Mindy Atkin. An investigation of the ways that creativity may have helped heal and promote wellness in a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic patient incarcerated in a state mental hospital. The subject, Issa Ibrahim, a forty-seven year old Jamaican American man was a patient for 20 years at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center where he spent most days creating art. Thought to be incurable and sentenced to life, Issa Ibrahim was released two years ago. The question, “What effect has daily creative expression had on your art and lived experience?” was the focus of this investigation.

Creative expression may promote creative solutions to everyday difficulties.This may potentiate future resilience and adaptation; a framework of healing I call FAR: flexibility, adaptability and resilience. Past and current research in creativity and mental health will support this thesis. Daily creative expression may play a role in brain plasticity; structural transformation.

Sources of data include: four tape-recorded in-depth interviews from a prior pilot study transcribed for accuracy; four new interviews; audible documentation of music performances; analyzation and visual documentation of paintings and drawings; newspaper and magazine articles; an HBO documentary film; art therapy assessments; Ibrahim’s (2008) novel written under the pseudonym, Izzy Aha, The cosmic knockout: A love story with the devil; and, Ibrahim’s autobiography, Autopsy of the Damned (2009). Due to the large volume of creative expression I will focus on Mr. Ibrahim’s artwork and music.