Hostname: page-component-75d7c8f48-q7pjp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-24T23:50:46.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The art of the brain: A response to 300 paintings by Sam Kissajukian – Poem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2026

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Information

Type
Extra
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

Ramón y Cajal is known for the neuron doctrine,
but it’s his art that lives, those meticulous drawings
of multiform brain cells, their spiny
projections, Seuss-like renderings,
but with delicate line, precisely inked,
no swooping, comic hyperbole,
just the fine web of synaptic links,
the engine of greatest wisdom or wildest folly.
Great art maps the world seen
uniquely by the artist’s eye. The brain,
in mania, overtakes the perceptive mind,
paints itself, not what the world displays.
As audience, we’re left dumbfounded:
whether by art or madness blinded.

This journal is not currently accepting new eletters.

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.