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FRONTLINE—Psychoanalysis and Art: The End is the Beginning

FRONTLINE—Psychoanalysis and Art: The End is the Beginning Ronald Turco What we call the beginning is often the end And to make our ends is to make a beginning The end is where we start from --T. S. Eliot, "The Cocktail Party" The editors of this special edition of the Academy Journal have selected a series of articles that are representative of the unique perspective that psychoanalysis brings to artistic creativity. We believe that unconscious developmental experiences have a determining effect on the final artistic product but cannot "explain" creativity. Art is more than the acquisition of skills--it is the development of something new and a personal evolution of discovery that goes well beyond logical thought and uses primary process thinking. Creative people have the capacity to tolerate significant amounts of ambiguity, thus bypassing logic and engaging in psychological risk taking. The artist must set aside the ambiguous and paradoxical aspects of experience and allow play--the transitional experience--to dominate. The objects created are sophisticated versions of the original transitional object of the child and give pleasure and meaning by allowing the inner world--unacceptable to many--to be available through illusion without conflict. The transitional object is thought by psychoanalysts to be the precursor of the adult's investment http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis & Dynamic Psychiatry Guilford Press

FRONTLINE—Psychoanalysis and Art: The End is the Beginning

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Publisher
Guilford Press
Copyright
© The American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry
ISSN
1546-0371
DOI
10.1521/jaap.33.1.1.65880
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Ronald Turco What we call the beginning is often the end And to make our ends is to make a beginning The end is where we start from --T. S. Eliot, "The Cocktail Party" The editors of this special edition of the Academy Journal have selected a series of articles that are representative of the unique perspective that psychoanalysis brings to artistic creativity. We believe that unconscious developmental experiences have a determining effect on the final artistic product but cannot "explain" creativity. Art is more than the acquisition of skills--it is the development of something new and a personal evolution of discovery that goes well beyond logical thought and uses primary process thinking. Creative people have the capacity to tolerate significant amounts of ambiguity, thus bypassing logic and engaging in psychological risk taking. The artist must set aside the ambiguous and paradoxical aspects of experience and allow play--the transitional experience--to dominate. The objects created are sophisticated versions of the original transitional object of the child and give pleasure and meaning by allowing the inner world--unacceptable to many--to be available through illusion without conflict. The transitional object is thought by psychoanalysts to be the precursor of the adult's investment

Journal

Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis & Dynamic PsychiatryGuilford Press

Published: Mar 1, 2005

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