Capítulo 3. Redes Sociales y Productividad Laboral
3.1 Internet
Aims
1) Identify what kind of visual images through film-clips or multi-media have the potential of relaxing and healing effects in terms of colour, light, texture, shape, form, space, object, pace, rhythm and movement (sound and music will be added as complementary work).
2) Explore and assess the role of visual images on a patient’s well-being.
3) Identify the extent of the impact the same image has on a patient with different conditions of illness, individual interests and gender.
4) Determine what type of qualities in visual imagery can bring relaxation and positive effects to what kind of Patients.
5) Develop this work to PhD level through the refinement of different images for a wider set of patient groups and the development of a new explanatory model linking images, well- being and a patient’s experience.
Context
Visual images have played an important role in the formation of human visual perceptions, learning, communication and in particular, in holistic and well-being through the creative area of art since cave paintings to religious illustrations, communication art, films and multi- media. For example, E. H. Gombrich’s book The uses of images: studies in the social function of art and visual communication (1999) gives some insight about the ‘ecology’ of images.
The movements of arts for health in the hospitals in the UK have been developing rapidly for over twenty five years. There are plenty of references including books, journals, articles and films related to arts and health, such as the archive of Arts for Health department at MMU, P. Scher and P. Senior’s book The Exeter evaluation (1999) and J. Sixsmith and C. Kagan’s
Pathways project evaluation final report (1995) illustrate the impact of arts on healing and well-being of patients in hospitals. My studies in relevant literature for this research may be broad but my focus is on what kind of images (especially moving images), films or multi- media may bring potentially calming, relaxing and positive effects on patients in a hospital environment.
Relaxation seems a common beneficial method/therapy that can improve the healing process and its application covers a wide range of mental and physical illnesses including stress, liver disease and cancer patients. The book, Relaxation and imagery: tools for therapeutic communication and intervention (1988), which is edited by R. P. Zahoruek, compiles various theoretical and practical studies on the effects of relaxation for health through case studies and scientific measures. E. Jacobson’s book Progressive relaxation: A physiological and clinical investigation of muscular states and their significance in psychology and medical practice (1929) and B. Herbert’s book The relaxation response (1975) are pioneers in this area.
One of the techniques for achieving relaxation is the application of visualization or experiencing visual images. Visualizing imagery has been adapted, implemented and researched through hospitals in the West for over two decades. However, according to my
experience in meditation for many years, visualization is not easy for some beginners and it may not be convenient to find an ideal space in some hospitals for group practice. D. Goleman’s book, Destructive emotions and how we can overcome them (2003), reports the results of many research experiments in depth through scientific and medical measures. However, there is very little mentioned about what kinds of images are defined as positive images that may bring calming and relaxing effects on human emotion and health.
Alongside the Western mainstream medicine, alternative medicines have been developing rapidly for over twenty years. Among them, colour and light therapy, art and music therapy, visualization and relaxation for health are relatively close to the field of my research. I wish to develop and create a range of visual images from films or multi-media during the same time. References related to colour therapy can be easily sourced. T. Gimbel’s book The colour therapy (1993) and F. Birren’s book Colour psychology and colour therapy (1961) give detailed accounts of the effects of colour on the human mind and emotions, but they were written over thirteen years ago. This indicates such methods may be insufficient to attract much attention. The basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine mentions the five colours that correspond to the five organs. However, the book The foundations of Chinese Medicine by G. Maciocia (1989) and other relevant books in Chinese, never explain this theory and application. It will be my intention to address this missing theory of colour to form part of my inquiry.
I became interested in this subject some years ago but failed to find a relevant research course (due to the restriction of my personal circumstances) after I graduated in Traditional Chinese medicine in China in 2002. Nevertheless, my studies in making animated films and sound design in 2004 strengthened my confidence that moving images have a strong impact on our emotion and well-being. Furthermore, my recent contact with the Art and Design faculty at MMU and the work of Arts for Health in hospitals in Europe has inspired me further. I wish to explore this area in order to establish an alternative way for healing patients in hospitals in terms of improving their well-being. Regardless as to how effectively ‘visual therapy’ would be developed from this research, I believe that the scope of images for influencing healing effects would be more defined and the chain of actions and reactions between the links of image, imagery, mind, body and health would be further clarified. Finally, I hope that a new page in the knowledge of vision and health would be contributed to the literature, as well as its functional application for the benefit of people who are suffering in the future.
Methodology
My research requires broad references, such as relevant literature, journals and reports on vision, imagery and therapeutic healing. In particular, I will look at examples of symbols, pictures, paintings, photographs, animated images and films that may generate calming, relaxing, inspiring or therapeutic effects.
Because patients in hospital already have television technology, and are used to watching images on screen, I intend to develop DVD compositions of moving images with sound and test these to evaluate their usefulness in aiding relaxation, which in turn is believed to aid the healing process (Reference can be found in R. P. Zahourek’s book and the Journal of Clinical Psychology by D. T. Johnson and C. D. Spielberger (1968)). Initially, I will compose a few sample film-clips that may generate calming or relaxing effects on patients in hospitals in China. I will construct a questionnaire to collect information from patients on their perceptions of the effects of the viewing session, and triangulate the information from these
are differences before and after viewing the film-clip for 20 minutes each day, using sample patients. The whole process will be guided and monitored by the doctor, in charge of the ward of the hospital. Ethical approval will be sought.
I will collaborate with Dr. Kai Xu, Director of the tumour ward at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of TCM; Dr. Junxing Yang, Deputy Director of the division of the hip joint centre, department of Orthopaedics in First Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou University of TCM; and finally Dr. Yun Ma and Dr. Xiaojun Wang who specialize in liver diseases including liver cancer in YouAn Hospital in Beijing. As the feedback from sample patients is collected, the doctor in charge will examine the correlated effects on individual patients. I will refine the images and sound according to further understanding gained through the data collected. My ultimate intention is to help patients to become familiar with the images that work best for them.
After this collaboration has begun in China, I will contact hospitals in the UK and apply for ethical permission, so that I can test the effect of those visual images on UK patients. I believe this opportunity would give me much valuable data by comparing the effects of the same images on patients in the East and West.
The more thoroughly I analyse the responses and data from patients and doctors in consideration of their individual health conditions, age, gender, cultural background and hospital environment, the more I can discover certain norms and criteria that would meet the individual or group patients’ conditions, so that a maximum effect for their well-being can be achieved. My final research product will be the results of the tests and a theory developed from these of the beneficial effects of images and sound with people who are ill. This will be accompanied by my practical outcome of a range of example film clips on DVD or visual images through multi-media if the location is suitable.
The plan for the application of ‘Visual Therapy’ on patients in hospitals in China Theory: Based on The Traditional Chinese Medicine, Psychophysiologic Self-Regulation and the Relaxation Response.
Methods: Using images from film clips (20-25 minutes each session per day) which have been designed to generate calming and relaxing effects for patients in a hospital environment in China
The doctor-in-charge will clearly explain in detail about the purpose and the whole process of this ‘Visual Therapy’(VT) treatment and a letter of consent is required to be signed by all sample patients before starting the treatment, but all participating patients are given the choice to withdraw from the research anytime if they wish. (English will be translated into Chinese that the patients/participants can communicate with the relevant doctor/nurses.) Each sample patient will have a physical check up based on the daily normal procedure of each hospital in China (preferably including heart rate, pulse reading, blood pressure or feedback from a thermograph, and observation of the mental state of the patient). Data will be recorded by the doctor-in-charge or nurses before each VT session.
All data will be analysed on each patient once per week to determine and identify if any changes have been made based on the effect of selected visual images from film clips on the same patient groups after 2 weeks of treatment.
Refine the film clips, any artefact, e.g. moving images on walls through projectors, and any method that have been used for the VT treatment on patients based on the analysis of the data after each week. It may take 2 to 3 weeks (depending on the time required for sending the mail from UK to China) for the very first time on new sample patients
After the VT treatment has been implemented for a week and the data has been analysed for the adjustment of this treatment, the whole process would become an ongoing system to form a working circle but keep readjusting, harmonizing and improving all aspects as much as it necessary throughout the process.
References
Gombrich, E. H. (1999) The use of images: Studies in the social function of art and visual Communication. London: Phaidon.
Scher, P. and Senior, P. (1999) The Exeter evaluation: Exeter health care arts: The arts Project for the Royal Devon and Exeter Healthcare NHS Trust Arts for Health. Manchester UK: Faculty of Art and design, the Manchester Metropolitan University.
Sixsmith, J. and Kagan, C. (2005) Pathways project evaluation final report. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University.
Zahourek, R. P. (1988) Relaxation and imagery: Tools for therapeutic communication and intervention. Philadephia: W. B. Saunders.
Jacobson, E. (1929) Progressive relaxation: A physiological and clinical investigation of muscular states and their significance in psychology andmedical practice. Chicago: University of Chicago press.
Benson, H. (1975) The relaxation response. New York: William Morrow.
Goleman, D. (2003) Destructive emotions and how we can overcome them London: Bloomsbury.
Gimbel, T. (1993) The colour therapy.UK: Element.
Birren, F. (1961) Colour psychology and colour therapy. US: The Citadel Press.
Maciocia, G. (1989) The foundations of Chinese Medicine. London: Churchill Livingstone. Johnson, D. T. and Spielberger, C. D. (1968) ‘The effects of relaxation training and the passage of time on the measures of state and trait-anxiety’, Journal of Clinical Psychology