Why is this painter insane?
 

Sorry if this was posted before....

I found this on digg and thought about posting it here.

A Russian professor has posted a picture of a painting done by someone with a severe mental disorder. A single detail of the picture shows that they are insane, but in 15 years, only a single person has figured out what it is. Can you?

http://i10.tinypic.com/42i8nl5.jpg
(without the crease)

http://i14.tinypic.com/2v0es0z.jpg


Below is the link to bigger res. picture of the paitning
http://pics.livejournal.com/shaltai_baltai/pic/00001ykp


The person who posted a scan of this painting says the following:

This was painted by a person with a rare and severe mental disorder. He was constantly seeing his own fantasies all around him. He also had a certain phobia (undisclosed).
His (the poster’s) psychiatry professor showed this painting in a lecture, and said there was one tell-tale sign in it that showed the painter’s insanity.
The professor didn’t say what that sign was, leaving the students to do the guesswork. The only clues he gave was, “don’t look for small details, look at the whole; if you figure out what the phobia was, you’ve got the answer; ask yourself what could have preceded this scene; think of what the place would look like with all the objects removed“.
The professor said that during the 15 years of his teaching, only one student had figured it out.


Anyone have any guesseS?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Doors?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Are the houses supposed to be cut off like that, or is that just a bad copy?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

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Doors?

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Good call. Is he correct?

Fear is claustrophobia?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Alright, without the crease I've got nothing, I think the suggestion regarding the absence of doors is correct.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

there are no black people.


phobia: black people

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

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Doors?

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ALthough they are hard to see.. people say theer are doors in this painting. WOuldn't be a little too easy if the answer was doors?

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There ARE doors people, so stop guessing this. If you look at the middle blackish building with the two people and the baby carriage infront of it, look directly behind the person in the red. There is a door. It's a very dark rectangle and it's hard to see because it's almost the same color as the house but if you look close you can plainly see the door.

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there looks to be a door behing the woman in the red infront of the brown house, there is a darker brown door-shaped rectangle over the brown paint of the house.

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Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

fear of being kidnapped.

the doors call is interesting.

by-tor: likely true, though unrelated to his disease.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone have any guesseS?

[/ QUOTE ] I don't know about the painting, but I once read that one of the early signs of schizophrenia is capitalizing the last letter of the last word in a sentence.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

it is pretty crazy to sit and chit chat with a baby in a carriage in freezing balls weather.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Agoraphobia. The painter is afraid to go outside and painted this scene of the view from his window.

Or maybe arachnophobia because the horses are running away from giant spiders just out of view.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

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it is pretty crazy to wear a skirt sit and chit chat with a baby in a carriage in freezing balls weather.

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Babies are amazingly tollerant to cold as long as bundled up. I noticed the skirts first glance though...

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Achluophbia- fear of darkness. The whole scene is well lit with virtually every window in every building lit up except for one house which is entirely dark. This house is associated with his childhood by the three small children outside of it building a snowman.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

OK, why hasn't anybody said anything about the horses pulling legless torsos on piles of brush and branches and leaves, one of which appears to be on fire?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

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OK, why hasn't anybody said anything about the horses pulling legless torsos on piles of brush, one of which appears to be on fire?

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Because we are looking for something out of the ordinary.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

He hates grass!

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Lower left horse is scoping out a snow bunny chic slightly off-portrait.

Horses clearly don't turn their heads to look at snow bunnies.
Painter is clearly insane.

Edit: Looks like the sled driver of the horse I mentioned is attempting to turn hard right.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

The blank/calm looks on the passengers' faces seems odd.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Achluophbia- fear of darkness. The whole scene is well lit with virtually every window in every building lit up except for one house which is entirely dark. This house is associated with his childhood by the three small children outside of it building a snowman.

[/ QUOTE ]


That was my guess, but I was thinking fear of lights. Your's makes a little bit more sense though.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

The right side looks pretty similiar to the left side, only from a different angle.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Looking at phobialist.com I see this: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.

What a joke. I'm guessing the insane guy has a fear of thinking or ideas

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

so if only one person has figured this out in 15yrs does that mean the answer is not available anywhere online we can just look it up?

only weird thing I can think of is that there is all this snow in the picture yet it is not actually snowing out. Probably doesnt really mean anything though.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Anything to do with the number 3? There are a lot of set of 3's - 3 sleds pulled by 3 horses, 3 women in the back of each sled, 3 kids around snowman, houses have 3 windows on each floor (not perfect here), man/woman/baby = 3.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

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The right side looks pretty similiar to the left side, only from a different angle.

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I saw that too, and it works with the "look at the picture globally" advice

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

without reading anyone else's responses, I' going to say the person's phobia is agoraphobia, as the painting looks like a snow-globe - or, someone who is frightened of the outside and looks to enclose even a scene like this.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

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The right side looks pretty similiar to the left side, only from a different angle.

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you're right, but what phobia could you describe by things on each side being similar?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

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http://www.ljplus.ru/img/k/i/kissme_.../Maslenica.jpg

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wtf

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

is that 2nd picture a clue of some sort? Now I'm even more confused.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

The horses and sleds are not casting any shadows.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

list of phobias

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Please, tell me the answer. PM if you must, I won't share the answer with anyone else--promise.

FWIW, my theory is that the painter had a fear of children being stolen and/or his own kidnapping.

But I am very unhappy with this theory, and I have a wedding to get to today, so please tell me the answer so that I won't be utterly distracted all day.

Thank you in advance, thank you so very much.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Fear of being alone? The people in the picture are in groups of 2 or more. The people, almost fleeing on the horses/sledges, might be some kind of fear for being left alone.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

[ QUOTE ]
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http://www.ljplus.ru/img/k/i/kissme_.../Maslenica.jpg

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wtf

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This was the original painting I believe, which the insane painter tried to recreate?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

[ QUOTE ]
http://www.ljplus.ru/img/k/i/kissme_.../Maslenica.jpg

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You're saying it's the electricity lines?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

Thermophobia: fear of heat

which is why it looks cold but he is insane because running horses will create heat

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

[ QUOTE ]
http://www.ljplus.ru/img/k/i/kissme_.../Maslenica.jpg

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Is this the same artist? Or is this an original and the OP is a copy? This one has telephone poles/power lines, the OP doesn't. Fear of technology?

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anything to do with the number 3? There are a lot of set of 3's - 3 sleds pulled by 3 horses, 3 women in the back of each sled, 3 kids around snowman, houses have 3 windows on each floor (not perfect here), man/woman/baby = 3.

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I noticed this too.

It also seems like he went out of his way to make things asymetrical...like the 3 windows on the front building, why add that extra pane to the middle window? ONLY A CRAZY PERSON WOULD DO THAT!!!

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

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The horses and sleds are not casting any shadows.

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Yea they are, just not on the ground.

Re: Why is this painter insane?
 

I want the answer before I go insane