Psycho-Analysis and the Artist (1928)

Abstract

This is a crucial theoretical paper in the view of early psychoanalytic research on art, in which Ernest Jones seeks to organize in an original and enhanced synthesis the aesthetic thought of Freud of that period. For the contemporary reader, informed of developments in the so-called psychoanalysis of art, the essay, despite the exemplary clarity and methodological rigor, certainly not present new or unexpected implications, but if one takes into account the date of publication (l928), the vast breath of this synthesis, the problematic theoretical approach, its importance is obvious. Jones, while proving a perfect follower of Freud's ideas, is able to coordinate in a comprehensive and uniform system the scattered master’s observations on the problem of the art, developing also that insights, which he did not intimately linked to aesthetic problems, but that are able to enrich and supplement its interpretation of art.