ABSTRACT
The most momentous incident in Giovanni Segantini's childhood was the early death of his mother. His development, his external and inner life, his artistry and his works are all so highly individual that they constitute in themselves a whole series of unsolved psychological problems. The psycho-analytical researches of Sigmund Freud and his school throw a new light on the general and individual manifestations of psychic life. Starting from investigations into the unconscious, the researches led to important discoveries concerning the laws governing artistic creativeness. Psycho-analysis is a method whose original aim was to seek for the unconscious roots of morbid psychological conditions, of nervous disorders or 'neuroses'. It extended beyond this limited field and was found to be a fruitful method of investigation into the most diverse spheres of psychic life. Only the psycho-analytical method of investigation can explain his development, since this method alone takes the instinctual drives of infancy as its starting-point.
