ABSTRACT
A measure of a person's creativity is the ability to transcend the slings and arrows of outrageous critics. To be able to form a work of art out of the rubble left by such an attack is, of course, not the only way in which creative abilities can show themselves, but it is one way (for other ways, see, for example, Freud, 1910; Greenacre, 1957; Maher, 1993). We chose this view of creativity, the capacity to turn a humiliating rebuff into a triumph, for two reasons. First, it has been proposed as a developmental ideal in that it signals one of the transformations of archaic narcissism (Kohut, 1966). Second, it is of particular relevance in providing a glimpse into the creative process of Henrik Ibsen. Specifically, we refer to Ibsen's response to the criticism and rejection of his play Ghosts by writing An Enemy of the People. In focusing on this view of creativity, we necessarily ignore other factors that contribute to artistic creativity.
