How are you? It’s more of a greeting than a question. And yet, sometimes we do answer. But finding an answer isn’t always straightforward — roughly one in four people will face a mental health issue during their lifetime. When are we still okay, and when do we start to lose our inner balance? Which outside factors trigger inner turmoil?
This exhibition brings together scientific insights on mental health with the personal experiences of people who have faced mental health challenges. It talks about how and where those affected can find help, and it examines the role of diagnoses, psychiatric medication and everyday coping strategies.
Finally, the exhibition invites us to reflect on how we define “healthy” and “sick” and to consider how discrimination, loneliness, or wealth can shape our mental well-being.
Using artistic, media-based, interactive and playful approaches, the exhibition encourages visitors to delve deeper into a topic that touches us all – creating perspectives that take the question “How are you?” seriously.
Feeling something you can’t see
How common are mental illnesses? Which ones are particularly common in Germany? And why are some people more likely to be affected than others? Three-dimensional statistics and artistic works reveal what the bare figures alone cannot show us. Our myth quiz let’s you have some fun while checking the facts – and reveals whether using social media really does make you lonely.
Thanks for asking
Getting a diagnosis can open up avenues for treatment and greater acceptance, but it can also stigmatise. In striking video interviews, people who have been through it all themselves talk about their diagnosis and how it changed their lives. A glance at the WHO's International Classification of Diseases (ICD) shows how psychiatric categories are created, revised and sometimes even discarded. The tragic consequences of a rigid split between “psychologically healthy” and “ill” are illustrated by the history of eugenics, which was actively promoted by the Deutsches Hygiene Museum before and during the Nazi era.
Ups and downs
What can you do when everything simply becomes too much? Lie down on a huge bed and experience a surprising change of perspective. "Minimum medals" are awarded for what seem to be small steps, things such as getting up, going shopping, keeping an appointment. The room also shows concrete strategies for dealing with crises, from movement and breathing techniques to conversations, medication and phone numbers. And then, finally, there is the big question: “How are you really?"
Featuring works by:
