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Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits to treat anxiety
- mensetmanusman 4y agoAn embodiment of the power of the placebo effect. The human mind/body is an amazing thing.
- sirtimbly 4y agoTaking my children to museums does not reduce my anxiety.
- Bakary 4y agoDepression and anxiety are complicated because we still know so little about these conditions, as evidenced by the recent serotonin kerfuffle. That means we are left to solve an urgent and life-altering problem with relatively artisanal techniques that center around our intuitive understanding of the world and of human psychology. This can take the form of therapy with a licensed professional (which is still an artisanal undertaking) or it can be the individual centering on what they know about themselves and their circumstances and 'tricking' their brain into being functional again, on the basis of the condition being hypothetically tied to our subconscious perception that things are going poorly.
- hulitu 4y agoThere are some politicians who definitely need this.
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- michaelwww 4y agoArt therapy is used on many institutions and other psychiatric holding places so I assume art has already been proven to have therapeutic value
- dekken_ 4y agoTangential, there's some "evidence" suggesting metalheads are happier (on average), music is art right? ;)
- spamuel 4y agoDoes it, though? On the level that you would write a prescription for it like a drug? Taking medicine doesn't rely on your aesthetic taste, judgement, education, etc. It just performs its chemical imperative. Things like this seem to be tracing the gradual turn of rigorous science-driven disciplines into something else.
- michaelwww 4y ago> On the level that you would write a prescription for it like a drug? I'm assuming the prescription is just for bureaucratic purposes to determine who pays for the museum entry fees
- danielfoster 4y agoCorrect. Hopefully this isn't diverting public health money away from other things.
- spamuel 4y agoYeah that's the "something else". The scientific establishment has garnered quite a bit of credibility, resulting in society giving it more power. But now people who are only interested in the power are seeking to have their ideas perceived as scientific instead of political.
- michaelwww 4y agoAre you referring to this? Modern art was CIA 'weapon' https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-...
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- awestroke 4y ago
- goodmachine 4y agoHm. I guess I must have lucked out when I visited the other Brussels, the one with all the fantastic Art Nouveau buildings, nice cafes and bars. Try around Metro Louise.
- nix23 4y agoHe is talking about Brussels in Wisconsin...took the wrong flight and still didn't got it ;)
- Biganon 4y agoThat's laughably wrong, and I'm not an offended Belgian just to be clear
- jonp888 4y agoIn London (state owned) museums are free for everyone. Maybe they should offer them a Eurostar ticket as an alternative.
- Freak_NL 4y agoAs much as I love London's museums, I wouldn't wish someone undergoing therapy to have to deal with the hassle, stress, and rudeness that is customs by whichever party the French hired to do juxtaposed border control at St Pancras on the way back to the continent. And does the British Museum still have that security line outside where your bags are thoroughly checked¹ for bombs by some underpaid person who takes out his frustrations on visitors? Yeah, that's good for your sanity, that is. 1: Glossed over while being berated for not following mumbled orders fast enough.
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y agoI was in the British Museum a few months ago and just walked straight in.
- Freak_NL 4y agoGlad to hear that pointless bit of security theatre is gone then.
- mettamage 4y agoI second the hassle and stress part. Going through customs while leaving from Amsterdam to London is no fun. Going to Berlin by train from Amsterdam, in comparison, is utopia. You get in the train, laptop open, have a workday, get some food or whatever you need if needed. Boom! Arrival. Can't say the same for Ams-Lon or Lon-Ams.
- Freak_NL 4y agoPerhaps it's because I've never had to deal with US customs and being Dutch being spoiled with Schengen¹ that my perspectives are skewed, but all my experiences with British customs and security to date have left a bad taste. I've been to South Korea and Japan, and have never had any issue whatsoever, and no rudeness at all, but a layover at Heathrow? Rude security folk and depressed looking staff. Eurostar? Same thing over at St Pancras (the actual staff at the French customs point is mostly British). It's not likely to have gotten better now post-Brexit either. It's such as a shame, because Britain really does have its upsides and genuinely nice people too; not to mention a wealth of culture. 1: As you say, travelling to Germany (or Austria, Italy, Belgium, even Switzerland) by train is just great.
- JacobSeated 4y agoHonestly, I have always considered museums extremely boring and uninteresting, since childhood, a feeling that somewhat persists to this day. Some of them are even extremely depressing places. What I would like, however, is free visits to Starbucks. Perhaps that makes me a simple guy, but I just love a good cup of coffee if I am feeling a bit down. It jabs me right back to reality and rationality usually.
- faeriechangling 4y agoBoth are used in anxiety treatment, but coffee is a bit of an unfortunate purchase for somebody with clinical anxiety.
- dale_glass 4y agoMany are, sure, the trick is to find something that appeals to you. Here's a few I recommend: https://www.micropia.nl https://www.micropia.nl -- A museum of microscopic life. With actual living exhibits and a bunch of microscopes you can play with. They have a lab on site to maintain the exhibition. How cool is that? https://www.teylersmuseum.nl/en https://www.teylersmuseum.nl/en -- Loads of old fashioned, steampunk-looking gadgets. Leyden jars, old microscopes in brass, that kind of thing. https://www.hnf.de/start.html https://www.hnf.de/start.html -- Heinz Nixdorf Museum, the largest computing museum. You get to play with a working phone exchange and a whole bunch of other stuff. https://www.rmg.co.uk/cutty-sark https://www.rmg.co.uk/cutty-sark -- Cool ship, and you can also have lunch under it, because the whole thing is suspended over people's heads. There's a huge and very nice park nearby too. https://frammuseum.no/ https://frammuseum.no/ -- Ship that was used in Arctic and Antarctic exploration https://norskfolkemuseum.no/ https://norskfolkemuseum.no/ -- Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. Close to the one above. https://15kop.ru/en https://15kop.ru/en -- Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines. Probably not the best time to travel to Moscow, but maybe when things quiet down.
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- EliRivers 4y agoMuseums (like education!) are wasted on the young, in my experience. When young, a museum was just a lot of unconnected items; that is, I just didn't know enough about the world and the history of it for anything in the museum to connect to anything I already knew. None of it meant anything to me and being there was thus dull. Now, almost any museum is interesting; the displays and exhibits will connect to things I already know about, places I have been, history I have already learned, cultures I've experienced, and something in my accumulated wisdom will make a new connection and fit better. Eventually it reaches the point where things that should sound like parodies, like a museum of drainage, becomes genuinely interesting.
- batmanturkey 4y agoWhy wait for a psychiatrist to prescribe one, go to a museum! … or an arts center. In Brussels the Bozar stands out as particularly cool. I caught some great concerts there during a night soirée there last week, including Anouar Brahem Quartet and Arve Henriksen with Janne Mark and friends. Free?! Now we are talking !
- zoobab 4y agoTherapy at the Retro Gaming Museum https://pixel-museum.brussels/ https://pixel-museum.brussels/ Play Alex Kidd in a loop for a day on a Sega Master System 1!
- danielfoster 4y agoThere's no doubt that activities such as visiting a musuem, going for a stroll, practing a hobby, etc., have psychological benefits. But if you read the article, you'll notice that approval for this new "treatment" came from the deputy mayor for culture with no input from the medical community. Non-medical interventions are perfectly fine but should not be legislated without consulting medical professionals. Have there been research trials that show museum visits are superior to other self-care activities? Politicians should never be allowed to legislate medical treatment like this. This isn't much different from legislating ivermectin as a cure for COVID. Even worse, this new law trivializes the challenges of living with mental illness and undermines the work of mental health professional, who have spent decades educating the public that treating depression goes far beyond "getting yourself out there" or "taking a break." If you're feeling depressed enough to see a doctor, a free museum visit is unlikely to do anything for you. I am sure if you polled psychiatrists in Brussels and asked them what they would most like to do for their patients, a free museum visit would be at the bottom of the list. Maybe they would suggest a free gym membership. This is just a cultural subsidy in disguise.
- krisoft 4y ago> should not be legislated without consulting medical professionals I don't understand what you are on about. This is an option. Nobody forces people to participate. Nobody forces the medical professionals to prescribe it. Nobody even forces the medical professionals to consider it in any case. > If you're feeling depressed enough to see a doctor, a free museum visit is unlikely to do anything for you. Yes. The first sentence on the page: "Brussels tests cultural visits to treat anxiety". So we are talking about anxiety here and not depression. The second sentence on the linked page: "Psychiatrists in the city can now prescribe free visits to cultural venues to complement other treatments" So it is, even if prescribed, recommended in addition to other treatments. And again. It is optional.
- mistrial9 4y agoWho else might take the time to get the exposure to suggest such a thing? a person whose job it is to do so.. "all arts are a waste of my money" is the pretext? bah!
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- Eleison23 4y agoThe clinics around here aren't quite so highbrow, but they commonly offer groups for walking and visiting shopping malls. This is considered therapeutic as it helps the clients socialize, integrate into the community, and also get out and have some fresh air and exercise. I think museums and cultural outings are excellent ideas and there should be partnerships among them to welcome the mentally ill with open arms. I would imagine that these programs are already in place for school children and various disadvantaged populations. I wholeheartedly support their expansion, because good mental health is about much more than medication and medical treatments, it's about having good social experiences which are guided by professionals and benefit the whole community.
- faeriechangling 4y agoYeah I see this all the damn time, the reason you don’t see this with museums is less that it doesn’t happen and more that there isn’t many of them and they get old.