Alan Roland is both a highly respected psychoanalyst and an exhibiting artist, giving him a fresh perspective on psychoanalytic studies of art and the artist. Here he argues for an interdisciplinary integration of psychoanalysis with art and artistic criticism, and against the reductionism of applied psychoanalysis.
The first part of the book draws on the author's clinical work with career artists to examine the issues involved in embarking on an artistic career. He also explores the artistic process and the concept of the artistic self in terms of self-objects and transformational objects.
Part two explores the relationship between dreams and art, and challenges the basic assumption of applied psychoanalysis that the work of art is a dream or daydream expressed within a formal aesthetic framework. This section also includes important insights on working clinically with dreams.
The final part focuses on psychoanalytic literary criticism and illustrates the benefits that can ensue from interdisciplinary collaboration.
Written in an accessible, non-technical style, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in psychoanalytic criticism or psychoanalytical theories of dreams and creativity. It will also prove a useful aid to clinicians working with serious artists or making use of dreams in psychoanalytic work.
