Making interest matter — an analysis of practice in psychoanalysis and art

Abstract

This paper explores the similarity between the practice of art and the practice of the psychotherapist. Both demand a commitment to risk and a high tolerance of excitement. The artist goes into his studio and isn't sure what will happen. In the same way the therapist enters the consulting room and something completely unexpected happens. Both artists and therapists have been very highly trained but this training has to be put to one side, at least at the conscious level, for that training to be effective. This paper challenges the idea that artists are daydreamers, a charge which psychoanalysts have frequently leveled at them. The paper makes use of the early stages of psychosexual development, and in particular explores the role of orality and anality in the creative process. It is only by turning attention to the process that we can understand the result.

Keywords:

• interest
• practice
• dream-work
• image
• symbol
• disturbance