A Curious Intimacy. Art and Neuro-psychoanalysis
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Author(s): L. Oppenheim
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 158391806X
Format: hardback
198pp
Price: £29.95
Review Date: 31 October 2005
Review: This book is about the relation between the biological matrix of the self and the psychodynamic dimensions of art. If we acknowledge that there must be objective laws that account for that part of nature that we call the human mind, and that there must also be universals in human aesthetic experience and creativity, then neuro-psychoanalytic methods render psychoanalytic hypotheses more secure, so they can only enhance our understanding of art and artists. This book provides a first step in that direction. Here Lois Oppenheim proposes a change in the paradigm for the study of the creative process, questioning the idea that creativity primarily serves the reparation of early object relationships and the resolution of conflict. The book is divided into two parts. The first: Art and the Brain, introduces the field of neuro-psychoanalysis and looks at the contribution that it could make to the discussion of gender and art. The second part, A New Direction for Interdisciplinary Psychoanalysis, uses the visual artistry of Samuel Beckett, Paul Klee and Martha Graham to test this new direction for applied psychoanalysis.