Van Gogh and health: reflections on a Starry Night. From the article:

We proposed to different groups of providers of care, from different contexts, to observe for some minute the picture “Starry night”, by Van Gogh; then, we invited them to freely write all that came from this observation: impressions, emotions, reflections, details. As required by art therapy – and also by the activity of close reading – neither the author’s context of life and his biography had to be taken in consideration. The participants weren’t request to reflect on Van Gogh, what he wanted to express through the picture, his biography, or his mental illness. They were invited to abstract the image from its background, and observe it for what it showed in front of their eyes, in that specific moment, focusing on the own relationship with the image….

The stimulus to enter into the picture and choose a place, was helpful for them to let direct emotions go, without the mediation of the knowledge: who entered inside the houses, who in the church, others went to the hill to watch the starry sky. In the end, many of them were able to feel the evoked emotions: “the picture blended things inside me, my state of mind came out”, “I felt an imminent threat, and I was scared”. Others connected the image to own memories or current experiences: “I saw serenity, light, guidance in a still without destination way”; “blue is the only color that I never see, so I like it”, “blue recalls me the sea”. Many languages and styles were used, from the metaphorical to the didactic.

Although the contrast of perceptions emerged from all the groups and professions, differences in the overall climate were found among the contexts: in some situations, positivity and serenity prevailed, in others anguish, apprehension, till pain were expressed more frequently. In these cases, we had the impression to receive a request for help, and that this exercise represented a rare opportunity of deep communication, comprehension and expressions of feelings related to events, maybe lived together, but still not shared and welcome.

It was clear how arts represented for the health care professionals the mean to let their emotions go out, through the mirroring into the image. Each one brought the own starry night, and the groups painted a new choral and unique starry night. Probably nobody will exhibit this picture in a museum, but it could be exposed inside the walls of the health care facilities, as precious map to reach all the providers of care’ wellbeing.

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