Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming

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"CREATIVE WRITERS AND DAY-DREAMING"

In 1908 Sigmund Freud presented a talk entitled "Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming" at the publisher Hugo Heller's offices. This was an important article in which Freud responded to the questions introduced in "Psychopathic Characters on the Stage" (1942a [1905]). It is contemporary with the "Gradiva" essay (1907) and was to be continued in numerous texts that discussed artistic creation, such as "The Uncanny" (1919h) and "Dostoyevsky and Parricide (1928b [1927]). The condensed and theoretical nature of Freud's statements here summarize ideas he was to present elsewhere in his work.

He begins with an idea that Donald Winnicott would later take up concerning the link between childhood games and creation—in this case, literary creation. The game is defined as a "daydream" and extends into adolescence in "fantasies." Both belong to the more general category of fantasy activity, which is itself the result of unsatisfied desires. The link with literary creation takes place through popular literature, whose heroes are always victorious after they have undergone various trials. The pleasure of reading is defined as essentially narcissistic. The hero is always His Majesty the Ego and the "psychological" novel differs from the adventure novel only in that the ego is split into "partial egos" that are represented by the various heroes in conflict. The social novel, however, makes the ego an outside observer.

The novelist's literary capacity is supported through the echoes that real events or folkloric sources awaken in his or her childhood memory. The creator allows the reader to participate in his fantasy world through the formal techniques he exercises, which provide a source of pleasure. This frees a deeper source, enabling the reader to "enjoy his fantasies without scruple and without shame." Even though, as Freud himself acknowledges, the origin of this creative ability remains mysterious, this dense text introduces several new paths for discovery and reminds us of popular literature's importance in understanding the pleasure of reading.

Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor

See also: Applied psychoanalysis and the interaction of psychoanalysis; Creativity; Literary and artistic creation; Fantasy (reverie); Reverie; Sublimation.