Freud, Death and Creativity

Wirth, Hans-Jürgen

doi:10.1521/prev.90.4.583.23916

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…This creative pressure is what Freud noted as the creative process emanating from unresolved confl ict. Kris (1952 ) and Wirth (2003 ) suggested that their creative inspiration and process followed a release and satisfaction phase. The application of Zwang ( Assoun, 1994 ) to the creative process also seems particularly relevant to these fi ndings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychoanalysis, Artistic Obsession, and Artistic Motivation: The Study of Pathography

Kemler

2014

Percept Mot Skills

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A modern assessment of Freud's conceptualization of the creative process focusing on drives, ego psychology, and object relation theory is presented. 40 artists and musicians were interviewed employing 13 open-ended questions to provoke responses historically associated with the theoretical conceptualizations of Freud and post-Freudian theory related to the creative process. Creative process was defined as internal object relations that motivate the external connection between artist and the creative work. Measured responses concerning purpose and understanding; motivation before, during, and after performance; obstacles in performance; and needs through the creative process were assessed. Cluster analysis segregated the participants into high, medium, and low agreement groups based on similarity of responses. A multivariate stepwise regression revealed four questions (enlightenment, drives, obstacles, and ought self discrepancies) accounted for 83.9% of the variance. A post hoc discriminant function analysis identified 82.5% of the population to their correct groups. The findings support Spitz's (2005) suggestion that we regard "drives, ego psychology, and object relation theory not as separate approaches but as parts of a whole with varying stresses or accents" (p. 503).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychoanalysis, Artistic Obsession, and Artistic Motivation: The Study of Pathography

Kemler

2014

Percept Mot Skills

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“…Hans-Jürgen Wirth (2003) said that the compulsion to repeat characterizes the creative person who sees the imperfection of his work and is doomed to rework it ad nauseum. It may also characterize, in a positive sense, the possibility of new experiences.…”

Section: Back To Repetitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the death drive: The future of “repetition” and “compulsion to repeat” in psychopathology.

Holowchak

Lavin

2015

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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Literature on Freud's use of "repetition" exists only insofar as it relates to shedding light on "repetition compulsion." Nevertheless, understanding Freud's use of "compulsion to repeat" is impossible without historical engagement, first, with its development over time and, second, with its relation to Freud's earlier uses of repetition both in and outside of the clinic. This article is a critical reading of Freud's employment of both repetition and repetition compulsion. We ask: How does compulsion to repeat differ from repetition? How do compulsions to repeat, given as evidence of the death drive, differ from compulsions to repeat that are consistent with the pleasure principle? Finally, is compulsion to repeat salvageable?

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“…Explanations regarding this phenomenon frequently cite Freud's massive fear of death as the reason he failed to appropriately acknowledge the psychic significance of mortality (Wirth, 2003).…”

Section: Psychoanalysis and Mortalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yalom's (as cited by Wirth, 2003) analysis of Freud's case histories on hysteria shows Freud's countertransference denial in action: "Death," Yalom states, "so pervades the clinical histories of these patients that only by a supreme effort of inattention could Freud have omitted it from his discussion of precipitating traumas" (p. 62). Becker (1973) arrives at a similar conclusion about Freud and mortality: he suggests that the fundamental course of the history of psychoanalysis was shaped by Freud's defensive move away from death and toward sex and aggression.…”

Section: mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…How any individual comes to terms with a specific death is shaped by diverse aspects of experience that mutually influence how loss is lived. The dimensions of experience I have in mind include one's individual history of object loss; the developmental capacities available to make sense of the loss at the time it occurs; and one's internal, dynamic relationship with the lost object as well as the nature of the intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts that are left unresolved at the time of death (Wirth, 2003).…”

Section: The Psychoanalytic Engagement Of Griefmentioning

confidence: 99%

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