CHAOS AND CONTROL. A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Unfolding Creative Minds

Author: Safan-Gerard. Desy
Country: Los Angeles
Language: English
Year Published: 2018
No. of pages: 280
Illustrations: 128 Color Illustrations. 2 B&W Illustrations.
Binding: Hardbound
Size: 9”x 6”
Weight: 2.00
ISBN: 9781782202943
Biblio/Bio: Index. Bibl.
Code: 7149

Price: $49.50

This book explores the role of chaos and control in the creative process as well as the difference between talent and creativity. Part One explores some of the common biases and pitfalls in the analysis of creative people, the role of the accidental in creative work, the nature of creative blocks, passion and its absence, as well as the problem of being able to exercise one’s freedom. The author describes the special needs of creative patients, the common problems arising in therapy, their solutions, and, most importantly, the analyst’s distinctive role when dealing with such patients. She also examines how narcissism, neurosis, and psychosis affect creative work. Part Two reinforces the themes of the first part by describing the process and history of the author’s own creative path. These are mostly autobiographical accounts of her overall emotional relationship to the arts, reinforcing the themes presented in Part One: the significance of visual artwork; the role of destructiveness; the importance of love and hate during creative work; the role of mistakes, and the special role of music in the author’s paintings based on Pierre Boulez’s music as well as in her overall oeuvre. The chapter entitled “Music: My First Love” contains an account of the creation of her series of nine paintings based on Le marteau sans maître by Pierre Boulez, which has been posted on Karnac’s blog Karnacology.