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In a series of previous publications2 I pointed out that every writer expresses in his work not, as previously assumed in psychoanalytic literature, his unconscious fantasies and wishes, but only the unconscious defense against unconscious fantasies and wishes. The difference in the formulation is of prime importance for the understanding of writers. To give an example: A patient of mine wanted to write a comedy in which a man accepted the sacrifice of his wife only to learn that his whole life thereafter was made miserable by her resenting her sacrifice. Let us assume that the man had written that aggressive comedy and that one hundred years later a psychoanalytic biographer would make a study of the famous author. He would come to the conclusion that the author was an exceedingly aggressive person to whom nothing, not even sacrifice, was sacred. Actually, however, the patient was a very passive, severe hypochondriac. What he expressed in his work was not his aggressive id-wish, but the defense against his passivity via pseudo-aggression.
I enumerated previously four mechanisms which the writer uses unconsciously to appease his inner feeling of guilt.
Expression of unconscious defense against the repressed wish as manifested in creating writing. (See above example).
Solution of an oral conflict: instead of the masochistic wish “to
Formerly Lecturer at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and Assistant Director of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Clinic.
“Talleyrand-Napoleon-Stendhal-Grabbe”, Int. Psych. Verl. 1935. “A Clinical Approach to the Psychoanalysis of Writers”, Psychoanal. Rev., 31: 40, 1944. “On a Five-Layer Structure in Sublimation”, The Psychoan. Quarterly, 14: 76, 1945. “The Danger Neurotics Dread Most: Loss of the Basic Fallacy”, The Psychoan. Rev. 1946. “Psychopathology of Pseudo-Humbugs and Pseudo-Bluffers”, The Psychiatric Quarterly—Supplement 1946. “Psychoanalysis of Writers and Literary Productivity” in “ Psycho
Formerly Lecturer at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and Assistant Director of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Clinic.
“Talleyrand-Napoleon-Stendhal-Grabbe”, Int. Psych. Verl. 1935. “A Clinical Approach to the Psychoanalysis of Writers”, Psychoanal. Rev., 31: 40, 1944. “On a Five-Layer Structure in Sublimation”, The Psychoan. Quarterly, 14: 76, 1945. “The Danger Neurotics Dread Most: Loss of the Basic Fallacy”, The Psychoan. Rev. 1946. “Psychopathology of Pseudo-Humbugs and Pseudo-Bluffers”, The Psychiatric Quarterly—Supplement 1946. “Psychoanalysis of Writers and Literary Productivity” in “ Psycho