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A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison.
—A. Einstein
The irredentist principle in politics refers to the wish to restore territory of which one has been deprived and reincorporate it within one's own boundaries. In the psychology of the artist this lost territory is the original dual unity with the mother. It is characterized by fluidity of time, space, and sense of self. As each did in the beginning, the artist resamples this undifferentiated state and renegotiates a new equilibrium between inside and outside, self and others.
While “rematriation” has long been a central tenet in the psychology of creativity associated with the British school of psychoanalysis, its reinterpretation in the light of contemporary studies of primary narcissism and early ego states seems warranted. This, and not an “explanation” of art, is the aim of this essay. It is taken for granted that there is a far reach between the impulse to create and its fulfillment in anything more than garden-variety growth processes like higher levels of self-identity. However, while art is a rare outcome, the creative impulse and the growth of self are interrelated in ways which help to elucidate both.
When the artist destroys old forms and harmoniously integrates