An Artist's “Motoric Perception” and its Influence Upon the Formal Aspect of Her Art

A young sculptor came to analysis because of depression and work block. Her depression began after she left her family to come to America. She had a childhood depression when she was three when her mother left her for several months. Her childhood depression was “treated” by her older brothers by throwing her from brother to brother until her cries turned to shrieks and finally exhausted sleep. This experience altered her ability to mourn and seemed a model for her use of physical actions at times of stress.

The patient maintained that she had no visual memory of objects that she used in her art work. She looks at such objects with little visual awareness of them, feels sensations in her limbs and trunk which she then translates directly into the work of art. In analysis it was possible to demonstrate that she had a “motoric memory” of these objects. After this was demonstrated, a visual memory of the “forgotten” object became available to her. This impressed her and following this, she was better able to look at objects to be used in her art. Gradually, in the course of an eight-year analysis she could let herself experience loss without sinking into a helpless state of fear and depression.