ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how Sigmund Freud models of the mind illuminate and underpin the arts in therapy. It discusses the relationship between the arts therapies and psychoanalytic approaches in practice, and the role of art and artistry in clinical work. Freud’s theories of the mind can be divided schematically into three phases: “the topographical model”, the “tripartite model”, and precursors of object relations and interpersonal theory. The key therapeutic lever in psychoanalytic psychotherapy is usually held to be the analysis of transference, although too the empirical justification for this belief is slim. The relative passivity and opacity of the analyst enables the patients to see more clearly their own preconceptions, assumptions, and phantasies without being affected by the “noise” that a more transparent or active therapist might create. Artists in therapy sometimes worry that too much analysis of their work will destroy their creative impulse, and therapists should tread very gently in these cases.
