The painting known as “The Scream” was done by the famous artist Edvard Munch in 1893. It is known to be less of a technical piece, but a “soul painting” that expresses the inner emotions of the artist. People believe it could be based on a poem in Munch’s diary, where he describes being exhausted and shivering in fear which he then hears an enormous scream. This portrays the artists overwhelming feeling of anxiety, and symptoms of what today we identify as a panic attack. The swirls and the use of different bright colors reveals the disarray that controls his mind. This painting is known the be unique because it was done during a time when it was rare to share one’s intimate thoughts and feelings.
I have never immersed myself in art, so I learned many things from interpreting this painting. Originally, I thought that finding creative annotations would be difficult for emotion regulation; however, after this, I learned that art is one of the many ways people can express their emotions. It also made me realize how difficult it can be for someone to feel so much inside, and not be able to express it, and how when the chaos occurs it can almost be an out of body experience (hence, the screaming the character hears in the painting versus screaming himself). Lastly, it was interesting to see that people had panic attacks even in 1893, and how human emotion can be an innate quality.
This painting relates to my guiding questions because it can communicate what emotion is through a different perception. It exhibits the dysregulation that can occur when feeling emotions such as fear, anxiety etc.
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