ABSTRACT
It is a well-known fact that many artists and authors part unwillingly with their productions; others (for instance, Leonardo da Vinci) treat them badly and soon lose all interest in them. A special group is formed by those artists and authors who carry an idea—worked out mentally in minute detail—around with them for months at a time, without being able to decide upon realizing it. Obsessional neurotics have a peculiar tendency to put aside quite complete working projects. It is well known that it is not the severing of the umbilical cord but the gradual withdrawal of the libido that indicates the real freeing of the child from the mother.
