FRONTLINE—Psychoanalysis and Art: The End is the Beginning

The editors of this special edition of the Academy Journal have selected a series of articles that are representative of the unique perspective that psychoanalysis brings to artistic creativity.

We believe that unconscious developmental experiences have a determining effect on the final artistic product but cannot “explain” creativity. Art is more than the acquisition of skills—it is the development of something new and a personal evolution of discovery that goes well beyond logical thought and uses primary process thinking. Creative people have the capacity to tolerate significant amounts of ambiguity, thus bypassing logic and engaging in psychological risk taking.

The artist must set aside the ambiguous and paradoxical aspects of experience and allow play—the transitional experience—to dominate. The objects created are sophisticated versions of the original transitional object of the child and give pleasure and meaning by allowing the inner world—unacceptable to many—to be available through illusion without conflict. The transitional object is thought by psychoanalysts to be the precursor of the adult's investment in cultural objects and participates in the development of self and non-self experiences.

In no other area of life do we find such a close alliance between the inner life of imagination and outer reality. The artist is able to tolerate the intensity of inner experience and the anxiety that may go along with it. The result represents something one has not seen before. The artist re-experiences emotional issues dominant in childhood but frequently repressed. The material of