In 1999, NYU Child Study Center Director Dr. Harold Koplewicz co-edited the book Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery and Hope, with a foreword by Katie Couric. Created to help overcome the stigmas attached to child psychiatric illness, the book contains over 100 pieces of art created by children from ages 4 through 18 who have a mental illness or have experienced a difficult life circumstance.

From this book, the NYU Child Study Center created a touring art exhibition of the drawings. The goals of the exhibition were to increase awareness and decrease stigma of serious mental health issues confronting children. The exhibition debuted at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in November of 1999 and closed its three-year tour in October 2002 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. An online art gallery is coming soon to this website.

About the Book

A window into the hearts and minds of children and adolescents who have mental illnesses or psychological reactions to difficult life circumstances is opened in Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery and Hope (Abrams, 1999). To create the book, the New York University Child Study Center invited 10,000 clinicians and teachers nationwide to submit artwork. A jury, including artist Jennifer Bartlett, New Yorker writer Paul Goldberger, Whitney Museum of American Art curator Eugenie Tsai, art teacher Linda Sirow, child psychiatrist Al Ravitz, M.D., and parent Kathy Schwartz, made the final selections.

The art reflects the struggles of children with depression, eating disorders, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disorders, psychosis, pervasive developmental disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, abuse, divorce, and physical illness.

Many of the illustrations are accompanied by moving commentaries written by the children, as well as celebrities who have dealt with these issues. In addition, the book contains a listing of resources and advice for parents based on interviews with leading experts including Constance Ahrons, Ph.D., Anne Marie Albano, Ph.D., Gabrielle Carlson, M.D., Howard Gardner, Ph.D., Robin F. Goodman, Ph.D., Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., David Herzog, M.D., Eric Hollander, M.D., Stanley Kutcher, M.D., Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., and Lenore Terr, M.D.

Authors

Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., a nationally renowned child and adolescent psychiatrist, is Arnold and Debbie Simon Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Chair of the New York University Child Study Center, Professor of Pediatrics, Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry the New York University School of Medicine and Director, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Bellevue Hospital Center. He is also the author of More Than Moody - Recognizing and Treating Adolescent Depression and It's Nobody's Fault: New Hope and Help for Difficult Children and Their Parents. Dr. Koplewicz lives in New York City with his wife and their three sons.

Robin F. Goodman, Ph.D., a national expert on the psychological implications of physical illness in children. Her other book is The Day Our World Changed: Children's Art of 9/11. Dr. Goodman is a practicing clinical psychologist.

Margery Rosen, an editor-at-large for Ladies Home Journal and contributing editor to Child Magazine , wrote the main essays for the book, based on interviews with leading experts.

How to Get the Book

Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery and Hope, H.S. Koplewicz, M.D. & R.F. Goodman, Ph.D. (Eds.) (Abrams, 1999). All author proceeds support the New York University Child Study Center.