Creativity, Psychoanalysis and Eugene O'Neill's Creative Process

O'Neill is undisputedly one of the most autobiographical artists in modern literature. His creativity consistently moves around subjective exploration and autobiographical representation in his art. Therefore drama for him involves primarily dramatization of self and close relations such as mother, father and brother, and this association between life and art goes back to early amateur plays. This factor has exposed the artist to discreet psychoanalytic explorations and analysis. Clearly a depressive and predominantly oedipal pattern emerges in his writings that could be traced in the whole range of his plays. However, preoccupation with the self and pervasive obsession to dramatize peculiar relationships and psychic conditions create its own archeology of limitations in his art that have remained unaddressed so far. The study debates on creativity, psychoanalytic traditions of creativity, O'Neill's creative process and highlights some of the limitations that pertain to representative and intellectual aspects of his art

There has been a lot of debate on what constitutes creativity and how LW VKDSHV LQ WKH DUWLVW ¶V PLQG DQG LPDJLQDWLRQ 7KH GLVFXVVLRQ KDV UHPDLQHG contentious and dates back to Plato and Aristotle whose diverse thoughts on art have become integral to any debate on the nature of art and literature LWVHOI 0RGHUQ SV\FKRORJ\ KDYLQJ LWV UHYROXWLRQDU\ PRGHO LQ )UHXG ¶V expressive and dogmatic theories of human psychology provides new insight into the creative process. Viewed from one perspective that is quite independent of what modern psychology has to say about human consciousness, artist and literary creativity involve a definite process of understanding human nature, exploring human consciousness and even unconsciousness, evaluating his desires, frustration, thoughts etc. Literature in this respect is older than psychoanalysis itself. Sakura (1987) develops the argument that poets investigated the unconscious much earlier than )UHXG ³DQG WKDW DW LWV VXEWOHVW DQG PRVW ZLGH UDQJLQJ´ S ZKLFK PDNHV WKHP ³WKH OLWHUDU\ SUHGHFHVVRUV RI )UHXGLDQ OHJDF\´ S 7KH DUWLVW ¶V probing of human consciousness before the rise of modern psychoanalytic critical and theoretical approaches was largely in the nature of using SV\FKRORJ\ WR VWXG\ KRZ WKH ZKROH PLQG ZRUNV RU ³IRU XQGHUVWDQGLQJ DQ RWKHU KXPDQ SV\FKH´ S ,W GLG QRW DGGUHVV LWVHOI WR VWXG\ DQG DQDO\]H diseases or more properly speaking psychopathological states or primitive experiences and their effect on developmental, evolutionary and creative DVSHFWV RI KXPDQ EHKDYLRU ,W GLG QRW DLP DW ³SURGXFLQJ D FHUWDLQ NLQG RI knowledge, providing explanations of human conduct and experience by revealing the mental forces that underlie them and can not be dealt with by DQ\ RWKHU LQWHOOHFWXDO GLVFLSOLQH´ )URVK S 6DNXUD (1987) also writes about different ways of a poet and an analyst. She is of the opinion WKDW ³7KH SULPDU\ FRQQHFWLRQ EHWZHHQ )UHXG DQG Whe poets is a shared mythology: a general insight into human nature, confrontation with experiences neither the poets nor Freud were afraid to see (p. 34). Tingle, Alcorn, and Bracher (1986) likewise support the close correspondence between literature and psychoanalysis. They argue that: There are certainly many differences between teaching literature and conducting an analysis, but since the aim of both processes is ultimately the same ±assisting humans to become more autonomous and fulfilled ±what goes on in one can illuminate and inform what RFFXUV LQ WKH RWKHU´ (p. 96). Wilbern (1989) takes the relationship between literature and psychology EDFN WR *UHHN FODVVLFDO SHULRG ³7KH DQFLHQW DUJXPHQW´ KH ZULWHV ³EHWZHHQ 3ODWR DQG $ULVWRWOH DERXW WKH YDOXe of myth and drama is fundamentally a conflict between psychological assumptions and mimesis (p. 159). Guerin, Labor, Morgan, Reesman, and Willingham (1992) also look upon a psychoanalytical approach in terms of having ancient historical existence that finds an important place in theories of Aristotle, Sidney, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Shelley regarding catharsis and imagination respectively (p. 117).

CREATIVITY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS
The problem of any correlation/interaction between creativity and DUWLVW ¶V psychology has been debated contentiously among the theorists and psychoanalysts. Kauffman and Baer (2002) for instance argue that those with mental illness particularly female poets are more likely to be drawn to poetry rather than to other forms of prose due to the personal nature of SRHWU\ 7KH\ FRQFOXGH E\ VWDWLQJ ³7KH DGDJH WKDW FUHDWLYLW\ DQG µPDGQHVV ¶ DUH OLQNHG WRJHWKHU LV E\ DQG ODUJH VXSSRUWHG E\ WKH H[LVWLQJ UHVHDUFK´ S 282). :RRVWHU DQG %XFNUR\G LQ WKHLU VWXG\ RI 6KDNHVSHDUH ¶V $OO ¶V Well that Ends Well support the thesis that loss and creativity are often linked. First they define loss and mourning as a complex process affecting the mind and emotions: Loss in real and metaphorical ways, as we know, provokes anger, guilt, and sadness. The grief of loss is a complex state of mind with different lengths of duration, and in each individual shows different mixes of other constituent affects, such as anger, guilt, and shame, mixed with envy and jealousy as well as frequently accompanying depression with varying degrees of somatic disruptions (p. 26).
Then they analyze the problem of co-relation between loss and creativity by probing some psychoanalytic ideas about creativity. They begin by considering Rothenberg's The Emerging Goddess (1979) as one of the most comprehensive descriptions of the common factors in creativity. They then consider the group in which grief, loss, and creativity can be expressed in different ways. Lastly, they examine Shakespeare, who for them is perhaps the most striking example of all these experiences and whose middle-period play All's Well That Ends Well binds together grief, loss, and FUHDWLYLW\ )UHXG ¶V ³&UHDWLYH :ULWHUV DQG 'D\-'UHDPLQJ´ KRZHYHU ZDV the premier theoretical effort in relating psychology to literature. It gives us insight into what Freud thinks about the artistic creativity. "The creative writer," according to his classic essay on the subject, "does the same thing as a child at play. He creates a world of phantasy.... He builds castles in the air and creates what are called day-dream" (as cited in Strachey, 1953). He called it sublimation. Despite the inner contradiction his theory has acquired strong support among the theorists and critics across the globe. Fairberg (1960) for example points out that to some extent we all lead "a life of fantasy," and that our "civilized pursuits" on some level of sublimation serve to assuage our repressed infantile desires (pp. 42-43). 7KLV VWDWHPHQW UHLQIRUFHV )UHXG ¶V GHFODUDWLRQ RI FRPSDULVRQ EHWZHHQ DQ artist and a neurotic. Wright also supports Freudian interpretation of creative process. She elaborates her stance with reference to Freudian concept of id-Psychology. The term Id-psychology was not used by Freud himself, but was adopted subsequently both by the critics and theorists to explain the role of sex as a determining force in human consciousness. :ULJKW WHUPV LW ³YXOJDU )UHXGLDQLVP´ S DQG ZULWHV ³7KH aesthetics of id-psychology is grounded on the notion that the work of art is the secrHW HPERGLPHQW RI WKH FUHDWRU ¶V XQFRQVFLRXV GHVLUHV´ (p. 37) which is exposed through the analysis of his earliest childhood experiences WKURXJK ³ZKDW LV NQRZQ LQ KLV OLIH DQG WKURXJK WKH ILFWLRQDO FKDUDFWHUV´ (p. 37). Kris (1952) has made considerable theoretical contributions in bringing about application of psychology to literature. He termed idpsychology grossly inadequate to explain the creative process. His theoretical orientation is that of ego psychology where he moves away ³IURP WKH XQFRQVFLRXV LQfantile sources of creativity focused on by idpsychologists to concentrate on conscious, preconscious and rational WKRXJKW SURFHVV´ (as cited Schneiderman, 1988, p. 8) in creativity which diminishes the importance of the repression and repressed sexual drives as the exclusive explanatory concepts of literary creativity. Likewise Schneiderman (1988) in his interpretative work strongly emphasizes the role of personal painful experiences (not necessary libidinal) in artistic creativity: Admittedly old fashioned id psychology, with its emphasis on sexual symbolism and its penchant for body language, did not lend itself to a balanced interpretation of art. I, would argue, however, that the SV\FKRDQDO\WLF VWXG\ RI OLWHUDWXUH FDQQRW GLVSHQVH ZLWK )UHXG ¶V LGpsychology and substitute an ego psychology that attributes complete rationality and conscious control to the artist. Such a view, in my judgment is out of human context (p. 20).

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to the challenges of everyday life result in artistic productions of great YLUWXRVLW\´ S +H SRLQWV SDUWLFXODUO\ VHYHUH VWUHVV DV RQH RI WKH ³LPSRUWDQW LQJUHGLHQW LQ JHQHUDWLQJ FUHDWLYLW\´ DQG WKDW ³RQH KDV WR UHDG RQH page of any outstanding modern writer to be struck by the intensity of the personal vision generated by the powerful inter-psychic forces, neither mysterious nor rational but rooted in human experience, especially crises and conflicts´ (p. 20). Klein (1986) and Kristeva (1987) have further developed these thoughts on sublimation and artistic creativity. Klein in RQH RI KHU PRVW LPSRUWDQW SDSHUV ³7KH ,PSRUWDQFH RI 6\PERO )RUPDWLRQ LQ WKH 'HYHORSPHQW RI (JR´ UHIHUV WR D VFKL]RLG-SDUDQRLG VXEMHFW ¶V tendency to engage in creative process in order to displace his ambivalent interest in the object (mother) and symbolizes these in the world which gives rise to his interest in the outside world. It is because the external world is endowed with symbolic meaning that it arouses our enormous interest, which is imperative for the purpose of survival. Klein  We find ourselves here before an enigmatic chiasmus that will not cease to preoccupy us: if loss, mourning, absence set the imaginary act in motion and permanently fuel it as much as they menace and undermine it, it is also undeniable that fetish of the work of art is erected in disavowal of this mobilizing affliction (p. 105).
These dual responses of what she terms dejection and exultation and DOWHUDWLRQ EHWZHHQ WKHP ³FRQVWLWXWHV WKH GHSUHVVLYH WHPSHUDPHQW RI QHXURWLF´ SS -06). This commentary is followed by her detailed analysis of Dostoevsky in respect of the dual representation or responses. 'RVWRHYVN\ ¶ ³WRUPHQWHG XQLYHUVH´ S FDXVHG PRUH E\ KLV HSLOHSWLF fits than just grief is reflective of this dialectic of responses. What she writes here is that pain, grief, loss or whatever the form of pain has the diverse role in creativity. It lies in either the acceptance or the denial of the underlying pain in what a writer creates.  Bogard, 1988, andShaughnessy, 2002). 7KHUHIRUH GUDPD IRU 2 ¶1HLOO LQYROYHV SULPDULO\ dramatization of self and close relations such as mother, father and brother, and this association between life and art goes back to early amateur plays. Walton (1955) explores a close association between his life experiences and his first twenty five plays following his association with Province Town Players from 1914-DOO GHDOLQJ ZLWK ³IRONORUH DQG IRONZD\V RI WKH sea-traditional sailor concepts and patterns of conduct he had learned from two years of firsthand experience aboard ocean going ships and in water IURQW DUHD EHIRUH EHJLQQLQJ KLV FDUHHU DV D GUDPDWLVW´ S :DOWRQ (1955) includes %H\RQG +RUL]RQ 'LII ¶UHQW *ROG $QQD &KULVWLH, The Hairy Ape, and Ancient mariner DPRQJ 2 ¶1HLOO ILUVW DFW SOD\V LQ WKLV FDWHJRU\ that deal with personally experienced sea ways. Alexander (1992) places her (XJHQH 2 ¶1HLOO ¶V &UHDWLYH 6WUXJJOH $ 'HFLVLYH GHFDGH -33 on the assurance that the plot, character and imagery of the plays that she has VHOHFWHG IRU 7KLV IDFWRU KDYH EHHQ VKDSHG E\ D ³VSHFLILF QH[XV RI SHUVRQDO memories brought into concern with the personal in turn necessitated recollection and recreation of what actually transpired in his traumatic life at different staJHV´ S 7KHUHIRUH KLV FUHDWLYLW\ RU WKH FUHDWLYH SURFHVV LQ his consciousness rotates strappingly around the past and memories, which are charged with repetition and reiteration of extraordinary nature and sequence. This detail reveals an almost pervasive obsession for dramatizing self and also near ones especially mother, father and elder brother in his SOD\V ZKLFK KDV H[SRVHG 2 ¶1HLOO DV D PDQ DQG DUWLVW WR PXOWLSOH WKHRUHWLFDO and critical interpretations. The self here is shaped by the unconscious drives which serve as the main source of mobilizing his creative impulses DQG LPDJLQDWLYH UHIOHFWLRQV $V WKH DUWLVW ¶V XQFRQVFLRXV KHUH LV LQ traumatized state for the reason referred below, the art itself assumes ³GHSUHVVLYH DWWULEXWLRQ VW\OH´ %URZQ S 2 ¶1HLOO ¶V FUHDWLYLW\ LQ the context of co-existence of close relationship between his personal afflictions and creative urges and the creative impulse inspired by affliction was not for any attempt on the part of the playwright to resolve the crises as Alexander (1992) argues. On the contrary it remains unresolved and keeps the creative process entangled in restructuring the personal loss and recovering the lost object/being (here mother) for particular psycho-sexual imperatives (Moorton Jr., 1991, Bogard 1988). The natural consequence of this dimension of creativity creates persistent mode of loss and depressiveness in the whole range of his art. This particular mode of creative process highlights two related factors in his art. First art is an apt reflection of psychopathological identity of the suffering artist. Secondly the exclusive and persistent focus on the unconsciousness invests his whole art with pessimistic rather sadistic impression and instructs his plays with certain aesthetic limitations. These limitations have been highlighted in terms of its representative quality and intellectual appeal: 1. Persistency of the affliction as a mobilizing agent restrains the artist's imagination, creating total absorption in the personal/ private to the dismemberment of the higher aesthetic ideals of universal application DQG DSSHDO 2 ¶1HLOO ZDV D NHHQ H[SHULPHQWDOLVW DV ZHOO DV D UHIOHFWLYH artist. His reflections on what he wanted to achieve in the theatre could be found in his notes, letters and his work diaries in bits and pieces. In RQH RI KLV OHWWHU WR +REVRQ 4XLQQ ZKHUHLQ 2 ¶1HLOO UHIHUV WR WKH mysterious force: Fate God our biological past creating our present, whatever one calls it_ Mystery, certainly) -DQG ³RI WKH RQH HWHUQDO WUDJHG\ RI Man in his glorious self destructive struggle to make the Force express him instead of being as an animal is, an infinitesimal incident in its expression (Bogard and Bryer, 1988, p. 195).
In the same letter he wishes to depict not a slice of human life, but an XQGHUVWDQGLQJ RI OLIH ¶V VSLULW ³OLIH LQ WHUP RI OLYHV QHYHU MXVW OLIH LQ WHUPV RI FKDUDFWHU´ S +HUH WKHUH LV DV 7RUQTuist (1969) comments, a curious blend of mystical, scientific views and metaphysical language that aims at establishing some sort of corollary between the classic and the contemporary idioms in tragedy. The fusion, however, far from creating harmony between the two, highlights important dichotomy between the classic and his modern theatre. Action in Greek tragedy springs from the character as a complex of human traits shaped by past human experience or as the product of working of metaphysical forces such as a reaction against human breach of cosmic order. But the action whatever the shaping spirit may be remains recognizable, rationalistic and continue to reflect the laws of human experience. Besides, the ultimate expression of the human predicament in tragedies is far from self-destructive, defeatist and HQIHHEOLQJ 2 ¶1HLOO ¶V FRQFHUQ ZLWK WKH LQWHUQDO RQ WKH RWKHU KDQG DV Tornquist (1969) argues blends with modern scientifically interpreted but anti-rationalistic psychological forces. The fusion has a counter effect on human endeavor to live. It makes his struggle assume self destructive, defeatist with depressive and enfeebling effect on the FKDUDFWHU ¶V EHKDYLRU 7KH HPHUJHQW LPSUHVVLRQ XQGHUPLQHV applicability and appeal f his art in wider terms. 2. It is undeniable that a tragic event always involves suffering for the protagonist and the related personas. Sufferings in fact constitute undisputedly the crux of tragedy and generally but not necessarily end LQ WKH SURWDJRQLVW ¶V GHDWK 7KH\ KDYH JHQHUDOO\ WKHLU RULJLQ LQ PDQ ¶V own disposition and may work in collusion with the external forces to accentuate their destructive effect for that individual. A perfunctory glance on the bulk of tragic works makes it very clear that tragedy without corresponding suffering is hardly a thinkable reality. Sufferings LQ 2 ¶1HLOO ¶V GUDPDWLF DUW EHDU D FKDUDFWHULVWLF VWDPS 7KHLU VWRUH KRXVH either OLHV LQ WKH FKDUDFWHU ¶V WRWDO DEVRUSWLRQ LQ WKH UHDOL]DWLRQ RI FHUWDLQ personal desires of erotic nature or in some other extreme modes such DV JXLOW LOOXVLYHQHVV ORVV DQG DOLHQDWLRQ VSULQJLQJ IURP D PDQ ¶V disposition to repeat them with a high degree of ambivalence. What is to be found in for instance Desire under Elms, Strange Interlude is an absolute preoccupation with sexuality to the level of self-indulgence which is an expression of undermining faith in human potentiality and propensity to achieve personal, emotive, and psychic transcendence (Karim and Butt, 2011). This particular static impression governs even KXPDQ UHODWLRQVKLSV LQ KLV SOD\V 5HODWLRQVKLSV LQ 2 ¶1HLOO ¶V DUW PDQLIHVW their control by the consciousness or deeper unconsciousness. The personas are locked in conflict with the others in such a way that they seem to be governed and shaped by the inner forces of incest, sexuality, jealousy, guilt, desire, or the life and death instincts. In Strange Interlude IRU LQVWDQFH 1LQD ¶V H[WUD PDUital relationship with Darrel is shaped by her desire to give birth to a biologically healthy child (Karim, 2010). Likewise all incest motives in Strange Interlude, Mourning %HFRPHV (OHFWUD /RQJ 'D\ ¶V -RXUQH\ and A Touch of Poet precede the necessity to create and foster a particular relation. Thus, the UHODWLRQVKLSV LQ 2 ¶1HLOO DUH QRW WKH UHSUHVHQWDWLRQ RI D IDPLO\ GUDPD they are personal and an example of what Williams (1966) calls ³SULYDWH WUDJHG\´ S Importantly such sufferings do not carry the element of transference from the stage to the audience. Drama by virtue of its stage production does embody the vibrant presence of the audience and their periodic emotive involvement at different stages denotes general applicability of that very production. Then the audience is not to be confined to a time IUDPH VD\ RI WKH DUWLVW ¶V RZQ DJH 7KH WLPHOHVVQHVV RI WKH DUW necessitates the measurement of response of the audience of different ages and regions. Overt sexual indulgence or its suppression and the resulting neurasthenia may have the emotional interest of a group at any particular time period and area, but can not be generalized. In diverse culture with diverse values and systems the particular focus on the control of the unconsciousness for specific relationship patterns is likely to create deeper inter-cultural misperceptions and conflicts. 3. Then plays where psychopathology is uppermost, which begin with the present and advance by returning into the past in a repetitive fashion can be stimulating and stirring experiences, but they fail to create intellectual absorption that has remained the essence of real tragic Hamlet must act in relation to two worlds; the world of time in which the crime was committed and within which he must work his revenge, and the timeless world where he has been shown the FULPH DQG FRPPDQGHG WR UHYHQJH LW´ S +H JRHV RQ WR ZULWH WKDW ³+DPOHW LV WUDSSHG LQ WLPH WKH FRPPDQG of revenge and implications of its source seem to require an action which is timeless, which will destroy not only an individual evil but evil itself . . . (p. 89). This allegorical interpretation is one among scores of interpretations of this great tragedy. The gravity of the struggle, if looked in this perspective acquires a great educative value where human struggle is not one of the survivals to carry on empty existence. The quality of endeavor regardless of the fate that the hero faces is essentially transcendental. The reader, therefore, returns again and again to tragedies like Hamlet grasping some eternally fixed beauty or immutable truths encapsulated in them. Tragedies pose problems and questions of fundamental as well as eternal human significance, and it is in reading and responding to the continually challenging questions set in motion by these plays that tragedy is truly performed and experienced. The overall impression and response is one of what .LHUNHJDDUG VDLG DERXW OLIH LQ JHQHUDO LQ KLV H[LVWHQWLDO QRWLRQV ³7KH VLFNQHVV XQWR 'HDWK´ RU WKDW RI ³&RQVFLHQFH LV D GLVHDVH´ as cited in Szeliski, 1962, p. 58). Finally the calamitous sufferings caused by nature or uncontrolled forces of either past or present may bring out some sort of sympathy with the sufferer, but as Eldridge (1994)  the need to discuss further the role of pain in creativity. It cannot be said that personal grief always results in deploringly dark vision of the entire human life and nature. Moreover creativity generated by pain is not always and necessarily subversive, dehumanizing, degenerative and static. There is a possibility when the writer transcends the confines of personal pain and unconscious to create an image of aesthetic beauty that is artistic, imaginative, and inspirational and transcends the confines of time and achieve the highest degree of objectivity. In 2 ¶1HLOO RQ WKH RWKHU KDQG SHUVRQDO FULVHV SDLQIXO VXEMHFWLYH experiences and the predominance of the unconsciousness structure the entire thought patterns with a constrictive dimension.