Understanding Children And Childhood: Mental Health Perspectives Through Aesthetics, Art, Aad The Humanities

“As children, childhood, and women are neglected in many other fields of scientific inquiry as they are in social life, the approaches that claim mental health before mental disorders, advocacy of prevention before treatment, and positive aspects of humanity before the gruesome adversities are devalued and seen as somehow inferior to the leaders of the club in the realm of science and academia. Positivity and constructive attitudes are only part of the everyday repertoire reserved for the humanist and romantic therapist.

I really do think that child and adolescent psychiatry needs more romanticism, more intuition, more aesthetics integrated into its science. Science is NOT contrary to humanities, and they should go hand in hand. The artifacts of our ancestors carry the fingerprints of the children from whom we have grown through the ages. We sure would have to kiss all those little fingertips and praise the humanity they build and imprint in art, aesthetics, and scientific inquiry.”