Combating Stigmatization with Artistic Therapies

Alanus University and the University of Fine Arts in the Social Sector, Ottersberg cooperate in the Pop-up Institute

“Using the means of Artistic Therapies, we would like to reduce the stigmatization of people with mental illnesses,” say Lily Martin and Kerstin Schoch. Martin is a psychologist and research associate at Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Alfter near Bonn, while Schoch works as an art therapist, psychologist and research associate at the University of Fine Arts in the Social Sector, Ottersberg. Together they founded the Pop-up Institute for Science Communication. In March, the project-based and location-independent institute received funding from the Volkswagen Foundation. As part of the funding line World Knowledge: Structural Strengthening of Small Subjects, it is being supported with 99,900 euros for its first project. The project runs for two years and is expected to start in Berlin in January 2021.

The stigma of mental illness
A lack of familiarity and insufficient contact with those affected often leads the public to associate mental illnesses with fear and prejudice. This, in turn, increases the social isolation of people living with these illnesses. The stigma associated with a mental illness is therefore also referred to as a “second illness.” Kerstin Schoch and Lily Martin want to address precisely this social problem through the work of the Pop-up Institute: “We want to use artistic media and artistic-therapeutic methods to communicate the experiences of those affected,” say the two researchers. “The resulting (kin)aesthetic experience enables a sensory, pre-reflective approach to concepts that often elude rational understanding as well as verbal explanation.”

Together with artists, artistic therapists, and people affected, non-verbal and pre-reflective experiences in various artistic media (movement/dance, visual arts, music) will be collected, systematically prepared, and presented to an audience with the help of innovative formats such as performances and exhibitions.

Schizophrenia and Artistic Therapies
In its first project, the Pop-up Institute is focusing on one of the most severe mental illnesses: schizophrenia. As part of a series of transdisciplinary workshops with diverse cooperation partners (including Charité Berlin and Witten/Herdecke University), an interactive and intermedial exhibition is to be conceptualized and shown in Berlin. “The aim of the exhibition is to make schizophrenia tangible and comprehensible: What does it sound or feel like to have schizophrenia? Sensory experiences can foster empathy and, conversely, reduce stigmas and prejudices toward mental illnesses,” say the researchers.