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Arts medicine a call for a new medical specialty
The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 12 pp. 147-149, ~ Ankho International Inc., 1985. Printed in the U.S.A. 019%4556/85 $3.00 + .00
PERSPECTIVE ARTS MEDICINE A CALL FOR A NEW MEDICAL SPECIALTY
RICHARD A. LIPPIN, MD*
Several existing medical specialties are known for their study of the scientific relationships between patients and a given milieu or activity. Prominent among these, and growing increasingly popular, are occupational medicine and sports medicine. Both work (occupation) and athletics (sport) are vitally important endeavors which clearly have a major impact on individual and public health. This unique approach toward defining a specialty has several distinct advantages. Among these are emphasis on the entire patient as she/he relates to some important aspect of existence and emphasis on the effects of lifestyle, behavior and daily activities on health. These specialties can and should also use expertise from a broad range of existing medical specialties and subspecialties (see table). Utilizing the above model and given the current number of individuals who are either professionally or avocationally involved with the arts, I am proposing a new medical specialty to be known as Arts Medicine. A widely publicized Lewis Harris poll of Americans in 1980 revealed that 92% of those polled declared that the arts are a basic qualitative factor in their lives. Two out of three Americans practice an art or craft (American Council for the Arts, 1981), and as our nation ages and increased leisure time becomes available these numbers are likely to expand nationally.
Among the clinical issues that could be addressed are the unique medical problems of those engaged in the arts (see table). This specialty would rely heavily on recent medical advances and emphasis on neurobiology to insure integration of the social and psychological sciences with the traditional clinical medical sciences, thus underscoring the importance of the mind-body relationship in the arts. Creative Arts Therapy professionals (in art, music, dance, drama and poetry therapies) have already made significant contributions to an Arts Medicine approach by successful use of the arts in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, especially in mental health settings. A significant body of scientific literature and ongoing research has already been developed by this forward thinking professional community (Levick, Dulicai, Briggs, Billock, 1979). Arts Medicine physicians, however, would seek to emphasize arts not as a therapeutic or diagnostic tool but rather arts as an endeavor which may be associated with illness and/or injury. Thus, in its totality, a comprehensive arts medicine approach would maximally utilize the arts to diagnose, treat or ascribe an arts-related etiology, combining the skills of creative arts therapists and physicians. Perceptive health professionals have always recognized that the boundaries between etiology, diagnosis and therapy are falsely strained and
*Richard Lippin, Centre Square Medical Director for Atlantic Richfield Company, Philadelphia, PA, is also founder of the American Physicians" Poetry Association; founding president, International Arts Medicine Association; and former member of the Editorial Board of The Arts in Psychotherapy. 147
148
R I C H A R D A. L I P P I N TABLE 1 ARTS MEDICINE Existing Medical Specialty
Etiologic Artistic Endeavor or Activity
Clinical Situations
Orthopedics
Dance, Instrumental Music.
Musculoskeletal testing, development, and treatment of acute or chronic injury.
Cardiology
Dance, voice, drama.
Cardiovascular testing, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Pulmonary
Dance, voice, wind instruments.
Pulmonary testing, control, treatment, and rehabilitation.
ENT
Voice, drama, music, wind instruments.
Voice and speech testing, training and development, treatment and rehabilitation, hearing disorders.
Ophthalmology
Visual arts, dance.
Vision testing and training; color, form, and spatial perception. Visual-motor cues in dance, treatment, and rehabilitation of injury, and illness.
Neurology
Visual arts, dance, music.
Fine and gross motor control, dexterity, balance and coordination; hand-eye coordination; treatment of injury and illness, and rehabilitation.
Psychiatry
All creative endeavors including dance, music, drama, creative writing, visual arts.
The creative process, performance anxiety, writer's block, motivational theory.
Toxicology
Visual arts including painting, sculpture, printing, and crafts.
Exposures and chemical effects.
s t r u c t u r e d , often to the d e t r i m e n t o f effective int e r v e n t i o n with a p a t i e n t . T h r o u g h the d e v e l o p m e n t o f a n Arts M e d i c i n e s p e c i a l t y , p h y s i c i a n s a n d o t h e r h e a l t h prof e s s i o n a l s w o u l d b e e n c o u r a g e d to s e e k a m o r e f o r m a l scientific u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f the artiStic m i l i e u in w h i c h the patient works p r o f e s s i o n a l l y , or to s t u d y the p a r t i c u l a r artistic
a c t i v i t i e s in w h i c h the p a t i e n t e n g a g e s a v o c a tionally. C o l l a b o r a t i o n a n d c o o p e r a t i o n with the p r o f e s s i o n a l artistic c o m m u n i t y a n d arts e d u c a tors w o u l d be e n c o u r a g e d with the s h a r i n g o f a k n o w l e d g e a n d e x p e r i e n c e base. P o t e n t i a l r e s e a r c h topics w h i c h could be exp l o r e d i n c l u d e c o n t i n u e d r e s e a r c h o n the c r e a t i v e p r o c e s s , r e s e a r c h o n the p s y c h o l o g i c a l a n d
PERSPECTIVE somatic impact o f color, form, sound, rhythm, words, music and movement. The effect of beauty itself on human health warrants further investigation. An association of professionals dedicated to this specialty was founded recently and is known as the International Arts Medicine Association (IAMA). Membership is open to all health professionals and arts professionals on a worldwide basis, providing an opportunity to capitalize on the crosscultural and political as well as the scientific aspects of artistic sharing. The Association has been founded to explore and develop the arts and medicine in this unique relationship to each other and to human wholeness. Programs of the Association are classified into clinical, educational, research and performance categories. Clinically, the Association seeks to provide services or referral for those artists who have therapeutic or preventive needs. Research on a wide array of Arts-Medicine topics will be encouraged. Individual and group education in seminars and conferences will be developed and publications including a newsletter and a journal are goals. A library dedicated to Arts Medicine will be established. Performances or shows will feature physician participation or will emphasize performance as a healing activity.
149
Historically, the healing powers of the arts have long been recognized and addressed by scholars. The ability of the arts to provide balance and order to existence has been often noted (Heninger, 1977) and there is general acceptance that involvement in the arts can enrich human lives. Perhaps most important from the medical standpoint, however, is the revitalization function of the arts wherein the creative process itself reaffirms and augments the desire to choose life over death (Lippin, 1984). Socially, psychologically and scientifically, Arts Medicine's time has come and I invite serious dialogue on this proposal to found a new medical specialty. REFERENCES AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS (1981) Americans and the Arts--Highlights J?om a 1980 Nationwide Survey o f Public Opinion. HENINGER, O. E. (1977) Poetry therapy: Exploration of a creative righting maneuver. Art Psychotherapy 4: 3%40. LEVICK, M., DULICAI, D., BRIGGS, C., BILLOCK, L. (1979) The creative arts therapies. In Adamson & Adamson (Eds.), A Handbook Jbr Specific Learning Disabilities. New York: Gardner Press. Pp. 362-387. LIPPIN, R. A. (1984) First Philadelphia area physicians arts festival--opening remarks. Philadelphia Medicine 80: 356-357.
PERSPECTIVE ARTS MEDICINE A CALL FOR A NEW MEDICAL SPECIALTY
RICHARD A. LIPPIN, MD*
Several existing medical specialties are known for their study of the scientific relationships between patients and a given milieu or activity. Prominent among these, and growing increasingly popular, are occupational medicine and sports medicine. Both work (occupation) and athletics (sport) are vitally important endeavors which clearly have a major impact on individual and public health. This unique approach toward defining a specialty has several distinct advantages. Among these are emphasis on the entire patient as she/he relates to some important aspect of existence and emphasis on the effects of lifestyle, behavior and daily activities on health. These specialties can and should also use expertise from a broad range of existing medical specialties and subspecialties (see table). Utilizing the above model and given the current number of individuals who are either professionally or avocationally involved with the arts, I am proposing a new medical specialty to be known as Arts Medicine. A widely publicized Lewis Harris poll of Americans in 1980 revealed that 92% of those polled declared that the arts are a basic qualitative factor in their lives. Two out of three Americans practice an art or craft (American Council for the Arts, 1981), and as our nation ages and increased leisure time becomes available these numbers are likely to expand nationally.
Among the clinical issues that could be addressed are the unique medical problems of those engaged in the arts (see table). This specialty would rely heavily on recent medical advances and emphasis on neurobiology to insure integration of the social and psychological sciences with the traditional clinical medical sciences, thus underscoring the importance of the mind-body relationship in the arts. Creative Arts Therapy professionals (in art, music, dance, drama and poetry therapies) have already made significant contributions to an Arts Medicine approach by successful use of the arts in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, especially in mental health settings. A significant body of scientific literature and ongoing research has already been developed by this forward thinking professional community (Levick, Dulicai, Briggs, Billock, 1979). Arts Medicine physicians, however, would seek to emphasize arts not as a therapeutic or diagnostic tool but rather arts as an endeavor which may be associated with illness and/or injury. Thus, in its totality, a comprehensive arts medicine approach would maximally utilize the arts to diagnose, treat or ascribe an arts-related etiology, combining the skills of creative arts therapists and physicians. Perceptive health professionals have always recognized that the boundaries between etiology, diagnosis and therapy are falsely strained and
*Richard Lippin, Centre Square Medical Director for Atlantic Richfield Company, Philadelphia, PA, is also founder of the American Physicians" Poetry Association; founding president, International Arts Medicine Association; and former member of the Editorial Board of The Arts in Psychotherapy. 147
148
R I C H A R D A. L I P P I N TABLE 1 ARTS MEDICINE Existing Medical Specialty
Etiologic Artistic Endeavor or Activity
Clinical Situations
Orthopedics
Dance, Instrumental Music.
Musculoskeletal testing, development, and treatment of acute or chronic injury.
Cardiology
Dance, voice, drama.
Cardiovascular testing, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Pulmonary
Dance, voice, wind instruments.
Pulmonary testing, control, treatment, and rehabilitation.
ENT
Voice, drama, music, wind instruments.
Voice and speech testing, training and development, treatment and rehabilitation, hearing disorders.
Ophthalmology
Visual arts, dance.
Vision testing and training; color, form, and spatial perception. Visual-motor cues in dance, treatment, and rehabilitation of injury, and illness.
Neurology
Visual arts, dance, music.
Fine and gross motor control, dexterity, balance and coordination; hand-eye coordination; treatment of injury and illness, and rehabilitation.
Psychiatry
All creative endeavors including dance, music, drama, creative writing, visual arts.
The creative process, performance anxiety, writer's block, motivational theory.
Toxicology
Visual arts including painting, sculpture, printing, and crafts.
Exposures and chemical effects.
s t r u c t u r e d , often to the d e t r i m e n t o f effective int e r v e n t i o n with a p a t i e n t . T h r o u g h the d e v e l o p m e n t o f a n Arts M e d i c i n e s p e c i a l t y , p h y s i c i a n s a n d o t h e r h e a l t h prof e s s i o n a l s w o u l d b e e n c o u r a g e d to s e e k a m o r e f o r m a l scientific u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f the artiStic m i l i e u in w h i c h the patient works p r o f e s s i o n a l l y , or to s t u d y the p a r t i c u l a r artistic
a c t i v i t i e s in w h i c h the p a t i e n t e n g a g e s a v o c a tionally. C o l l a b o r a t i o n a n d c o o p e r a t i o n with the p r o f e s s i o n a l artistic c o m m u n i t y a n d arts e d u c a tors w o u l d be e n c o u r a g e d with the s h a r i n g o f a k n o w l e d g e a n d e x p e r i e n c e base. P o t e n t i a l r e s e a r c h topics w h i c h could be exp l o r e d i n c l u d e c o n t i n u e d r e s e a r c h o n the c r e a t i v e p r o c e s s , r e s e a r c h o n the p s y c h o l o g i c a l a n d
PERSPECTIVE somatic impact o f color, form, sound, rhythm, words, music and movement. The effect of beauty itself on human health warrants further investigation. An association of professionals dedicated to this specialty was founded recently and is known as the International Arts Medicine Association (IAMA). Membership is open to all health professionals and arts professionals on a worldwide basis, providing an opportunity to capitalize on the crosscultural and political as well as the scientific aspects of artistic sharing. The Association has been founded to explore and develop the arts and medicine in this unique relationship to each other and to human wholeness. Programs of the Association are classified into clinical, educational, research and performance categories. Clinically, the Association seeks to provide services or referral for those artists who have therapeutic or preventive needs. Research on a wide array of Arts-Medicine topics will be encouraged. Individual and group education in seminars and conferences will be developed and publications including a newsletter and a journal are goals. A library dedicated to Arts Medicine will be established. Performances or shows will feature physician participation or will emphasize performance as a healing activity.
149
Historically, the healing powers of the arts have long been recognized and addressed by scholars. The ability of the arts to provide balance and order to existence has been often noted (Heninger, 1977) and there is general acceptance that involvement in the arts can enrich human lives. Perhaps most important from the medical standpoint, however, is the revitalization function of the arts wherein the creative process itself reaffirms and augments the desire to choose life over death (Lippin, 1984). Socially, psychologically and scientifically, Arts Medicine's time has come and I invite serious dialogue on this proposal to found a new medical specialty. REFERENCES AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS (1981) Americans and the Arts--Highlights J?om a 1980 Nationwide Survey o f Public Opinion. HENINGER, O. E. (1977) Poetry therapy: Exploration of a creative righting maneuver. Art Psychotherapy 4: 3%40. LEVICK, M., DULICAI, D., BRIGGS, C., BILLOCK, L. (1979) The creative arts therapies. In Adamson & Adamson (Eds.), A Handbook Jbr Specific Learning Disabilities. New York: Gardner Press. Pp. 362-387. LIPPIN, R. A. (1984) First Philadelphia area physicians arts festival--opening remarks. Philadelphia Medicine 80: 356-357.