A Discussion of Philosophy and Psychotherapy Part 4—Aesthetics: The Question of the Beautiful

A psychiatrist choosing to remain anonymous in this interview is asked about the role of beauty in the making of psychoanalytic interpretations. Are interpretations—of dreams, of symptoms, of patterns of conduct—that we find beautiful for that reason more likely to be true than those that are not perceived in this way? The psychiatrist offered the idea that a “true” interpretation is not in itself beautiful; rather, such an understanding renders beautiful that which has been interpreted. This occurs because formerly opaque, often confusing, images and actions suddenly become transparent, allowing the inner truth of a life to shine through with great clarity. Two examples of interpretations involving such emergent experiences of the beautiful are given: one focusing on a dream that metaphorically—and beautifully—depicted a child's struggle to survive a confusing situation of profound early sexual abuse and the other pertaining to a bleak deterministic philosophy leading a young man toward despair and suicide, a philosophy that itself turned out to beautifully express and symbolize an experience of lonely imprisonment within controlling parental agendas.