An amazing picture that takes pride of place on the cover of this month’s British Journal of Psychiatry by artist George Harding.
The piece has the wonderful name of Everything is Real Except God and Death.
From the description in the BJP:
The artist writes: `I used to get art lessons when I was a small boy from a next-door neighbour who inspired me, and art has been my passion ever since. `I did my foundation at Camberwell and graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design in fine art in 2007. I now have a studio in Southwark, London, where I work and live.
`Art to me is emotive and is a way of coping with life and my mental illness. It is also something that guides me, something that I can rely upon and excel in. `The painting is explained by its title. The image speaks of the delusions, paranoia and imaginary beliefs that envelop a person when smoking cannabis. The image came together by making a collage of specific symbols and signs, which was then altered through painting. The figure featured in the work is after Henry Wallis’s painting in 1856 called The Death of Chatterton, a poet.
You can see more of artist George Harding’s amazing work as his website.
Mind Hacks 
Jesus, that’s disturbing. Not exactly a resounding endorsement for pot. I also find art helpful, although once it crosses the line into something this dark, I find it counterproductive. Speaking for myself. Is disturbing art really considered “theraputic” in the scientific community as well?
more pot propaganda…i’ve never had delusions or imaginary beliefs when using cannabis…paranoia is often fueled by the illegal status of the herb.
Illegal status of the herb? here in Canada and elsewhere in a civilized and modern world it is legal to take your medicine – NOT the chemicals forced into us by the pharmaceutical industry in the US, and Big Pharma’s puppet government of Obama Nazis …
The artist states clearly he is coping with mental illness. People with such issues often do experience delusion and imaginary beliefs, with or without the mota. If you find the celebration of his work propaganda against the plant in question, perhaps the paranoia is in you.
It’s thought provoking. Which is exactly what art is supposed to be. I don’t see it as all that disturbing or to be propaganda for or against cannabis use. The individuals that from adolescence have been told over and over and over how bad marijuana use is are undoubtedly going to have a much different perspective than anyone who ingest cannabis, weather regularly or infrequently, and knows and understands that it’s an incredibly useful substance.
I`ve never had any strange delusions or paranoia the few times I`ve tried marijuana. It was more like everything was in slow motion and echoing. But I know that lots of schizophrenics hate marijuana because it can make delusions more frighteningly dramatic. I don`t know what illness the artist has, but combined with marijuana maybe the result is something like what`s portrayed in the work.