ABSTRACT

There are social, cultural, and artistic achievements in which the “as if” is fully utilized. Psychological determinants of “plagiarism” in writing and in the visual arts are often due to the “as if” of the artist who can only develop his capacities in full identification with a chosen object. This difference of approach may be expressed as follows: clinical observation and then attempts at theoretical explanation versus speculation and then successive search for clinical confirmation. One of the postwar European republics was involved in an uprising in support of the last royal dynasty, and the civil war was not only among the political parties but also among the royalists who were divided in their choice of the future ruler. It was very impressive to observe how his relationship to the author could be revived by the “mise en scene” in a “pseudo-object- constancy.