Poltrum

Human flourishing depends upon the mental health of the individuals. Throughout history, various cultural traditions have established and practiced diverse strategies to maintain their community members’ mental health, treat their mental illness, and enhance their well-being. They range from spiritual disciplines, religious rituals, and philosophical training, to communal activities, educational instructions, and community support. It is noteworthy that aesthetic objects and activities are frequently integrated into these strategies. They include visual arts, music, dance, story-telling, theatre, and occasions and events made special by certain foods, drinks, decorations, clothes, and fragrance.

This long-held and widely-practiced integration of aesthetics into promotion of mental health testifies to the power of the aesthetic to affect the well-being of humans and their communities. The world’s major philosophies and religious traditions have recognized this power of the aesthetic. For example, Plato’s proposed censorship of the arts in his utopian Republic indicates his acknowledgement of, and a respect for, the power of the arts to mold the citizens’ psyche and character. Confucianism also utilizes arts and rituals to promote moral virtues. Finally, Buddhism teaches the cultivation of mindful practice for human flourishing by developing an alternative relationship with present-moment experience such as suffering and distress. Today, the most dominant methods of treating mental illness in the West are psychotherapy, psychology, and psychiatry, methodologies and practices established and developed in Europe since the nineteenth century. Ever since the birth of art and poetry, its purpose has been to inspire, stir and move people.

This handbook addresses the valuable role aesthetics plays in psychotherapy and psychiatry exploring both theory and practice.

Martin Poltrum, Sigmund Freud University, Michael Musalek, Sigmund Freud University, Kate Galvin, University of Brighton, Yuriko Saito, Rhode Island School of Design

Martin Poltrum is a Philosopher, Psychotherapist and Professor of Psychotherapy at Sigmund Freud University Vienna (SFU). He studied Philosophy and Education in Innsbruck, Vienna and Seville, with a 2003 Doctoral degree in Philosophy, 2014 Habilitation in Psychotherapy Science at SFU. He is Head of the Doctoral Programme in Psychotherapy Science and Deputy Head of the Institute for Behavioural Addictions and Addiction Research at SFU, as well as a teaching therapist for Existential Analysis at Danube University Krems. He is the publisher of Rausch - Vienna Journal for Addiction Treatment. His research and teaching activities are in the field of addiction and at the interface of philosophy, psychotherapy, ethics, aesthetics and medical humanities.

Michael Musalek is a Specialist for Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutic Medicine, Psychotherapist. He is Full Professor and Chair of Dept. General Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Sigmund Freud, Vienna and Director of the Institute for Social Aesthetics and Mental Health at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna and Berlin. He has published more than 350 scientific publications and is editor and scientific board member of various scientific and clinical journals. His main scientific fields of interests are social aesthetics, phenomenology of mental disorders, theoretical and clinical psychopathology, clinical diagnostics and treatment research, psychosomatics and medical humanities.

Kathleen Galvin is a Professor in Nursing having held positions at University of Hull, and University of Bournemouth before her current role at the University of Brighton. She completed her PhD at the University of Manchester focused on development of nursing practice in the promotion of health. She is a member of Academia Europea and holds visiting positions in Scandinavia and Canada. Her academic project concerns a contribution to philosophically informed theoretical insights for care, the focus is to build upon lifeworld oriented work.

Yuriko Saito received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. She taught a variety of philosophy courses at the Rhode Island School of Design, USA, from 1981-2018. Her research areas are everyday aesthetics, Japanese aesthetics, and environmental aesthetics. Her work in these areas has appeared in numerous journal articles and book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and three monographs. She has also lectured widely both within the US and outside, which included Austria, China, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, and The Netherlands. She is the Editor of Contemporary Aesthetics, the first online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal in aesthetics.