DREIFUSS, G. (Haifa). ‘Artists in the creative process of Jungian analysis’. Proc. 8th Int. Congr. Psychopath. Expr., Jerusalem 1976. Confinia psychiat.  21,  45-50 (1978). H. Heimann (Ed.). Basel,  Karger.

In this brief paper Dreifuss wishes to show that, if the analyst has enough understanding of and empathy for the artistic process, the creativity of artists is not diminished by therapy. On the contrary, ‘analysis may help some artists to overcome disturbances that hinder them in fully expressing their creative gifts or potential’.

Dreifuss illustrates his thesis with six pictures by a woman painter and two sculptures by a sculptress all created during their analyses. Both artists consulted Dreifuss on account of depressive states. He used these creations as important communications from the patients’ unconscious illustrating the ego's relationship to archetypal forces. In the case of the painter the author illustrates the emergence of the self symbol in the shape of a jewel. The painter became less depressed and freed herself from the division between her analytic and artistic paintings. The sculptress overcame her negative mother complex. This enabled her to make constructive use of criticism and self-discipline ‘without which art is no art but an outburst’.

Dreifuss draws the conclusion that depressions in artists are frequently a time of incubation of psychic energy. The author does not refer much to interpersonal relationships and not at all to transference/countertransference in this paper.