The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-12-14

stature.
Turner, in his later years, pa
canvases was a diagonal streak Of
the theme Of the picture-the syn
Meryon, who stroked upward
on his engraving plates because he
said a building was built from the
ground up and a picture of a
building should be built that way,
too, cluttered the air in his later
engravings with all manner Of
flying horses and dragons. He
regarded these as everyday ami
mails to be noticed in an every
day street at any time.
Thus deeply rooted in the au-
thentic history of art, but turned
around for the benefit of society,
is the use to which art now is put
at the Central Indiana Hospital,
5000 w. Westinghouse, by its su-
perintendent. DR.. Max A. Bahr.
There DR.. Bahr takes certain
types of durable patients, finds
in them, through some expression,
a bent for art, and allows them to
paint, draw or express that bent
in whatever form seems easiest.
And, in more instances than DR..
Bahr remembers, the patient,
through this objective occupation,
has regained his mental balance,
and left the hospital for a useful
later life.
OFTEN an impulse to paint,
~ timid and bullied in early
life, proves the key to the pa
tents sanity, DR.. Bahr says,
and its exercise effects a re-
markable and complete cure.
One patient, DR.. Bahr re-
calls, a dementia praecox case,
found an artistic bent and de-
veloped it amazingly until he was
fully qualified, artistically, to do
permanent murals in buildings on
the grounds. He frescoed an en-
tire building. His condition was
considerably relieved by this work,
the doctor said, and some day may
be completely cured.
One 22-year-old college girl,
whose condition was reported to
qualified physicians too late for a
cure to be effected, was allowed
to develop a marked artistic bent
at the hospital.
When she first came there she
did several oils and water colorS,
all following closely the academic
school, and all having nice sense
of proportion and color. They were
favorably regarded by art students
and artists who visited the hos
pital, DR.. Bahr says.
AS her condition grew worse,
she lost her sense Of pro-
portion, forgot how to draw, de-
serted such serene subjects as
landscapes and devoted her art
to obviously subjective themes.
Her later pictures were ugly
and usually contained some illus
tration of a memory that was
horrible to her, but at the same
time showed with all the decisive
ness of a true talent that which
she wanted them to Show-an in
creasing distaste for life and an
ever growing obsession that she
was prosecuted. She died of her
affection.
NTHER forms of art, falling in
" the classification of handi-
work, have been known to bring
back mental order to patients.
One man, a victim of dementia
praecox of the catatopic type,
had been utterly listlesS for a
long time and hadn't even spoken
for six weeks prior to his en-
trance at the hospital, DR.. Bahr
said.
He was so apathetic that, if
an attendant should raise the
patients arm above his head, he
would not let it drop, but would
continue to hold it there until the
attendant would lower it.
This patient was put in the de-
partment of occupational therapy
and a flicker of interest was
aroused when it was suggested he
white a stick. He did and, as he
progressed with it, he became in
genious enough to fashion a piece
Of dolls furniture.
After a while he had collec-
ton of dolls furniture he had
made, all the while improving, and
DR.. Bahr, seeing complete cure
just around the corner, talked
to him one day.
You ought to have something
to put these in" he suggested.
gently.
The patient understood. He be-
gan building a house for them
and, as the complexities of such
a project presented themselves,
he had 70 exert his mind more
and more until, when the thing
was complete, he was cured.
That man today is a success
full insurance broker in a large
Ohi0 citV