Art Therapy

Motts, was it a specific collage, or just a potpourri of different things? And could you even tell?

This is one of the if not THE best shot in this trip's collection. It's so different for you. I love the soft off center lighting.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL "A WALL OF REMEMBERENCE" PERFECT MOTTS! PERFECT!

Could this be the picture wall from "session 9" ?

they do look like the collage form session 9 in the last part of the movie where he realizes that he killed his family and then goes really crazy.

The wall tells a story that only the patient's know, I think. Great shot Motts.

Thanks,again, Motts.

awesome i'm not the only one thats seem session 9. that movie was creepy. this whole site reminds me of it.

seen*

Motts, once again, you've done it again. You've found a way to get me completely entranced with Danvers all over again.
These picture therapy rooms have always held a certain spell over me, something so entrancing about it.
Beautiful.

If it wasn't for session 9, I wouldn't have found Mott's site, the description on the back of the vid said "Abandoned" and "Mental Hospital" Thats all I needed to read to rent it, I watched it once, and then ordered it on DVD, and here I am!!! I guess I need to thank Brad Anderson!! ;-) (And Mr. Motts for bringing me the "real" Danvers!!!) ;-)

Motts thats awsome you got to go up there again...i couldnt go up w/ my granfather they wouldnt let him its a real bummer, thatx for the e-mail by the way I'm dooing awome in Photography i'll have to send you one of my pics- Yeah could this be the art therapy from Session 9?

If you slow down the DVD you will notice this is not from Session 9 but real art therapy. Such as the art therapy the movie based that scene on!

You can also tell by looking at some of the aging in this photograph.

i have been in this room and seen these pictures also. sadly i couldnt get it on my video camera because of the darkness. i dont think these are the ones from the movie. the ones in the movie had artifical blood on them and pictures of the actor from the movie. i believe these are real pictures a patient put up. one picture i remember from this room was a man with a distorted face. his face looked awful. there were many other akward pictures in this room. whoms ever room this was must have been disturbed or sad.

What's art therapy??

I just wanted to put in my two cents...

I was in a psych. unit for about a month and the thing that helped me the most was art therapy. It really a wonderful thing! I made a lot of collages and I hung them in my room, so this picture brings up a lot of memories of times that were bad but that have gotten better. I just really appreciate this photo because it is a very personal thing that is shown...a thing that came from the soul and it is photographed with such respect. Thank you, Mr. Motts. Beautiful, meaningful, touching photography!

Hey Sombody
thanks for your info, it helped understand better how art therapy works, its really interesting

Art therapy was something that we continued to do with my brother once home and away from DSH. It seemed to help him very much and was something he loved to do. We would often sit together and do this.

the most fun I had and the better therapy was the art therapy. I made a vase to put small trinkets in. I also enjoyed sketching pixs and hanging them on the wall in my room at the state hospital.

Even if you're perfectly normal it's good to do this, it's so relaxing. I <33 it.

Hey, motts, how did you get into these buildings? (if there have been over 100 arrests or whatnot)

Did you talk to the people that own the land and ask permission, or did you go comando and sneak in? just curios.

I notice a lot of places on your site from md, but I didnt notice the henryton sanitorium. I do this sort of thing a lot too.

Email me Mattshood@Hotmail.com and let me know.

Gorgeous photo's btw. If you get on aim, my instant messenger name is foursidedoctagon.

Yeah, DO you go commando? *blushes and runs away*

Yeah, Motts,
Better watch out for that dreaded zipper if you go commando, I heard it can do some real damage

i really like this pic, but it gets me real sad for some reason looking at it. The movie session 9 is real creepy but also sad, and what the guy gordon says in the commentaries about insanity being extreme curiosity, that seems very true. kinda makes ya think huh?

http://img.photobucket...erson/session9_3.jpg

There is your Art Therapy wall from 'Session 9' With Gordon standing before it.

Here is another picture of the wall behind him.
Yeah I had nothing better to do tonight. lol.

http://img.photobucket...erson/session9_4.jpg

haha i was there three years ago did you see the doll with the pins in on the window? and the fake blood from the movie

www.foucaultspendulum.org/

worth a read, Foucaults Pendulum by
Umberto Eco,

excellent!! love this one.

Foucaults Pendulum -- I have it on my shelf to read in about 2009. Looks like a good read, 'tho!

this photo I think is disturbing

Surely she jests. The photo isn't disturbing. What's disturbing is the fact nobody ever came to claim the art.

Hello it was abandoned

The people must of been really upset while in the hospital. Especially because they were mentally Challenged

is that you Paul? Try my old telephone number- but I've moved house. Lost your details too.

I love that this remained after all those years of being uninhabited. I'm sure the patient never thought that outside people would find what inspired him/her so fascinating.

wow, so those walls were real. I wonder if they used those real pictures in session 9 or if they were just inspired by them and created fake murals for the film, or if they added new photos to the preexisting collages... i gotta see the movie again.
"DO IT, GORDON!!!"

Abandoned,
I don't think the patient's thought that much

Oh that place? I saw that place when i was leaving fishing around there. We thought they stocked mckeldin area, turned out to be near there.

Eerie picture. Like something out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Oh and the history of the place is a tuberculosis hospital. What kinda hospital needs a steel plated door with a steel bar latch? A zombie hospital?

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM SESSION 9...............WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???!!!!!!

Great photo! Art Therapy is very helpful, along with Music Therapy. I am Music Therapist, and have worked with psychiatric, geratric, and mentally retarded clients. I found that the Creative Arts Therapies helped with client expression, when mere words could not. I really miss DSH-it was the most beautiful piece of asylum architecture that I have ever seen. DSH has a "haunting" atmostphere that speaks of both beauty and sadness. It is a shame that they did not rehab the entire campus, and create a therapeutic environment for clients.

By the way, the "CMT" stands for "Certified Music Therapist". I was blessed that my college had a Music Therapy program. I went into it during my sophomore year. Previously, I was a Bio-pre-med major, but it really wasn't my bag. My interest was more in the Arts, so that I was able to combine my love for music and to help people at the same time.

I hated art therapy. I'm a writer, but not artistically inclined in the least, and in the two places where it's been a part of the treatment regimen, the "therapists" frequently got impatient and snippy with me because I couldn't follow their directions precisely. They were very demanding and seemed to expect me to do things perfectly and were very rigid about the activities that they would allow me to do. One was incredibly rude and nasty and even called me out in front of other patients and staff, which promptly sent me into a self-destructive rage. When I talked to some other staff members about it later, they agreed that she was out of line; one even suggested that the therapist had taken a particular dislike to me because I reminded her (the "therapist") of her daughter. The next time I went to that hospital I was happy as hell to see her gone. The rec therapist who's there now is wonderful -- very upbeat, encouraging and sympathetic, exactly like someone in that position should be.

@Althea-Sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience with an art therapist that was certainly not competent. Art and Music Therapy is suppose to be very free-flowing, spontaneous, and there is no right or wrong way on the part of the client. It's suppose to be an expression of the client's OWN feelings through music and art. In my own experience as a Music Therapist, I have often improvised on the piano and the guitar while mirroring the expressions of the clients. Although there are some standard "music therapy songs" that are sung and performed on piano and guitar while the client may sing or play on a percussion-type instrument, a lot is simply improvisation, such as improvising on a series of chord symbols. In this way, it directly meets the client's need for self-expression.

there's a picture I made in summah camp years ago... some kinda... aht therapy.... helped with their uh... thier.... whaddayacallit... self-esteem.

this hospital must smell bad

I'd imagine that if I were ever committed (which I SHOULD have been in my teens and early 20s, but because I wasn't "openly" suicidal, my mom couldn't commit me, even when I was under 18 and she was still my legal guardian), my walls would be covered like this, with clippings and my own artwork...though my bedroom walls do kind of resemble that already.

i half way went in this room.. Went into that hospital with bout 10 people back in July 2003 that place was insane in there.. floors missing water everyplace electric chair haha... I love to do research on that place.. cant find nothing interesting though.

ugh makes me wanna puke

Motts ~ how hard is it to get in? and whats the security like?

jjj,
they are now appartments... so I can say very hard to get in.

this is just like a scene in the book Project 17. such a good book. creepy. takes place in Danvers Hospital. They go in the art room, and there is a wall just like this... *shudders

By the way the collage is, i would have to say that could of been my autistic sons room in a past life.. he does the same thing with articles from computer and magazines