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This book is a must for anyone interested in psychoanalysis and aesthetics. The aim of the book is to make a contribution to the ongoing dialogue between psychoanalysis and aesthetics. There are two major sections in this book; one deals with pathography, which is Freud's term for the psychoanalytic study of an artist's life and interpretations based on the relationship between the work and his or her life. The second section examines from three major areas of concern: (1) the nature of the creative work, (2) the interpretation of the works of art, and (3) the nature of the “aesthetic encounter with works of art.” These are not separable categories and are considered in the evolution of the application of psychoanalysis through aesthetics, in the same way that psychoanalysis itself have evolved.
Initially we are presented with the model of pathography, which arose in the earliest stages of psychoanalysis with emphasis placed on conflict, repetition, and classical Freudian theory. The second model of psychoanalytic interpretation takes as its context the work of art “conceived as autonomous and constituted by its own internal relations.” The third model expands to include the work of art and its audience.
It is important that the author dispel the myth of the application of psychoanalysis with one or two narrow perspectives from Freud's work. It goes beyond this in understanding that art engages us in complex cognitive and affective mental activities. There is, for example, an interesting discussion of the interpretation of dreams as a paradigm for all interpretations in the cultural sphere.
From the point of view of society and culture … the work of art serves as a highly valued transformation of narcissistic instinctual energy into products that have a life of their own and that derive added and continuous overlays of meaning from their successive cultural contexts.
The understanding of pathography is presented from the fictive approach of Freud in his analysis of Leon