The book is a result of the 40-year experience of investigating the creative activity of the psychiatric patients. On the grounds of method of the clinical and creative analysis of the creative activity of the patients, offered by him, the author has been able to discover the interrelation between the personality structure, psychopathological disorders and the compensative possibilities.
Proceeding from the assessment of the patient’s autism as the main process leading to their abnormal self-absorption and preoccupation with themselves to the exclusion of others or the real outside world, Z. G. Chikovani has worked out a methodological and methodical approach that aims to decelerate and slow down the process and to inspire creative activity in them. This includes step-by-step involvement of the patient first into small and then into bigger communication groups that would favour their interpersonal relations.
Zurab Chikovani, a famous Georgian public figure, scientist-psychiatrist, choral conductor and composer of many wonderful songs was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1933.
After leaving secondary school with honours he studied medicine at Tbilisi State Medical Institute. At the same time, he studied music at Z. Paliashvili School of Music for Exceptionally Gifted. After graduating from Medical Institute in 1958 he went to V. Sarajishvili State Conservatory where he studied to be a choral conductor. In 1963, after graduating from the conservatory, he was offered to work as a choral conductor of the opera studio. Simultaneously, he worked as an attending medical doctor, a junior researcher and later as a senior researcher and head of the department of rehabilitation of psychiatric patients at the M. Asatiani Scientific Research Institute of Psychiatry of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1969 Zurab Chikovani was awarded the academic degree of a Candidate of Medical Sciences by the Scientific Council of the Yerevan State Medical Institute for the dissertation work “Some Issues of the Dynamics of Spontaneous Creative Activity in Patients with Schizophrenia”. In 1976 he was conferred a title of the senior researcher. In 1979 Zurab Chikovani applied for the academic degree of the Doctor of Medical Sciences and his thesis was successfully approbated by the Commission for Problematic Issues of Scientific Council of the V. Bekhterev Psychoneurological Scientific Research Institute in Leningrad.
Thereupon Z. Chikovani worked as a Chief Psychiatrist of Tbilisi, and in 1978 he was elected Head of the Republican Rehabilitation Centre at the Ministry of Healthcare of Georgia. He worked as the Chief Doctor and, later, as the Deputy Chief Doctor for expertise and rehabilitation at the Tbilisi psychoneurological hospital. He was the Chief Psychiatrist and Narcologist of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Georgia.
Zurab Chikovani is the author of more than fifty researches and essays of scientific and practical relevance on the issue of applying creative activity in the system of psychiatric rehabilitation. He has also studied the specific schizophrenia-related regularities of creative thinking in individuals with the pathology, interconnecting his researches with contiguous disciplines.
Being an erudite psychiatrist and a gifted choral conductor Zurab Chikovani displayed his activities in the field of music too. He participated in staging of a number of the opera performances, among which are Verdi’s “Traviata”, Mozart’s “The Barber of Seville”, Gluck’s “Orphee”, Paliashvili’s “Daisi” and “Abesalom and Eteri”. At the same time he led the amateur performances at Tbilisi State Medical Institute. He was the head of the choral class at Tbilisi school of music No 1.
But what brought most fame and celebrity to Zurab Chikovani was creating by him of the family vocal and instrumental ensemble. Nowadays the Chikovani Family Ensemble is well-known not only in Georgia and the former Soviet republics but beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union too. As one of the reviews reads, “the performance of the ensemble is always notable for its genuine artistry, exceptional musicality and immaculate artistic taste”.
A special emphasis should be made on the love to music and singing the wonderful ensemble is distinguished for, as well as the deep understanding of the genre of the vocal ensemble music, characteristic of this wonderful group.
The Chikovani Family Ensemble led by Zurab Chikovani appeared on the central television of the USSR for more than 30 years, also on the scene of the Hall of Columns of the House of Soviets in Moscow. The ensemble participated in various events of the regional, all-USSR and international importance.
Taking into consideration that the Chikovani Family Ensemble was distinguished for its artistry and brilliant performance and for the invaluable educational significance of his activity Zurab Chikovani was awarded the title of the Honoured Art Worker of the Republic in 1980, and in 1987 he was nominated to the title of honour of the National Art Worker of Georgia.
Irakli Chumburidze –
Honoured Scientist, Doctor of Medicine, Academician
The creative activity of the patients with mental disorders had been explored in a number of works. But in the subsequent period less attention was devoted to the issue. In the Soviet literature, in particular, the few articles published decades ago have not been followed by any work of the kind in recent years. It should be admitted that the issue was far from being investigated. In the meantime, the research of the issue has clinical, theoretical and practical relevance as well.
Zurab Chikovani’s work makes up the deficiency to a significant degree. On the grounds of the research work carried out for many years, using methodologically correct methods of exploration, the author has convincingly proven the possibility and necessity of differentiation of the creative artworks of the schizophrenic patients, caused by the pathology, from the creative artworkd caused by positive tendencies. Therewith, the author presents the dynamics of the two forms of the art content during the period of psychosis. The applicant for the academic degree has shown the significance of the analysis of the creative artworks of the patients as a relevant supplementary method of examination that provides the possibility to deeper comprehend and evaluate the individual consciousness of a patient.
The author is also the first to raise and study the issue of the significance of attracting the patients to creative activity as part of the package of the rehabilitation measures. The dynamic study has made it possible for the author to work out some recommendations in this respect, concerning different stages of the pathological process and various states of the patients.
It is necessary to note that on the grounds of the data drawn from the medical literature and those of his own the author has carried out the analysis of the issue of correlation of the artswork, personality and environment of the sane, healthy individuals and the correlation of the artswork, psychosis and personality of the insane individuals.
All the above-mentioned affords ground for acknowledging Zurab Chikovani’s work as an original research that has worked out a new and relevantly important section in the system of the psychiatric rehabilitation.
M.Kabanov –
Chairman
Professor, Director of the V. Bekhterev Psychoneurological Scientific Research Institute
O.Ershov –
Scientific Secretary of the Specialized Council, Candidate of Medical Sciences
Leningrad
4, October, 1979
REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
ASSOCIATION OF PSYCHIATRISTS
AND NARCOLOGISTS
375047, 2a, S. Hovsepian
Yerevan, Armenia
Phone: (3741) 65-24-81
(3541) 65-20-02
e-mail: armelikpashayan@yahoo.com
REVIEW OF THE BOOK
“ PATHOLOGY AND HUMAN RESOURSES. CREATIVE ACTIVITY – PSYCHOSIS AND PERSONALITY” BY Z. G.CHIKOVANI
The book is a result of the 40-year experience of investigating the creative activity of the psychiatric patients. On the grounds of method of the clinical and creative analysis of the creative activity of the patients, offered by him, the author has been able to discover the interrelation between the personality structure, psychopathological disorders and the compensative possibilities.
Proceeding from the assessment of the patient’s autism as the main process leading to their abnormal self-absorption and preoccupation with themselves to the exclusion of others or the real outside world, Z. G. Chikovani has worked out a methodological and methodical approach that aims to decelerate and slow down the process and to inspire creative activity in them. This includes step-by-step involvement of the patient first into small and then into bigger communication groups that would favour their interpersonal relations.
The study of the creative activity of the patients has enabled the author to analyse through the structures of the creative thinking not only the content of the psychopathological symptomatolgy but also some individual peculiarities of the person for whatever a person depicts during their creative activity, no matter a healthy individual or a psychiatric patient, they reflect their individuality and their emotional experiences in the images created by them.
In the end, introducing of the creative activity into the package of the treatment and rehabilitation and psycho-social measures while treating the psychiatric patients is of significant relevance in diagnostic, treatment, preventive and social and rehabilitation fields. Preservation of the functional abilities, revealed by the process of the creative activity, testifies to some possible and definite degree of the reversibility of the pathological process and the
dynamics of the defect even in schizophrenic patienrs (Wiart, Maier-Gross, Muller, A. D. Zurabashvili). This can be viewed as an objective sign of the compensative mechanisms in the patients, and the catamnetic data of the patients involved into the creative activity therapy testify to it.
On the grounds of the research work carried out by him the author assesses different forms of the creative activity as a significant factor in the package of psycho-social measures affecting the psycho-social nature of the patient providing them with the possibility of readaptation at the remissiom level even after a long-term treatment period.
Thus, comparing the clinical and psychopathological data of the patients wih the results ofthe analysis of their creative work Z.G. Chikovani tries to reveal the essence of their inner world – a complex tangle of their feelings often not expressed on the verbal level. Consequently, the author researches some unconscious forms of the psychic activity that are realized without the speech taking part in it. The above testifies to the importance of the method worked out in the theoretical aspect; as for its applied significance, it is obvious.
All the above-stated provides us with the grounds to express out view that the book by G. Chikovani is of great interest in the respect of studying the correlations between the consciuos and unconscious manifestations of the psychic activity, and the analysis of the creative activity of the patients, and not only of psychic patients, can serve as one of the tools to do it. The book is a significant contribution to the theory and practice of psychiatry.
A. Melik-Pashayan
President of the Association of Psychiatrists and Narcologists of Armenia
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor
I read the monograph with profound interest feeling deep satisfaction with the expertise of the author that showed in the fields of psychiatry and psychopathology and also in the spheres of aesthetics and visual and musical arts.
The scientific theme that he has researched and successfully accomplished would have been impossible and unrealizable to carry out for an expert working only in the field of psychiatry. Therefore, the difficult scientific problem of analyzing the creative activity of the patients with mental disorders has rarely been raised in scientific literature, both in our country and abroad.
Zurab Chikovani is not only a highly qualified psychiatrist and psychopathologist but he has a higher education in aesthetics and music too.
Considering Zurab Chikovani’s dissertation work as an entire thesis I can rightfully state that the author of the monograph dedicated to the creative activity of the patients with mental disorders is doubtlessly a valuable scientific contribution to solving some aspects of the labour-intensive and difficult problem in question.
The issues set forth in the work are contiguous not only with the related disciplines of medicine, biology and psychiatry but also with the seemingly remote from psychiatry field of art. In the present age of synthesis and interpenetration of different sciences the work appears to be up-to-date and timely and topical. The significance of the work is also defined by the fact that the purely theoretical concepts are demonstrated in practice and obtain relevance in the fields of diagnostics, therapy and prevention.
A. Megrabjan –
Professor, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR,
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Honoured Science Worker
Yerevan, 1969