In the fourth volume of his Collected Papers 1925 he stated this hypothesis in more detail: The artist is originally a man who turns from reality because he cannot come to terms with the demand for the renunciation of instinctual satisfaction as it is first made, and who then in phantasy-life allows full play to his erotic and ambitious wishes. But he finds a way of return from this world of phantasy back to reality. With his special gifts he molds his phantasies into a new kind of reality, and men concede them a justification as valuable reflections of actual life.
In his consideration of an actual artist, Leonardo da Vinci, Freud (1947) held that this painter's genius resulted from "his particular tendency to repress his impulses and, second, his extraordinary ability to sublimate the primitive impulses."
This psychoanalytical theory of sexual sublimation and art was not entirely original with Freud, since several poets and novelists had outlined similar views previously, and Otto Weininger (1906), a contemporary of Freud, independently arrived at the view that art is a sublimation of Eros and that all genius stems from essentially erotic motives, with the artist's love being directed toward the universe and eternal values instead of toward members of the other sex (Klein, 1949). But Freud's version of the sublimation theory quickly won out over all similar views, and it soon had scores of adherents. Ella Sharpe (1950, p. 126) dogmatically stated that "sublimation and civilization are mutually inclusive terms." Lionel Goitein (1948) claimed that "art is possibly the only area for a conflict-ridden humanity to use today, a sublimation for repressed bewilderment and frustrated desire." Emil Gutheil (1951) pointed out that there is a cl se connection between the daydream and a work of art. And Ernest Junes. 1951), in his analysis of the work of Andrea del Sarto, insisted that this artist never fulfilled himself and did not reach the heights as an artist because he shared a domestic existence with his wife, Lucrezia, thus preventing himself from truly sublimating his repre sed sex drives. The Freudian theory that art originates in sexual sublimation has so completely swept the field of psychology, literature, and esthetics that many non-Freudians have vociferously endorsed it-sometimes in enthusiastic ways of
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which Freud himself might not have completely approved. The noted gynecologist and sexologist, Robert L. Dickinson (1932), held that sexual desire could easily be diverted into what he called the Third Direction, which included work, amusement, asceticism, illness, art, etc. The academic psychologist, Herbert S. Langfeld (1950), thought that art was an escape to a world of so-called unreality, where the artist could have full power over his environment; and that it was in this world of his own making that he solved his inner problems. The social historian, J. D. Unwin (1934), upheld the extreme view that civilization depends almost entirely on sexual repression and that where people are sexually free their culture never matures or deteriorates.
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Several correlates to the Freudian position on sex and art may be particularly noted. The first of these is that the main source of artistic productivity is the artist's unconscious mind Groddeck, 1951; Neumann, 1959). In its most general form, this theory again predates Freud and his followers; but classical psychoanalysis not only posits an unconscious from which artistic productions are drawn, but also the individual's coping with, defending himself against, and finally mastering his unconscious thoughts and feelings-particularly his unconscious sex and aggressive urges. As Bychowski (1947, p. 56) states, "In a really great artist the mastery of technique is but an expression of the mastery of the unconscious material achieved by the ego."
The second correlate of the Freudian theory of art and sex sublimation is that the material the artist dredges up from his unconscious mind and employs in his work is largely repressed material-it has once been conscious and has been censored and squelched, by the ego (or superego) because the artist is ashamed of or frightened by it. Artistic work, Marcuse (1955) points out, although opposed to civilization is at the same time bound to it by increasing instinctual repression. And just as we have repressed childish ways of thinking, Weiss (1947) insists, we have also repressed childish ways of perceiving and representing; and it is these latter repressions which are somehow employed by the artist (and which remain unavailable to nonartistic individuals).
A third corollary of the Freudian position on art and sex is that not merely repressed sex drives are necessary for artistic creativeness, but repressed feelings of love and hate as well. As might well be expected, the classical psychoanalysts place Oedipal strivings, and the conflicts to which these strivings lead, at the core of their theory of art. According to Schneider (1954), the artist achieves his power to identify with his characters and his themes from his early identifications with and subsequent transference relations with his parents. Ör, in Ella Sharpe's more concrete exposition (1950, p. 135): "Art is a sublimation rooted in the primal identification with the parents. That identification is a magical incorporation of the parents, a psychical happening which runs parallel to what has been for long ages repressed, i.e., actual cannibalism. The artist externalizes his incorporation of the hostile parent into a work of art. He thus makes, controls his power over his introjected image or images." Because of the Oedipal foundations of artas Kris (1952), Schneider (1954), and Tarachow (1949) indicate-the artist must fundamentally be a communicating, social person. By conquering his Oedipal conflicts he learns to love himself and his work and to want to communicate productively with others;
A fourth concomitant of the Freudian view of art and sex sublimation is that an economy of psychic energy is involved in artistic creativity. According to Freud (1947), the energy that might be used for artistic production is usually bound by sexual repression; but if the artist is endowed with a certain flexibility of repression this energy can be freed for the work of artistic transformation from the unconscious to the conscious. The artist thus knows how to find his way back to reality from the world of private phantasy.
Joseph Weiss (1947) has gone beyond Freud himself in this connection and has claimed that just as wit, according to classical psychoanalysis, is the economy of expenditure of psychic energy in inhibition, formal esthetic pleasure is the economy of expenditure of psychic energy in perception. In Weiss' own words (1947, pp. 396-397): "When the perception of a picture causes a comparison with a more economic treatment of the same material, psychic energy
is not saved but wasted, and a disagreeable feeling is produced. Thus if two colors are too similar, they can be perceived easily neither as one color nor as two separate colors. The resulting increase in psychic work causes displeasure and we say the col clash.”
A final correlate of the Freudian theory of art and sex sublimation that we shall consider here is the view that art and neurosis are integrally intertwined and that only out of dealing with his own underlying anxiety and guilt can the artist be creative. A feeling of calm, Sachs (1942) states, is a prerequisite to the creation or appreciation of beauty; but calm is only achieved by one's overcoming one's basic hostility and anxiety. The artist, moreover, never really conquers his underlying neurosis, but keeps producing his work as a continual defense against his still-existing disturbance. In Tarachow's words (1949, pp. 224-225): "The artistic creation of beauty is also a relief, but from the intolerable tension of the fear and aggression of others.... A motive in the crea tion of beauty is anxiety produced by a feared and hated object with whom the artist must become reconciled." Ella Sharpe (1950, p. 127) concurs: "Art rises to its supreme height only when it performs a service-first for the artist and unconsciously for ourselves-that it did in ancient times. That service is a magical reassurance." Lee (1947) agrees that an artistic work represents an atonement for the artist's destructive rage against objects and also a means of self-therapy for his neurotic depression, the depression being a requisite for artistic creation.
Ótto Rank (1932, 1950) gave considerable thought to the relationship of art and neurosis and took a somewhat more optimistic view of the artist's ability to resolve his own fundamental disturbance through his creative efforts. Like the Freudians, Rank felt that the forming of unconscious phantasy is essential to artistic creation; and that in his phantasy the artist attempts to solve his own deepest problems. The neurotic and the artist thus have a fundamental pomt in common-they have both committed themselves to the pain of separation from the herd, from unreflective incorporation of the views of their parents and of society. But the artist, through his work, is able to achieve in-
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