The psychopathology of everyday art: a quantitative Study - World ...

Simplistically, art is understood to access the unconscious processes between two
people, and the theory is based around the process of projective identification, sometimes
with the image and sometimes with the therapist. The purpose of the analysis is to
mediate. Bringing the unconscious in a controlled way to consciousness is deemed to
release the emotions (catharsis): universal images may be interpreted as archetypal
symbols, i.e. they often mean the same things to different people.
A number of prominent analysts were seriously involved with art besides
Winnicott 28 ; Ernst Kris, the Freudian psychoanalyst and art historian, contributed a
study of a psychotic sculptor 29 and developed the crucial explanation of the creative
process as "regression in the service of the ego" 30 . No analyst has succeeded in
penetrating the world of the psychotic artist and the image as far as Marion Milner,
whose book In The Hands of The Living God (1969) detailed her work (1943-1959) with
Susan, a schizophrenic girl, which has had a great influence on the theoretical
development of art therapy 31 . Milner wrote this book as an inditement on insensitive
treatment of patients in hospital, of the isolation of the schizoid and the need to make
contact. She described the tendency for some patients to produce spontaneous drawings,
28
for others see: H. F. Ellenberger (1968), The Concept of Creative Illness, Psychoanalytic Review , 55,
pp.442-56; MacGregor 1989, op.cit. gives a very detailed analysis; D.W. Winnicott (1971), Playing and
Reality London: Tavistock.
29 Ernst Kris (1952), study of Messerschmidt, a psychotic artist (trans. chap 4), in
explorations , op.cit. p.128-50.
25
Psychoanalytic
30
R. Shafer (1958) Regression in the service of the ego: the relevance of a psychoanalytic concept for
personality assessment in G. Lindzey (ed.), Assessment of Human Motives , London: Grove Press, pp.119-
148, explores in more detail the idea presented by Kris (1952, op.cit) that creation or enjoyment of the arts
involves a controlled use of the capacity to shift quickly from mature cognitive activity to less mature
forms.
31
for example, authors who acknowledge her influence: Dalley and Case (1992) op.cit.; Schaverien (1992)
op.cit.; Waller and Gilroy (1992) op.cit.