Sophia Richman Presents a New Theory of the Creative Process Whose Core Components Are Relational Conceptualizations of Dissociation and Witnessing

Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 MENDED BY THE MUSE Mended by the Muse: Creative Transformations of Trauma is an in-depth exploration of the relationship between trauma and creativity. It is about art in the service of healing, mourning, and memorialization. This book addresses the questions of how artistic expression facilitates the healing process, what the therapeutic action of art is, and if there is a relationship between mental instability and creativity. It also asks how self-analysis through art-making can be integrated with psychoanalytic work in order to enrich and facilitate emotional growth. Drawing on four decades of clinical practice and a critical reading of creativity literature, Sophia Richman presents a new theory of the creative process whose core components are relational conceptualizations of dissociation and witnessing. This is an interdisciplinary book that draws inspiration from life histories, clinical case material, neuroscience, and interviews with creators, as well as from various art forms such as fi lm, literature, paintings, and music. Some areas of discussion include: art born of genocide, confrontation with mortality in illness and aging, and the clinical implications of memoirs written by psychoanalysts. Visual images are interspersed throughout the text that illustrate the reverberations of trauma and its creative transformation in the work of featured artists. Mended by the Muse powerfully articulates how creative action is one of the most effective ways of coping with trauma and its aftershocks—it is in art, in all its forms, that sorrow is given shape and meaning. Here, Sophia Richman shows how art helps to master the chaos that follows in the wake of tragedy, how it restores continuity, connection, and the will for a more fully lived life. This book is written Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 for psychoanalysts as well as for other mental health professionals who practice and teach. It will also be of interest to graduate and post-graduate students and will be relevant for artists who seek a better understanding of the creative process. Sophia Richman is a psychoanalyst and psychologist who has been in private practice for over forty years. She is affiliated with the New York University Post- doctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, which she supervises on. She is the author of the award-winning memoir, A Wolf in the Attic: The Legacy of a Hidden Child of the Holocaust (Routledge, 2002) and she is a painter. PSYCHOANALYSIS IN A NEW KEY BOOK SERIES DONNEL STERN Series Editor When music is played in a new key, the melody does not change, but the notes that make up the composition do: change in the context of continuity, continuity that perseveres through change. Psychoanalysis in a New Key publishes books that share the aims psychoanalysts have always had, but that approach them dif- ferently. The books in the series are not expected to advance any particular theoretical agenda, although to this date most have been written by analysts from the Interpersonal and Relational orientations. The most important contribution of a psychoanalytic book is the communica- tion of something that nudges the reader’s grasp of clinical theory and practice in an unexpected direction. Psychoanalysis in a New Key creates a deliberate focus on innovative and unsettling clinical thinking. Because that kind of thinking is encouraged by exploration of the sometimes surprising contributions to psychoanalysis of ideas and fi ndings from other fi elds, Psychoanalysis in a New Key particularly encourages interdisciplinary studies. Books in the series have married psychoanalysis with dissociation, trauma theory, sociology, and criminology. The series is open to the consideration of studies examining the relationship between psychoanalysis and any other fi eld—for instance, biology, literary and art criti- cism, philosophy, systems theory, anthropology, and political theory. But innovation also takes place within the boundaries of psychoanalysis, and Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 Psychoanalysis in a New Key therefore also presents work that reformulates thought and practice without leaving the precincts of the fi eld. Books in the series focus, for example, on the signifi cance of personal values in psychoanalytic practice, on the complex interrelationship between the analyst’s clinical work and personal life, on the consequences for the clinical situation when patient and analyst are from different cultures, and on the need for psychoanalysts to accept the degree to which they knowingly satisfy their own wishes during treatment hours, often to the patient’s detriment. Vol. 20 Vol. 12 Mended by the Muse: Creative Partners in Thought: Working Transformations of Trauma with Unformulated Experience, Sophia Richman Dissociation, and Enactment Donnel B. Stern Vol. 19 Cupid’s Knife: Women’s Anger and Vol. 11 Agency in Violent Relationships Heterosexual Masculinities: Abby Stein Contemporary Perspectives from Psychoanalytic Gender Theory Vol. 18 Bruce Reis & Robert Grossmark (eds.) Contemporary Psychoanalysis and the Legacy of the Third Reich: Vol. 10 History, Memory and Tradition Sex Changes: Transformations in Emily A. Kuriloff Society and Psychoanalysis Mark J. Blechner Vol. 17 Love and Loss in Life and in Vol. 9 Treatment The Consulting Room and Beyond: Linda B. Sherby Psychoanalytic Work and Its Reverberations in the Vol. 16 Analyst’s Life Imagination from Fantasy to Delusion Therese Ragen Lois Oppenheim Vol. 8 Vol. 15 Making a Difference in Patients ’ Still Practicing: The Heartaches and Lives: Emotional Experience in the Joys of a Clinical Career Therapeutic Setting Sandra Buechler Sandra Buechler Vol. 14 Vol. 7 Dancing with the Unconscious: Coasting in the Countertransference: The Art of Psychoanalysis and the Conflicts of Self Interest between Psychoanalysis of Art Analyst and Patient Danielle Knafo Irwin Hirsch Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 Vol. 13 Vol. 6 Money Talks: In Therapy, Society, Wounded by Reality: Understanding and Life and Treating Adult Onset Brenda Berger & Stephanie Trauma Newman (eds.) Ghislaine Boulanger Vol. 5 Vol. 2 Prologue to Violence: Child Abuse, What Do Mothers Want? Dissociation, and Crime Contemporary Perspectives in Abby Stein Psychoanalysis and Related Disciplines Vol. 4 Sheila F. Brown (ed.) Prelogical Experience: An Inquiry into Dreams & Other Creative Processes Vol. 1 Edward S. Tauber & Maurice R. Green Clinical Values: Emotions That Guide Psychoanalytic Vol. 3 Treatment The Fallacy of Understanding & The Sandra Buechler Ambiguity of Change Edgar A. Levenson Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 MENDED BY THE MUSE Creative Transformations of Trauma Sophia Richman Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 First published 2014 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Taylor & Francis The right of Sophia Richman to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Richman, Sophia, 1941– Mended by the muse : creative transformations of trauma / Sophia Richman. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Arts—Therapeutic use. 2. Psychic trauma—Treatment. 3. Creative ability—Psychological aspects. I. Title. RC489.A72.R53 2014 616.89ʹ1656—dc23 2013041332 ISBN: 978-0-415-88363-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-88364-1 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-84358-1 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 FOR SPYROS AND LINA MY LOVING AND SPIRITED MUSES Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 CONTENTS List of Illustrations x Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 Out of Darkness 10 2 Understanding Creativity: The Theoretical Landscape 30 3 Inspiration, Insanity, and the Paradox of Dissociation 54 4 The Survivor and the Muse 79 5 Art Born of Genocide 102 6 Conversations With Artists 130 7 Music and the Great Wound 156 SPYROS D. ORFANOS 8 When the Analyst Writes a Memoir 174 Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 9 Jung’s Memoirs 194 10 Confrontation With Mortality 206 References 229 Index 249 ix ILLUSTRATIONS Cover: David Newman, By Fire (2010). Oil on bound paper, bark and wood panel, 16 × 20 inches. Courtesy of the artist. 1.1 Leon Richman, Self-Portrait (1975) 16 4.1 Marilyn Charles, Mother and Child (2007) 89 5.1 Marian Kołodziej, Young Marian guiding the hand of the old Marian in drawing his memories 110 5.2 Marian Kołodziej, Double Self-Portrait 111 5.3 Marian Kołodziej, Marian carrying friend to the gas chamber 115 5.4 Hannelore Baron, Untitled (1983) 119 6.1 Susan Erony , My Father’s Coat (2001) 145 6.2 Susan Erony, Chilean Disappeared April 10, 1974 (1993) 147 6.3 Susan Erony , Self-Portrait (2000) 149 10.1 Catherine Angel, Oh, My Love (1990) 210 Downloaded by [New York University] at 02:06 15 August 2016 x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Without Donnel Stern’s suggestion that I write a book for his series, on a subject of my interest, it is not likely that this book would have been written.

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