|
The erotic life of the great creators
Júlio Campos M.D.
Summary
This paper aims to present some conclusions of research concerning the erotic life of some of the great creators of humanity. One of our conclusions is that these creators moved away from the direct genital 'via' commonly persued by ordinary people, for other pleasures, equally strong. Eroticism, for the great creators is connected, primarily, to the creative process in itself. We are proposing the term pleasure of working through for this eroticism in their daily work and the term epistemological orgasm for the final pleasure when the work is finished.
It is important to note that we observed a great similarity between the pleasures derived by the artists in their work with Freud and Theodor Reik's concepts of 'Uncanny' (Unheimlich, in German) and 'surprise'.
KEY-WORDS - Creative Process - Erotism - Immortality - Sinergy
The ideas below are derived from the results of research that we, with a group of six colleagues ( * ), performed systematically over the last four years. We have attempted to unveil the paths trodden by some of the great creators of humanity. Like Freud said of Salvador Dali, some people possess a richness which captures our attention and stimulates curiosity. Furthermore, they are masters (or why not call them slaves?) of a strange force which impels them to scrutinize life in a manner completely different from that of most surrounding neighbours. To study them is certainly a pleasure. To understand them, or even learn from them, may become an exquisite privilege.
The intention of this paper is to expand some ideas on aspects of the evolutionary development through to the erotic life of artists whose profiles steadily took shape during the course of our meetings. We will not consider psychopathological aspects in that it's characteristics can be found in all people. Also, with the idea that the creative side of self can be actived with relative independence from the other neurotic and psychotic sides. Winnicott introduces us to the concept : "... the artist has the ability and courage to be in contact with the primitive processes which the neurotic person cannot tolerate to reach and that healthy people may let pass to their own personal impoverishment". He relates these basic processes to be faced and assimilated with the awareness of death and the basic questions around the primal scene, skills developed based on the possibility of being alone and bringing to autoeroticism the excitement caused by the idea of parents having intercourse. We could say, a creative primal scene.
This particular style that, as a consequence brings such great depth and strength to creators, in the cases studied, proved to be the product of a number of positive attributes of these people's character, and here the rhythm and passionate intensity with which they approach what is nuclear to their lives should be stressed. Here follow some examples among the many available. Chesterton says: "If you look at something 999 times, you are perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you run the amazing risk of seeing it for the first time." It is said that Picasso was asked by Gertrude Stein, to paint her portrait. They worked for 80 sessions. At the end of this time her face was still missing. This detail was only completed, with impressive speed, in the absence of the model, months later. Some friends of the woman portrayed were not satisfied and questioned the result. Picasso, with the confidence typical of him, is supposed to have said : "She does not look like the portrait, but she will." And so it was. Ten years on, Gertrude Stein looked exactly like the portrait. It is said of him that "He had the skill of painting in a manner more realistic than reality." Another example could be given of observations made of the poet George Oppen: "He has a large eye, precise and irreducible. If you have never seen what he sees it is because you have not sat quietly long enough and looked as firmly as he does."
( * ) Adriana Teixeira, Denise Souza, Ivete Rian, Magda Barbieri Walz, Maria da Graça Motta, Maurício Marx e Silva.
This method of allowing oneself to soak in the surroundings of an object until its essence is captured, and then reconstructing it in oneself, used since time immemorial by artists, was adapted by Freud to science, at the beginning of the century, revolutionizing means of investigation. As everybody knows, our illustrious colleague advocated that it was only through evenly fluctuating attention, suspending as completely as possible criticisms and prejudices of all kinds, and not paying attention to any particular aspect of the patient's discourse or appearance, that the analyst would be able to apprehend his reality. His method was inspired on a procedure worked out by a physician, senator and Italian art expert called Giovanni Morelli, developed to correct errors of authenticity in the works of classic painters and sculptors. This formula is philosophically similar to that provided by Arthur Conan Doyle for our dear Sherlock Holmes. Freud, in his article written in 1919, "Das Unheimliche", (The Uncanny in English) offers us a practical demonstration of his procedure. His intention is to prove that some highly talented writers are able to bring the reader, subtly but inexorably to an expected-unexpected end, full of profound and revealing contents. He says that, at the end of the story when the artist's goal is attained the reader has a feeling of "Unheimlich" (which, in German means strange, extraordinary, sinister and, at the same time, something very familiar). Theodor Reik, who helped Freud perform the bibliographical research which provides the foundation for this work, was responsible for the further developments of the concept when, in the 1930s , he wrote his article on "surprise". Under the name of "Unheimliche" and "surprise", they attempt to describe one's feelings when meeting the unconscious. We would add to this, the feelings at the culmination of the creative act, because it appears to us that although Freud and Reik did not consider the possibility, they were producing a general theory on creativity. However, they were so busy generating correct and profound interpretations, that they did not stop to think whence and how correct and profound interpretations are generated.
A reflection that we find pertinent at this point concerns the reasons that would make one person allow himself to soak in the experiences of another, when, as we know, to penetrate profoundly into anything is to be subjected to strong emotions that inevitably produce much anxiety. What would make Picasso paint with such meticulous perception? Why would a writer look 1000 times at the same thing? Or why would a poet fix his look on one particular object? And, why are we analysts? What leads us to listen to a person for hours and hours while most of our common healthy acquaintances have some misgivings about hearing misfortunes? The answer to these questions places us at the heart of the theme of eroticism because, it appears to us that both artists and good psychoanalysts are moved by the intense pleasure produced by sublimatory activity. And it is such an intense pleasure that Conan Doyle could release Sherlock Holmes from the embraces of cocaine. An immense pleasure at understanding, elucidating and apprehending reality. It is certainly pleasure that makes Chesterton look 999 times, Picasso to require 80 settings to paint a portrait or the pshychoanalyst to perform 200 annual sessions of a therapy. The term we found most appropriate for this pleasure is the pleasure of working through ( * ), or to put it in another way the pursuit of means appropriate to achieving an end, in that these means already constitute pleasure in themselves.
There is also a second type of eroticism involved in the act of sublimation. It is related to the thousandth time we can look in one particular direction, the finalization of a picture, or the moment that we are confronted with that
( * ) This term was suggested by Dr. David Maldavsky.
something uncanny and surprising. We find this pleasure easier to identify, better known and truly intense. And, due to its intense resemblance to the sexual act, precisely where the daily pleasures of working through act as preliminaries to coitus, we think it fair to call it epistemological orgasm. And, on some occasions, these are activities which may become the only intense pleasures of life. As Freud said, referring to Leonardo da Vinci, or maybe to himself: "Here investigation becomes a sexual activity, often the only one, and the feeling that comes from settling things in one's mind and explaining them replaces sexual satisfaction".
Over the years, other efforts were added to Freud's attempt to explain the great development of perceptive skills in some people. One of them was by Reik himself, when he looked at the aptitudes required to become a good analyst, and linked them to the constitution of a solidly structured self which would be based on satisfactory primary object relations, especially to the mother of the first infancy. With a certain similarity to the concept of "second sight" of Madeleine and Willy Baranger, Reik calls "third ear" the analyst's capacity of understanding what is said "between words and in silences". This is a thought similar to that of Winnicott when he speaks of the importance of "holding", of playing in children and establishing the transitional space to a happy constitution of self. Or of Bion with the concept of "psychoanalytic function of personality", based on a mother-child relationship in which "reverie" is the moving force, allowing the child to reach out far in its ability to think.
But it was Henrique Honigsztein, in our opinion, who felicitously conceived the theory which has the greatest depth and elaboration. Honigsztein says that "...the 'holding' which makes the creator possible is not Winnicott's 'good enough', which leads to emotional development within normality. It would be 'holding' in which there would be excess libido present from a mother who, mostly disconnecting herself from her surroundings, donates herself to her baby, and that the baby responds with similar strength. At any movement of anguish the baby would find a continent mother ... In the creator, these anxieties would be contained, and the painful experiences retarded". Honigztein termed this propitious set of experiences rhythmic nucleus. These are ideas similar to those of Piera Aulagnier, when she considers that the "points of anchorage" are the nodes on which the qualities of human beings are supported, likeness symptoms are supported on the fixation points of the complementary series.
Our investigation into the great creators, in conjunction with our daily observations in our consulting rooms, convinced us of the existence of this indestructible bond between the mother and this child. There were reiterated indications which led us to think that very talented people were children intensely or even desperately desired and loved by mothers who felt especially fulfilled and pleased at having them. ( * ) Our only disagreement with the authors mentioned is that they establish the foundation of the rhythmic nucleus after birth. In our research we often found that the great creators had this profound connection which is already clearly seen in the fetal period and, in some cases, even previous to conception. We think it to be a concept similar to that of Christopher Bollas when he speaks about the "aesthetic moment", conceived by him as a "strange psychosomatic fusion previous to the establishment of self".
There are several consequences of the presence of the rhythmic nucleus thus founded, principally that which refers to the permeability with the internal world
( * ) See insert for the Genegram of Vincent van Gogh.
and alert consciousness with their own life history. The expression synergy with the unconscious is more appropriate to transmit what we want. Especially since this synergy, resulting from the close, profound bond to the mother, causes an indelible impression on the environment in which this person moves and makes him exert an extraordinary effect of fascination over others. It is like a magnet, especially at the times of greatest creativity. We can say that the others want them in the same intensity that they were desired by their mothers. We find this "passion" in all cases studied. A typical example could be that of Dali, when he had just arrived in Paris. He was very young, completely unknown and with few works under his arm, but he managed to be received, maintained and pampered by the most prominent intellectuals of the time. Furthermore, Gala, the wife of the most important of them, Paul Eluard, the inspiring muse of the surrealist movement, who headed the vanguard of the thinking world, left her husband and daughter to follow him, God only knows why, because the painter, practically, did not have a home or food. And it does not appear to have been an uncontrollable sexual attraction, which might have explained a lot, because this part of life does not seem to have exercised a great attraction to Dali. It was something else that attracted Gala. For Dali, who had been accustomed, from early on, to be caressed, applauded and treated as a genius by his family, it was not difficult to absorb this situation.Very much the contrary. When the atmosphere was not propitious for him, with another kind of protagonist taking over the stage, the Nazis, he transplanted himself to the United States, a place where his production and extravagances would be appreciated with due respect.
We could conclude by saying that the two routes to sexual satisfaction, the direct and the sublimated, have also developments, characteristics, preliminary pleasures and final orgasms which follow a certain similarity. However, there are still two surprises within them: they are also the two existing routes to reach imortality. The sexual, is the garden variety route, the very well known one of procreating, conceiving children of blood, flesh and ideas, who will perpetuate our existence, often ad infinitum. But there is the indirect route, much more modern in the philogenetic sense, of becoming imortal: creating universal works, creating the children of the spirit, where the prototypical experiences and feelings of mankind are molded. We could sum it up by saying that the sexual orgasm engenders the immortality of the body, whereas the epistemological orgasm engenders immortality of the soul. And it was a surprise to perceive that a significant number of great creators of all times, whom we studied, chose the second route, excluding the first. In other words, they dedicated themselves to producing immortal works, but no children.
Thus, possibly, our close and dear Sigmund Freud may be more than an example, since he had the privilege of travelling down both routes: several children and many works. Furthermore, he received from the hands of men, thanks to their pleasures in working through, the greatest prize for German literary personalities and, immortality was bestowed on him by the gods, for his capacity to support profound epistemological orgasms. In this happy circumstance, there occurred what he himself indicated in "Civilization and its Discontents": "Destiny then cannot do much against you".
jcampos@vanet.com.br
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1- AULAGNIER, P. (1979) Los destinos del placer. Buenos Aires, Ed. Paidós, 1994.
2- AUSTER, P. (1992) A Arte da Fome. Rio de Janeiro, Livraria José Olimpo, 1996.
3- BOLLAS, C. (1987) A sombra do objeto. Rio de Janeiro, Imago Ed., 1992.
4- BARANGER, M.; BARANGER, W (1961) Problemas del campo analítico. Buenos Aires, Ed. Kargiemam, 1969.
5- BERGER, J. (1965) Exito y fracasso de Picasso. Madrid, Ed. Debate, 1990.
6- BLEANDONU, G. (1990) Wilfred R. Bion. A vida e a obra. Rio de Janeiro, Imago Ed., 1993.
7- BION, W. (1965) As transformações. Rio de Janeiro, Imago Ed., 1991.
8- GINZBURG, C. in ECO, U.; SEBEOK, T. (1983) El signo de los tres. Barcelona, Ed.Lumen, 1989.
9- FREUD, S. (1910) Leonardo da Vinci e uma Lembrança da sua Infância. E.S.B. (Edição Standard Brasileira), XI.
10- --------- (1919) O "estranho". E.S.B. (Edição Standard Brasileira), XVII.
11- --------- (1929) O mal-estar na civilização. E.S.B. (Edição Standard Brasileira), XXI.
12- --------- Carta a S. Zweig de 20 de julho de 1938.
13- HONIGSZTEJN, H. (1990) A psicologia da criação. Rio de Janeiro, Imago Ed., 1990.
14- MELTZER, D. (1991) A Apreensão de Belo. Rio de Janeiro. Imago Ed., 1994.
15- PIONTELLI, A. (1992) De feto a criança. Rio de Janeiro, Imago Ed., 1995.
16- RASCOVSKY, A (1960) El Psiquismo Fetal. Buenos Aires, Ed. Paidós, 1977.
17- REIK, T. (1949) The inner experience of a psychoanalyst.London, Ed.George Allen & Unwin.
18- ------- (s.a.) Como se llega a ser psicólogo. Buenos Aires, Biblioteca de Psicoanalisis, 1945.
19- RUBIN, W. (1996) Picasso and Portraiture. MoMA, New York, 1996.
20- WINNICOTT, D. (1971) Realidad y juego. Barcelona, Ed. Gedisa, 1979.
21- ------- (1958) O ambiente e os processos de maturação. Porto Alegre, Ed. Artes Médicas, 1982.
|
|
