Atmosphere and Social Aesthetics

Social aesthetics canalso be seen as a mandate to develop a humanistic medicine that is not onlyconcerned with the ‘whats”, but which instead focuses on the ‘hows”. The callfor the implementation of social aesthetics in practice necessitates a paradigmshift in the treatment of mental disorders. The focus should then no longeronly be just upon the effectiveness of treatment, but also, and quitefundamentally, on the attractiveness of treatment, in particular as makingtreatment objectives and programmes more attractive will lead to reduceddrop-out rates, in turn improving treatment effectiveness. The challenge in thetherapeutic process is not only to recognize the significance of the pathologybut to find ways out of the imagined impossibilities by opening up newpossibilities and uncovering potential that has often quite literally beenburied. In this context atmospheres play a major rule. ‘Atmosphere’ is the elusiveand almost indefinable ‘air’ that imbues and envelops a given situation, theglobal awareness of that situation. In the clinics of mental disorders, theconcept of ‘atmosphere’ applies both to what is felt by the patient (e.g.,‘existential feelings’) and by the clinician (e.g., ‘atmospheric diagnosis’). The relationship between the two is controversial. This is the central elementof the Orpheus Programme that has been developed at the Anton Proksch Institutein Vienna. In contrast to the principles of former deficiency orientedtreatment programs the Orpheus Programme focuses on opening up spaces andcreating atmospheres in which it becomes possible for the ill individuum.