"Bergtagen"
The project first started when Tomas Niklasson
was commissioned by the Medicinhistoriska Muséet (Museum
of Medical History) in Vänersborg, Sweden to depict the psychiatric
care from inside the big mental hospitals.  This
was a little over ten years ago, and the assignment resulted in
several large paintings that are at display at the museum. Tomas
Niklasson then wanted to proceed with the project and examine how
the patients managed to get on after being released into society.
The county of Älvsborg made their contribution to the project
in 1997 for one year, which was later extended. In addition to a
number of paintings, the project has resulted in a movie, "Filmen
om Dan" ("The Movie about Dan"), a documentary about
an individual with a psychotic illness. This movie was showed at
the exhibition "Bergtagen" and has also been broadcasted
on the Swedish television.
What differences did Tomas Niklasson notice
between patients who were still in psychiatric institutions and
ten years later when he met patients out in the society, still with
psychological problems?
- At the institutions there were people who
were chronically ill and passive, who had taken medicine for a great
part of their life. Ten years later I did not see any such patients.
Instead I met people who were severely mentally impaired, in different
kinds of housing alternatives, participating in daily activities
and similar things. There was no hierarchy and the individuals were
partly integrated into the rest of society. This was of course a
positive thing, says Tomas Niklasson, who also says that in the
Swedish city Stenungsund, where he worked with his project, there
are group livings for most of the mentally impaired.
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