Response by Milton L. Miller

There seems to be no disagreement with the idea that the creative process in man is a subject greatly in need of understanding. It is a constant source of fascination for the psychoanalyst in his daily work. Because of the need for brevity and the fact that I condensed this Shelley paper from a much larger study, a false impression may have been created that diagnosis was emphasized. I actually wanted to demonstrate how conflicts based on early experiences found their way into Shelley's poetry. Varied beauty, aesthetic importance, philosophic implications, and even political reflections were influenced by repressed conflicts and by the nature of preconscious activity in Shelley's creative process.

I agree with Dr. Frumkes that the diagnostic term, “manic-depressive” is a harsh one to use in conjunction with poetic genius, but I do so, in a condensed way, to stimulate thought about both madness and poetry.

Evidence of Shelley's psychotic tendencies occur in his hallucinations, and delusions, such as the fear he had of having contracted elephantiasis from a woman on a bus, and also in his insistence on attempting to drown, while boating with Mrs. Williams. He induced real persecutions and troubles, such as pursuit by bailiffs for his debts, so that biographers had difficulty disentangling real from imagined persecutions. However at one time he drew a picture of his assailant, and the drawing can be seen in reproductions. It is not of a man but of a devil. As Louis Fraiberg mentions, strong unconscious urges to bring about situations of persecution were created by Shelley and justified such acts as fleeing from his residences.

He developed poetic symbols over a lifetime, as a result of much study. It was after his poet friend, Peacock, insisted that he read the ancient classics that he achieved the most balanced artistic sense. His symbolism, traceable in his notebooks, eventually delineated his personality with all its strengths and weaknesses, his neurosis, and its some