c
ON THE CONDITIONS FOR ENTERING AND
MAINTAINING,
A CREATIVE STATE OF MIND:
A STUDY OF THE ROLE OF SELFOBJECT
FUNCTIONS AND OBJECT RELATIONS
IN CREATIVITY(1)
by
WILLIAM H. RICKLES, M.D.
"For most writers, the hardest thing about writing is getting started". Donald Goodwin
Alcohol and the Writer, 1988
"Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius...."
Edward Gibbon
in Solitude by Anthony Storr, 1988
There has existed a myth that creativity is similar if not identical with madness. At least, so the myth goes, there is a strong association of mental illness with creative genius. Much has been written about this connection beginning with the first systematic study of the relationship between insanity and genius published by Lombroso in 1864. After 25 years of research he concluded that genius was often a "degenerative psychosis of the epileptic group" (Lombroso, 1864). Fascination with this association between the peculiar and the extraordinary spawned a more than substantial literature detailing the various mental aberrations of the famous artists, writers, musician/composers, and scientists. In his comprehensive book, Prentky (1980) listed an impressive group of geniuses with psychiatric problems and subdivided the list into three groups with the presumed diagnoses of Schizophrenia, Non-Psychotic Psychiatric Disorders (i.e., character disorders and neurosis), and Affective Disorders (unipolar and bipolar depression). Karlsson (1978) studied the genetics of "creative intelligence" and in the process tabulated the rate of psychosis in 132 famous creative persons whose lives were chronicled by living biographies. Of this sample, 42 were stated to have psychosis, clearly a much higher rate than in the general population.
Contra-wise, there is another perspective which holds that creative genius is a kind of super-normal achievement. The study by Ellis (1926) of 1030 names of British "geniuses" in the Dictionary of National Biography revealed only 44 (or 4.2%) to have a demonstrable mental disorder. While surveying the literature on the controversy pitting genius as healthy vs. genius as pathology, Storr (1976) wrote:
"It seems probable that the idea that genius is somehow allied to madness did not originate in
observing that creative people had more neurotic or psychotic symptoms than anyone else, but in
the feeling that both creative people and mad people had mental experiences which the ordinary
person found incomprehensible or did not share" (p.261) (italics added).
My own experience with creating scientific papers and research projects, as well as my clinical observations with several writers in analysis, suggests that aside from quantitative gradients in opportunity, intelligence, technique, and talent, what "ordinary people" do not often share is the requisite concatenation of circumstances that allow an individual to consistently experience, identify, or value a state of mind conducive to creativity. Perhaps a more fruitful approach to this dialectic may be to identify "creativity" or "creative behavior" as a content of the mind so that we can separate creativity from the state of mind within which creating is taking place. Accordingly, we can examine the various psychological modulators of the state of mind which facilitates creativity without being troubled by the problem of understanding creativity itself. Using the analytic tool of the container and the contained (Bion, 1962, 1963), this study will probe the mental container of creativity and only indirectly be concerned with creativity, the behavior.
Correspondingly, it is the thesis of this paper that there exists a distinct CREATIVE STATE OF
MIND which is ideally objectless and selfless to be maximally creative. Accordingly, the
maximally CREATIVE STATE OF MIND requires that the search for selfobject functions be
abandoned (Stolorow, Atwood, and Brandshaft, 1987) or that selfobject functions are being
carried out nearly ideally, and therefore the object invested with the power of supplying selfobject
functions is experientially invisible or taken-for-granted to the person in a CREATIVE STATE
OF MIND. Similarly, the characteristics of a self in a CREATIVE STATE OF MIND dictate
the experiential circumstances which precede entering this state and might be properly called a
pre-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND. Exit from the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND returns
the individual to a post-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND characterized by the particular
dynamics of meaning which the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND experience and the creative
product holds. This object relations oriented analysis of the creative experience allows a fresh
look at pathological situations such as writer's block, work inhibition, and the frequent association
of alcohol abuse found in professional writers (Goodwin, 1988; Dardis, 1989).
THE pre-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND
Most creative work is done alone.(2) Not only is the romantic image of an isolated creative genius
doing his or her extraordinary thing well described by the biographies of artists such as Van Gogh,
and others, but it is common experience that we need to be left alone when preparing term papers,
writing reports, organizing, planning and carrying out the lower level creativity of everyday life.
In his paper on a self-psychological perspective of work inhibition, Stark (1989) described a
young man who was unable to work on papers for his college course until near the deadline
because:
"doing school papers early would be particularly lonely, would make him feel he was working for
himself and by himself....Lateness seemed to create the experience of a dyadic relation; it
produced a tension and aliveness that did not exist before the deadline (p.148).
One gets the impression of a person experiencing a deficiency in selfobject functioning which is exacerbated when he attempts to write without the pressure of a deadline and its enabling meanings.
Similarly, a research scientist entered analysis for treatment of a chronic low-grade depression and
lack of scientific productivity. Often he would come to his Monday session feeling depressed and
"mushy inside," an affect that would regularly develop on Sunday afternoons and evenings. After
the Monday session, his "mushy" feeling was reguarly replaced by an energetic, assertive feeling
of well-being. The "mushy" feeling also would recur most evenings when he would attempt to
write-up his research results, and he would seek relief in television and social activities instead.
This "evening depression" existed in contrast to an energetic enthusiasm for creative work during
the day while at his laboratory and oft disappointed his intentions to carry on writing and study
during the evening. The origin of these dysphoric self-experiences as the result of a chronic
selfobject function deficiency was confirmed when they disappeared after he ended a chronically
disappointing marriage and established a positive, gratifying, and affirming new relationship. Like
Stark's patient, he was able to work creatively with enthusiasm and immersion when under the
pressure of a deadline which he never missed. Analysis revealed the genetic origins of this means
of dealing with stalled creativity and procrastination. As a teenager he recalled pleading with his
mother to engage with him more authentically by urging him to better academic achievement.
This deficit of selfobject mirroring function was traced back to early childhood when he recalled
the mother giving a positive but artificially enthusiastic response to his request of "look mom, no
hands" when he exhibitionistically pedalled his bicycle with his hands removed from the handle
bars in front of her to garner mirroring approval. These illustrations highlight the barrier of
dysphoric affect associated with leaving behind the temporary defense against experiencing a
selfobject function deficiency (Kohut, 1977). Entrance into the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND
is blocked unless some way is found to traverse this barrier. Both Ronald and the scientist used
the threat of narcissistic humiliation in not meeting deadlines to bridge the "mushy" or unbearably
"lonely" feeling which emerged when they faced the solitary selfobjectless CREATIVE STATE
OF MIND. In the case of the scientist, the new relationship provided such a sufficiently powerful
selfobject function that the scientist was able to maintain a firm self when alone at his desk even
without a deadline. Such a relationship also is suggestive of the environmental mother
relationship, described by Winnicott (1971a, 1975) and elaborated by Ogden (1986) and Grotstein
(1989), that is taken for granted and forgotten about by the toddler as long as the mother is
reliably available but temporarily not interacting with the infant. Then the infant is free to roam
and explore un-self-and-other-consciously while he is "alone in the presence of another." Kohut
(1971, 1977) characterized these vague, poorly verbalized fears and feelings of disintegration as
deriving from pre-oedipal stages of development as opposed to more definite affective,
object-related fears and experiences that stem from conflict with objects. In his paper,
"Creativeness, Charisma, Group Psychology: Reflections on the Self-Analysis of Freud," Kohut
(1978) explains a pre-creative period of restlessness and emptiness by postulating a decathexis of
values required to free up narcissistic energy for employment in creative activity. This paper
interprets such feelings of "restlessness and emptiness" as exactly the experience associated with
the temporary loss of the selfobject function.
THE CREATIVE STATE OF MIND
When entering the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, often one must overcome a depleted sense of self experienced as feelings of fatigue and insubstantiality or ambiguity and confusion, if the sense of self-cohesion has been maintained through a more primitive selfobject bond which cannot be sustained while being alone with the not yet actualized creative product. Writers in the grip of creative block often speak of the dysphoric experience of the blank sheet of paper staring at them while they have no creative thoughts with which to fill up the blank page. Perhaps the blank page concretizes their experience of themselves when deprived of necessary selfobject functions. The most characteristic experience of a CREATIVE STATE OF MIND is that entirely new connections are formed from previously unrelated facts or mental experiences. In order for these new connections to be made, the self must be substantial enough to experience the task without reference to previous contextual meanings and bear the resulting experience of ambiguity without defensively retreating to the familiar and hackneyed. Additionally, the affective and cognitive influence of object relations, including selfobject relations, must be experientially excluded from influencing the self-experience in a CREATIVE STATE OF MIND in order to further "clear the decks" for the creative task at hand.
Depending on the capacity of the self to maintain cohesiveness while turning attention away from these object and selfobject bonds, the experience immediately preceding the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND as one sits down to write, draw, etc., may release quite different types of feelings. In the case of a strong self, feelings of relief from the responsibilities or conflicts associated with one's object relations matrix may free one's self to focus totally on the creative task at hand. When the self structure is weak and being maintained by more primitive selfobject functions or biochemical substitutes, then feelings associated with loss of self-cohesion will obtain and interfere with entering the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND. Because the state of mind just described is free of object experiences as well as a sense of self in a relationship with these objects, the term objectless, selfless state of mind seems appropriate. (In this case selfobjectless is also subsumed under objectless.) The less the matrix of internal experience requires stabilization by interaction with others (i.e. the selfobject function) the more readily one can exist comfortably supported by the intrapsychic relationship with the internalized enviromental mother of Winnicott (1971a, 1975; Ogden, 1986).
What is being described here is a state of mind relatively free of the influence of intimidation by
objects, internal or actualized, as well free of superego constraints. Kris (1952) in his landmark
paper on creativity conceived of this state as "regression in the service of the ego." Karen Horney
said it in a more humanistic way:
"The less self-conscious, the less intimidated, the less a person tries to comply with the expectation of others, the less his need to be right or perfect, the better he can express whatever gifts he has" (N. Levy, 1961).
Einstein seemed to be describing motivations for the objectless, selfless state of mind conducive to
creative thought when he wrote:
..."I believe with Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that lead persons to art and science is flight from the everyday life, with its painful harshness and wretched dreariness, and from the fetters of one's own shifting desires. This motive can be compared with the longing that irresistibly pulls the town dweller away from his noisy, cramped quarters and toward the silent, high mountains, where the eye ranges freely through the still pure air and traces the calm contours that seem to be made for eternity.
"With this negative motive there goes a positive one. Man seeks to form for himself, in whatever
manner is suitable for him, a simplified and lucid image of the world, and so to overcome the
world of experience by striving to replace it to some extent by this image. This is what the painter
does, and the poet, the speculative philosopher, the natural scientist, each in his own way. Into
this image and its formation he places the center of gravity of his emotional life, in order to
attain the peace and serenity that he cannot find within the narrow confines of swirling personal
experience" (Holton, 1973; pp. 376-78 -- from Prentky, p. 41) (italics added).
Einstein, not being a psychoanalyst, did not consider that in some cases he could be describing individuals with selfobject deficiencies in a state of mind described by Kohut and Wolf (1972) as the "overburdened self." Such people commonly experience amazing relief from the "painful harshness and wretched dreariness" of everyday life when selfobject needs are met. Einstein's comparison of creativity with the escape of the city dweller from the cramped confines of city life to the open mountain vistas is in keeping with another thesis of this paper: the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND is similar to that of the meditator who often encapsulates his experience during meditation by visualizing bucolic scenes in order to obtain relief from actualized object relationships which are overwhelming an infirm and overburdened self (Horton, 1981; Lichstein, 1989). Because unself-consciousness and "un-other-consciousness" is a prerequisite for psychophysiological relief from conflictual internal and actualized object relationships, the terms "selfless and selfobjectless" or simply "objectless state of mind" seem most descriptive.(3)
If one is successful in entering into the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, the selfobjectless, selfless state is replaced by a growing sense of relatedness with the created product. Commonly this relationship between the creating self and the created product is highly idealized and influences the affective tone of the self in a way characteristic of an idealized selfobject relationship. An energized, exciting, manic-like state results such as one might expect with an intense and idealized "birthing" relationship. The created product is often experienced as a "newborn child of the mind" and referred to as "my baby" with the pride associated with proud parenthood.
In the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, the self feels excited, energetic, and a need and ability to
be quick. For example, when the scientist analysand was writing the creative discussion section of
his papers, he described his ideas as forming more rapidly than he could write, and he was imbued
with a sense of excitement at the greatness and uniqueness of his ideas. There is a sense of elation
and total absorption in the work. The result is a highly focused attention and experience which is
temporarily split-off or dissociated from other aspects of the self and reality. This highly
developed capacity to narrow attention in the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND has been of
interest to several authors (Prentky, 1980; Holton, 1978). Holton writes,
"There is narrow, intensely focused attention, almost constant concentration on one area within
which the more creative persons roam freely. (The powers of concentration in scientists such as
Gauss are legendary. At moments they have amounted to voluntary sensory deprivation--for
example, Fermi reported that he had failed altogether to hear the blast of the atomic bomb at the
Alamogordo test because he was working on a problem of measuring the intensity of the blast by
a simple, improvised method.)"
Sometimes the split is so complete and the ablation of self-as-agent is so total that the creative
composition is felt to issue from the mind without intention. Mozart described his CREATIVE
STATE OF MIND in a letter:
"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer--say, travelling in a
carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such
occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not;
nor can I force them" (P. Vernon, 1970; p. 55).
The connection between the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND and prayer or worship was also
made by Einstein (1954) when writing about the brilliant physicist, Max Plank:
"...I have often heard colleagues try to attribute this attitude of his to extraordinary will-power and discipline--wrongly, in my opinion. The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart."
Martindale (1977-78) considered the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND to be an altered state of
mind and provided several samples of what he called "irrational inspiration":
"Nietzsche remarked concerning the composition of Thus Spake Zarathustra:
'Everything occurs quite without volition as if in an eruption of freedom, independence, power
and divinity, the spontaneity of the images and similes is most remarkable.'
Rimbaud in his famous letter to Paul Demeny says:
'I is someone else. If brass wakes up a trumpet, that is not its fault....I witness the breaking forth
of my thought: I watch it, I listen to it.'
Blake's comment on the composition of his poem on Milton is particularly straightforward: 'I
have written this poem from immediate dictation, twelve or sometimes twenty or thirty lines at a
time without premeditation, and even against my will.' Even Thackeray felt the same possession:
'I have been surprised at the observations made by some of my characters. It seems as if an occult
power was moving the pen.' Mallarme said much the same thing in more opaque and poetic
language:
'The pure work implies the elocutionary disappearance of the poet, who abandons the initiative to
words mobilized by the shock of their inequality: they light one another up with mutual reflections
like a virtual trail of fire upon precious stones'" (p. 70).
The conditions conductive to intuition were summarized by Beveridge (1974). Since intuition
could well be considered at least a first cousin if no sibling of the CREATIVE STATE OF
MIND, he following quote from his conclusion is given with the conditions describing the selfless,
objectless state of mind in italics:
The conditions most conductive to intuition, a first cousin to creativity, are as follows: a) The
mind must first be prepared by prolonged conscious puzzling over the problem; b)Competing
interests of worries are inimical to intuitions; c) Most people require freedom from interruptions
and distractions; d) Intuitions often make their appearance when the problem is not being
worked on; e) Positive stimuli are provided by intellectual contacts with other minds such as in
discussion, critical reading or writing; f) Intuitions often disappear from the mind irretrievably as
quickly as they come, so should be written down; g) Unfavorable influences include, in addition
to interruptions, worry and competing interests, also mental or physical fatigue, too constant
working on a problem, petty irritations and distracting types of noises" (pp. 80-81).
At the peak of the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, there is a feeling of flowing with experience
as well as impatience with others not in tune with this "flow." Indeed, the world formed between
the self and its self-created selfobject may be so complete that not only is there no concern for
others, but the presence of others may not be noticed. With this "flow" the sense of time is lost,
but memory is excellent. Thinking is characterized by experiences of discovering new
relationships between ideas, facts, etc. Many artists (including composers and writers) experience
this sense of discovery as self discovery. Shershow (1988) adduces evidence that Van Gogh
simultaneously consolidated a sense of himself as an artist as well as perfecting his original
technique by painting a series of self-portraits while living with his brother in Paris. This series
was accomplished just prior to his explosion of creative productivity in Arles, France. Similarly,
Aaron Copeland (1959), the composer explains,
"But why is the job [of composing music] never done? Why must one always begin again? The
reason for the renewed creativity, it seems to me, is that each added work brings with it an
element of self-discovery. I must create in order to know myself--and since self-knowledge is a
never-ending search, each new work is only a part-answer to the question 'Who am I?'"
An internal sense of correctness prevails, and impatience is quick to occur when mastery of the
technique interrupts the "flow" and delays immediate creative results. Such delays, if too
extensive, will interrupt the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND by requiring resumption of self and
object experience to deal with the interruption and thereby restore the sense of self in continuity
with time and objects and their particular ongoing affective implications. If all goes well, the
creative product is finished, or there is an experience of the CREATIVE STATE OF
MINDslipping away and the self enters into the post-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND.
THE post-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND
The particular dynamics of the individual seems to determine the nature of the post-CREATIVE
STATE OF MIND. One may be exhausted, satisfied, or empty. Similarly, feelings of excitement,
pride, and exhibitionism may predominate. Conversely, many artists lose interest in their work
when it is completed (Storr, 1970). Re-entry into interpersonal relationships is determined by the
individual's dynamic responses to reunion anxiety in general. Additionally, methods of handling
the actualized created product are highly variable. It may be abandoned, treated with contempt,
or highly valued and retained as a idealized child which is exhibited and cherished. Essentially,
the characteristics of the post-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND will be determined by the
characterological method of handling used-up or ripened, self-made objects and the attendant
idiosyncratic implications of success or failure (Schafer, 1984). The post-CREATIVE STATE
OF MIND is a subject worthy of study in itself but is not immediately relevant to the subjects of
this paper and will not be considered further.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
The pre-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND is most interesting clinically because of the devastating effects of a creative block to the artist or person depending upon his creative productivity for his livelihood. In the pre-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND,one must withdraw from selfobject bonds and suffer a depressive trough. This trough is more "shallow" and easier to cross successfully for individuals who have mature selfobject relationships and the self-sustaining functions have been internalized to a large extent. Also, on the pathological extreme of the self-cohesive spectrum, crossing is easier in people who are able to enter into a selfobjectless, self-soothing mode, or who are already in a chronic, schizoid selfobjectless, self-soothing mode of being. The pre-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND is harder to bear if there are no solid selfobjects bonds or if the individual is using selfobject substitutes such as drugs or enactments (Goodwin, 1988; Stolorow et al., 1987). Kohut (1976) suggested that some creative people require a particular selfobject relationship with another person, termed a "transference of creativity," during periods of intense creativity. Baker (1988) discusses the relationship between Van Gogh and his brother Theo, from this perspective. In some cases, the required withdrawal and regression may "overshoot" the healthy CREATIVE STATE OF MIND and a perverse creative state of mind or psychosis results (Prentky, 1980).
Many and diverse reasons bring people to enter the pre-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND. There
may have been a narcissistic injury and a loss of selfobject, so that the self turns to creativity and
the hedonically positive CREATIVE STATE OF MIND as a defense against the painful affects
associated with narcissistic injury or insult. Such a situation is beautifully documented by
Shershow (1988) when he quoted from Van Gogh's letter from Arles,
"'I was ill when I came here, but now I am feeling better....' (letter 4894a)
'...when I left Paris, seriously sick at heart and in body, and nearly an alcoholic because of my
rising fury at my strength failing me--then I shut myself up within myself without having the
courage to hope!' (letter 544a)" (italics added by Shershow).
Kaplan (1985) demonstrates how Freud turned to creative activity out of narcissistic indignation to produce the Irma dream with its establishment of paradigmatic dream analysis.
More commonly, a deadline is approaching and anxieties related to dyadic object relationships are
mounting. Dreams of glory may drive the more naive to creativity, or a wish to re-experience the
pleasure of giving birth to larval ideas may move one to action. Altshule (1989) insists that
boredom is the motivation for creativity. The defensive use of creativity may occur not only with
narcissistic injury, but in cases where an individual is trapped in circumstances of chronic
selfobject function deficiency and suffering depressive despair (Storr, 1970). Imprisonment is an
extreme example. The narcissistic pleasure of the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND brings relief
from boredom, loneliness and depressive feelings or fragmentation associated severe curtailment
of contact with selfobjects (Storr, 1989). More mundanely, the chronic, recurring low-level
depression seen in many well functioning professionals is overcome by some through accessing
the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND. The degree of defensiveness in this paradoxically creative
maneuver is belied by the pride displayed in self-management of the crippled self.
Csikszentmihalyi has studied high school students who were gifted in mathematics and found that
the students who became highly involved with math tournaments and math clubs:
"...liked spending time alone, they like solitude and in their solitude they find the time to
pursue...their passions. Most people cannot put up with solitude for very long. After a few
minutes and certainly after a few hours, they start to feel a kind of psychic entropy. They are
unable to coordinate their thoughts and feelings and actions in orderly ways....To keep from
feeling unhappy or bored, they pick up a telephone or turn on the television" (in Roark, 1989).
Clearly, these "committed" students may have been motivated by unconscious forces, and analysis might reveal that their "preference for solitude" to be defensive in nature and a way to maintain an infirm self. Still, there is the suggestion here that the "committed" students may have been endowed with a capacity for maintaining the requisite solitude for entering a CREATIVE STATE OF MIND and thus facilitate the ability to give themselves the associated positive hedonic experience and develop a creative passion which in some cases might even be subsumed by the dynamics of addiction.
Kohut (1978) considered the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND in his paper on transformations of
narcissism. He likened the creating person to being in a state of mind similar to the omnipotent
infant who breathes life into the meaningless matter of the external world, and he alludes to the
biblical verse about God breathing life into dust and thereby creating man as described in Genesis.
He wrote:
"Artist and scientist are attempting to re-create a perfection that formerly was directly an attribute of their own; during the act of creation, however they do not relate to their work in the give-and-take mutuality that characterizes object love" (p. 450).
Kohut conceptualized the work, and presumably the created product, as a transitional object and
invested with "transitional narcissistic libido." In later publications he would come to speak of
such objects as "selfobjects."
DISCUSSION
Most psychoanalytic studies of creativity or creative individuals have derived an understanding of
creativity from the Freud-Kris model of creativity (Freud, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1916; Kris, 1952).
This model, originated by Freud, has four parts (Shershow, 1988):
Part 1: Creative acts are motivated by instinctual dissatisfactions.
This assertion implies that creativity is essentially a neurotic symptom, an assertion to which
many, especially artists, etc., take umbrage. Additionally, it is too global, ignores healthy aspects
of creativity and has spawned much speculation that goes far beyond the data available from
creative products.
Part 2: Creative people have special ego capacities.
Kris (1952) termed this special ego capacity "regression in the service of the ego." More recently, in reaction to the pathological implications in the term regression, the International Psycho-Analytic Association panel (Kligerman, 1972) preferred the term "primary process progression towards ego." More relevant to this paper, Glynn's (1977) concept of fusion in service of the ego emphasizes the loss of self and object boundaries aspect of the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND. I prefer this formulation as it also carries with it the implication of a loss of Self and Object experience (the selfless, objectless state) and the concurrent loss of a sense of agency commonly experienced in the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, as documented above. (Similar losses of the sense of agency obtain with states of psychopathological fusion of self and object in psychosis but these states are also associated with violent and extensive loss of ego boundaries and near total ablation of differentiated self experience (Kernberg, 1975).
Kohut emphasized the altered sense of boundaries of the self in "creative people" when he wrote:
"The creative individual...is less psychologically separated from his surroundings than the non-creative one; the 'I-you' barrier is not as clearly defined." (Kohut, 1978a, p.448)
Part 3: The creating person retreats from the external world.
.
Stated in more modern terms, the creating person enters a CREATIVE STATE OF MIND by
retreating from his/her actualized object relationships to a selfless, objectless state of fusion with
the original selfobject, the environmental or matrix mother described by Winnicott(1975) and
Ogden (1986) and referred to as the background presence of primary identification by Grotstein
(1989). This part is not well developed in the literature, perhaps because it implies a schizoid
pathology if seen from a defensive perspective such as that described by Fairbairn who saw the
exhibiting of artistic products as a schizoid way of relating to others (Storr, 1971).
Part 4: The artist disguises personal conflicts presented in the creative product in a way that
they form a more universal symbolic imagery, allowing a broader audience to empathetically
resonate with the artist's underlying conflicts.
This assertion is undoubtedly true. One can never escape one's self. Metapsychological analysis
of the artist through his works is highly aversive for alexithymic or hysterical artists who deplore
psychological thinking and self-analysis (Shershow, 1988; Rickles, 1981,1986). Indeed, they
often fear that psychoanalytic resolution of conflict will destroy the source of creativity. Kernberg
(1975) notes that creative people with great promise and early success sometimes do not fulfill
their potential or fade rapidly from productivity because of a narcissistic personality organization
which lacks the capacity to find a non-pathological adjustment to life. Such people become
increasingly dysfunctional and depressed and lose artistic, creative development and productivity.
The life trajectory of many well known writers, for example Hemingway, Faulkner, and others
(see Goodwin, 1988 and Dardis, 1989) exemplify this destructive effect of untreated narcissism.
Fame and wealth as well as narcissistic pathology may interfere with establishing selfobject bonds which could permit the resumption of a derailed self-development and acquisition of living skills necessary for successful passage though adult maturation.
The Freud-Kris model of creativity calls on a similar unconscious avoidance of pain as the prime mover for the artist's work and postulates that the product is a reworked, disguised rendition of unconscious conflict similar to neurotic symptoms or sublimated drives. Such a model predicts loss of creative drive with resolution of conflict. Not only does this not happen but the model tells us nothing about creative blocks (i.e., when an artist wants or needs to produce but is unable to get going). Further, such a model using sublimation as a kind of second-best solution to constraints imposed by the reality principle emphasizes pathology and defense rather that expressive and integrative operations of the personality and/or self-structure.
In his paper on "Work Inhibition" (a more mundane term but entirely relevant to the problem of
switching from pre-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND to CREATIVE STATE OF MIND),
Stark (1989) did a most apt job in succinctly stating possible pre-oedipal and oedipal determinate
for problems in doing creative work:
"...a Freudian approach would see inhibition as deriving from conflict over what work represents,
a self psychology view would suggest that inhibition issues more from fear of the threatening
experience of work" (p. 138).
Stark presents two cases which he uses to demonstrate that "fear that immersion in work will threaten the cohesion of the self" (p.143). These fears may be based on a resonance with childhood experiences of abandonment anxiety as well as merger or annihilation anxiety.
Stolorow and Lachman (1980) describe a case of a work block in a graduate student who was unable to "immerse" herself in writing her thesis because such immersion interrupted contacts with her idealized friends. When these contacts were interrupted, she became depressed, was unable to work, and spent her time eating compulsively, sleeping excessively, and becoming preoccupied with her appearance and weight in an attempt to restore her endangered self-representation.
Taking a somewhat different tack, Schaffer (1984) has analyzed cases of "those wrecked by success" and found a pathological ego or self-ideal which secures a sense of identity and selfobject bond when experiencing failure or unhappiness. Clearly a psychoanalyst could uncover multiple unconscious complications surrounding work, creativity, creative success, creative products, and the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, not to mention the changes in life circumstances and social identity brought by extraordinary creative success and fame. These important and diverse dynamics are impacted by the essential solitary nature of the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND(Storr, 1989) and the absolute necessity for the working artist/composer/writer to have a capacity to comfortably, even joyously be alone for significant periods of time.
Kohut (1977) has asserted that oedipal problems are breakdown products of a disintegrating self and therefore of secondary dynamic importance. He asserts that the determining factors maintaining the self are of primary importance in normal functioning. Deficiencies in identity formation results from lack of development of firm self and object representation and necessitates excessive recourse to actualized object relations for the selfobject functions provided by ideal and mirroring selfobject ties. As Winnicott (1971a) demonstrated, the infant gradually develops this capacity to be alone, first in the presence of mother who functions as a taken-for-granted "holding environment" of emotional safety. Later the Transitional Object is endowed with this function and allows the child to carry out his/her own self-soothing repairs when none other is available. Other selfobject functions having to do with superego formation and function remain with the parents or their transformations during the life trajectory.
Transitional Phenomena have been found to evolve into creative play and eventually artistic and cultural creations either as life work or avocational hobbies (Horton, 1981). In other situations, transitional phenomena are used defensively to self-sooth (Rickles, 1981) but continue to carry maturational potential (Straetz, 1976). There is some clinical evidence that the capacity to enter a selfless, objectless state of mind is biologically determined and related to the capacity to focus attention (Rickles, 1989, 1990).
In summary, I am postulating a state of mind which has loosened referents to objects, internal and
external, that are supplying identity and self-maintenance. Such a state of mind functions as an
unobtrusive container of mental processes such as fantasies and work. If no work or fantasy is
active, a deep sense of quiet and peace is experienced as in meditation, prayer or quiet
contemplation of beauty. If a perceptual-motor task is attempted, maximum accuracy and timing
performance is possible in this state of mind (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). If an artistic, literary, or
scientific creation is the task at hand, then this state of mind frees the individual of
pre-conceptions and object relations related moods and facilities creative new associations of the
elements of the particular task addressed (i.e., words, paint, musical instruments, theories, reports,
etc.). I have labeled this experience a CREATIVE STATE OF MIND and tried to demonstrate
the influence of object relations on its attainment.
SUMMARY
This analysis of the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND and pre-CREATIVE STATE OF MIND
highlights the sensitive interdependence of the self's capacity or temporary capacity for objectless,
selfless states of experience required to enter the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, and the
function of selfobject relationships to facilitate such states. The idealized selfobject function of
the created product interacting in a positive feedback loop with and maintaining a grandiose self
characterizes the CREATIVE STATE OF MIND. The post-CREATIVE STATE OF MINDis
not discussed. Some evidence is adduced to demonstrate that the positively tinged hedonic
CREATIVE STATE OF MIND may be put to defensive purposes. The capacity to be alone
and maintain self-cohesion during solitude is essential for entering and maintaining the
CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, and may be akin to meditative states of mind.
REFERENCES
ALTSCHULE, M.E. (1988). Observations. Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, Summer, pp. 39-41
ANDERSON, N.C. (1987). Creativity and mental illness: prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives. Am. J. Psychiat. 144:1288-1292.
BAKER. H.S. (1988). Vincent Van Gogh: selfobject factors in motivating, facilitating and inhibiting creativity. Presented at the Eleventh Annual Meeting on the Psychology of the Self, Washington, D.C., October, 1988.
BARLOW, E. (1988). Fertile minds: where curiosity leads. Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, Summer, pp. 37-39.
BARRON, F. (1963). Creativity and Psychological Health. Princton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand Co.
BEVERIDGE, W.I. (1974). The Art of Scientific Investigation.London: Heinemann Educational Books.
BION, WILFRED R. (1962). Learning From Experience. New York: Basic Books.
BION, WILFRED R. (1963). Elements of Psycho-Analysis. London: Heinemann.
COPELAND, A. (1959). Music and Imagination. New York: Mentor Books.
CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, MIHALY (1991) FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York, HarperCollins
DARDIS, T. (1989). The Thirsty Muse: Alcohol and the American Writer. New York: Ticknor and Fields.
EINSTEIN, A. (1950). Out of My Later Years. London: Thames and Hudson.
ELLIS, H.A. (1926). A Study of British Genius. New York: Houghton-Mifflin.
FREUD, S. (1908). Creative Writers and Daydreaming. Standard Edition 9:141-153.
FREUD, S. (1911). Formulations on Two Principles of Mental Functioning. Standard Edition12:218-226.
FREUD, S. (1913). The Claims of Psycho-Analysis to Scientific Interest. Standard Edition13:187-188.
FREUD, S. (1914). On Narcissism. Standard Edition 14:73-102.
FREUD, S. (1916). Introductory Lectures. Standard Edition 16:375-377.
GLYNN, E. (1977). Desperate necessity: art and creativity in recent psychoanalytic theory. The Print Collector's Newsletter 8:29-36.
GOODWIN, D.W. (1988). Alcohol and the Writer. New York: Andrews and McMeel.
GREENBERG, J. (1971). Notes on "problems of creativity." Contemp. Psychoanal. 7(2):133-138.
GROTSTEIN, J.S. (1991). Nothingness, meaningless, chaos and the "black hole." Part
III: self-regulation and the background presence of primary identification. Contemp.
Psychoanal. 27(1):1-33.
HARE, E. (1987). Creativity and mental illness. Brit. Med. J. 295:1587-1589.
HOLTON, G. (1962). Introduction to Concepts and Theories in Physical Science. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
HORTON, P.C. (1981). Solace: The Missing Dimension in Psychiatry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
KALTENBACH, J.L. (1986). An Exploratory Study of Creativity from an Object Relations Perspective. Berkley, California: Dissertation, California School of Professional Psychology.
KAPLAN, S.M. (1985). Narcissistic injury and the occurence of creativity: Freud's Irma dream, Ann. Psychoanal. XII/XIII:367-376.
KARLSSON, J.L. (1978). Inheritance of Creative Intelligence, Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
KERNBERG, O. (1975). Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. New York: Jason Aronson.
KLIGERMAN, C. (1977). Panel on "Creativity." Int. J. Psycho-Anal. 53:21-30.
KOHUT, H. (1971). The Analysis of the Self. New York: International Universities Press.
KOHUT, H. (1977). The Restoration of the Self. New York: International Universities Press.
KOHUT, H. (1978a). The Search for the Self: Volume I. New York: International University Press.
KOHUT, H. (1978b). Creativeness, charisma, group psychology: reflections on the self-analysis of Freud. In: The Search for the Self: Volume II, (ed.) P. H. Ornstein. New York: International Universities Press, pp. 783-843.
KOHUT, H. & WOLF, E. (1978). The disorders of the self and their treatment: an outline. Int. J. Psycho-Anal. 59:413-426.
KRIS, E. (1952). Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art. New York: International Universities Press.
LEVY, N.J. (1961). Notes on the creative process and the creative person. Psychiat. Quart.35:66-77.
LICHTENSTEIN, K.L. (1988). Clinical Relaxation Strategies. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
LOMBROSO, C. (1910). The Man of Genius. London: Walter Scott.
MacKINNON, D.W. (1989). IPAR'S Contribution to the Conceptualization and Study of Creativity. In: Perspectives in Creativity, (ed.) Irving A. Taylor & J.W. Getzels. New York: Aldine Publishing Co.
MARTINDALE, C. (1977). Creativity, consciousness, and cortical arousal. J. Alt. States Consciousness. 3:69-87.
NARANJO, C. & ORNSTEIN, R.E. (1971). On the Psychology of Meditation. New York:
Viking Press.
OGDEN, T.H. (986). The Matrix of the Mind. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson.
PRENTKY, R.A. (1980). Creativity and Psychopathology. New York: Praeger.
RICKLES, W.H. (1981). Biofeedback therapy and transitional phenomena. Psychiat. Ann. 11:86-94.
RICKLES, W.H. (1986). Self Psychology and Somatization: An Integration with Alexithymia. In: Progress in Self Psychology, Volume Two, (ed.) A. Goldberg. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 212-226.
RICKLES, W.H. (1989). Psychophysiological correlates of focused attention: a biological basis for psychological splitting phenomena? (Unpublished Manuscript)
RICKLES, W.H. (1990). Mind over matter: specificity theory revisited. Presented, Annual Meeting: Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 1990.
ROARK, A.C. (1989). Creativity: It may be more than biology. Los Angeles Times (Sept. 29, 1989), p. 1.
ROTHSTEIN, A. (1984). The Narcissistic Pursuit of Perfection. New York: International Universities Press.
SCHAFER, R. (1984). The pursuit of failure and the idealization of unhappiness. Amer. Psychologist 39:398-405.
SHERSHOW, L.W. (1988). Precursors of creativity: Van Gogh's Parisian self-portraits. (Unpublished manuscript)
STARK, M.I. (1989). Work inhibition: a self-psychological perspective. Contemp. Psychoanal. 25(1):135-158.
STOLOROW, R.D.; BRANCHAFT, B. & ATWOOD, G.E. (1987). Psychoanalytic Treatment: An Intersubjective Approach. Hillsdale, N.J.: The Analytic Press.
STOLOROW, R.D. & LACHMANN, F.M. (1980). Psychoanalysis of Developmental Arrests. New York: International Universities Press, pp. 68-69.
STORR, (1971). Problems of creativity. Contemp. Psychoanal. 7(2):115-132.
STORR, A. (1989). Solitude: A Return to the Self. New York: Free Press.
STRAETZ. M.R. (1976). Transitional phenomena in the treatment of adolescents. Contemp. Psychoanal. 12:507-513.
TUSTIN, F. (1986). Autistic Barriers in Neurotic Patients. New Haven:Yale Univ. Press.
VERNON, P. (ed.) (1970). Creativity. New York: Penguin Press.
VAN GOGH-BONGER, J. (1978). Memoir of Vincent van Gogh by his Sister-in-Law. The Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh 1:xv-liii.
WINNICOTT, D.W. (1971a). The capacity to be alone. In: The Maturational Processes and The Facilitating Environment. New York: International Universities Press, pp. 29-36.
WINNICOTT, D.W. (1971b). Transitional objects and transitional phenomena. In: Playing and Reality. New York: Basic Books, pp. 1-25.
WINNICOTT, D.W. (1975) Primary maternal preoccupation. In Through Paediatrics to
Psycho-Analysis, New York, Basis Books, pp. 300-305.
copyright, W.H.Rickles, 1989
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Footnotes:
1. 2.
that has been done in groups or pairs. These situations might be
considered special cases, like the psychology of groups, and will
not be examined in this paper.
3.
Tustin to describe autistic children is achieved by the child in
order to avoid a devastating experience of diminished sense of self
when objects are perceived. The devastating consequences preclude
development of psychological structure. (Tustin,1986) The
situation envisioned here allows an already structured psyche to function
without reference to object relations and in the case of the
CREATIVE STATE OF MIND, may become self defining and renewing
through the generation of a creative product. Without psychic
structure generating meaning, the result would be autism. This
conceptualization of a non-pathological, objectless state of mind
derives some support from a psychological analysis of meditative
practices. (Naranijo and Ornstein, 1971)