Description
This essay describes three movements in art–impressionism, cubism, and abstract expressionism–and how artists within each movement differed in their portrayal of reality. With this background, the author proposes that inquiry into the motives and methods of artists within each movement may help in our understanding of how a person experiences, interprets, and portrays reality. This, in turn, may translate into a recognition of the multiplicity of perspectives and the uniqueness of each patient's lived experience of his or her illness and that the doctor's vantage point on reality may not mesh with that of the patient.