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The author presents some unique formulations regarding the artistic director. His findings are based on both clinical material and biographical sketches, and suggest that the child's Oedipal constellations 'emphasize the wish to become the parent (usually the mother) of the unborn children'. This constellation evolves into the sublimated Oedipal wishes of the artistic director. Crucial are the identifications with both parents. The most favorable background results from exposure to the influence of an æsthetic mother and an executively oriented father. In the pursuit of his role, the artistic director is then expressing his unconscious wish to mother the child-actor or musician. Indispensable too is a special æsthetic environment and endowment. Nonartistic directors have a similar Oedipal constellation, but lack the æthetic environment in their upbringing. The particular characteristics of the female castration complex and their capacity for child-bearing contribute to the infrequency of artistic directors among women.
The director identifies with the contents of the created work, whereas the critic identifies with the audience. There is an unconscious psychological interplay among creator, director, and performer in which the actor views the director as a parent. In the conductor, exhibitionism is also involved. Finally, the director's unconscious Oedipal wish to rear his parents' children results in his identification with the creator whose work 'he treats as though it were his own child'.