Frida Kahlo: Portrait of Chronic Pain

Abstract

The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. Although famous for her colorful self-portraits and associations with celebrities Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky, less known is the fact that she had lifelong chronic pain. Frida Kahlo developed poliomyelitis at age 6 years, was in a horrific trolley car accident in her teens, and would eventually endure numerous failed spinal surgeries and, ultimately, limb amputation. She endured several physical, emotional, and psychological traumas in her lifetime, yet through her art, she was able to transcend a life of pain and disability. Of her work, her self-portraits are conspicuous in their capacity to convey her life experience, much of which was imbued with chronic pain. Signs and symptoms of chronic neuropathic pain and central sensitization of nociceptive pathways are evident when analyzing her paintings and medical history. This article uses a narrative approach to describe how events in the life of this artist contributed to her chronic pain. The purpose of this article is to discuss Frida Kahlo's medical history and her art from a modern pain sciences perspective, and perhaps to increase our understanding of the pain experience from the patient's perspective.

Start making sense: Art informing health psychology

“…A particular feature of the latter research is the connection with work on illness perceptions, medication beliefs, coping and quality of life (e.g. see Courtney et al, 2017 , which adopted a narrative approach to explore the pain experience of the painter Frida Kahlo; also Kirkham et al, 2015 , which adopted an interpretative phenomenological approach to the analysis of drawings of chronic pain).…”

Colitis from an Artist's Prospective

“…Although it is difficult to find other examples of representations of colitis, Frida Kahlo also depicts in her arthur own internal medical dysfunctions [3,4]. Kahlo had chronic sequelae of a childhood polio infection and the after-effects of a near fatal bus accident [4,5]. In the piece "The Broken Column", Kahlo is shown with a post supporting her body, that is opened via an unevenly cut wound.…”

Painting as an open window to brain disorders

“…19 Her struggle against lifelong chronic pain, depression, emotional and psychological traumas, invalidism and alcohol abuse was clearly appeared in her paintings. 20 Her art is the visualization of a tragic intimate story, plenty of painful experiences and disappointing. 21 She claimed that her pictures revealed her own reality as it is paradigmatically depicted in the painting entitled "The Broken Column, 1944 (Museo Dolores Olmedo Patino, Mexico City).…”