An Aesthetic Imperative- Spyros D. Orfanos, Phd, ABPP

 

The rebel psychoanalyst and womanizer Otto Rank wrote his magnum opus Art and Artist in 1932. An artist himself and preoccupied with social problems, he was interested in the relation between artist and art.  He was also about exploring the creative impulse not just the art product, or that which produces religion and mythology and social institutions. He was concerned with what creates a whole culture.  There is no evidence of Rank having read Vernon Lee, an openly lesbian feminist writer, who is 1903 wrote a small book titled The Psychology of An Art Writer. But both Rank and Lee seem to me to have had a remarkably similar interest in depth psychology and aesthetics. Theirs was a view that understood a cave panting or a statue or a melody as having the power to elevate our consciousness.

For both Rank and Lee, the experience of a work of art is always dynamic. The idea is to feel and to become aware of the effect of the other on us. They didn’t like any tendency to harden  feeling into theory. Any aesthetic of psychoanalysis or psychoanalysis of the aesthetic is dubious of emotional distance.

The contributors to this issue of the NYU Postdoc blog are artists of one persuasion or another. What they all have in common is a passion for psychoanalysis and a passion for artistic expression. In other words, they bridge a certain kind of authority and a certain kind of love for the aesthetic.  How fortunate for us!

 

Lee, V. 2018). The psychology of an art writer. (J. Nagy, Trans.) David Zwirner Books. (Original work published 1903)

Rank, O. 1989). Art and artist: Creative urge and personality development. C. F. Atkinson, Trans. Alfred A. Knoff . (Original work published 1932)

Spyros D Orfanos, PhD, ABPP is the Director of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, he is on the Advisory Board of the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna. In addition, he has a special interest in human rights advocacy and the creativity of music.  

Photo Credit: Steven Johnson-Pexcels