The therapeutic effect of esthetic creativity consists in the symbolic objectification (communication) of the unconscious conflict material by means of more or less well-mastered artistic techniques. The ego functions (thinking, language, motility) are dependent upon feedback processes. The representation of intrapsychic conflicts in a symbolic world with its own esthetic lawfulness admits them into the sphere of the ego and opens them to elaboration. In the process of controlling elaboration, it becomes possible to assimilate the objectified and interpreted material. The creative system appears to be relatively autonomous vis-à-vis pathologically dissociated subsystems in the same individual; although it takes over problems of the whole person, it can master these on a new level. Isolated and primitive or rigid ego systems obstruct the transition between conscious and unconscious; in such cases, the outlet to productive esthetic elaboration of intrapsychic tensions is not available.