Art, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis: Perspectives from Analyst-Artists: Edited by George Hagman. London/New York: Routledge, 2017. 186 pp.

“Art, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis” is an unusual book, edited (or perhaps more likely assembled and introduced) by George Hagman, who has himself written on the subject.† The text consists of twelve essays by individuals (10 women, 2 men) who represent themselves as psychoanalysts (or “therapists”) and artists, mostly painters but occasional poets and musicians. All in turn describe, in some detail, the origins of their creative activity and its interaction with their work as “analysts” or “therapists.” In most cases they provide some specificity of their training in each area, emphasizing in several cases the appeal of Kohutian theory and self-psychology. In each instance, illustrations are provided—both of the art work and, to lesser extent, clinical experiences.

Perhaps the best illustration of the integration of these two elements is that of David Shattock, who describes himself as “a poet and a psychoanalytically-oriented therapist” (p. 21). He elaborates in detail the evolution of his poem “Asymptote,” and follows this with a defined vignette of the “therapy” with his patient Dan. Although he refers to himself as analyst and to the patient as analysand, and cites twice the influence on his thinking as that of Kohut, he, like all of the authors, makes no reference to the frequency of sessions or the respective positions of the participants. Psychoanalytically oriented therapist he most certainly, and impressively, is.

A specific reference to each of the twelve contributors is difficult. Perhaps the most explicit of the painter-therapists is Karen Schwartz, who describes in detail and with copious illustrations the development of her somewhat oscillating career. To this reader the finest illustrations are the

drawings of Dan Gilhooley, who impresses as something of a mystic in his work as a defined psychoanalyst but is a superb draftsman and portraitist. A