Schizophrenia is beautiful!

So in Abnormal Psych today, we started talking about schizophrenia, which for a host of reasons is one of the most interesting mental illnesses to me in the DSM.  Emily was introducing us to art created by schizophrenics, which is inexpressibly beautiful and emotional and unexpected and (usually) very colorful.  Louis Wain was a painter and sketch artist in the late 18-early 1900's who began painting anthropomorphized cats to entertain his wife.  He was diagnosed with schizophrenia later in life, but continued to paint and sketch as his illness progressed.  The paintings above are in chronological order from the onset of his diagnosis and follow his schizophrenia as it got worse.  I can't imagine much that's more beautiful than these pictures together.  They actually show a mind changing, expanding, and deteriorating.  It's so educational - it gives us a picture of the disease in a time before catscans and modern medicine, and it shows that this is not an illness that "creates monsters." It can create something glorious far beyond the capabilites of the average, "sane" mind.  Normal people couldn't never conceive of that last cat!  That last cat is crazy-beautiful!  I am so stoked on schizophrenic artists!  I want to cover my house in their work!