You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This chapter is intended to map out the epistemological background to the field of inquiry of the present book, with its focus on the artistic qualities of psychoanalysis. In subsequent chapters, I shall go into more detail over some of the features touched on here—in particular, the nature of symbol-formation, inspiration, the psychoanalytic (or self-psychoanalytic) dream encounter, and I shall also say more about the central aesthetic concepts of Bion and Meltzer.
The modern answer to the question “art or science?” must be “both”. As Meltzer says, “The great artist and scientist has always been the same person” (1975, p. 221).1 The interest of the question lies in the way artistic or scientific aspects interrelate in the quest for knowledge of the mind; and the way this quest is perceived (as well as performed) will be dependent on one's model of the mind.