You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
December 20, 1960. THE RELEVANCE OF 'STYLE' TO PROBLEMS OF DEFENSE AND THE ORGANIZING FUNCTION OF THE EGO. Victor H. Rosen, M.D.
In this paper 'style' was defined as a progressing synthesis of form and content in an individually typical manner and according to the individual's sense of 'appropriateness', and therefore conceived as an expression of the organizing function of the ego. The relationship of style to some types of resistance and defense in analysis was discussed and suggestions were made as to how studies of patients' styles might elicit certain clues which would be helpful in the diagnosis of borderline states. Dr. Rosen discussed the opposite meanings of the word style; namely, the unique and individual qualities as seen in the artist's style versus the notion of 'stylized', where to conform to a style means to conventionalize or reduce to a stereotype, thus eradicating any deviant individual aspects of the form content. The two meanings of style are fused in certain activities. The style of handwriting is specific for each individual, and yet all handwriting must use a 'stylized' alphabet for its medium of expression. Such use of a conventional form by an individual for the expression of his own thoughts or feelings to a recipient who actively completes the message is the sense in which Dr. Rosen uses the term style. Kris suggested that style can be studied by establishing the relationship of form to content rather than accepting their division. In Leonardo's painting of the Virgin and St. Anne with the Infant Christ, Kris, according to Rosen, suggested the interrelationship between da Vinci's unconscious motivation (content) and the pyramidal composition (form). A third factor was the group of stringencies of the particular artistic problem Leonardo had set out to solve, as determined