The authors present the opportunities of using multimedia as an art therapy technique in the treatment of people suffering from mental disorders, whilst pointing out the limitations of this method. They classify patients into two groups: those with mental disorders and those manifesting mental symptoms, and present, in addition to the benefits - the risk of the use of multimedia. Individuals with mental disorders, especially psychotic patients (e.g. those with schizophrenia) may react differently to the proposed multimedia techniques compared with neurotic patients. The way they react depends mainly on the stage of the disease (acute or stable, remission of symptoms) and its nature. The use of multimedia may help schizophrenic patients recover, but it may also worsen their mental state. It may activate psychotic symptoms (e.g. delusions of thought insertion), trigger fear, anxiety and lead to the withdrawal from art therapy activities. For patients with neurotic disorders (anxiety disorders such as social phobia) multimedia can be a training of creative powers in rebuilding the ego, self-observation and a training to create a social network. There is little available research on the topic, so it is difficult to clearly assess the effectiveness of this technique in the process of recovery. However, the progress of civilization in the rehabilitation of mentally ill individuals enforces measures suitable to the times in which we live.
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