Psychoanalysis and the Act of Artistic Creation

This book explores the phenomenon of creativity and creation from a psychoanalytic point of view, focusing on understanding the psychoemotional dynamics underlying artistic creative activities, such as theatre, literature, and painting.

Throughout, Delgado considers these works of art through a Bionian, Kleinian, and Freudian lens. He uses three major psychoanalytic models of the creative process, two of them classic: the first, Freudian, based on the theory of conflict between impulse and defense, the result of the effort to manage an excessive drive activity, and in which the concept of sublimation is central; the second, Kleinian, based on the attachment theory, in which creative effort corresponds to an attempt to repair the damage done to the object or to the self; and the third, more recent, affiliated with the more expanded attachment relationship theory, based on W. Bion’s theory of thinking, and emphasizing the continent’s capacity for psyche and the oscillation between schizo-paranoid and depressive positions.

With illustrations throughout, this book will be vital reading for anyone interested in the intersection of creativity, the Arts, and psychoanalysis.

Luís Manuel Romano Delgado is a professor at the Institute of Psychology, University Institute (ISPA-IU), Lisbon, Portugal and a psychoanalyst in private practice in Lisbon, and a Full and Training Member of the Portuguese Association of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (APPPP), Portugal, federated in the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS). He is a Full Member of the Applied Psychology Research Center Capabilities & Inclusion (APPsyCI), which provides investigations of psychology and social problems. His great interest lies in the study of psychodynamics of creativity and psychoanalysis applied to artistic and literary objects. He has published two books on this subject and several articles in national and international journals.

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