Moral Judgment in Evaluating Disease: Some Pictures for Discussion

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve, 1942, Marion Greenwood, U.S.A. 1909-1970, Lithograph, Published by Associated American Artists, Inc., Purchased through the John F. Fulton Fund 2011

This 25 year old woman presents with depressed mood and significant drop in energy for the past 2 weeks. She reports sleeping less than 5 hours per night and notes decreased appetite. She has a family history of bipolar disorder in her aunt and older sister. She denies drug or alcohol use and has no other significant past medical history.

Best known for her frescos, artist Marion Greenwood only came to practice lithography in the middle of her career. In this medium, too, her fascination with the gritty reality faced by ordinary people is apparent. Frustrated by the criticism that her subjects seldom smiled, Greenwood was recorded to have countered, “Well, you've only seen toothpaste ads and magazine advertisements. You've never even seen real painting.” Here, note the dissonance between her subjects’ expressions and the societal expectation of joy surrounding the New Year.