“Every Time I Turn Around I’m Mentally Ill” Voices from Locked Psychiatric Wards

Russell Leander is an art therapist, a psychotherapist, an educator, and artist in Chicago. He has spent ten years working on locked psychiatric wards. He says of this project:

The illustrations came into being while I was painting in open art groups with the patients.  Frequently, during those groups, someone would say something that would strike me as something to remember,so I would write it down on a scrap of paper and stick it in my pocket.  Every now and then, I’d spread the paintings and scraps of paper on my office floor and see which might belong together.  That’s really it.  Many times, I found, putting them together gave the words a back story and the paintings a soul.  In this commemorative form, my former patients continue to teach me and help keep my love for them alive.

Sample images from the book:

Review pending.