Louis Wain - Biographical Documentary

Louis Wain - Mental Health Disorder? | Mental Health History Documentary | Professor Graeme Yorston

In this video I tell the story of Louis Wain, famous painter of cats who spent the last 15 years of his life in an asylum. He was renowned for being unconventional throughout his life – socially awkward and fascinated by electricity and crackpot inventions. His drawings and paintings of cats, however, were loved by rich and poor throughout the world.

In his fifties he started to talk about spirits projecting electric currents onto him and his behaviour became erratic and violent. He was certified as insane and admitted to a mental hospital in 1924.

Were his strange ideas just the product of an artistic imagination, did he have an autistic spectrum disorder, could his fall from an omnibus have affected his mind, or was it paranoid schizophrenia?

I hope you enjoy the video - if you do please like or comment and subscribe to get notifications of new videos as they are posted.

Video produced by Professor Graeme Yorston and Tom Yorston.

Copyright Disclaimer:
The primary purpose of this video is educational. I have tried to use material in the public domain or with Creative Commons Non-attribution licences wherever possible. Where attribution is required, I have listed this below. I believe that any copyright material used falls under the remit of Fair Use, but if any content owners would like to dispute this, I will not hesitate to immediately remove that content. It is not my intention to infringe on content ownership in any way. If you happen to find your art or images in the video, please let me know and I will be glad to credit you.

Books:
Dale, R. (1968). Louis Wain: The man who drew cats. Kimber.
Vatakis, A., & Allman, M. (2015). Time Distortions in Mind :Temporal Processing in Clinical Populations. Brill.
Key Academic References (full list available on request):
Fitzgerald, M. (2002). Louis Wain and Asperger's syndrome. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 19(3), 101-101.
Holub, D., Flegr, J., Dragomirecka, E., Rodriguez, M., Preiss, M., Novak, T., ... & Motlová, L. B. (2013). Differences in onset of disease and severity of psychopathology between toxoplasmosis‐related and toxoplasmosis‐unrelated schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 127(3), 227-238.
Koenig, H. G. (2007). Religion, spirituality and psychotic disorders. Archives of Clinical Psychiatry (São Paulo), 34, 95-104.
McGennis, A. (1999). Louis Wain: his life, his art and his mental illness. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 16(1), 27-28.
Rezaei, S., Yousefi, F., & Qorbanpoor Lafmejani, A. (2020). Preferences, Descriptions, and Response Latency to Fractal Images Among Individuals With and Without Schizophrenia. Caspian Journal of Neurological Sciences, 6(1), 31-44.
Torrey, E. F., Bartko, J. J., Lun, Z. R., & Yolken, R. H. (2007). Antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in patients with schizophrenia: a meta-analysis. Schizophrenia bulletin, 33(3), 729-736.
Image Sources - Wikimedia Commons:
Most images public domain
Napsbury Hospital: Nigel Cox. CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Hospital of Bethlem [Bedlam], St. George's Fields, Lambeth. Coloured engraving by J. Pass. Wellcome Iconographic Collections. CC Attribution 4.0 International license.
Springfield Hospital, Tooting. SecretLondon 2016. CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Cerebral toxoplasmosis with primary involvement in the right occipital lobe. 48-year-old woman with AIDS. Jmarchn. CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Leprosy Extracted from Leprosy In Its Clinical & Pathological Aspects by G. Armauer Hansen and Carl Looft, Wright and Co, Bristol, 1895, Plate III. Wellcome.CC By 4.0
Leprosy B.jehle, CC BY-SA 3.0
Freud Veroraz, CC BY-SA 4.0
Toxoplasma micrograph. From Koreny L., Zeeshan M., Barylyuk K., Tromer E.C., van Hooff J.J.E., Brady D., et al. (2021), CC BY 4.0
Toxoplasma diagram. From Katris N.J., van Dooren G.G., McMillan P.J., Hanssen E., Tilley L., Waller R.F. (2014), CC BY 4.0
Newspaper Images from British Newspaper Archive Image, National Library of Congress and Internet Archive
Images of Louis Wain from National Portrait Gallery.
All other images are Fair Use for educational purposes.

Music:
Camille Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals. Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vilem Sokol. Pianos: Neil and Nancy O'Doan. Camille, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Other music from Power Director

Videos:
Charles E. Grapewin (Chimmie Hicks) at the races. Camera, F.S. Armitage. ca Nov. 1900. Library of Congress. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Other videos from Canva, I-Stock and Shutterstock

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[karenolson]

Louis Wain must have been a wonderful person at heart. After having nearly died after falling off a bus that was swerving to avoid a cat, his first question, after waking from his coma, was whether the cat survived.

[asher]

Wonderful video. I'm happy to see him discussed as a complex person and not simply as a spectical of "look at how this guy's paintings got weirder as he grew more insane". About a decade ago I had to study an artist of my choice for a high school drawing class. At 16 I loved drawing fractal type pictures and I was also mentally ill and autistic. I found Lois and fell in love with his art. My teacher would have rather me studied somebody she thought was worthwhile. But I stood firm as I felt some sort of connection to his art and life experience. Now a days one of the main ways I make money though my art is my drawing portraits of people's pets in a variety of shapes rather than realism. I have no doubt that Louis's art has influenced the art I create. I think it was very worthwhile to study his work.

[richardshiggins]

As a doctor I am fascinated by your insights . The Cat lithographs I immediately recognised but was unaware of their origin or the artist . It would be very interesting if you managed to 'package' so called Autistic Spectrum personalities in the artistic world and present their cases . Many thanks .

[carolinegray]

As ever, Dr. Yorston, you have replaced criticism with understanding and laid bare the path to kindness. And isn't kindness the medicine to many ills.
Your words are much appreciated.

[amrapali-gsco]

He was not mad at all. He was a good person who suffered a lot, destiny usually isn't very friendly for good humans.

[firebyrd]

Very interesting and being a cat lover I owe him much then, people who have dementia in later life hate taking off their clothes to bathe (although some will repeatedly undress themselves as part of their condition) in fact they hate it possibly because they don't remember what water is and it frightens them, that is a theory now taught in dementia training. Feeling the cold more is a natural progression of old age or hypothyroidism. The colours in many of those paintings though are vibrant and seem to me similar to some of Van Gogh's work, what ever condition he suffered from his circumstances i.e where he lived or where he was confined at any given time of his life didn't stop him produced some wonderful art and his legacy will remain forever.

[jeanproctor]

This is such an interesting episode, especially for someone with a huge interest in Louis Wain, like me. I knew some of the history of his own condition but hadn't realised that there was more than just him in the family with mental health conditions, but that shouldn't have been such a surprise knowing how that's really quite common. I'm glad he was still able to produce saleable works of art until towards the end of his life but I still can't help feeling sorry for him. To me, he seems like the type of bloke you'd like to give a big hug to, if he'd let you and reassurances that everything was going to be OK. It's lovely that he had a member of staff that he got on well with that made him rock cakes.

[mijiyoon]

PTSD is real .... pain is real... he lost his wife to an awful, unfair disease, his mother next, his sister & his favorite cat. Any one of these loses could set someone back in grief, much less all of those not far apart. I love his work, he had such a talent in many areas

[madeleinebelle]

Oh Professor...just when I was enjoying your extensive knowledge of mental health with a balanced compassionate manner, you then in the last few minutes of your presentation added a connection with Schizophrenia and Cat's faeces. After having two cats in the last few years who are no longer with me I'll just accept that they were very clean and weren't in the habit of flashing their faeces around the Home. Another great piece of work from you...your simple explanations of such complex mental health conditions is so helpful in allowing a better understanding of what so many people in society live with...thank you again.

[puppetguy]

How on earth have I missed this man's art!!! 🙀

[ivan]

Thank you for doing Louis justice, finally a prudent scientific approach in assessing his mental state. Unfortunately Louis is still often seen through quasi-hypothesis of schizophrenia put forward during times when psychology was just developing by Bedlam doctor named Maclay who wanted to obtain prominence at Louis' expense. From what I heard schizophrenia develops quite early, in late 20-ies or early 30-ies, Louis' problem worsened during much later stages of life. The greatest offence caused by Maclay and likes of him is that Louis' wonderful art and experimentation are being called "deterioration of mind" - just because they are abstract and Cubism-like. If they were produced by incapacitated mind they would be meaningless gibberish, not the beautiful intricate highly-structured pieces of art they really are.

[brasschick]

Thank you for a great case study and analysis.

The drawings of the more abstract ‘wall paper’ cats appear to be composed of fractals and not just mere drawings. Additionally later you state seeing fractals are commonly seen/experienced by those with ASD and Scz. When you look at his paintings some of the cats look ‘electrified’. Maybe these non-realistic appearing cats are him painting how he actually saw the world.

If you look up Van Gogh ‘Starry night’ and the physics of turbulent flow you will find it very interesting. Van Gogh’s style differed markedly according to his mental state.

[cefrinaldi]

More than anything, his mental health decline i believe mostly because of his old age.
Louis wain is someone that need lots of hug and guidance. I really hope that he live today so he can get proper mental treatment. And also his 'scandalous marriage' will not so called scandalous today.

[CSchaeken]

Thank you Mr Yorston, I really loved this video, I now have learned a lot more about this brilliant artist. I saw some of his work exhibited in the Bedlam hospital in London, years ago. Very impressive and I was surprised the works were quite large, as I only knew his work from postcards.

[tashwhite]

Absolutely smashed this one 🔥🔥🔥 Just keep getting better and better

[sharonjack]

Your videos are so informative. I really appreciate how you seem to understand so many artists. Louis really suffered so much. He was clearly a genius. Amazing output. As a long-time artist myself, all that I now create goes through Christ's approval which has calmed me down immensely. Just because an artist can create most anything, it helps to be discerning.
The Jesus Whom I know is very funny and enables me to simplify what I create. He has saved my brain and my whole body many times. I had a 2nd grade crazy teacher years ago who beat we students about our heads with heavy textbooks. Eventually after I called upon Jesus at 30 years old, I asked Him to repair the damage to my mind. He did - I could feel His electrifying-healing-energy many times as He repaired the
damaged parts. Incredible. Due to all of His 'repairs' on me over many years, I am a walking miracle. Thank you so much for all of your videos.
Your voice is calm and easy to listen to. USA

[reinadegrillos]

I had never heard of this artist until I watched the film, but your approach is very complete, informative and insightful. Thank you very much, this is really a very interesting episode.

[b.s.mccollough]

Thank You Professor.
Louis Wain had this preoccupation with electricity and Nietzsche had one with the charged static around lightning. Odd.
Would love to see a documentary from you on him too. Thanks.

[anne]

Thank you for this great video - I’ve loved the work of Louis Wain for years.

[susellis]

8:50 Who ever would want to see a picture of a cat?
2022: Human mental health is saved by funny cat videos and Tiger King.