The Origins and Psychodynamics of Creativity: A Psychoanalytic Perspective
Abstract
Obviously, psychoanalysis should be able to tell us something about the origins and psychodynamics of creativity. This book, however, seems to be hobbled by unnecessary references to old arguments proposed by Freud. Oremland is not able to pour new wine into Freud's bottles, so that a reader comes away with a distinctly stale taste. The author is a member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society, and his book carries the endorsements of key figures within international psychoanalysis. My own reaction to the text, however, is a mild sense of shock at how bankrupt today's psychoanalytic arguments can be. To be even more blunt: by what literary right does Oremland feel qualified to say anything critical of Shakespeare's Richard III? It is unbelievable to students of the history of psychoanalysis to find Oremland announcing in his preface, "Creation, be it issue or art, is part of the quest for immortality" (p. xii), without once mentioning the apparently forgotten name of Otto Rank, who put forward just such a thesis about three-quarters of a century ago. It is equally appalling to find Freud's intimate friend Wilhelm Fliess diagnosed here as "psychotic," when one would have thought that it was precisely