It’s not news to most of us that our environment can have an impact on our mood. A cloudy day. Working in a cubicle farm. Growing up in poverty.But can it also impact our …
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Hospital and medical facilities can look (and feel) rather cold and impersonal. I hope more of them will come to realize the effects of simple moves like decor can help to make patients feel better and recover faster. Thanks for the great info!
Wow. It’s really too true- while I was involuntarily admitted into the hospital for three weeks, I was overjoyed to see a beautiful wall mural painting when I was finally allowed off bed rest. I took pictures with it, and spent most of my time just staring at it. So, this article totally rocks.
psychological environment is quite important to recovery. we have all read about how useful placebos can be and other psychosomatic issues. this reportage is consistent with that.
what i found particularly interesting here is the choice of art that the researchers chose to write about and why. abstract art is repudiated and landscapes and florals are encouraged. that is reasonable. but what is not reasonable is that this is assigned to an issue of ‘taste.’ i won’t digress into a discussion of aesthetics here and why the researchers might not be qualified to opine about taste.
i will stipulate that that many people in mental healthcare facilities are understandably impaired so they don’t need art which challenges them nor provokes (and confuses) them in spite of the fact that this is an important art function.
challenging art can be therapeutic even if not in a hospital setting because it can stimulate intellectual or emotional growth and it says something about the human condition. and validating the researcher’s artistic opinions with the presumed popularity of those opinions by say that ‘it’s what most people want disregards the failure of larger art education in texas and this country. i don’t think hospital Dietitians will add sugar, salt and fat to food because butter as an example of comfort foods is a beloved ingredient, so why is this a defense in the scientific selection of art by medical researchers?