Short description:

In The Psychoanalysis of Aesthetic Experience: Self, Relationship and Culture, George Hagman eloquently provides an overview of ideas regarding the aesthetic foundation of human experience and the way in which this aesthetic perspective can shed light on human development, culture, and analytic clinical process.

Long description:

In The Psychoanalysis of Aesthetic Experience: Self, Relationship and Culture, George Hagman eloquently provides an overview of ideas regarding the aesthetic foundation of human experience and the way in which this aesthetic perspective can shed light on human development, culture, and analytic clinical process.

The book discusses the relationship between the psychology of art and the aesthetics of psychoanalytic treatment. Hagman presents a comprehensive psychoanalytic model of the psychology of aesthetics, creativity, beauty, ugliness, and the sublime, as well as a theory of aesthetics across the dimensions of subjectivity, self, intersubjectivity, and culture. Starting from the point of early childhood development, he argues for the importance of exploring the implications of this important psychological phenomenon for clinical practice, highlighting how aesthetics can shed light on a dimension of the psychotherapeutic process that has thus been neglected.

This book is an illuminating and informative read for all psychoanalysts, and anyone interested in the intersection of psychoanalytic practice, aesthetics, creativity, and culture.

'With starling originality, George Hagman's Psychoanalysis of Aesthetic Experience: Self, Relationship and Culture radically expands psychoanalytic aesthetic theory beyond the great early seminal contributions on art and idealization. He questions prior theories that focused on the pathology of art and artists through his appreciation of the affirmative process of making art, growth and emotional heath. With this new edition he has added several new chapters which extend his ideas into new clinical and cultural areas.?

Malcolm Owen Slavin Ph.D. Co-founder, Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis, Author of The Story of Original Loss: Grieving Existential Trauma in the Arts and the Art of Psychoanalysis. (Routledge).

'In this expanded edition of his brilliant and pathbreaking book Psychoanalysis of Aesthetic Experience: Self, Relationship and Culture, George Hagman now includes fresh and insightful additional essays on the psychology of musicians, the function of beauty in erotic obsession (Kohut and Thomas Mann?s Death in Venice) and the abuse of Beauty in Hitler?s fascist aesthetics. These chapters that open clinical insights into intersubjective and transitional realms, showing how sensitivities to aesthetic meanings and the relation of artists to their artwork can transform the ways we practice psychoanalysis. In the clarity, simplicity and generosity of Hagman?s writing, the reader can always sense his dedication to what Donna Orange calls a ?hermeneutics of trust.? It is a delight to be in the presence of such friendly and enlightening discourse.?

Maria D-S. Dobson, Ph.D. Professor of Classics at Colorado College. Private Practice in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Author of Metamorphoses of Psych in Psychoanalysis and Ancient Greek Thought, 2023 (Routledge).

'Psychoanalysis of Aesthetic Experience: Self, Relationship and Culture is a pivotal psychoanalytic text integrating the fields of aesthetics and creativity into clinical practice. Now in its 2nd edition, George Hagman expands on his definition of art, extends further the application to psychoanalytic treatment, and explores new perspectives on literary and historical investigations. Those who love the arts, or work with artists in their practice, will find this book invaluable.'

Carol M. Press, EdD, Emeritus of the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents:

Foreword to the First Edition by Carl Rotenberg xii  Preface xiv  1 Introduction 1  The Developmental Matrix of Aesthetic Experience 2  Idealization 3  The Creative Process 4  The Sense of Beauty 6  Ugliness 7  The Sublime 7  Festival 8  2 Understanding Aesthetic Experience 13  The Philosophy of Aesthetic Experience 13  A New Psychoanalytic Model of Aesthetic Experience 24  3 The Development of Aesthetic Experience 27  4 Idealization and Aesthetic Experience 37 Idealization: A Developmental/Relational Model 43 Clinical Illustration 48  Idealization in Creativity and Aesthetic Experience 52 5 The Creative Process 55  Creativity and Selfobject Experience 63  Clinical Illustration 72  6 The Sense of Beauty 77  The Contribution of Psychoanalysis to Our Understanding of Beauty 79 The Psychoanalytic Understanding of the Sense of Beauty: An Integration 85 7 On Ugliness 93 The Problem of Ugliness 94  The Problem of Ugliness and Psychoanalytic Theory 95  Encountering Ugliness 98 Ugliness in Psychopathology 106 Clinical Illustration 107 Conclusion 109 8 The Sublime 111 A Brief History of the Sublime 111 Psychoanalytic Contributions to the Concept of the Sublime 115 The Psychoanalytic Sublime 117  The Maternal Aesthetic: The Matrix of Beauty 118  The Paternal Aesthetic: The Source of the Sublime 119  The Psychological Function of the Sublime 126  9 Art and Self 129  Creativity: Context and Process 133  Art and Gesture 136  What Art Is 139  Does Art Heal? 140  Psychopathology and Creativity 144  10 Art, Creativity, and the Clinical Process 146  Aesthetic Experience in Life and Therapy 146  The Sense of Quality 148  Creativity 150  Case Example: Paul 152  Conclusion 157  11 Festival 158  Metasubjectivity 162  Intersubjectivity 163 Subjectivity 164  Culture 165  12 The Musician and the Creative Process 168  The Psychological Experience of Music 168  Music and the Creative Process 170  Case Illustration: Alan 174  Discussion 177  13 Cruising Beauty: Obsession and Self-Crisis in Thomas Mann?s Death in Venice 179  Discussion 183  Conclusion: Triumphant Beauty 188  14 Hitler?s Aesthetics: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Art and Fascism 189  The Role of Aesthetics in Hitler?s Life 190  The Longings and Failures of a Young Artist 191  The Psychological Function of Hitler?s Aesthetic 195  Hitler?s Hatred of Modernism 197 The Abuse of Beauty: A Fascist Aesthetic 199 In the End 200 References 202 Subject Index 207 Author Index