The Knowable Future: A Psychology of Forecasting and Prophecy by David Loye (review)

Books 159 Myth, Creativity, Psychoanalysis: Essays in Honor of Harry Slochower. Maynard Solomon, ed. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1978. 220 pp $10.95. Psychoanalysis, Creativity , and Literature: A French-American Inquiry. Alan Roland , ed. Columbia University Press, New York, 1978.308 pp. $25.00. Reviewed by D. N. Perkins' The first book is a tribute to Harry Slochower, journal editor, author of the 1970 Mythopoesis and, in 1952, a victim in the U.S.A. of discrimination against academics suspected of leftist sympathies. In an unusual step, several of the first essays are devoted to biographical reminiscences of Slochower's activities -especially his gifted teaching-and these provide an interesting aspect to the book, since such books so often have so little about the person they honor. There are 20 essays on a variety of themes, for instance the artist as an audacious world-maker, Nietzsche as an example of a psychopathological creative personality, the symbolism in Shakespeare's 'Othello', Of particular interest to those concerned with the visual arts are an essay by Morris Dorsky on the reception of Ben Shabo's 'Sacco and Vanzetti' (1932) sequence of pictures on their noted trial in the U.S.A. and an essay by Richard and Editha Sterba on the shaping of Michelangelo's personality and its expression in his work. Two classic concerns of psychoanalysts as they bear on creativity and the arts appear at various points throughout the essays. The relationship between creativity and psychopathology receives several mentions, some writers espousing a strong.. link, while others decrying the psychoanalytic tradition for too often picking cases. The latter view, the sounder one in my judgment, suggests that no systematic relationship between creativity and psychopathology exists but that, in many significant individual cases, it is illuminating to map the ways individual makers' pathologies have influenced their work. The second concern often explicitly addressed is the risk of 'reading in' a psychoanalytic interpretation without sufficient evidence. Here, several practitioners criticize their discipline for going too far. Although some readers may feel that certain of the interpretations presented in this book still go too far, on the whole the articles are clear and reasonably prudent. One gains the impression of thoughtful people applying a tradition of inquiry with some care. While the psychoanalytic perspective may not be the best source of illumination concerning the intricacies of art and artistic creativity, readers can find in this book reasonable and readable examples of what it has to offer. The second book takes as its mission the bridging of two cultures and two perspectives on psychoanalysis in relation to creativity. The beginning articles provide a useful context with sketches of French and USAmerican psychoanalysis that underscore the limitations of each. The French tradition, readers learn, is orthodox, theoretical, intellectually aware and somewhat detached from patients. The tradition in the U.S.A. is medically oriented and largely controlled by and limited to the medical establishment, with comparatively little room for individuals from other disciplines to receive psychoanalytic training and attempt cross-fertilizations. The 16 articles range over a variety of themes, as in the first book, but some differences can be noted. First of all, as the title suggests, only the literary arts are addressed, including works and personalities of such authors as Clifford Odets, Proust, Sartre and Pirandello. For another contrast, the range of sensibleness in this book is much larger. While some authors of the articles are cautious and probing, others are virtually unintelligible in their jargon and elevated 'literary' styles. Still other authors risk the worst excesses of unfounded psychoanalytic speculating. It should not be thought that most of the offerings deserve this negative judgment, but the mix is fairly even and the contrast of judicious and injudicious thinking within the same cover remarkable. In summary, readers curious about what contemporary psychoanalysts have to say concerning creativity and its products will find an informative range of examples and view- 'Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. points in either ofthese books. The first might be picked for its authors' general thoughtfulness and a couple of offerings on the visual arts, the second because it reveals the...