Victoria Tischler

About Victoria Tischler

Professor of Behavioural Science at University of Surrey. Victoria is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Her research interests focus on creativity and mental health and multisensory approaches to dementia care.

Areas of interest

  • Arts based interventions
  • Creativity and mental health
  • Music and the brain

More Info

Victoria Tischler is Professor of Behavioural Science at University of Surrey. She is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Her research interests focus on creativity and mental health and multisensory approaches to dementia care. She is picture editor of the journal Arts and Health: an international journal for research, policy and practice and on the editorial board for British Journal of Psychiatry Open. She has worked as a curator and writer in the field of untrained or self-taught art.

Victoria previously worked at the European Centre for Environment & Human Health at the University of Exeter where she was co-investigator of the Pandemic and Beyond project. During lockdown her project Culture Box sent out packages to care home residents filled with activities: watercolour paints, seeds, guides to birdsong.

Victoria has a long standing interest in the Life and Legacy of Mary Barnes, who lived at Kingsley Hall from 1965-1970; a radical experiment led by the Glaswegian psychiatrist R. D. Laing. There, Barnes was encouraged to regress to a child-like state to ‘live through’ her psychosis and recover from mental illness. Encouraged clinician Dr Joe Berke, Barnes became a prolific artist, primarily using her fingers to apply paint to canvas, wallpaper backing paper, and found objects.

Victoria is now pioneering a collaboration between the University of Surrey and Wellcome Collection and will supervise doctoral student and trainee psychiatrist, Dr Amy Lineham, who will explore the life of Mary Barnes.

Victoria says:

This project is the culmination of more than a decade’s work. I first saw Mary Barnes’s work in 2010, exhibited at SPACE gallery, London. I was struck by the emotional power of her art, it’s dynamic energy, and use of vivid colour. The story of the artist left a deep impression on me. There is still much to learn about her life at Kingsley Hall, her primal urge to express herself, and her later life in Scotland.  I am delighted to be collaborating with colleagues at Wellcome Collection to put the spotlight on Mary and her life and work as a visual artist, a writer and a mental health activist. 

 

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