From antiquity to the present day, artists and art historians have sought to define the concept of “art.” Aristotle, one of the first to define art, characterized it as imitation (mimesis), while during the Romanesque period, art was defined as an inner inspiration, an outpouring of emotion, and a liberation from the constraints of reason and logic.
According to the French sculptor Rodin, art is an intellectual endeavor to understand and describe the world; according to Tolstoy, art is the process of reviving within oneself a feeling that one has always known, and then conveying that feeling through line, color, movement, or words so that others may experience it in the same way.
Not everything that arises within a person can be expressed in words. Words are not sufficient to describe and express the many things people wish to perceive and articulate in their spiritual worlds and in the depths of the unconscious. Visual language is one of the most primitive and sincere forms of expression inherent in human nature. In the visual arts, nonverbal expressions—such as shapes, movements, and colors—take center stage.
As Freud noted, psychoanalysis is never merely a method aimed at the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses; it can also be useful in resolving issues related to philosophy, religion, and art.
Freud defines art as a person’s attitude toward life, the joy of play, a step beyond reality, and not pain itself but the theatrical depiction of pain. Freud characterized art as the symbolization of displaced gratification; by drawing a parallel between art and dreams, he emphasized that art arises from a person’s inner conflicts.
Due to social prohibitions, the artist cannot experience his instincts and unconscious desires at the level of the conscious self (ego). If the conflict between the conscious and the unconscious cannot be resolved at this level, a mental disorder known as neurosis arises, or the conflict is transformed into a creative product through the mechanism of sublimation.
Psychiatrist John Rickman argues that artists possess both creative and destructive impulses in high intensity, and that these two distinct impulses interact with one another. He views the artist’s work as the triumph of creative power over destructive, devastating impulses.
Based on his research into artists such as Dostoyevski and Beethoven and their works, Freud posits that the artist attempts to satisfy the impulses he has repressed through the power of the imagination and imagery. The artist’s life story, personality, and behavior lie at the root of his reasons for creating. Dostoyevski’s hatred for his father, his desire for his father’s death, and the guilt he felt as a result are reflected in his novel *Karamazov Kardeşler*.
A. Adler, drawing on Beethoven’s deafness and the cause of it (he became deaf as a result of his father striking him violently on the ear), argues that creative individuals are engaged in an effort to compensate for a deficiency or organ dysfunction through their creative acts.
The French painter David has been criticized for the lifelessness, flatness, and excessive symmetry in his paintings. Upon reviewing the artist’s life story, it becomes clear that he had a large, irregular area on his right cheek—likely a benign tumor—which caused a noticeable facial asymmetry; the tumor had initially settled on his upper lip and significantly impaired his speech. The painter uses his works as unconscious defense mechanisms, as if he were healing himself through his paintings.
The Spanish painter Goya suffered from a succession of physical and mental illnesses throughout his life. Syphilis, neurolabyrinthitis, schizophrenic reactions, and age-related depression—these recurring episodes of illness led to partial paralysis, epileptic seizures, partial blindness, and, at times, impaired hearing and speech, as well as thought disorders accompanied by hallucinations and a loss of touch with reality. This clinical picture was attributed to Goya’s excessive exposure to white lead, a toxic compound that was the artist’s most frequently used pigment. After his illnesses, the painter took on a different personality.
If we also consider examples from other fields of the fine arts: the poet George Byron; the writer and poet Walter Scott’s limp; the composer and pianist Chopin; the writer Kafka; the poet and playwright Schiller’s tuberculosis; the writer Cervantes; the painter Toulouse-Lautrec; and writer Hemingway’s distinct physical impairments, and writer Huxley’s visual impairment… the creative process can be influenced by one’s physical condition. The psychological repercussions of a physical impairment or deficiency that arose early in life may not affect every artist’s creativity. However, it can also have a profound impact. Such an impairment can often, unconsciously, stimulate creative power.
The death of a beloved relative has influenced the works of many artists. The loss of a cherished object can lead to depression. A loss experienced in early life can result in unresolved grief, excessive preoccupation with the deceased, feelings of guilt, and psychological distress. In talented individuals, this psychological state can lead to the emergence of creative ideas as a form of compensation. A particular danger for the artist here is the blurring of the boundary between the self and the object of expression. Ultimately, the artist’s ability to assess reality may be impaired, leading to psychosis.
The painter Edward Munch witnessed the death of his mother at the age of five and that of his sister when he was still a young man. An analytical examination of Munch’s art reveals that the painter was deeply affected by his mother’s death and faced a visual trauma. In the painting *The Scream*, the figure’s flight from the red space symbolizes his mother, who died of a pulmonary hemorrhage. The figure turning its head and clutching its head with its hands is interpreted as a desperate attempt to escape the terrifying scene.
Throughout his 37-year life, the artist Van Gogh’s life was filled with losses. After experiencing his first mental breakdown when he was rejected by the person he wanted to marry, the artist’s difficult days began when he spent all his money on coal miners. He painted his first major painting shortly after his father’s death. He enrolled in art school but, unable to accept the school’s discipline due to his personality, moved into painter Gauguin’s home; one day, as their disagreements escalated, he lunged at Gauguin and cut off his earlobe. After this incident, we see the painter in a mental hospital. Despite suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy and the psychosis it caused, Van Gogh continued to work with relentless determination. In his painting of the hospital room where he was staying, the artist depicted objects in pairs to compensate for his loneliness. Within two months of being released from the hospital, he produced 60 paintings. In his self-portrait, with his pipe and bandaged ear, we see Van Gogh’s strength. He painted this work during his recovery period after cutting off his ear. The ailing and lonely artist poured his remaining life energy into his paintings. Van Gogh’s mental state is evident in his final self-portrait, completed one month before his suicide; the artist’s face, constantly struggling with seizures and fears, is expressionless and filled with sorrow, his lips tightly closed, his eyes distant.
Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter, experienced his greatest suffering when he could no longer paint; what he felt went far beyond the 32 surgeries he underwent and the cuts and incisions he endured. At the age of 5, Kahlo tripped over a tree root during a walk and fell; as a result, he contracted polio and began living with a weak, limping leg. At age 19, he was involved in a traffic accident that fractured his third and fourth vertebrae; an iron rod that entered his hip and exited through his uterus caused deep wounds. Frida, who was bedridden for the rest of his life, had his mother have a four-poster bed made for him and hang a mirror from the ceiling so he could see himself. The artist’s initial reaction was one of horror, but after a while, he began to look at his shattered body lying beneath the mirror—and at his inner world—with less fear, and started to draw what he saw. At the same time, this served as a way for him to numb the unbearable pain he felt. When he took his last breath in 1954 after being diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism, the last painting he left behind was a still life titled “Long Live Life.”
A contrasting view on the artist’s personality and creativity comes from C.G. Jung. He states that while there is naturally a psychological connection between art and the artist, when it comes to art and psychopathology, one must adopt an approach that does not harm the essence of art; a professional would not confuse a pathological phenomenon with a work of art. Existentialist psychiatrist May supports this approach. He argues that a strong stance must be taken against approaches that claim talent is a disease and creativity is a neurosis. May explains that a neurotic person, like an artist, struggles with feelings of loneliness, nothingness, and alienation; however, while the artist channels these feelings into a creative product, the neurotic person is unable to do so.
It seems that the topics of art, the artist, creativity, and mental illness will continue to be debated until the mysteries of the human brain and personality are unraveled.