of WACP, Secretary of COFALP

Antoine Puybareau, Psychomotor Therapist participating in the GHU Paris workshop – France

 10h45-11h15 : Break

 11h15-12h45 : Theme 4

Thinking of Art as a Means and Mediation Through Various Devices

Chair : Dr Michel Triantafyllou, Head of Pole 5/6/7 at GHU Paris, President of the Syndicate of Public Practice Psychiatrists

Moderator : Ana Gómez-Carrillo, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University, Psychiatrist for Inuit Children and Adolescents in Nunavik, Quebec – Canada

 • From Child Psychiatry to an Art Space: An Original Liaison Work in Perinatal Care and Adolescent Psychiatry

Nina Franzoni, Assistant Child Psychiatrist shared between CH Despinoy in Martinique and Paris, Maison de Solenn in Professor Marie-Rose Moro’s department – France

• An Architecture Workshop with Children Followed in Child Psychiatry, A Creative Experience

Ramon Menendez, Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst, Member of the Franco-Colombian Association of Psychiatry (COFALP) – France/ Colombia

• Pathography in Japan: A Salutography Perspective

Shinichiro Tanaka, Psychiatrist, Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts

Itsuo Asai, Psychiatrist, President of the Joint PRCP & WACP 2025 Congress in Tokyo

Yuichiro Abe, Psychiatrist, Ishiki Hospital – Japan

• The Imaginary Sea Journey: A Season of Museum-Trunk Mediation at GHU

Mathias Gorog, Child Psychiatrist, Head of Service of the Infanto-Juvenile Sector, Pole 14, GHU Paris, co-design with the Carmignac Foundation (production, design) – France

12h30-14h00 : Lunch Break (on-site or free)

 MC : Murielle Duranton, Vice President of the Franco-Cuban Association of Psychiatry and Psychology

14h-15h30 : Theme 5 

The Role of Art as Support for Families, for Illiterate Patients, and in Therapeutic Support

Chair : Professeur Itsuo Asai, President of the World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP) in Tokyo in September 2025

Moderator : Aurélien Troisoeufs, Health Anthropologist at the Mental Health Research Laboratory, Humanities and Social Sciences, GHU Paris

• Art by and About the Family

Emmanuelle Remond, President of UNAFAM France

Sybille Dequero, Architect, Writer and Volunteer at UNAFAM – France

• Views and Sounds of Psychosis: Healing Narratives with Art Photography

Byamah B. Mutamba, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Butabika National Mental Hospital, Kampala, Technical Director at YouBelong – Uganda

• Cultural Perspectives Based on Art Leading to Useful Narratives for Self-Management of Mental Health

Muhammad Irfan, Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of the Department of Mental Health, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Sciences at Peshawar Medical College, Public Health Professor, President-elect of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP) – Pakistan

• Helping Alice Exit Wonderland: Art as a Healing Principle

Juan Manuel Rodriguez Penagos, Psychoanalyst, PhD in Fundamental Psychopathology and Psychoanalysis from Paris-7 University, Therapeutic Companion, Secretary of the Franco-Mexican Association of Psychiatrists and Psychotherapists – Mexico

15h30-15h45 : Break

 15h45-17h00 : Theme 6

Including Art as a Means of Fighting Forgetting, as in Psychotrauma and as a Language of War

Chair : Catherine Doyen, Head of Pole 16 at GHU Paris, President of the CME of the Sainte Anne site

Moderator : Maida Chavak, Artist, Scenographer, Graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris

 • Documentary Photography and Social Support

Pablo Farías, Retired Psychiatrist working with Bats’i Lab, a collaborative group in Chiapas promoting the use of photographic resources in communities affected by violence and displacement – Mexico

• Weaving Connections with Art

Ana Gómez-Carrillo, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University, Psychiatrist for Inuit Children and Adolescents in Nunavik, Quebec – Canada

• Art in Times of War

Lyudmyla Snovyda, Psychiatrist, Medical Director of the Psycho-Neurological Hospital of Ternopil – Ukraine

17h00-17h45 : Art and Mental Health: Participatory Research from Webinars and Joint Declaration

Coordinator : Alberto Velasco

Lexical Analysis of Webinar Corpus

Alice Vinçon-Leite, Psychiatrist, Doctor in Neuroscience, and herself on the autism spectrum

Emmanuelle Jouet, Director of the Lab-SM-SCH at GHU Paris

Thematic Analysis of the Discussions

Aurélien Troisoeufs, Health Anthropologist at the Mental Health Research Laboratory, Humanities and Social Sciences, GHU Paris

Toward a Joint Declaration

Alberto Velasco, Head of Service S4 at Pole 5/6/7 of GHU Paris, Board Member of the WACP, Secretary of COFALP

 Testimonial in Resonance with the Work: Alice Vinçon-Leite

17h45 : Conclusions

Béatrice Aubriot, President of the CME at GHU Paris

Dominique Wintrebert, President of France Coordination for Latin America – COFALP

“Art in wartime”: a virtual exhibition of works by Ukrainian patients will take place in the lobby of the GHU’s Grand Amphithéâtre throughout the conference.

7^th  World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry    

Our colleague and member of our Board of Directors, Dr Itsuo Asai (and his team) is almost done with the preparations of our next World Congress. Save the date: we will meet in Tokyo in the last week of September 2025. The Pacific Rim Psychiatrists (https://www.prcp.org/) will join us and we will organize the congress together.

Our Highlight: What is COFALP?

By: Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo

On January 13, 2016, the Franco-Mexican association of psychiatry held the 12th Franco-Mexican colloquium at the Sainte Anne hospital. The next night, Alberto Velasco prepared a delicious “mole” accompanied by some “margaritas” at his house. There we spoke with professors Jean Garrabé and Yves Thoret about the creation of a Franco-Latin American association. Dr. Thoret, presciently, gave us a bottle of whiskey, seeming to say to us: Allez, marchez! This message livened up the night by talking about the past, present and future of Franco-Latin American psychiatry exchanges.

 Shortly after, Alberto and I, proposed the idea to Federico Ossola who told us that the Franco-Argentine Association was precisely reflecting on this possibility: After a meeting with Bernard Odier, Federico Ossola, Dominique Wintrebert and Alberto Velasco the project was confirmed. Martin Reca contacted Anette Thevenot, then president of the Franco-Cuban association, who accepted in principle. Thus, with that already perceptible confidence, the trio of binational associations (Latin American group of transcultural studies,GLADET, include) was ready to embark on a common adventure. The debates in each association were arduous, we know. But reason ended up winning.

 The great activity carried out throughout the first half of 2016 to produce a convention that unites us reflected our heart and soul in this great challenge. As Dominique said, referring to a quote from Lacan, “she is born like a poor woman”, I would say yes, but not like an ugly woman… because it is desirable. The France-Latin America coordination (COFALP) was born filled with enthusiasm and with the strength and vigor of all its members.

 It is with this tone that the statutes were drafted and signed by the 7 participating associations. The Franco-Mexican association, GLADET, the Franco-Argentine Association and the Franco-Cuban association laid the cornerstone of the COFALP to which the French Federation of Psychiatry with its president Bernard Odier and the association of Psychiatrists in Latin America with Rodrigo Nel Córdoba as president quickly associated themselves with our initiative that culminated in the signing of an agreement in which the Sainte Anne hospital agreed to be the headquarters and the first event of our Coordination was held on September 9, 2016 with the presentation of my book: Vers une ethnopsychiatrie mexicaine awarded in 2017 by the society of L’Évolution psychiatrique.

The COFALP objectives that were established:

– The exchange of knowledge in the specialty and associated disciplines.

– Mutual support and joint participation in conferences, seminars, congresses, meetings, and all types of cultural and/or scientific events, which contribute to strengthening the ties of friendship and scientific collaboration between French and Latin American mental health professionals.

– The exchange of scholarship holders, interns, residents and other forms of participation in training and continuous professional development.

– Promoting the development of joint tasks in the field of research.

 – The promotion and dissemination of specialized magazines published in France and Latin American countries.

 – The development of the acquisition of linguistic skills in Spanish and French for professionals from Latin America and France in order to facilitate the integration of interns and promote transnational dialogue.

 – Promote any initiative that supports the principles that form the basis of the agreement.

  Cofalp takes an international turn two months later as it responds to the request of the association of directors of mental health establishments (EDESM), proposing a forum with 6 testimonies from countries on the topic of psychiatric containment.

 In Cuba in November 2016, the 11th: Rencontres Franco-Cubaines de psychiatrie et psychologie took place, there Alberto Velasco on behalf of the Franco Mexican Association and Cofalp spoke about the device: “Consultation Information advice and orientation for women enceintes suivies en psychiatrie”.

 Shortly afterwards, on October 5 and 6, 2017, to celebrate the 150 years of Sainte Anne hospital, COFALP proposed organizing our first international conference on therapeutic support. << Pratiques actuelles de la psychiatrie, soigner, accompagner, contenir>> the event was a success, both in this place and in the auditorium of the French ministry of health.

 The fruitful activity led us to participate with the World Psychiatry Association (WPA), which had a regional congress in Mexico in September 2018. Cofalp was represented by Federico Ossola, Bernard Odier and Ignacio Cuaranta. Additionally, I participated in a symposium on traditional medicine.

 Afterwards, COFALP organized, during the 5th  congress of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP), a symposium composed of six tables with the theme: “translating suffering” in New York from October 10 to 13, 2018. 20 colleagues from 6 different countries participated.

 The same month, in Brasilia from the 17th to the 20th during the XXX Congress of the Latin American Psychiatric Association (APAL) and the 26th Brazilian Congress of Psychiatry we had a large participation. We organized an interesting debate between colleagues from Mexico, Brazil, Chile, France and Argentina. Participated: Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo, Juan Manuel Rodríguez, Marcos de Noronha, Gustavo Rossi, Thames Borges, Daniel Delanoë, Alberto Velasco and Elisa Coelho-Medeiros. Furthermore, Alberto was raising concerns in a plenary session with the conference: “from temptation to diabolical possession.”

 The same year in Havana, the Association Franco-Cubaine de psychiatrie et de psychologie (AFCPP) organized its 12th mental health meeting, from November 24 to December 7 in Cuba. The theme: <<migrations, cultures and mental health>>, a comparative study in Cuba and in France. There they paid heartfelt tribute to Dr Jean-Pierre Thévenot.

 The COFALP was also present at the LXXIII Chilean Congress of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery and 2nd Congress of the Association Mondiale de Psychiatrie Sociale (WASP) that took place in Pucón (Chile) from November 8 to 10, 2018. There I spoke about: “A model of mental health intervention for indigenous migrants in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara” and on “Tonantzin-Guadalupe: a founding myth.”

 In August 2019, we were in Lisbon representing COFALP during the WPA congress working together with the Literature and Psychiatry section.

 At the end of 2018, the first France-Mexico Cooperation Program in Mental Health was also signed between the Sainte Anne hospital, now Grupo Hospitalario Universitario, and the university hospital (HUNL) in Monterrey with the support of the embassies and ministries in both countries.

 In November 2019, at the Sainte Anne hospital, we held our 2nd international conference with the theme: “the involvement of the family in psychiatric care” and we paid tribute to our beloved teacher, Dr. Jean Garrabé, tireless promoter of exchanges Franco-Latin Americans.

 And then the COVID pandemic arrived and COFALP’s activities became complicated and became virtual. One was in Guadalajara, Jalisco, during the 6th GLADET international congress entitled: “Neurosciences and Humanities: a new paradigm in psychiatry” which was a great tribute to the teachers Jean Garrabé and Yves Thoret.

 Prof. Carlos Rojas, president of GLADET, wrote about it: “The symposium presented by colleagues from the Franco-Latin American Coordination of Psychiatry (cofalp) should be mentioned, because in some way they express the European opinion on the central theme of the event. On the one hand, the COFALP Symposium, “Between neurosciences and humanities: the transcended word”, with subtopics such as “Parasitic language”, “Poetic language in transcultural psychopathology” and “Art, cultural and therapeutic language”, presented by the distinguished colleagues Dominique Wintrebert, Martín Reca and Alberto Velasco. The French colleagues, rather than a synthesis, prefer to see a binomial between humanities and neurosciences, among other reasons, because the epistemology for studying the body is very different and “other” than that used to study the unconscious and language. Without a doubt, Lacanian psychoanalytic training presents questions and rigors that are difficult to link to the findings of neuroscience.”

 In July 2022, we met again in person, again thanks to the auspices of GLADET with its 7th international conference entitled: “From classical to avant-garde psychiatry in the global village.” On this occasion, in addition to the group of Henry Ey followers, doctors Dominique Wintrebert, Alberto Velasco, Martín Reca, Juan Carlos Stagnaro, Julia Martín, Cristian Gil, Daniel Delanoë and Carlos Rojas participated, representing COFALP, whose texts were published in the book of the same title of the congress.

 In addition to the events organized by COFALP member societies in 2002, we ended the year in Havana, Cuba, with our 3rd international conference entitled: “Care in psychiatry: history, evolution, current events.” The works presented there were published in the French magazine: L’information psychiatrique.

 This year, 2024, COFALP will have two joint events with APAL (Association of Psychiatrists of Latin America), one in June in Santo Domingo, called: “Franco-Latin American Exchange, uniting perspectives on contemporary psychiatry: from pathology to treatment.” and another in November in Buenos Aires, “Mental health and social equity.”

 The WACP and COFALP celebrate this year, in Paris on September 19 and 20, the “International Conference of Art’s benefits on Mental Health and Psychiatry” organized by Dr. Alberto Velasco. Member of the WACP bureau and general secretary of the COFALP.

 We proudly continue to grow at a steady pace, managing to link academia, humanism and psychiatric clinics between Latin America and France.

 Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo.

President of COFALP for Latin America.

Proud to introduce to you

In each issue we would like to highlight a special person who devotes a lot of time to our association. Dedicated people who are essential for a flourishing association.

This time we like to introduce to you: Martina Kabenge

Dr. Martina Kabenge is a former resident at Makerere University who has just completed her speciality training in Psychiatry. Her academic journey has been marked by a profound dedication to understanding and addressing mental health challenges, particularly among young adults. Her interest in psychiatry was sparked early in her medical training, leading her to pursue specialised education and clinical practice in this field.

During her time at Makerere University, Dr. Kabenge focused her research on the prevalence and risk factors of substance use disorders among young adults at the University. Her work has highlighted the urgent need for targeted interventions and support systems to address the unique challenges faced by this population.

Dr. Kabenge’s commitment to mental health extends beyond her academic pursuits. She has actively participated in community outreach programs aimed at raising awareness about substance use and promoting mental well-being among young adults. Through seminars and public speaking engagements, she has educated both peers and the general public about the importance of early intervention and comprehensive care in managing substance use disorders.

Dr. Kabenge is dedicated to continuing her work in psychiatry, focusing on developing innovative treatment approaches and expanding access to mental health services for young adults. She is passionate about making a meaningful impact in the field and is committed to improving the lives of individuals struggling with substance use and mental health issues.

The President’s Choice

Each issue I want to highlight a special and very recent intellectual advancement in our field of cultural psychiatry. This time:

Silvius, Linda, Katrina V. Antezana J, and Samrad Ghane. “Symptom vs context: lessons learned from a large-scale implementation of the Cultural Formulation Interview.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 15 (2024): 1410865.

DOI 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1410865

A major concern regarding CFI is its feasibility in daily clinical practice.

This article aims to fill this knowledge gap by presenting two studies that investigated (a) how CFI has been implemented within the largest mental health provider in the Netherlands, (b) how CFI is perceived by different staff and stakeholders, and (c) what factors are associated with the appropriate use of CFI during routine diagnostic examinations. This paper highlights the challenges associated with the integration of CFI into large-scale mental health services. Barriers to implementation were related to clinicians’ limited familiarity with the interview and its purpose in routine and its purpose in routine clinical assessment. In addition organizational barriers, such as a lack of consistent commitment to implementing the CFI and competing institutional priorities. Attitudes towards the CFI varied between clinicians and administrators.

administrators, and differed somewhat from the APA recommendations, which emphasize implementation for all patients and which emphasize implementation for all patients and in all settings. The findings highlight important challenges in implementation of CFI in routine clinical practice. Compared with the results of the DSM-5 field trials, this paper shows lower fidelity of the CFI during the intake interview, and more negative perceptions of the interview among practitioners.

Their findings suggest a relationship between cultural competence of staff and their ability to administer and documenting the CFI.

Paris Declaration on Art and its Benefits in Mental Health and Psychiatry

Paris, September 2024

This joint declaration follows the webinars and the International Conference on the subject, co-organized by GHU Paris psychiatry & neuroscience (GHU Paris), the France Latin America Coordination of Psychiatry (COFALP), and the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP). In a constructivist approach, these three organizations brought together “experts”  from eleven countries, six Parisian centers, the Mental Health, Humanities, and Social Sciences Laboratory of GHU Paris, UNAFAM , the Academy of the National Opera of Paris, the Museum of Art and History of Sainte Anne Hospital, the Victor Hugo House Museum, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musée du Quai Branly.

This community of experts worked in webinars to explore two fundamental aspects:

1.         To describe systems that use art as a medium in mental health and psychiatry.

2.         To describe commonalities, the invariants shared across different cultures and care settings.

The proposals were presented at the International Conference on “Art and its Benefits in Mental Health and Psychiatry” on September 19 and 20, 2024, at GHU Paris.

This declaration synthesizes the multiple, cross-checked, and conclusive responses from the webinars. Its general objective is to highlight the mediation of art in its social and therapeutic roles.

Art addresses everyone, without exception. It can be unsettling, but it can also provide a social outlet for transgressive pleasure, thus provoking a regulatory effect. Human societies recognize in their own way, and with diversity, their artistic values. They designate specific places to preserve and pass on millennia-old artistic testimonies to future generations. When creation is recognized, society protects and preserves it in museums that we visit like secular altars, seeking well-being and dialogue.

Our meetings between professionals and patients allowed us to hear the similarities and differences in the use of artistic tools. We chose not to distinguish between the museum professional, the artist, the caregiver, and the patient, in a proposition that ranges from innovative experience to established practice. This approach guarantees richness and the crossing of perspectives. We observed the differences and common points of the systems. We collected experiences from various settings, equally diverse: one established with young Inuit in northern Canada, the revival of traditional stories in Pakistan to work with illiterate patients and families, the use of art in a Therapeutic Accompaniment Center in Mexico, photography accompanied by storytelling with  people living with psychosis in Uganda, individual or institutional support guided by psychoanalysis in Latin America and Europe, the traditions of Japanese Masters, committed photography as a receptacle of history and identity of an indigenous population in Chiapas, and art used as a weapon in times of war in Ukraine.

Closer to old Europe, we mentioned the use of art in research, cognitive remediation, contributing to the dialectic of family life, its practice acting as therapy, or various ways to bring art into the hospital. We also recall the sustained creativity in children and the therapeutic strategies in partnership with cultural actors rooted in the city, a factor in reclaiming citizenship, social inclusion, and restored dignity.

Although notions such as art and mental health are difficult to define, the analysis of lexical and thematic occurrences in the work made it clear that art is a common good, despite the wide variety of practices studied. Depending on the period or culture, they have not always been articulated in the same way, shifting from “the art of the mad” to remediation; from the therapeutic workshop to outsider art.

The experience of facing a work of art is always subjective and personal. It produces noticeable changes in the individual, although sometimes indescribable. The beneficial impact of the work of art is both direct on the observer and can also produce social bonds or even communion between members of a society. Whether we try to explain its positive action by emphasizing the attraction to the art object or the sublimation of unconscious desire, the result is clear.

Art is performative. It disrupts those it connects. Museums have understood this: a form of socialization or even democratization is therefore possible, and they are working to develop it, including for people living with mental disorders. Psychiatric institutions must, in turn, establish bridges with major cultural actors in their localities. This contributes to the destigmatization of mental illness.

Therefore, the signatories declare that it is highly desirable to translate these conclusions into concrete actions:

•          Adoption of art as a therapeutic mediation in the servicesof public institutions.

•          The recognition of this medium on an organizational and financial level.

•          The right to access art as part of the care provided.

•          The establishment of local agreements with cultural and artistic actors.

Sign this petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/d%C3%A9claration-de-paris-sur-l-art-et-ses-b%C3%A9n%C3%A9fices-en-sant%C3%A9-mentale-et-en-psychiatrie?source_location=search

Next issue

·         All about Tokyo 2025

·         Proud to introduce to you: the social media experts: Aya and Gulunu!