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The history of the relationship of psychoanalysis and art reads like a stormy love affair. Intrigue, ambivalence, and disavowal appear at the very beginning of Freud's writings. We are reminded of his famous statement, “Before the problem of the creative artist analysis must, alas, lay down its arms.” Gilbert Rose points out that this was never true of Freud, for he was constantly attracted to art and its mysterious meaning. The fight, however, to make psychoanalysis a science was certainly an important factor in Freud's attempt to disengage from the art of psychoanalysis. Since then, many analysts have struggled to bring the two worlds of art and psychoanalysis together. Rose, one of the outstanding theoreticians in the field of psychoanalysis and art, noted for his significant text, The Power of Form: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Aesthetic Form, now takes on additional stature in offering a thesis as to the interrelationship of art and psychoanalysis. The book jacket summarizes the main thread of his book:
The author begins his discussion by comparing the childhood of a real-life murderer with that of Dostoevsky. He shows that both were traumatized by a strikingly similar childhood memory of seeing a horse beaten; while this experience dominated the life of the murderer, the writer was able to use it as material for creative elaboration … Finally, he presents a vignette about a woman whose sense of time became altered following the sudden death of her daughter and demonstrates how this can be related to the altered sense of time in the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Charlie Parker.
Rose demonstrates how, at least in some instances, the artist transforms personal trauma into creative expression. Yet, many questions arise upon reading his book. He cites the example of Dostoyevski and how his early problems with authority are transformed and worked through in his writing. Yet there is very little material regarding his actual life that is offered as supporting evidence