a-general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis-sigmund-freud

their conflicts. The artist finds the way back to reality in this way. He is not
the only one who has a life of imagination. The twilight-realm of phantasy is
upheld by the sanction of humanity and every hungry soul looks here for help
and sympathy. But for those who are not artists, the ability to obtain
satisfaction from imaginative sources is very restricted. Their relentless
suppressions force them to be satisfied with the sparse day dreams which
may become conscious. If one is a real artist he has more at his disposal. In
the first place, he understands how to elaborate his day dreams so that they
lose their essentially personal element, which would repel strangers, and yield
satisfaction to others as well. He also knows how to disguise them so that
they do not easily disclose their origin in their despised sources. He further
possesses the puzzling ability of molding a specific material into a faithful
image of the creatures of his imagination, and then he is able to attach to this
representation of his unconscious phantasies so much pleasurable gratification
that, for a time at least, it is able to outweigh and release the suppressions. If
he is able to accomplish all this, he makes it possible for others, in their
return, to obtain solace and consolation from their own unconscious sources
of gratification which had become inaccessible. He wins gratitude and
admiration for himself and so, by means of his imagination, achieves the very
things which had at first only an imaginary existence for him: honor, power,
and the love of women.
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