The Section of the Psychopathology of Expression dates back to the art exhibition of Volmat and Delay at the first world congress of psychiatry in 1950. Already in the 19th and more so in the 20th century the art of psychiatric patients had arisen the interest of psychiatrists as well as academic artists, of which Lombroso, the Prinzhorn Collection, Art Brut and Gugging may be the most renowned. The aims of the section are to bring together interdisciplinary research from psychiatry, neurobiology, art-history, art-psychology and art-therapy to further understand the basics of creativity.

In addition to art-exhibitions like "Psyche and Art" at the 1999 world-congress in Hamburg (catalogue: Thomashoff/ Naber: "Psyche and Art", Schattauer 1999 - Web site: http://www.psycheundkunst.bizland.com/), which was also shown in the famous Museum of Modern Art in Vienna and which may lead to a continuous art project of the section, as well as new exhibition projects coming up for the European congress in Madrid in 2001 and the next world congress in Yokohama in 2002, the section is focussing on interdisciplinary symposia at several congresses. Its members also have been active in several recent publications as in the books: "Esteticas de la Angustia", Oviedo 1999, "The Graphical Language of Insanity", Rome 1999, "De Sainte-Anne et d´Ailleurs", Paris 2000 and are joint with the magazine "Art Therapy".