Positive thinking

Kai Syng Tan, King's College London and Philip Asherson, Professor of Molecular Psychiatry, King's College London   We are in the midst of a global mental health crisis, according to a recent review by the Lancet medical journal. Our “collective failure” to respond to this crisis results in “monumental loss of human capabilities and avoidable suffering”. The development of 20 antipsychotics and 30 antidepressants over the past four decades has not improved the morbidity or mortality of mental disorders. In England, mental illness costs £105.2 billion annually. People consider the stigma around mental health worse than the illness itself . Evidently, to bring about policy and cultural change, we need to think outside the pillbox. A recent governmental report in the UK puts forward a robust argument for how the arts can “stimulate imagination and reflection” and “change perspectives”. Art therapy, for example, can improve conditions like dementia. But this report...