According to Freudian theory, creative work arises out of unfulfilled needs, which usually stem from childhood (see Box 4.8 in Ch. 4 of the course textbook). Do you agree with this belief or not? Explain your answer. What are some strategies or techniques that could enhance a person’s creativity? Provide several examples.
Box 4.8Freudian Concepts Used in Studies of CreativityThere is small irony in Freud’s confession that “the nature of artistic attainment is psychoanalytically inaccessible to us,” and even more pointedly, “before creativity, the psychoanalyst must lay down his arms” (both from Gardner 1993a, p. 24). Freud rarely wrote about creativity, though he did devote time to art, wit, and humor. The irony is that many of his ideas, in addition to primary and secondary process, are used in studies of creativity.Freud did write about poetry and art. He concluded that sublimation was often a motivation for creative work. Sublimation occurs when an individual finds socially acceptable expression for unconscious needs and desires.Catharsis may assist in the relief of psychic tension. Csikszentmihalyi (1988a), for example, distinguished between cathartic originality, which is artwork motivated by current discomforts, and abreactive originality, which uses symbolism and perhaps a rearrangement of repressed traumatic experience to successfully relieve tension.Freudian theory is apparent in Kris’ (1950) hypothesis of regression in the service of the ego. Simplifying some, this occurs when a creator taps his or her instinctual and unconscious drives and uses them as a source of information. Because this kind of information is not directed at reality it can offer a very spontaneous and unique perspective. This in turn can lead an individual to creative insights. Of course it is a double-edged sword in that an individual might have easy access to such information, but at the same time that information can elicit anxiety and disturbance (Rothenberg 1990).Diaz de Chumaceiro (1996) related Freud’s theory to poetry, which is of course an unambiguously creative domain.Many others have tied psychoanalytic theory to the arts (e.g., Fine 1990, chapter 10), and of course the same argument applies here that art is unambiguously creative.Niederland (1973) applied the psychoanalytic perspective on creativity specifically to human aging. This may be one of the more timely applications of the psychoanalytic perspective, given the demographic trends in the United States and the so-called “graying of America” (e.g., Preston 1984).
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