Psychoanalysis and creative living

Psychoanalysis is ambivalent about creativity and its own creative potential. On the one hand, psychoanalysis offers enormous resources for elucidating obstacles to creativity, that way of living, making and relating to self and others that is fresh, vital, unpredictable and open to feedback and evolution. On the other hand, when we analysts know too much beforehand about what a work of art really means or the fundamental and singular motives of creativity, then psychoanalysis unconsciously partakes of a perverse scenario in which the work of art serves as merely a means to the author's ends and is psychologically colonized. When psychoanalysis is The Discipline That Knows, then art has nothing new to teach psychoanalysts and our field is impoverished. "Psychoanalysis and Creative Living" attempts to elucidate how psychoanalysis could work through this tension between its creative and perverse possibilities and foster creative living.     

Detachment and Continuity

Dr. Bruce Fink—Lacanian analyst, translator, clinical supervisor, and professor of psychology at Duquesne University—discusses the ambivalent reception of Lacanian theory and technique by American clinical psychoanalysis in this interview. Dr. Fink interrogates points of departure between Lacanian, American, and British schools of psychoanalysis around issues such as empirical research, the therapeutic aims of treatment, the role of affects in the clinic, and drive theory. Finally, Dr. Fink elaborates on Lacan's often-misunderstood conception of the end of analytic treatment as “identification with the symptom.”     

Picasso cure: Personality,psychoanalysis, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon centenary

Abstract

Why bother with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon? This article celebrates the painting's centenary. It argues its value as cure of widespread neglect of ways in which, like Picasso creating this painting, psychoanalysis, which often informs art therapy and recently developed mentalisation-based treatment of personality and other disorders, unifies different experiences and perspectives in interpreting the unconscious cause of its analysands’ ills. This article demonstrates this by re-visiting in turn the work of a number of writers in psychoanalysis and philosophy from Freud, via Hegel, to Kristeva today.     

Evaluation of a brief art psychotherapy group for adults suffering from mild to moderate depression: Pilot pre,post and follow-up study

Current therapies do not offer universal solutions for the ‘global burden’ of depression. By focusing on non-verbal communication and creativity, arts therapies might present a relevant treatment option but their effectiveness remains unclear. A pilot study was undertaken to evaluate a brief art therapy group for adults suffering from depression. Adults experiencing mild to moderate depression took part in art therapy and completed questionnaires at three points in time. The intensity of depression, levels of anxiety and general wellbeing were measured. Semi-structured interviews focused on participants’ expectations and experience of therapy. A decrease in depressive symptoms was observed immediately after the therapy and at the follow-up, and a trend for improvement of subjectively perceived wellbeing was recorded. Potential benefits of therapy recognised by participants included: acceptance of depression, readiness to express emotions, sense of self and awareness of others, readiness for meaningful relationships, sense of achievement, sense of balance and new insights, growth and meaning. The statistically significant results and participants’ experience indicate that art therapy may offer a valuable treatment option for depression, and further research is recommended. Future studies should explore ways of addressing both the outcomes and the process of therapy through creative methodological designs.     

What grounds creativity?

"Developmental or ordinary creativity" is distinguished from "genius creativity." The former offers pleasure or distraction. The latter sometimes offers this, but tarrying before the product of genius also brings a new understanding of one's culture, one's self, and even an experience of transcendence. The concepts of Heidegger and of Gadamer are applied to this distinction. All serious artists are seen as manifesting one or more of three aspects: (1) driven by creative genius from the biological furnace of the individual, (2) temporary regressions and exhaustion of ego function, and (3) an anxiety-driven process resting on a constitutional ability to shift levels of ego activities and compromise formations. Falling in love is discussed as another example of creative imagination based on the need to solve psychological discomfort either due to developmental or pathological problems. Creativity in psychoanalytic work is an important factor that needs to be explored in addition to the fact that every country seems to create the approach to psychoanalysis that it needs. Emotional illness is demonstrated as hindering and constricting creativity, not enhancing it as is the popular idea. Some seriously psychopathological artists are able to wall off the pathology and sublimate their conflicts into the production of art, but creativity requires a relatively intact ego; when the ego deteriorates, so does the creative product. An important spring to genius creativity is the nonrecognition of the extremely talented child, which leads to solitary activity and an immersion in ideas and fantasies that, if the person has the requisite talent, is manifested in the expression of truth and beauty through art.     

Éthique ou stucture ? Une hésitation de Jacques Lacan

For a long time, the notion of “structure” was meant to assign the scientific horizon to the “human sciences”. Yet, the introduction of this notion in the Lacanian “thinking” of psychoanalysis, as far as it determined its object, as well as with respect to the representation of its subject, has definitely given rise to a certain number of difficulties. Starting from an ambiguity that can be revealed by a text from 1974, we try to here to indicate the way in which Lacan tried to overcome some of these difficulties. Then, based on that argument, we shall discuss the original situation of psychoanalysis in its relation to science, as well as the innovative connection that it establishes between (cogitative) assumption and (therapeutic) verification.     

L’eau du bain et le bébé. Sur la conception lacanienne des psychoses

The present text is a commentary of the paper about Lacanian conception of psychoses. The text examines three groups of criticism. On the reproach that the Lacanian conception implies a binary logic sustaining the idea of incurability of psychoses, the author considers that the Lacanian model proposes a structural point of view, which needs to be completed by the other Freudian points of view (topics, dynamic, genetic and economic). On the reproach that this conception leads to the exclusion of madness from society, he remarks that the study of counter-transference when working with psychotic patients is more able to explain the difficulties they face for community insertion and rehabilitation. On the reproach that this theory induces a practice that recommends to act in upon the reality of psychotic patients as the mere possibility of therapeutic action, he highlights that working with psychotics always needs a therapeutic acting in, and this statement means that psychiatry and psychoanalysis have to seek for a theory of acting in. In conclusion, the author considers that the Lacanian conception proposes an anthropological point of view that specifies the human psychic word; this point of view is maybe a radical one, but it does not lack arguments.     

Autisme et psychanalyse : construction d’un dialogue entre les thèses de M.C. Laznik et E. Laurent

ObjectiveIn the context of the place and the contributions of psychoanalysis to the treatment of autism, I attempt to unpack the concepts of two of the leading thinkers in the French Lacanian psychoanalytical field, namely E. Laurent and M.C. Laznik, in order to locate convergences and divergences between their approaches.MethodCritical literature review. Reading of works with a Lacanian orientation. Establishment of a dialogue between the works of Laurent and Laznik through the reading of the concept of foreclosure of the hole by F. Schejtman.ResultsThe theoretical models proposed by Laurent and Laznik present more convergences than the distances between the schools of psychoanalysis suggest. Among them, the authors seem to locate, like other psychoanalysts, difficulties for autistic subjects regarding the drive circuit, as well as a freedom of the Imaginary in the knot. The divergences are found above all in the type of clinical practice that results from the proposed models, as well as in the relationship between Symbolic and Real.DiscussionThe discussions relate to important points of Laurent's texts, in order to specify the concept of foreclosure of the hole, and to Laznik's texts, in order to unpack the concept of failure of the third time of the drive and her proposal of a specific knot for autism.ConclusionThe Lacanian reading of Schejtman makes it possible to establish divergences and convergences in the approaches of the cited authors. From this emerges the need for a dialogue within psychoanalysis if we wish to improve our clinical practice.     

Your body is a battleground: Art therapy with women

This article interrogates the place of feminism within art therapy. It provides a lively, polemical argument that art therapy must maintain a critical relationship to the discipline of psychology in order to avoid oppressing women with misogynistic discourses which are embedded in theories and practices. The article also explores the visual culture which surrounds us, and how images affect our sensibility, our self-esteem, and our ability to act in the world.     

How Oedipus falsifies Popper: psychoanalysis as a normative science

The scientific status of psychoanalysis has been the subject of continual debate. Influential philosophers of science have challenged the form of its theories and the nature of the evidence offered on their behalf. Some have concluded that the theories are beyond testing--i.e., they can neither be confirmed nor refuted, and psychoanalysis is thus intrinsically unscientific, akin to pseudosciences such as astrology. From that body of criticism, I have chosen for examination and rebuttal the issue of falsifiability. I refute the charge that psychoanalysis is not scientific because its theories are not "falsifiable." On the contrary, I show that psychoanalysis contains theories which make strong and unequivocal statements that are subject to the test of possible falsification. This capacity has been concealed and the falsifiability criticism rendered plausible because of the normative judgments which are latent in discussions of human development and human society. In explicating these judgments, I will move from the philosophy of science to the anthropology and sociology of science (and of the professions). The normative character of psychoanalytic science reinforces the ethical code of the therapeutic profession, a combination which imposes a disciplinary rigidity of the theoretical system.     

Art therapy for children: how it leads to change

The aim of art therapy is to facilitate positive change through engagement with the therapist and the art materials in a safe environment. This article will explore how art therapy is used to help children with emotional, developmental and behavioural problems. It will show how change occurs during the process of physical involvement with the materials; through the making of a significant art object; through sublimation of feelings into the images; and through communication with the therapist via the art object. The article is illustrated with case vignettes which demonstrate how the theories underpinning art therapy are put into practice, drawing attention to the changes that occur as a result.     

Creating Through Loss: An Examination of how Art Therapists Sustain their Practice in Palliative Care

Abstract

In this article it is argued that therapists working in the field of palliative care should be more open to acknowledging their own needs and feelings of loss when clients die. A review of the art therapy literature demonstrates that there has been a reticence about looking at this feature of our work and the reasons for this are examined. The second part of the article considers the arguments for and against working with the transference and countertransference relationship with this client group. By drawing upon personal experience as an art therapist working in palliative care, the author discusses the positive advantages that can be accrued by working in this way. He suggests that a more active engagement with transference and counter-transference issues would enhance practitioners efforts in this field, by enabling art therapists to retain their own creativity and versatility. The article concludes that an awareness of transference issues is necessary not only for sustained good practice, but for long-term survival of the therapist as well.     

Psychoanalytic peregrinations. II: Psychoanalysis as science and art

The foundations of psychoanalytic clinical practice involve the role of fantasy, creativity, and imagination as well as the natural science aspects of psychoanalysis. There is a common ground for psychoanalytic technique and we should not in a "politically correct" manner, as is so popular today, abandon the philosophical or Platonic foundationalism that lies at the basis of Freud's psychoanalytic practices. Although it is a "politically incorrect" view, a reasonable degree of objectivity and scientific validity is attainable by the relatively neutral psychoanalyst, using both natural science observations as well as introspection and hermeneutics. Furthermore, since psychoanalysis is fundamentally a creative activity, the roots of creativity require exploration and careful study. Subjective and first person methodologies such as Freud's psychoanalysis and phenomenology cannot be ignored in our search for the core of the self of each of our patients.     

Creativity and visual expression

The definition of the concept of creativity poses several difficulties and is further impeded by its vulgarizing use. It would be more suitable to apply "productivity" appropriately instead of using creativity in excessively wide sense. Creativity ought to be considered by a holistic approach, in which both conscious and unconscious factors play vital importance. Visual creativity is thought to consist of the following elements: originality, sensitivity, a special talent, as well as deeper dynamism of human personality, such as sublimation, reparative-compensating mechanisms and mentalization. All these capacities are utilised in self-healing and therapy (see art therapy). The above elements and mechanisms have important roles both in creativity and in artistic pleasure. The paper is illustrated by cases of dynamic examination of drawings.     

Réflexions sur les sources de la théorie freudienne : la psychanalyse et le mode de pensée talmudique

This article aims to situate psychoanalysis in relation to its possible sources related to Judaism by Sigmund Freud. For this one, which defined himself as a Jew, withdrew the religious practice of his fathers, has nevertheless always claimed his identity that placed him, as he liked to say, in the minority of the opposition which he drew energy for creativity. The Talmud, which represents the oral tradition of biblical exegesis, has its own rules of interpretation that we have attempted to compare some aspects of psychoanalytic technique. The free association of speech characterized by a certain diffluence represents a first attachment point. Like psychoanalysis, it closely links theory and practice, one enriching the other of its mutual contributions. Freud, when he speaks of tradition passed, or survival of memory traces in the archaic heredity makes the link between individual and collective psychology, and with anthropology. The therapeutic relationship based on the transference, as the relationship of students to their master, or Hasidim to their Rabbi, is based on an expectant faith that represents the basis of any self-reflection for the purpose of improvement. The talmudic spirit refers to a religious faith, while psychoanalysis is based on the discovery of unconscious thought patterns. However, it is noteworthy that Freud himself could not prevent the formation of his creation in the many chapels finally approaching in many respects concerns constituting the basis of religious belief, namely the welfare of human being and knowing one's most intimate psychic functioning.     

Beyond the dualism of psyche and soma

After a historical survey in which the history of the term "psychosomatic" and its invention during the 19th century are retold, as is also the history of modern psychosomatics, the author offers a more personal view, the result of her experience as a classical psychoanalyst and as a practitioner for 27 years at the Paris Institute of Psychosomatics. She develops her current understanding of the theories of the Paris School of Psychosomatics, and selects and elaborates a certain number of concepts essential for clinical work with patients suffering from somatic illnesses. Detailed case studies of two very different patients who are both ill with cancer offer an attempt to show the relevance and application of this specific approach, but which still remains based on psychoanalysis and the most rigorous Freudian metapsychology.     

Structural dynamics and psychoanalysis -- plea for a dialogue

The present paper argues in favour of a dialogue between the structural dynamics and psychodynamics. This dialogue has not really taken place, but it would yield important benefits for both sides. First of all, like any other psychiatric discipline psychoanalysis needs a psychopathology as a basic science in order to find its proper place within the psychiatric field; this basic theory is granted by the structural dynamic approach. Both theories encompass many areas of clinical practice and psychological-psychiatric theory. It is worthwhile to try to translate the main concepts of the one approach into the other's terminology. Thus, specific advantages and specific shortcomings in each theory can be unveiled. Three examples are presented, the concept of the unconscious, representational theories and the concept of desactualisation. As an example of how psychoanalysis could profit from structural dynamics, the integration of neurobiological basis into a psychological concept is mentioned. The structural dynamic psychopathology may likewise profit from psychoanalysis, mainly in terms of its therapeutic application.     

Dream screen phenomenon in psychotherapy and artistic work

The aim of this article is to offer a point on the meaning of the dream screen phenomenon in psychotherapy and artistic work. Some current theories of early ego development, the formation of the dream screen and dream imagery seem to match the theories of symbol formation, artistic and literary creativity. In actual dreaming, the dream screen can exist in the form of empty sheets of paper, but also in the form of a landscape, hills or mountains. The activation of the dream screen is presented in the light of the psychotherapy of two depressed patients. Dreams implying activation of the dream screen have been interpreted to signify a turning point during psychotherapy. Dream screen can be considered as a phenomenon with different elements. Examples of dream screen symbols in Aleksis Kivi's poems and in Paul Cézanne's paintings are presented.