ABSTRACT
The application of psychoanalysis to the arts would seem to be most suitable to biographies of creative artists. Indeed, it has been claimed that since psychoanalysis concerns itself with the study of lives, it is a form of biography (Martin, 1983). The analyst and biographer share an interest in development and the influence of the past upon the present. Both gather data that enable them to form meaningful constructions, and both must guard against the unconscious intrusions of their own personalities which may affect their judgments of the subjects. For the analyst and the biographer, the approach is essentially interpretative — in contrast to that of the empirical scientist who forms and tests inferences based on replicable observations, or the poet or novelist who constructs primarily from the imagination, not bound by rules of evidence or considerations of veridical truth.
