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To seek a psychoanalytic metapsychology of artistic creation is perhaps prematurely ambitious; yet it should certainly be our ultimate goal. In such a presentation the dynamic and economic point of view should be supplemented by consideration of the role played by various psychic systems and the dynamic barriers separating them from each other. One hesitates to approach this problem not only in view of its extreme complexity but also because it seems imperative, and yet highly doubtful, that such an investigation should capture the secret of beauty created by man.
For clarity of presentation we shall concern ourselves with three main points: first, the wish to create, or in more general terms, the motives for creation; second, the content of the work of art; third, processes deriving from the unconscious which lead to the work of art.
The creative impulse has many components, all of which have their unconscious and conscious motivations. 'Power, fame and love of women', in Freud's original formulation, are more often than not superficial rationalizations. In many instances they correspond to fantasies from childhood, originally conscious, but then either repressed or maintained in the system of the preconscious throughout life.
When we penetrate deeper into their origins, we perceive that they are rooted in Oedipal and preoedipal fantasies which provide the immature ego with a compensatory gratification in some distant future: the fame gained by his art will make him more desirable to his incestuous love object, and the power he will attain will make up for his present weakness. As an illustration, among many others, compare Byron's All for Love: