This was one of my favorite assignments from my time in the counseling and art therapy program. This class was all about diagnosis and understanding of disorders. In this assignment, I researched an artist and connected them with a diagnosis. Hope you find this somewhat interesting!
Frida Kahlo was a well-known Mexican artist who endured so much throughout her life. She suffered from Polio as a child, an accident that left her with intense pain throughout her life, and a troublesome marriage. Painting became a way for Frida to express herself and it is evident through her work she struggled with pain and sexuality. Frida obviously suffered from chronic pain, but possibly mental illness such as Post- Traumatic- Stress- Disorder (PTSD) and mild depression throughout her life. By using Frida Kahlo’s own artwork, the author will describe the possible diagnosis and depicts how that diagnosis can be seen through the artwork.
Biography Frida Kahlo was born July 6, 1907, in La Casa Azul in Coyoacan, Mexico, and had a very interesting and inspiring life (Siltala, 1998). When Frida was just 6-years-old, she was diagnosed with Polio and her right leg became handicapped leading to discomfort and one leg being shorter than the other (Benesh, 2018). Another incident happened in 1925 when a horrible accident occurred between a bus and a tramway leaving Frida with serious injuries and confined to a bed for much of her life (Souter, 2011). Frida had been impaled by a handrail and thrown from the bus leaving her with a broken spine and pelvis, cracked ribs and collarbone, fractures to her right leg, and a crushed foot (Lindauer, 1999). Frida's injuries were thought to be fatal, but she survived, and it took almost a year for her to recovery and walk again. The accident left Frida with lifelong chronic pain, unable to bear children and many surgeries. Although this was a tragic time, this started her love for painting and her career. While she was healing, she wore a body cast and would create art upon it representing herself through even that artwork (Figure 1). Over her lifetime she created almost 200 pictures with 55 of them being self-portraits and she became well known (Siltala, 1998). The painting was a way for Frida to express herself and her struggles through her artwork. She had so much pain in her life to painting from including her accident, but also her marriage with Diego Rivera, a Mexican painter (Siltala, 1998). She married Diego in 1929, but they experienced an on and off marriage troubled with infidelity (Souter, 2011). The two ended up divorcing in 1939 but remarrying again in 1940 (Siltala, 1998). I believe Frida Kahlo not only suffered from chronic pain, but also with mental illness such as PTSD and mild depression.
Diagnostic Implications According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2013), PTSD is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to a traumatic event. The severe motor vehicle accident in 1925 changed Frida Kahlo's life forever and the pain from the accident was a repeated reminder. She endured many surgeries throughout her life which could also be thought of as repeated exposure to the traumatic event. The Broken Column (Figure 2) was a painting done by Frida in 1944 after one of the operations she endured that left her concealed (Siltala, 1998). The painting depicts Frida with a broken column placed where her spin should be, she is naked with her breasts surrounded with what looks like a halter and fabric covering her below her hips. She could be representing the halter or corset as a prison in which she was stuck. Her face looks blankly ahead while tears lay on it. This shows sorrow possibly from feeling trapped by these conditions but also a strength for enduring. Frida is standing in the middle of a dry desert and has nails protruding from all parts of her body. This painting shows so much pain, sorrow, but also strength. The nails are representations of the consistent pain throughout her body and the column could represent her broken spin or the rod that impaled her body and pierced her vagina. This painting is a depiction of not only her chronic pain just possible PTSD. Frida seems to struggle to feel positive emotions and sexuality after the accident as well as being exposed to triggering events that take them back to the traumatic events (DSM, 2013). Frida did not paint this until 1944, almost 20 years after the initial accident. Frida almost approaches this piece and most of her pieces from a depersonalized way as though she were an outside observer. One quote from her diary reads “Hope as the subordinate of restrained distress, the broken column, the look at infinity, as the incapacity to move, to direct a life made of steel on an open road” (Siltala, 1998). Mild depression seems to be coupled with PTSD and she is experiencing significant distress throughout her life. In 1945, Frida painted Without Hope (Figure 3) after her health started having more health problems (Souter, 2011). This piece shows Frida laying in a bed with tears on her face looking blankly ahead at the viewer. She is confined to her bed and there is a wood set up that would normally hold her canvas to paint. Instead of a canvas, it appears to be an unnerving scene of dead fish, chicken, pig, and skulls. The mass of death is coming from her mouth. In the background is a rocky landscape with a moon in the left corner of the painting and sun in the right. Again, this painting shows confinement and sorrow within Frida. The moon and the sun in this picture could represent long hours being confined and the bed placed around rocky terrain can be the consistent struggle and maybe how she feels within. The dead and bloody things coming from her mouth could represent her depression and issues with suicide. Frida is unable to participate in most of the things she takes pleasure in and painting is one of the only things she can do to relieve the sorrow and pain. The name also shows where our emotional and mental state was, and she was feeling without hope of being without pain. While the pain is from a medical condition from the accident Frida has experienced feelings of worthlessness, loss of energy, and recurrent thoughts of death (DSM, 2013). Frida created Tree of Hope (Figure 4) in 1946. This was after an operation that ended up not helping her pain (Souter, 2011). Within the painting is two sides, one bright with someone laying on a hospital bed post-surgery and the other in the light of the moon with Frida wearing a red traditional Mexican dress and a big red flower in her hair. The landscaper around them is dry and cracked. There is as if a divided world where both Frida’s are depicted. One laying down, mostly covered with bloody cuts in her back, facing away from the viewer and the other being put together with a sign that reads “Tree of Hope, keep firm” and holding the corset she views as prison, looking straight at the viewer (Souter, 2011). This piece shows a divided world between the depression and trauma that has occurred to the strength she continues to have. The ‘keep hope’ on her flag could be for herself or to those around her including her doctors.
Conclusion Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico in 1907 and passed away on July 13, 1954, at the age of 47 (Souter, 2011). The official death states she died from a pulmonary embolism, but suicide might be the cause after finding Demerol vials in her bed stand (Souter, 2011). She lived much of her life in pain from the accident in 1925, but she persisted and became a well-known artist and inspiration to many. Within her painting, she depicts the pain that lasted throughout her life, but also the possible diagnoses of depression and PTSD. In her autobiography Frida wrote “painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things that would have fulfilled my horrible life. My painting took the place of all of this. I think work is the best” (Souter, 2011). Art as therapy helped relieve some of the symptoms and struggles Frida faced and gave her a purpose. I am glad she continued on, her strength shines through her work, and is an inspiration to many who still view her paintings today.
Figures
Figure 1: Body Cast (Souter, 2011)
Figure 2: The Broken Column (Souter, 2011)
Figure 3: Without Hope (Souter, 2011)
Figure 4: Tree of Hope (Souter, 2011)
References
Benesh, C. L. E. (2018). Fashioning an identity. Ornament, 40(5), 24. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.uc.opal-libraries.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=133009105&site=ehost-live
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (2013). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Lindauer, M. A. (1999). Frida of the Blood-Covered Paint Brush. In Devouring Frida: The Art History & Popular Celebrity of Frida Kahlo (pp. 54–85). Wesleyan University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.uc.opal-libraries.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=vth&AN=36118592&site=ehost-live
Siltala, P. (1998). I made a picture of my life—a life from the picture: The life of the body in the pictures and writings of Frida Kahlo. International Forum of Psychoanalysis, 7(3), 133–155. doi:10.1080/080370698436808
Souter, G. (2011). Frida Kahlo. New York: Parkstone International. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.uc.opal-libraries.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=416878&site=ehost-live
Comentarios