Edvard Munch*

Although numerous publications have described the life and work of Edvard Munch, only one, a psychoanalytic study by Steinberg and Weiss in 1954, has examined in depth the role of Munch's mental life in his artistic creativity. This is surprising since Munch himself was so particularly interested in studying his feelings and communicating to others the philosophy which he evolved out of them. In 1932 he wrote, “In my art, I have tried to clarify life and its meaning for myself. I also intended to help others explain life for themselves.” (Heller, 1972)

During the 25 years since the publication of the study by Steinberg and Weiss, new material has come to light which challenges two commonly held views of Munch and his art: first, the inference that Munch had a psychotic character structure (Steinberg and Weiss); second, that the quality of Munch's art deteriorated following his psychiatric hospitalization in 1908 when Munch was at mid-career (Rudlinger, Schjeldahl, Steinberg and Weiss). Support for these arguments will be presented through a biographical reconsideration of Munch's life using his personal notes and artistic productions as a record of the vicissitudes of his object relations, and through the re-evaluation of the effect on Munch of his hospital experience.

Data from documents in Munch's estate suggest that a diagnosis of a narcissistic personality disorder that included a brief episode of an acute toxic alcoholic psychosis would fit the facts of his life more accurately. Validation of this developmental diagnosis is found both in the identification of the formative etiological factors of Munch's early history and in the observations of their effect throughout his life. It is our conclusion that the archaic narcissistic structures of Munch's