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The Artist and Psycho-analysis .. ~ _ _ ~h As I am no psychologist, my presumption in addressing a gathering of professional psychologists seems to call for apology. My defence is that of late years you have managed to make yourselves so interesting to the world at large that you have inevitably attracted the attention of outsiders. You have let off too many fireworks in your back garden to wonder that strangers have been looking over the wall. Before the advent of Dr. Freud you worked for so long in a tranquil and almost deserted solitude that this invasion of your privacy may be a strange and disturbing experience. As an artist let me assure you that you will get accustomed to it, for we artists have always been absurdly interesting to the outside world, and are, a good many of us, by no means averse from these self-invited guests in our workshops. And to be perfectly frank psychologists are the latest disturbers of our rest and threaten to be not the least importunate. That is one reason why I thought it might be profitable ifwe arranged together the terms on which you would be not only admitted, but welcomed . Those terms are very simple, they consist of one clause, namely, that before you tell us what we are doing and why we do it, we think you should take the trouble to understand what we think we are doing and why we think we do it. I know how impatient doctors are while the patient is going through his symptoms but he does generally make that concession to human nature. If after that, you can show us that we have got a mistaken notion of our own activities, that we have unconsciously rationalized them and in doing so disguised their true significance, we will listen in all humility. What I have to suggest to you to-night is rather complicated. I will therefore begin by summarizing briefly my main ideas. 1. The words art and artist are simple enough, but alas they have no From The Artist and Psycho-analysis (Hogarth Press, 1924). Originally a paper read to the British Psychological Society. The Artist and Psycho-analysis I25 sharply defined usage. Artists are a group of people of very different temperments and some of them are actuated by quite different motives, and exercise quite different psychical activities, from others. 2. I believe that two distinct aims and activities have got classed together under the word art, and that the word artist is used oftwo distinct groups of men. One ofthese groups into which I would divide artists is mainlypreoccupied with creating a fantasy-world in which the fulfilment of wishes is realized. The other is concerned with the contemplation offormal relations. I believe this latter activity to be as much detached from the instinctive life as any human activity that we know; to be in that respect on a par with science. I consider this latter the distinctive esthetic activity. I admit that to some extent these two aims may both appear in any given work ofart but I believe them to be fundamentally different, if not in their origins, at least in their functions. To begin with let us get clear about the question of origins. No doubt the question of the origin of any phenomenon is of great interest and importance, but it must always be borne in mind that the discovery of the origin is not an explanation ofthe phenomenon. Origins do not necessarily explain functions. The alimentary canal and the brain both have their origin in the epithelial tissue, but one would give an enquirer a strange idea ofthe functional importance ofthe brain in the economy ofthe body ifone only stated that it was originally part of the skin. So if you were to prove that art originated in the sexual feelings of man, that might be a very important and interesting discovery, but it would be no explanation of the significance of art for human life. Not what an organ came from, but what it has come to be, is the most important consideration, though what it came from, and the path it has taken in its progress, may throw a light on what it really is. As an instance take the case oflanguage. Dr. Freud in his lectures quotes a theory oflanguage which I am not qualified to criticize or approve but which sounds to me plausibleit is that when men began to...

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