Modern Art and Human Development

In my view, the relationship of modern art and human development hinges on creativity. Each person must be creative (or must allow himself to be creative) to realize the fullness of his existence. Human development is itself a creative process, or can be in a second-chance analysis if the prohibiting forces are overcome and the struggle is creative. The drama and excitement of the mysterious creative process are more evident in the active artist than in other persons because his art yields visible proof of the struggle. In a wider sense, however, the artist is a paradigm for the legions who suffer both in their need to bring forth from within them that which cries out for life, and also in their all-too-frequent failure to achieve its birth. For this suffering Binswanger has coined a term, “missglücktes Dasein,” failure in existence.

To me the myth of Prometheus most vividly exemplifies the human tragedy. This Titan, the father of men, was accused by the gods of stealing their fire from Olympus, and for this he was horribly tortured. The pity and irony of it all is that the fire originated in the depths of the earth, and was therefore really of the earth and not of the heavens, an inner flame that was rightfully his, but was buried deep in the morass of inner and outer circumstances.

The great artist Ingmar Bergman in a recent film, “Wild Strawberries,” depicts an old doctor who through his ingenious research has greatly helped humanity, and yet at the same time is disregarding those who are nearest and dearest to him. Outwardly he has spent his years doing the best he could as a rational individual, discharging all his social, professional, and intellectual responsibilities, but inwardly he had failed in his existence. His dreams, or rather nightmares, knock at his consciousness, making him look back with ultimate concern at his unexamined and misspent life. In his dreams he becomes aware that he is barricaded from life. As he walks through familiar places, no face l