Sir: Holmes' carefully-reasoned evaluation of the relationship between poetry and psychotherapy (Psychiatric Bulletin, April 2002, 26, 138-140) lends further support to the argument that the arts essentially complement our work in psychiatry and that a special interest group could be established by the College to promote this perspective, for the benefit of clinicians and patients alike.

The psychiatrist who is afraid of getting ‘wet’ (or appearing to be) is perhaps afraid of the uncertainty that all difficult endeavours, including scientific explorations, may reveal. The purpose of a special interest group in the arts would be to share versions of such uncertainty that psychiatric science may be less aware of and would hopefully serve to reduce the polarisation of psychiatric approach to the experience of mental illness, which Holmes has described.