Art Making: A Streetcar Named Desire

Introduction

This research paper explores art making as a psychoanalytic practice and it’s ability to offer a connection between the creative process and it’s healing or cathartic functions. It is argued that art making allows one access to the unconscious part of the mind, a part of the mind which constitutes for a large portion of ones perception of reality, and through accessing and projecting this unconscious activity into the ones conscious reality allows them a practical, rational way of dealing with an irrational problem. Through the analysis of Louise Bourgeois’ Cell series I will compare her practice to that of psychoanalysis and how it acts as a cathartic function in not only her life, but in the lives of many.

Psychoanalysis and

The rest lays dormant below the surface of consciousness. Freud explains that there are three aspects to the psychical apparatus, which constitute for ones mental state and perception of reality. These are the id, the ego and the superego. The id constitutes for ones basic needs, or animalistic instincts. It is based on our pleasure principle, in other words the id craves whatever feels good at that specific time. For example, when an infant is hungry, the id wants food, therefore the child cries. The id is self-obsessed, only caring about it’s own satisfaction. The ego is based in the reality principle, acknowledging the needs of others, and that being selfish or impulsive can harm us in the long term, functioning to meet the needs of the id, whilst simultaneously taking into consideration the needs of others. The superego is the moral part of us, developed from the ethical and moral constraints placed on us by our parental

“Repression is essential to civilization, the conversion of animal instinct to civil behaviour, but such repression creates what might be called a second self, a stranger within” (Rivkin & Ryan 2004:389). Freud argued that most of our life experiences, such as our beliefs, impulses and feelings are not consciously accessible. Most of what drives us, Freud explains, is rooted deeply in our unconscious. “The ‘unconscious,’ …is a repository of repressed desires, feelings, memories, and instinctual drives, many of which, according to Freud, have to do with sexuality and violence.” (Rivkin & Ryan 2004: 389). This may be because of the unmanageable anxiety they caused. For example the Oedipus and Electra complex. Although these repressed beliefs, impulses and feelings are buried deeply in our unconscious, they still have the ability to impact our everyday lives. These can take the form of thought, habits, automatic reactions, phobias and desires. An example can be seen in the case of Anna O, a patient of Josef Breuer who suffered from hysteria, by which Freud implied that her illness was a result of the resentment she felt over her father’s physical