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Art and self: a new psychoanalytic perspective on creativity and

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 SELF AND SYSTEMS

Art and Self

A New Psychoanalytic Perspective on Creativity
and Aesthetic Experience
George Hagman
National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis and The Training and Research
Institute for Self Psychology, New York, New York, USA

The following article presents a contemporary self-psychological perspective on aes-

thetic experience, art, and creativity. The author argues that aesthetics is as important
to human life as sex, hunger, aggression, love, and hate. Although we may rarely be con-
scious of it, aesthetic experience gives form, meaning, and, most importantly, value to
everything we are, all we experience, and everything we do. Theoretically without it, life
would be a shapeless, meaningless, and colorless series of sensations, events, and reac-
tions. Aesthetic experience achieves its most refined form in the fine arts. However, we
can also see its most archaic manifestation in the curve of the mother’s shoulder during
nursing, her heartbeat and breath, the melody of her voice, the balance of her eyes and
smile—all embedded in the warmth, nourishment, and security of the mother–infant
interaction. This article reviews recent analytic writings on psychoanalytic aesthetics
that emphasize the central role of early childhood relational experiences in the emer-
gence and structuralization of the sense of aesthetic form. The author argues that as
a result of developmentally based processes of idealization, the child’s aesthetic sense
takes on a profound and lifelong concern with form and quality. The author extends this
model and proposes a new definition of creativity and the nature of art. He argues that
the creative artist is concerned not just with articulation of subjective states of feeling
but also with the most refined and perfect expression possible of his or her internal vi-
sion. Although a major application of this model is to art and creativity, it is argued that
aesthetic experience is a pervasive human trait that impacts on our entire experience
of life, self, and relationships.

Key words: self; art; aesthetics

Introduction an appreciation of the relational context of

aesthetic experience and the role of related-
The uniquely distinguishing feature of esthetic ex-
ness and intersubjectivity in the creative pro-
perience is exactly the fact that no such distinction cess. Several of the most important points of
of self and objects exist in it. . .the two are so inte- this new aesthetic perspective are highlighted,
grated that each disappears. (Dewey, 1934: 249) specifically: (1) that the source and enduring
This article presents a new psychoanalytic core of aesthetic experience is found in early
approach to aesthetics and creativity from the childhood; (2) that the creative process is self-
perspective of Heinz Kohut’s psychology of the dialectical; and (3) that the sense of beauty is an
self. It includes recent advances in psychoan- aesthetically organized selfobject experience. I
alytic thinking and self psychology, especially will propose how the evocation of the sense of
beauty is the ultimate goal of artistic creativity
when the inner vision and artwork intertwine
Address for correspondence: George Hagman, Licensed Clinical Social
Worker, 1912 Shippan Avenue, Stamford, CT 06902. Voice 203-253-
in dialogue with the form of an ideal, a creation
3033. [email protected] possessing perfection.
Self and Systems: Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1159: 164–173 (2009).
doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2008.04344.x  C 2009 New York Academy of Sciences.

164
Hagman: Art and Self 165

I will start with a brief review of the issues some recent thinkers have argued that the artist
of intersubjectivity and self-experience in the is a far more social being than has generally
psychoanalytic literature on art and creativity. been recognized. I believe that the major lim-
I will then discuss the work of Gilbert Rose, itation of the analytic approach has been the
Daniel Stern, and Ellen Dissanayake that links limitation of focus to the intrapsychic dynamic
art and creativity to the intimacy of parent of the individual artist’s mind. This has become
and child. This idea will be extended to recent increasingly obvious given the recent revolution
self-psychological ideas about creativity and the in psychoanalytic thinking, which views human
function of art work and the sense of beauty in psychology as more relational and intersubjec-
human psychodynamics. tive than previously thought.
Because Freud saw art as a compromise for-
mation between conflicting parts of the men-
The Intersubjective Source of Art, tal apparatus, the issue of the relational and
Creativity, and Beauty developmental sources of art was not relevant
to him. For Freud art was just one of the
Psychoanalysts have studied art, aesthetic ex- many manifestations of the defense mecha-
perience, and the dynamics of the creative pro- nism of sublimation and, while taking on the
cess for generations. Initially creativity and art trappings of culture, was at heart an intrapsy-
were viewed as sublimations, defending against chic phenomenon. The ego psychologist Ernst
forbidden sexual wishes (Freud, 1908, 1910, Kris viewed art as resulting from regression in
1925a, 1925b). Hence Freud’s approach to the service of the ego whereby earlier forms
the study of art was interpretive in which the of mentation and instinctual life are temporar-
symbolic forms of artistic expression were un- ily allowed access to consciousness, permitting
masked, revealing hidden fantasies and wishes. aesthetic expression for the purpose of mastery.
This view of the psychology of art and creativity However, once again the source of art lay in the
as a type of dream work or defensive operation functions of the ego, which made use of infan-
has been the center of classical psychoanalytic tile modes of thinking; but these early forms of
aesthetics. Later analysts viewed art more pro- mentation did not constitute aesthetic experi-
gressively with the ego harnessing the resources ence itself. Ultimately the notion of elaboration
of the unconscious for the purpose of self- of the products of regression during the later
expression (Kris, 1952). This ego psychological phase of the creative process placed the heart
perspective continued to emphasize symbolism of successful creativity in the mature emotional
but now saw regression as being at the “service and mental capacities of the artist.
of the ego” rather than the other way around. Gilbert Rose, in his monograph The Power
Eventually analysts, such as Gilbert Rose and of Form (1980), argued that artists seek through
Jerome Oremland, would elevate creativity to their art to recover lost ego states, specifically
the status of a complex developmental accom- early experiences of fusion with the ego ideal
plishment, resulting in a higher level of human as well as the archaic mother. Rose believed
experience. In keeping with the classical ana- that artists, as part of their normal capacities,
lytic perspective on the mind as a self-regulating have a greater ability to merge with reality
system, most analysts have approached the psy- and then to disengage. They immerse them-
chology of art and the artist from a primarily in- selves in an unconscious psychological process
trapsychic viewpoint, only tangentially related in which there are rhythmical disintegrative
to other people (e.g., the potential audience). and integrative states. Unlike Kris, Rose viewed
This is consistent with contemporary culture’s these regressive processes as capacities that,
myth of the artist as a solitary rebel who de- rather than just being at the service of the ego,
fies convention and critical judgment. However, have progressive creative potential in and of
166 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

themselves. He wrote regarding the artist’s cre- gent organization of the infant’s subjective
ative process: world as a template for aesthetic creation:
Later in life, a person’s ego may scan back over un- Infants are not lost at sea in a wash of abstractable
conscious memory traces of early fusion states. Un- qualities of experience. They are gradually and sys-
consciously reliving these memories of dissolving tematically ordering these elements of experience
and reforming early ego boundaries is an attempt . . . to identify self-invariant and other-invariant
at mastering the potential traumas of the original constellations. This global domain of human sub-
situation. It is often accompanied by unconscious jectivity is the ultimate reservoir that can be dipped
birth fantasies. They signify the re-establishment into for all creative experience. That domain alone
(rebirth) of ego boundaries from the fusion of pri- is concerned with the coming-into-being of organi-
mary narcissism. The reemergence from narcissis- zation that is at the heart of creating and learning.
tic fusion and the re-establishment of ego bound- (Stern, 1984: 67)
aries carry the possibility of altered, perhaps even
innovative, arrangements of the building blocks of Stern supported Rose’s argument that early
reality. (Rose, 1980: 70)
regressive ego states and experiences play a part
Rose describes this scanning back as an au- in creativity, but additionally he stressed that
tonomous capacity of the ego to which some as- it is the progressive organizational capacities
pects of reality are readily available as “mal- of the infant, not just regression, that under-
leable or plastic material to be adaptively rein- lies the creative processes in later life. Surpris-
tegrated in the light of more customary aspects ingly, Stern did not emphasize the relational
of reality” (Rose, 1980: 77). Creative imagina- context of these archaic processes. However,
tion restructures reality and deepens and ex- one would assume that these organizational ca-
pands our understanding of the world. The pacities emerge and are elaborated within an
production of art is, according to Rose, es- interpersonal context. Mature forms of creativ-
sentially an enhancement of normal capaci- ity involve the type of rematriation discussed
ties and processes by which all people test and by Rose but additionally the self-experience
master reality, “relating inner and outer in re- in relation to other, which Stern’s research
peated fusion and separations” (Rose, 1980: highlighted.
78). Ultimately the goal is an externalization of From a self-psychological perspective,
the early ego ideal that the artist has endowed Charles Kligerman (1980) explored this area
with all the perfection of the parents. “By creat- in his discussion of the motivation of the artist
ing it, and loving it and being loved by the world to recapture the experience of an archaic self-
for making it the artist is rematriated” (Rose, object tie. In his formulation Kligerman spec-
1980: 64). ulated that the prototypical artist is someone
Through this notion of rematriation, Rose who experienced consistent mirroring of his or
began to move toward a more relational view her grandiosity in childhood. Eventually this
of creativity in which the core of aesthetic expe- selfobject experience fails and the artist-to-be is
rience could be said to contain an intensely in- cast out from this state of perfection. He wrote
teractive component, the mutual engagement how the artist confronted with selfobject failure
of artist with art work and audience resulting possesses:
in the emergence of an archaic state of self- The need to regain a lost paradise – the original
experience associated with the early bond with bliss of perfection – to overcome the empty feeling
the mother. of self-depletion and to recover self-esteem. In the
Daniel Stern, the psychoanalyst and infant metapsychology of the self this would amount to
researcher, supports the notion that mature cre- healing the threatened fragmentation and restor-
ing firm self-cohesion through a merger with the
ativity involves the activation of archaic affec- selfobject – the work of art – and a bid for mir-
tive states and cross-modal perception. In the roring approval of the world. We can also add a
following quote Stern emphasized the emer- fourth current to the creative drive – the need to
Hagman: Art and Self 167

regain perfection by merging with the ideals of the and embedded and gradually, in their time emerge.
powerful selfobjects, first the parents, then later Mother-infant mutuality contains and influences
revered models who represent the highest stan- the capacity for 2) belonging to (and acceptance
dards of some great artistic tradition. (Kligerman, by) a social group, (3) finding and making meaning,
1980: 387–8) (4) acquiring a sense of competence through han-
dling and making, and (5) elaborating these mean-
For Kligerman art is linked to the recreation ings and competencies as a way of expressing or ac-
of early experiences of relationships with im- knowledging their vital importance. (Dissanayake,
portant caregivers and involves the expression 2000: 8)
and embodiment of psychological processes Dissanayake argued that the creation and
of idealization and merger associated with valuing of art is one of the most important im-
selfobject experience. This self-psychological peratives in the human need for relatedness and
perspective, while clarifying the psychological self-experience. She believed that communities
function of art and creativity in self-experience, create artistic culture as a means of enhancing
does not capture what we now know to be the mutuality, and thus group survival, and that in-
intensely relational nature of infantile experi- dividuals work within the given artistic culture
ence. In light of recent insights in infant re- to achieve experiences of meaning and personal
search and the intersubjective nature of human competence. But her idea of elaborating em-
psychological experience, some authors have phasized how meaning is not just in terms of
started to consider how the fundamental drive everyday realities; rather the artist seeks to cre-
for and experience of mutuality and intimacy ate works that possess special power, authority,
play a part in aesthetic experience and the cre- and beauty so that the importance of the work
ative process. in the experience of the community is made
In her book Art and Intimacy (2000), the an- manifest. Dissanayake argued that underlying
thropologist Ellen Dissanayake argued that the even the most idiosyncratic creative efforts is
source of art lies in the intimate mutuality of the elaboration of these archaic experiences of
mother and child, specifically in the affective self with other.
and behavioral attunement between the mem-
bers of the dyad. Referring to the burgeon-
ing field of infant research that has elucidated Creativity: Context and Process
the complex interpersonal relatedness of the
human infant, Dissanayake highlighted the af- Art and creativity serve different functions
fective interplay that characterizes the infant/ when you approach them from the vantage
parent dyad. She argued that the internaliza- point of culture, relationships, and individual
tion of these rhythms and modes becomes the subjective life. The social function of art in the
bedrock of the aesthetic forms, values, and ex- preservation and enhancement of group rela-
periences that eventually develops among peo- tions within a particular society is quite differ-
ple in a culture. In fact Dissanayake believed ent from the psychological function of art in
that one can find the intimate aesthetics of the affirmation and enhancement of the self-
mother and child in the rituals and art forms experience of the individual working artist. Yet
of larger cultures that seek to increase connec- a complete analytic aesthetic theory must ac-
tion and mutuality among members through knowledge the relationship between these dif-
the evocation of developmentally early experi- ferent domains. Although in this article we
ences of attunement. Dissanayake wrote: will emphasize the creative process, as it is
manifest in the individual artist’s experience,
It is in the inborn capacity and need for (1) mu-
tuality between mother and infant (the prototype the creative act is intelligible only from within
for intimacy and love) that four other essential ca- the culture and social milieu out of which it
pacities and psychological imperatives are enfolded arises.
168 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Art and artists are embedded in culture. Art lational and cultural meanings, which are also
cannot be conceived of outside of a cultural mi- the artist’s motive, form, and subject. In fact
lieu in which not only the forms and methods of artists may be more profoundly engaged with
art are promulgated but also the general stan- their environment and social milieu than others
dards that define quality as well. This is true are. In 1966 Heinz Kohut made this claim:
of even the most personal aspects of art. The The creative individual is less separated from his
artist in her studio relies on the tools, maps, surroundings that non-creative one; the “I-You”
and measuring instruments of outside culture, barrier is not as clearly defined. The creative in-
and although she might challenge her culture, dividual is keenly aware of these aspects of his
she cannot escape it. We take our artistic lan- surroundings that are of significance to his work
and he invests them with narcissistically idealizing
guage from culture that becomes the personal
libido. (112)
aesthetic idiom through which aesthetic expe-
rience and creativity is possible and intelligible. Although Kohut in 1966 used a classical
Artists are also embedded in a network of model of intrapsychic mental life, the artist he
relationships within which their aesthetics de- described is intensely relational. The normal
velops and is perfected. Many have noted the boundaries between self and other are fluid;
frequent occurrence of artistic dyads in which the artist engages dynamically with the world.
an artist or artists rely on dialogue with a val- He or she is not introspectively ruminating in
ued other person who functions for them as his or her own world; to the contrary, the artist’s
a muse. It is out of this intersubjective matrix self-experience is powerfully linked to the world
that many revolutionary aesthetic movements of objects and others who are also, paradoxi-
are spawned and sustained. These groupings cally, creations of the artist. In fact, extend-
of artists take from the metasubjective horizon ing Kohut’s thinking I would argue that aes-
of culture those themes, styles, values, and art thetics is fundamentally intersubjective in this
forms that are best suited to express their special sense. It involves both the externalization of
intersubjective vision. They then, through dia- self-experience intertwined with the discovery
logue, create the unique aesthetic of their gen- of the world. This is the process Dissanayake
eration. It is the cultural and relational contexts emphasized in which the rhythms and modes
that compose the working ground of individual of archaic attunement become the templates
artistic effort. for our aesthetic engagement with culture. It
In the end neither culture nor relationships is similar to the concept of projective identifi-
have the adaptability and resourcefulness of the cation and Winnicott’s transitional experience
individual artist’s creative process. This is why but includes the notion of action in which the
there are grand cultures and great movements person does something to effect the object so
in art; it is in the individual struggle of the sin- as to express subjectivity. Once an action is
gle artist that these larger processes emerge. taken altering the object in some way, it can
The artist working within, taking from and act- be said that subjectivity is externalized and the
ing against the culture and relationships within artist enters into a relationship with an object
which she lives, creates something new. It is that is now invested with qualities of the artist’s
this domain of aesthetics that is the primary own subjective experience. I am not propos-
concern of this paper. Therefore, I will empha- ing a solipsistic model of aesthetics; rather the
size the way in which self-experience (which qualities of the external object are essential (as
includes the experience of self in relationship) in the maternal–infant dialogue). In fact the
is expressed in the formal structure of the art- action taken upon the object must include the
work. However, it is crucial that I be clear that qualities of the object (e.g., its color, plasticity)
the individual intrapsychic experience of the as well as the changing relationship between
artist crystallizes out of and is constituted by re- internal and external aspects of subjectivity.
Hagman: Art and Self 169

However, once an action is taken and an as- allows us to include within the idea of art the
pect of subjectivity can be said to be expressed cosmic tapestry of the Sistine Chapel and the
in the work, this externalized subjectivity be- stark simplicity of a Rothko painting. As differ-
comes, to a greater or lesser degree, disjunctive ent as they may be, both can be said to contain
with self-experience (either because of the ef- within them some perfect expression of human
fect of the object on the form of self-expression experience.
or the rapid unfolding of self-experience of the The unfolding dialectic between artist and
artist). The artist then acts upon the subjective artwork is accompanied by the fluctuation of
objects as both internal and external to self- states of emotional tension and self-experience.
experience. There is a unique dialectic that is The sense of resonance between the exter-
established between internal and external as- nal and internal aspects of subjectivity is self-
pects of subjectivity. As a consequence of this confirming and pleasurable. Dissonance leads
dialectic, further actions are taken and the art- to varying levels of self-crisis. Aesthetic resonance
work develops toward perfection. Carl Roten- is the degree in which internal aspects of sub-
berg described this process in his 1988 paper jectivity and the external aspects of subjectivity
Selfobject Theory and the Artistic Process: concretized in the artwork are conjunctive one
. . .in the area of interaction between the artist and to the other. It is the way in which the rela-
his own work. He puts his own puzzles and men- tionships between the colors and forms of a
tal ambiguities outside himself and then reacts to painting express the organization of the artist’s
them as if they were other than his. In a sense, internal world. Fundamental to this idea is that
once the artist begins a work, he surrenders to the artwork and the artist’s subjectivity is a
it as though the work were dominating him, de-
manding a solution of its own ambiguities, and
single intersubjective field in which inner and
requiring completion. The artist experiences self- outer is from a certain point of view irrelevant.
object functioning of the artwork as alive, active, As a result of the experience of aesthetic reso-
interpretive and eventually having transformative nance, the artist feels vitalized, more cohesive,
capabilities, to the extent that inner puzzles of the directed, and alive. If the artist is successful in
artist are worked out through this externalization.
developing the work toward greater perfection,
(209)
this inner state can be quite powerful and the
Rotenberg described a unique form of in- artist’s self-experience is idealized.
tersubjectivity in which the artist engages with Self psychologists use the term selfobject expe-
an “other,” which was, in fact, once part of rience to capture this psychological state. This is
self-experience but is now external, possessing a psychological experience in which a person
through concretization in media or language enters into a relationship with an object that is
a separate subjectivity. That which has been felt to have ideal qualities (an idealized selfob-
made external in other words has been “ex- ject) and/or when one experiences the object
pressed” is the artist’s self-experience. as reflecting back ideal qualities of oneself (the
Self-expression in aesthetic experience is not grandiose self). In most cases successful creativ-
limited to emotion, affect, or even specific ideas ity involves both an idealized and grandiose
or impressions (although it may contain all of selfobject experience. The artist feels, in the
these). The form of self-expression contained presence of an ideal object that reflects back,
in artistic creation is best captured in the idea an experience of the ideal self.
of being, of conveying in the work aspects of However, in reality selfobject experience
how it feels to be the living person—who one tends to be precarious or fragile. The person in-
is. However, art is not simply a mirror, a repre- evitably experiences selfobject failure in which the
sentation of ourselves, it is a new creation that object for whatever reason is no longer experi-
evokes self-experience and embodies the self- enced as ideal or reflective of one’s grandiose
in-relation through aesthetic perfection. This self. An example of this disjunction is when an
170 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

artist begins work in the morning and finds Summary: What Art Is
a confusing jumble where the night prior he
had left a “masterpiece.” In such a case exter- As we have seen in prior sections of this arti-
nalized aspects of subjectivity are no longer in cle, the creative artist makes changes in the ob-
conjunction with self-experience and they are ject that involve the projection of his or her sub-
experienced as something other—at times as jectivity. Thus the object is the medium for an
something far removed from what is imagined objectification of feeling, thought, and fantasy.
or desired. This leads to a state of self-crisis Subjectivity is literally trans-substantiated; it re-
that can result in a permanent rupture of the mains grounded in the self but has also become
relation to the artwork or optimally to further another thing entirely. As a result of this pro-
effort to restore the selfobject tie through work. cess, the artist’s subjectivity is externalized—
It is important to remember that it is not solely the artwork is a subjective object. The artist’s
the qualities of the object that determine reso- subjectivity has a real presence in the artwork,
nance and dissonance but the relation between but it is not a mirror of the inner experience
the internal subjective world and its external- of the artist. The artwork is a creation of the
ization in the object. From the point of view of artist, based on his or her subjectivity, but not
a third party, the object may be beautiful, but equivalent to it. The act of creation, as well as
the artist may nonetheless experience a sense the movement of time, forces a disengagement
of disappointment or even failure. between the inner experience of the artist and
Successful art involves the artist’s creation of the artwork, which now exists on its own terms.
an opportunity for selfobject experience. He or When the artist studies the artwork, he recog-
she does this by externalizing some aspect of nizes it as his own (of his own flesh, if you will),
subjectivity by means of an action upon some but it is also other, apart from the self, thus it
aspect of the external world. She then enters can be known both for what it shares with the
into a dialectical relationship with these exter- artist’s mind and how it is different. It contains
nalized aspects of her won subjectivity. The in- parts of her or him, altered by the very act
tent of this dialectic is to take further action of creation. However, now the subjective object
to alter the artwork toward a goal of greater as artwork can be further transformed; thus the
expressive perfection. On the other hand the artist engages in a creative process with exter-
artist is affected by the artwork, his inner work- nalized aspects of his own subjective life. This is
ing model of the work, and emotional state what makes art distinct as a human activity; the
responsive to the object that is being created. artist works to refine and perfect the expression
Optimally, the artwork not only resonates with of his or her subjectivity as it is concretized in
inner experience but also externalizes subjec- the artwork. Hence art is a unique, evolving,
tivity in an increasingly ideal form. The rela- dialectical relationship between internal and
tionship with the ideal artwork that reflects the external aspects of the artist’s own subjectivity.
perfection of the artist is at the heart of the aes- The result of any successful creative act is a syn-
thetic selfobject experience. Heinz Kohut saw this thesis, or an aesthetic integration, concretized
as being at the heart of the creative drive. He as a new object (or a new elaboration of the
wrote: artwork). Of course this synthesis continues to
be the target of the artist’s creative attention
Creative artists may be attached to their work with until the artwork is finished. Optimally, with
the intensity of an addiction and they try to control a skilled and experienced artist, this dialectic
and shape it with forces and for purposes that be-
long to narcissistically experienced world. They are
leads to an increasingly refined and perfected
attempting to re-create a perfection that formerly articulation of subjective experience—human
was directly an attribute of their own. (Kohut, 1976: life expressed at the most exquisite level. When
115) this creative work is at its best and the artist’s
Hagman: Art and Self 171

efforts are most successful, the result is a thing rience of having created something of aesthetic
of beauty. perfection, of beauty. I believe that this can
explain the frequent phenomenon (especially
within the community of modern artists) of the
Psychopathology and Creativity psychotic or character-disordered artist who,
in the midst of a tormented and disrupted life,
Artistic creativity is a manner of thinking, of successfully organizes him or herself around a
feeling, of being within a medium and symbolic productive and aesthetically successful career
language of forms. It is a dialectical process as an artist.
in which the artist alters the medium, infuses The self psychologist Charles Kligerman
objects with subjectivity, and engages the new claimed that the artist idealizes beauty and that
subjective object (both actively and psychically). “by and large the artist is concerned with ex-
Thus artistic creativity is not just something the hibiting a beauty that was originally his own
artist does, a pastime or occupation, it is a way (or that of the idealized maternal selfobject)”
of being in the world and of experiencing one’s (1980: 386). It is the experience of perfection
inner and outer life. Like breath or sight, the that is at the heart of the sense of beauty. Beauty
creative act is inseparable from self and, over is an invariant characteristic of anything that
time and effort, it becomes the artist’s primary is experienced as ideal. We all value and seek
medium of self-experience, and self-in-relation beauty as an opportunity for selfobject expe-
to the world, and other people. rience. When we are in the presence of some-
The fact that artistic creativity can provide thing beautiful, we are enlivened, we feel whole
an opportunity for autonomous, self-referential and happy. Beauty is a special element in the
selfobject experiences explains why artistic cre- aesthetic experience in which the investment of
ativity and an artistic career can be attractive to reality with subjectivity creates an experience of
people with histories of insecure or traumatic that reality as both ideal and harmonious with
attachment. A review of the lives of many great our inner life (see also Lee, 1947, 1948, 1950;
artists (especially in modern times) reveals that Hagman, 2001, 2005). George Santayana de-
many of them had childhoods in which ad- scribed a similar experience:
equate parenting was absent. Some of these The sense of beauty is the harmony between our
artists may in fact have disrupted or deficient nature and our experience. When our senses and
aesthetic development, which may contribute imagination find what they crave, when the world
to depression and self-disregulation in adult- so shapes itself or so moulds the mind that the
hood. However, what if these people possess correspondence between them is perfect, then per-
ception is pleasure, and existence needs no apology.
artistic talent? What if he or she discovers the
(1896: 269)
possibility of using the talent to bring about
positive aesthetic experiences—within the lim- Santayana described what he believed char-
ited scope of creative work—and that work acterized the general human experience of
provides the opportunity for selfobject experi- beauty that could occur spontaneously and
ences otherwise until then unavailable; for this without obvious effort. For the artist this ex-
self-disordered person, the creation of artwork perience is something that he or she seeks to
may serve as a powerful defensive or compen- bring about through his or her own creative
satory function—a longed for realization of ar- efforts. While in general artists do not make the
chaic selfobject needs. In the most successful creation of beauty a conscious goal, nonetheless
instances, the artist may achieve an aesthetic a characteristic of all successful artistic efforts is
experience of such perfection and emotional that the result evokes the experience of beauty
satisfaction that, at least temporarily, he or she that transcends the artist’s intention. Given this,
feels restored, whole, and vital. This is the expe- it makes sense to say that beauty can never be
172 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

produced (except by imitation) but only evoked beauty through the psychoanalytic lenses, we
as a result of the pursuit of perfection and the see in it man’s search for perfection, transcen-
memory of a lost ideal. Jacques Maritain, in dence, and hope.
his monograph Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry
(1953), stated: “Art engenders beauty, it does
not produce beauty as an object or a thing con- Conflicts of Interest
tained in a genus.” In the same work Maritain The author declares no conflicts of interest.
quotes the artist Robert Henri, “Things are not
done beautifully. The beauty is an integral part
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