[Creative arts activity in manually handicapped patients]

Congenital or acquired conditions directly or indirectly causal in total or partial impairment of manual function are set out. The possibilities for creative-expressive activity, using various techniques, nothwithstanding manual disabilities are pointed out. In Cefischer, who until his war-related loss of both upper limbs had been a renowned cartoonist, a comparison of his works, drawn initially by hand and later with the mouth, reveals his characteristic style of expression having remained the same. Further examples are given of creative expression in the presence of manual disability even under extreme circumstances (such as 11 years of confinement to the Iron Lung). Arts and crafts work of persons with leprosy-related manual handicaps are mentioned; typewriter graphics as a method inaugurated by Basset is presented as used in young people with total manual disability. Partial disability of manual function due to arthritis was present in Renoir, Jawlensky, and Grandma Moses, the course of their conditions is described over time. Contents and form of their pictures, after long years of being manually disabled, do not reveal any essential changes in comparison to their earlier ones.