Psychiatry and the Visions of Forrest Bess

The relationship between art and mental illness has frequently been explored by mental health professionals, most notably in Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison’s book, “Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.”

Within the world of art, creations by people with mental illness have formed the basis of the visionary art movement. Visionary artists are self-taught or untrained painters or sculptors whose work is the external representation of an internal vision or image. Visionary art often portrays religious, philosophical, or mystical themes.

Photo used with permission

Recently, the Whitney Museum of American Art biennial exhibit featured the work of an early American impressionist, a visionary artist by the name of Forrest Bess.

Born in 1911, Forrest Bess initially attended college in architecture but eventually dropped out to independently study Jungian psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and mythology. He lived an isolated life in a shack on an island off the coast of Texas, where he worked as a fisherman.

He told people that he experienced visions that he described in detailed notes that he kept. His paintings incorporated male and female images, and he was enthralled with the use of symbols. Over time, he developed an extensive personal symbolism based upon the belief that immortality and the relief of all suffering could be achieved by the union of male and female. He wrote many letters about this theory to anyone who would listen, including Jung himself.

Eventually, he was able to sell several paintings and he used the money to travel to New York. There, he met gallery owner Betty Parsons, who displayed several of his works and brought them to national attention. Bess wanted her to also present his symbolic theories along with the work, but she refused.

Bess continued to write letters about his hermaphrodite theory to anthropologists and psychiatrists. Eventually, under the influence of alcohol, he made an incision in his own scrotum out of the belief that he could turn himself into his hermaphroditic ideal. He wrote to the renown sex researcher Dr. John Money about his experiment. Money later published an article about Bess’s mutilation in a case series about genital self-surgery.

In the 1970s, Bess was committed by his brother to San Antonio Hospital, the same facility where his grandmother had died. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia there. He died of skin cancer in a nursing home in 1977.

I’ve seen exhibits of other visionary artists before, to include art made by institutionalized psychiatric patients. What struck me about this exhibit was that the curator made the effort to present Bess’s art in the context that Bess intended: alongside letters and documents about his delusion. The fact of his hospitalization and illness is mentioned, but not as an explanation of the art or as a social commentary.

In other visionary art exhibits, the treatment of psychiatry is not so benign. The artist is often portrayed as being “misunderstood” as mentally ill, and treatment is portrayed as an attempt to restrain the artistic temperament or to enforce conformity. There is usually a commentary about the negative effects of psychiatric medication or the politics of medical power.

The uniqueness of the Whitney display of Bess’s work was its lack of anti-psychiatry commentary and the statement it made that people with mental illness, even when untreated, can create greatness.

—Annette Hanson, M.D.

DR. HANSON is a forensic psychiatrist and co-author of Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work. The opinions expressed are those of the author only, and do not represent those of any of Dr. Hanson’s employers or consultees, including the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene or the Maryland Division of Correction.

The relationship between art and mental illness has frequently been explored by mental health professionals, most notably in Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison’s book, “Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.”

Within the world of art, creations by people with mental illness have formed the basis of the visionary art movement. Visionary artists are self-taught or untrained painters or sculptors whose work is the external representation of an internal vision or image. Visionary art often portrays religious, philosophical, or mystical themes.

Photo used with permission

Recently, the Whitney Museum of American Art biennial exhibit featured the work of an early American impressionist, a visionary artist by the name of Forrest Bess.

Born in 1911, Forrest Bess initially attended college in architecture but eventually dropped out to independently study Jungian psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and mythology. He lived an isolated life in a shack on an island off the coast of Texas, where he worked as a fisherman.

He told people that he experienced visions that he described in detailed notes that he kept. His paintings incorporated male and female images, and he was enthralled with the use of symbols. Over time, he developed an extensive personal symbolism based upon the belief that immortality and the relief of all suffering could be achieved by the union of male and female. He wrote many letters about this theory to anyone who would listen, including Jung himself.

Eventually, he was able to sell several paintings and he used the money to travel to New York. There, he met gallery owner Betty Parsons, who displayed several of his works and brought them to national attention. Bess wanted her to also present his symbolic theories along with the work, but she refused.

Bess continued to write letters about his hermaphrodite theory to anthropologists and psychiatrists. Eventually, under the influence of alcohol, he made an incision in his own scrotum out of the belief that he could turn himself into his hermaphroditic ideal. He wrote to the renown sex researcher Dr. John Money about his experiment. Money later published an article about Bess’s mutilation in a case series about genital self-surgery.

In the 1970s, Bess was committed by his brother to San Antonio Hospital, the same facility where his grandmother had died. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia there. He died of skin cancer in a nursing home in 1977.

I’ve seen exhibits of other visionary artists before, to include art made by institutionalized psychiatric patients. What struck me about this exhibit was that the curator made the effort to present Bess’s art in the context that Bess intended: alongside letters and documents about his delusion. The fact of his hospitalization and illness is mentioned, but not as an explanation of the art or as a social commentary.

In other visionary art exhibits, the treatment of psychiatry is not so benign. The artist is often portrayed as being “misunderstood” as mentally ill, and treatment is portrayed as an attempt to restrain the artistic temperament or to enforce conformity. There is usually a commentary about the negative effects of psychiatric medication or the politics of medical power.

The uniqueness of the Whitney display of Bess’s work was its lack of anti-psychiatry commentary and the statement it made that people with mental illness, even when untreated, can create greatness.

—Annette Hanson, M.D.

DR. HANSON is a forensic psychiatrist and co-author of Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work. The opinions expressed are those of the author only, and do not represent those of any of Dr. Hanson’s employers or consultees, including the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene or the Maryland Division of Correction.

The relationship between art and mental illness has frequently been explored by mental health professionals, most notably in Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison’s book, “Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.”

Within the world of art, creations by people with mental illness have formed the basis of the visionary art movement. Visionary artists are self-taught or untrained painters or sculptors whose work is the external representation of an internal vision or image. Visionary art often portrays religious, philosophical, or mystical themes.

Photo used with permission

Recently, the Whitney Museum of American Art biennial exhibit featured the work of an early American impressionist, a visionary artist by the name of Forrest Bess.

Born in 1911, Forrest Bess initially attended college in architecture but eventually dropped out to independently study Jungian psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and mythology. He lived an isolated life in a shack on an island off the coast of Texas, where he worked as a fisherman.

He told people that he experienced visions that he described in detailed notes that he kept. His paintings incorporated male and female images, and he was enthralled with the use of symbols. Over time, he developed an extensive personal symbolism based upon the belief that immortality and the relief of all suffering could be achieved by the union of male and female. He wrote many letters about this theory to anyone who would listen, including Jung himself.

Eventually, he was able to sell several paintings and he used the money to travel to New York. There, he met gallery owner Betty Parsons, who displayed several of his works and brought them to national attention. Bess wanted her to also present his symbolic theories along with the work, but she refused.

Bess continued to write letters about his hermaphrodite theory to anthropologists and psychiatrists. Eventually, under the influence of alcohol, he made an incision in his own scrotum out of the belief that he could turn himself into his hermaphroditic ideal. He wrote to the renown sex researcher Dr. John Money about his experiment. Money later published an article about Bess’s mutilation in a case series about genital self-surgery.

In the 1970s, Bess was committed by his brother to San Antonio Hospital, the same facility where his grandmother had died. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia there. He died of skin cancer in a nursing home in 1977.

I’ve seen exhibits of other visionary artists before, to include art made by institutionalized psychiatric patients. What struck me about this exhibit was that the curator made the effort to present Bess’s art in the context that Bess intended: alongside letters and documents about his delusion. The fact of his hospitalization and illness is mentioned, but not as an explanation of the art or as a social commentary.

In other visionary art exhibits, the treatment of psychiatry is not so benign. The artist is often portrayed as being “misunderstood” as mentally ill, and treatment is portrayed as an attempt to restrain the artistic temperament or to enforce conformity. There is usually a commentary about the negative effects of psychiatric medication or the politics of medical power.

The uniqueness of the Whitney display of Bess’s work was its lack of anti-psychiatry commentary and the statement it made that people with mental illness, even when untreated, can create greatness.

—Annette Hanson, M.D.

DR. HANSON is a forensic psychiatrist and co-author of Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work. The opinions expressed are those of the author only, and do not represent those of any of Dr. Hanson’s employers or consultees, including the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene or the Maryland Division of Correction.