Is It A Good Idea To Romanticise Mental Illness? 8 Illustrations To Help You Decide

By Anugraha Hadke:

It can be argued that when so much beauty is associated with a disease, it becomes romanticised. Instead of realising the harshness of the suffering, the pain becomes desirable, and when something is so desirable, why would you try to get rid of it?

Art, in this respect, only generates emotions in the extreme. You can love it bits, or hate its guts, there’s seldom a lukewarm reaction. Berlin Artparasites, a popular compilation of artwork is a hub of these emotions, as many of us might already know. It combines compelling artwork, with poetry, excerpts, in general, words that become a powerful duo. Scrolling through the images, many of us have stopped, read the words, read them again and thought, ‘this right there is exactly my life’.

Talking about things like love, relationships, inner strength, posts that motivate you, the collection’s strength lies in some very strong posts on mental health issues.

The artwork in these posts is often hauntingly beautiful, or just plain haunting, depending on how you perceive it. In both situations, what it most definitely does is, bring out a very important social issue to the fore, and with that, creates a conversation on mental health that we often tend to avoid.

But is it creating the right conversation?

The portrayal of these illnesses is striking and personify one’s inner demons beautifully. And that’s where the problem could be, with the beauty. The beautification of mental illness could be romanticised to such an extent that those suffering from it question whether they really need to seek help.

On the other hand, it is art, right? Art is meant to be beautiful, in a way, even if it is made to be ‘ugly’. Just because it is a harsh truth doesn’t mean its portrayal has to be something that shocks your senses.

All it needs is to start a conversation.

What do you think? Tweer your comments to me @AnugrahaHadke