Impact of ceramic arts' trainings on schizophrenic patiences

From time to time, the relationship between art and schizophrenia renders it difficult to distinguish between the reality and the expectation. The studies that have been carried out demonstrate that mental disorders may be treated with the help of art. With the aim of understanding the moral worlds of the patients, the art is deemed as a symbolical transmitter of messages that is possible to be understood and it is discussed in the therapeutic sense in psychiatry. This is an empirical study, dealing with the effect of the training of ceramics on the perception, attention and handicraft of the patients with schizophrenia. Taking the three dimensional nature of ceramics into consideration, approaches and reactions of the patients towards clay, their attention and perception levels along with their handicraft are observed. Solely the experiment group is evaluated. The experiment group consists of 6 patients. The execution period is 7 weeks. The data that have been gathered as a result of the observation during the ceramics training have been analyzed in terms of quality. The observation forms that are drawn up for each lesson and the photos of the works are presented in the Annex-4 results of the observation represent the average of the total points as per the criteria of the sub-problems ( Annex-1). It is observed that the patients with schizophrenia have been afraid of the wet, viscous and three dimensional nature of the clay, and that they avoid using such materials and objects of art. In such an environment, the patient and the art material have the opportunity to come together; however, establishing a relationship or an interaction with the material is not always possible. The perception faculty and the level of attention of the patients in the experiment group are generally weak and low. During the training, the experience of touching has been in the medium level and the handicrafts of the patients have been improved in very different manners. iv Nevertheless, artistic activities constitute a potential field for the patients with schizophrenia to improve their experiences of relationship with the materials of art in the long run.