Chaos and Control ─ A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Unfolding Creative Minds

This book explores the role of chaos and control in the creative process as well as the difference between talent and creativity. Part One explores some of the common biases and pitfalls in the analysis and therapy of creative people, the role of the accidental in creative work, the nature of creative blocks, passion and its absence, as well as the problem of being able to exercise one’s freedom. The author describes the special needs of creative patients, the common problems arising in therapy, its solutions, and, most importantly, the analyst’s distinctive role when dealing with such patients. She also probes into the role of narcissism, neurosis, and psychosis on creative work.

Part Two reinforces the themes of the first part by describing the process and history of the author's own creative path. These are mostly autobiographical accounts of her overall emotional relationship to the arts, reinforcing the themes presented in Part One: the significance of visual artwork; the role of destructiveness; the importance of love and hate during creative work; the role of mistakes, and the special role of music in the author's later paintings based on Pierre Boulez’s music.

Desy Safan-Gerard, Ph.D., is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of California in Los Angeles. She has led a threefold life in music, painting and psychoanalysis. Her book is based on her papers and presentations in the USA, Europe and South America over the last forty years. As a practicing psychoanalyst, she focuses on the unique needs of creative patients in treatment.