In this provocative article a distinction is made between psychopathologic episodes which lead to creative activity and ordinary psychopathology. Both types occurred in the life of Goethe. Eissler deems an adolescent crisis Goethe experienced a necessary phase in the creation of the form of poetry which immediately ensued; in the same way a period of suicidal preoccupation preceded the novel, Werther. On the other hand in his forties Goethe suffered a 'partial psychosis' of a paranoid nature which was a hindrance to the creative process.

Psychopathology leading to creativity involves a regressive dissolution of old structure indispensable to setting free or generating functions for activities of unusual originality and quality. Rejecting a popular view which questions the validity of applied psychoanalysis, Eissler contends it meets the scientific yardstick of objective validation more than clinical work because the record is accessible to any interested person.