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The Artist Who Seeks Psychoanalytic Treatment
There are many artists who pursue
psychoanalytic treatment for reasons unrelated to decreased creative output or truncated artistic development. Regardless of their
chief complaint or presenting issues, they are invariably concerned that their
creativity could be adversely affected by treatment. Psychoanalytic
views on how artistry expresses an individual’s or a collective unconscious
tend to be polarized. Jung (1930) My clinical experience with artistsincludes direct clinical work with painters,sculptors,photographers, film and documentarydirectors, animation artists, actors, musicians, and writers. From 1999-2002 Iconducted a weekly group supervisionof eight clinicians who treated artists with psychodynamic psychotherapy at a mental health clinic setting. In my office practice, not all artists decide to incorporate their artwork as primary data in analytic treatment and I respect this decision without challenge. I certainly encourage them to talk about their artwork – I present the option of verbally describing their work and creative process, and express an interest in what inspires them, but state that I do not need to physically see the work or be part of an audience if that is their preference. When invited, I try my best to attend shows, screenings or readings in a supportive, respectful but unobtrusive way. César A. Alfonso Jung C. G. (1930) The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature, in The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 15, Princeton University Press, p.86. |
proposed that artists have the ability to
split off their interpersonal functioning from their artistry. He
stated: “… Every creative person is a duality or a synthesis of
contradictory qualities… As a human being he may be sound or morbid, and his
personal psychology can and should be explained in personal terms. But he
can be understood as an artist only in terms of his creative achievement…
artistic psychology is more collective than personal in character. Art is
an innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him his instrument…”
(p.101) Jung’s point of view radically departs from the classic psychoanalytic
concept of psychic determinism and considers that works of art have autonomous
properties. I have, at times, appreciated with awe and admiration
how a person’s artistry can be successfully split and disconnected from other
ego functions, in a parallel process that is not necessarily mediated by
displacement, symbolization, condensation or sublimation. Although I do
not adhere with Jung’s strict views that an artist is “not endowed with free
will” and is manipulated into a “vehicle and 
psychic life of mankind” (p.101), I also find that theclassic concept of determinism, one essential in the field of
pathography, hasthe potentialto alienate and disrespect
artists by reaching reductionistic conclusions.