Personality, Pathology, and The Act of Creation: The Case of Alfred Hitchcock

Abstract

Recent biographies of Alfred Hitchcock—especially Spoto's (1983)—have emphasized the deterministic role of Hitchcock's emotional problems in his art. Such analyses of Hitchcock's personality and creativity touch on classic issues of the relationship between art and artist. However, any reduction of artistic themes like those in Hitchcock's films into terms of personal psychopathology is inadequate for apprehending artistic creation.