Keywords Freud's view of literary and artistic creation: a new psychoanalysis; humanism suppresses fantasy demand
Freud's view of literary and artistic creation
(1) Freud's basic view on literary and artistic creation is that literary and artistic creation is the satisfaction of repressed wishes. Freud believed that if the subconscious wishes are to be expressed and satisfied, they can be skillfully expressed through various unconscious processes, and can be sublimated and expressed through the form of literature and art.
In Freud's view, literature and dreams have many common characteristics, both of which cleverly conceal those repressed wishes and make them express. He thinks that the method of dream interpretation can also explain literary works and explore their "real meaning". Its analysis of many literary and artistic works is to apply the method of dream interpretation. For example, he made a detailed analysis of Dostoevsky's brothers karamazov and German writer Zhan Sen's Gradiva. The former focuses on the relationship between writers and works, while the latter focuses on the psychological analysis of works. The analysis results show that the former is that the writer projects his hatred for his father on the characters in his works, and he unintentionally shows Oedipus complex; In the latter, the protagonist's actions are always dominated by the child's unconscious sexual desire. (2) The writer's creation is a special fantasy activity. Freud expounded this view incisively and vividly in the Creator and Daydream. First of all, he thinks that the writer's creation is just like children's play and games. A creative writer is like a child in a game. He will create an imaginary world and take it very seriously.
Secondly, he thinks that fantasy has the following characteristics: (1) The intrinsic motivation of fantasy is unsatisfied desire, which has two types, some are ambitious desire and some are erotic desire. He said: "We can draw the conclusion that a happy person will never fantasize, and only those who feel dissatisfied will fantasize. Every fantasy is the satisfaction of a wish and the revision of an unsatisfied reality. These inspiring fantasies change with the gender, personality and environment of the dreamer; But they naturally fall into two categories. They are either ambitious wishes to improve the dreamer's personality or erotic wishes ... "[1]. (2) Fantasy is the product of the times. He also believes that fantasy is "changing with the change of the subject's impression of life, and getting the so-called' imprint of the times' from every new positive impression. (3) Fantasy is formed by the ever-present desire to connect the past, the present and the future, including three factors: "the recent induced occasion", "the memory of the past" and "the future situation". He said, "The relationship between fantasy and time is very important. This relationship lingers between three periods, that is, our fantasy acts on three periods. Psychological activities are related to the current impression, which is related to an induced occasion that is enough to arouse people's strong desire at present, so as to recall the early experience (usually the experience of infancy) of satisfying this desire. Then, it will now create a future-related situation, which can represent the satisfaction of this desire. What psychological activities create is daydreaming or fantasy. The objective existence not only bears the traces of the occasion at that time, but also bears the imprint of some past memories. So it can be said that the past, the present and the future are always connected in series on the line of desire. " [2](4) The difference between an artist's fantasy and that of a neurotic patient is that an artist can control his own fantasy, while a neurotic patient is addicted to his own fantasy and cannot extricate himself. He said: "Artists, like neurotic patients, get out of the unsatisfied reality and enter this imaginary world. "But the artist" is different from the neurotic. He knows how to quit from this imaginary world. "Stand firm in reality again" [3]. (5) Artists' fantasies are different from ordinary people, mainly because artists can use artistic skills to overcome the audience's aversion to daydreaming. "Daydreamers often carefully hide their fantasies from others because he thinks he has reason to be ashamed of it ... even if he intends to tell us his fantasies, he can't make us happy. When we know these fantasies, we will feel disgusted, or at least indifferent. However, when a creative writer shows us that his happiness may come from many aspects. " "The secret of the art of poetry lies in the skill of overcoming our disgust ... First, the writer makes the characteristics of self-centered daydreams less obvious and prominent through transformation; Secondly, when he expressed his fantasy, he provided us with pure formal (that is, aesthetic) fun, which pleased us "[4]. (6) The artist's fantasy works can make the audience or audience release pleasure and get rid of mental tension. Freud believes that the purpose of a writer's creation is to "release greater pleasure in our deep spiritual world", which he calls "extra reward for stimulation" or "pre-happiness", and "all aesthetic happiness provided by a creative writer has the nature of pre-happiness, and the real happiness given to us by an imaginative work comes from the relief of our mental tension", which is the only reason. Here, Freud involves the psychological resonance between the writer and the audience or audience.
(3) "Oedipus complex" is the master key to make literary and artistic creation move the audience. He pointed out that Otto? Frank "in his masterpiece about incest, he can show how imaginative writers frequently take Oedipus complex as their creative theme, and he also explores the forms in which this material is transformed, transformed and processed from different literary works around the world" [6]. Freud also analyzed "three masterpieces in the history of literature", namely King Oedipus by Sophocles, Hamlet by Shakespeare and brothers karamazov by Dostoevsky, and found that they "all showed the same theme-patricide, and in these three works, the motive of killing father was to fight for women". In this way, he believes that Oedipus complex has become a common theme in literature, and in this complex, the desire to kill father and marry mother has become the main thing that people demand to be satisfied in artistic activities.
He also used Oedipus complex to explain the secret that the audience was moved. It is believed that the audience was deeply moved by the plot content because of the Oedipus complex shared by the audience and the people in the play. Freud wrote: "If King Oedipus touched a modern audience like the Greek audience at that time, then the only explanation can only be this: its effect lies not in the conflict between fate and human will, but in the theme characteristics of this conflict. There must be something in our hearts that can cause vibration, which is in line with the fate in King Oedipus, the power to make people believe ... His fate touched us just because it might become our fate, because before we were born, the Oracle cast the same spell on our heads, just like it was on his head. " [7] Such artistic creation not only satisfies the writer's subconscious sexual desire, but also satisfies the audience, so the writer deeply touched the audience's heart.
(4) Two main characteristics of an artist's artistic personality.
1. strongly vent the urge to suppress your wishes.
First of all, artists are tempered from pain. Freud wrote: "Happy people never fantasize, only those who are not satisfied fantasize." Unsatisfied desires are the driving force of fantasy. " [8]
Secondly, the artist's experience of his repressed subconscious desire is extremely rich and profound. Freud thought that writers and psychopaths were very similar. "The artist also has an introverted personality. He is similar to a psychopath. He is a person who is driven forward by an arrogant instinctive need "[9]. Freud studied artists such as Dostoevsky, Van Gogh, Nietzsche and Kafka. He thinks Dostoevsky is an epileptic. When he was immersed in his creation, all kinds of neurotic symptoms disappeared. Freud concluded that the artist's creation is the turning point of neurosis, and the artist's creation can compensate and replace his neurosis, so neurosis is the psychological basis of artistic creation. Van Gogh, Nietzsche and Kafka all had similar situations [10].
Freud believed that a writer must put rich feelings into his subconscious and fantasy. He wrote: "A writer is like a child playing a game. He created an imaginary world and took it seriously, which means that he invested a lot of feelings. " [1 1] When Freud was discussing young Werther with Goethe, Goethe said that he fell in love with Charlotte when he was young, but at this time he was engaged to Gust, so he was very miserable. Later, his good friend Ye Shalei committed suicide because he fell in love with the boss's wife. The pistol Ye Shalei used when he died was lent to him by Gust. Goethe was very excited after hearing this. He suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and the blueprint for "The Trouble of Young Vader" emerged. After listening to Goethe's account of his conception process, Freud pointed out in The Interpretation of Dreams that great writers such as Goethe conceived their works with subconscious activities, and thought that the impulse accumulated in Goethe's heart-the flame of sex or the impulse of love-eventually "deformed" into great literary works. Freud also analyzed Paco's Trillion of the Devil, an Italian composer and violinist, and pointed out that it was written after Paco had a nightmare. In his dream, Paco sold his soul to the devil, grabbed the violin and played a wonderful tune with superb skills. After he woke up, he immediately wrote down the part he remembered, entitled "The Devil's Trembling". Freud said, "If the mental activity during the day continues in a dream, complete it and bring valuable new ideas".
Finally, artists should have strong passion to vent their impulses. When talking about drama, Freud said: "The purpose of drama is to open the source of happiness and enjoyment in our emotional life, but it is impossible for rational activities to open such a source. ..... In this regard, the basic factor is the process of getting rid of one's emotions by venting strong emotions. " [12] He also said that in artistic activities, "release those repressed impulses without hesitation, indulge in freedom in religious, political, social and sexual events, and vent strong feelings in every aspect of various brilliant scenes" [13].
It turns out that according to psychoanalytic theory, the subconscious is an extremely active factor in people's mental activities, and it is always looking for opportunities to vent, as Freud said: "Human sexual instinct is the driving force of life, and it is extremely active in people's lives, just like underground magma, which is constantly transpiration, impulsiveness and seeking for an explosion." [14] The artist's passion is the expression of this subconscious venting motivation.
2. The artist's artistic sublimation ability. Freud emphatically revealed the "sublimation" ability of artistic personality. The artist "keeps away from reality and transfers all his interests and instinctive impulses to the creation of his fantasy life." ..... A real artist knows how to manage his daydreams painstakingly, so that he can lose his personal tone that stings people's ears and become the enjoyment of passers-by "[15]. It is through this "sublimation" that the writer loses his personal color, makes the root of immorality invisible and makes it acceptable to the society; At the same time, it can show the author's desire to be satisfied in the fantasy concept and cause corresponding happiness (although it is subconscious happiness). In this way, through the sublimation of the writer, the writer and his readers can enjoy this subconscious sexual satisfaction without being blamed.
Freud also specifically analyzed how the author sublimated the Oedipus Complex from the artistic skills of three famous works in literary history: King Oedipus, Hamlet and brothers karamazov. He believes that the themes involved in the three representative works are the same, but the expression techniques are different. All of them have been sublimated by writers, so that this unacceptable theme of social ethics can be expressed in a socially acceptable form. However, this means of sublimation is constantly changing and advancing with the development of society.
Freud believes that the sublimation ability of art is unique to artists, and its "weakness" cannot be universally applied to people, but it can only be used by a few people. Because of people's special temperament and talent, it is far from universally applicable in practice "[16]. It is precisely because of this sublimation ability that artists can enjoy the satisfaction of their wishes infinitely in fantasy. However, people without artistic accomplishment lack this sublimation ability, and under the cruel repression, their satisfaction from fantasy is very limited. Moreover, because of the artist's works, he can also let his audience and readers enjoy the satisfaction of this fantasy from the appreciation of his works, causing their happiness and feelings, and the artist has also contributed to the cultural accumulation of society.
(5) the function of art.
Freud believed that art was divorced from reality. What it pursues is only fantasy. Art never tries to invade the real world except some people who are said to be fascinated by art. "Art is almost always harmless and beneficial" [17]. According to Freud's view on the non-invasive and harmless role of art, the role of art has the following two points:
1. Art is the compensation for pain. Freud believed that art is one of the buffering measures provided by human beings to endure the suffering of life. Human life is too hard, with a lot of pain, but not much happiness. In order to enable people to live, there must be no buffer measures, and art is one of such measures. Because art can provide the satisfaction of fantasy desire, this kind of "alternative satisfaction" can provide a lot of compensation for the threat of pain and make people live. Therefore, although art "has no obvious use", "civilization cannot do without it". This compensation function of art for pain exists in both the artist's creative activities and the audience. An artist can experience the happiness in fantasy in his creation by virtue of his own sublimation, thus alleviating the pain brought by reality, while those who are not creative can also enjoy the beauty from the appreciation of artistic works. Although the audience can't regard art as the source of happiness and comfort, they can "cause mild anesthesia and temporarily offset the depression imposed by daily needs" [18].
2. The aesthetic value of art lies in that the work can arouse the audience's * * *, that is, the author and the audience can share happiness. Freud compared the fantasy of ordinary people with the fantasy of writers, and pointed out that even if the former wanted to tell people the fantasy, people would not feel happy, but would only feel disgusted. The writer makes full use of the ability of sublimation when describing his fantasy (that is, creation), so people enjoy a great pleasure and get spiritual comfort. That is, the writer can fully purify his savage, primitive and lewd desires, turn terrible things into beautiful things, and make the reader's mind "begin to relieve tension" and appreciate his fantasy.
Freud believed that when creating, the creator felt great happiness because he vented his subconscious desires, and the viewer also shared the fantasy of the writer, temporarily "returning to the source of his unconscious comfort, ease and happiness" [19].
Freud also believed that beauty comes from the satisfaction of sexual desire. Without this sense of satisfaction, beauty is impossible. He wrote: "The enjoyment of beauty comes from a very charming feeling", "It is undeniable that it comes from sexual desire ..." [20] It can be seen that Freud regards aesthetic feelings as sexual feelings and thinks that the meaning conveyed by works and the real things appreciated by readers, as well as the emotional communication between writers and readers through works, are all caused by sexual factors.
In a word, writers project their unconscious desires into literary works, and readers project their unconscious desires into works they appreciate. Thus, an unconscious activity in literary works aroused an activity similar to that of the author, which was satisfied and enjoyed.
Second, the new psychoanalysis school examines Freud's view of literary and artistic creation.
1. The most basic point of Freud's literary creation view is that instinctive needs are the source of writers' creative motivation, and Oedipus complex is used to explain the origin of aesthetic feeling. The new psychoanalysis school abandoned this view and formed itself. They advocate looking for the source of human behavior motivation from the social environment, that is, the source of writers' creative motivation comes from social and cultural factors. As for the phenomenon that Oedipus hates his father, Neo-Freudians do not recognize it. Honey believes that the phenomenon of "Oedipus hating his father" is not caused by the child's sexual desire, but the result of his father's strict teaching and his mother's tolerance and care. Cadine, who is famous for his "cultural viewpoint", personally visited some primitive indigenous tribal areas to investigate the influence of cultural system on people's psychological function, described the composition of primary system and secondary system and their roles in forming basic personality, and finally denied the universality of Oedipus complex.
2. Freud believes that literary and artistic creation is the satisfaction of the writer's repressed desire, which exists in the subconscious, plays a decisive leading role in the personality structure and determines human behavior. Neo-Freudianism emphasizes the value of self, which has its own energy source, motivation and purpose, and is a system of rational guidance. From this point of view, the neo-Freudian school believes that the writer's creation is not driven and controlled by the original impulse, but guided by the "rationality" of himself. The writer's creation reflects the writer's desire, but this desire does not come from the innate biological instinct impulse, but from the writer's personal experience of life and observation and understanding of society.
3. Freud thinks that writers are unfortunate people, because writers' fantasies are the embodiment of repressed wishes, and repressed wishes are painful. This is the concrete embodiment of Freud's innate biological determinism pessimism attitude in literary and artistic creation view, while neo-Freudianism emphasizes optimism about the future. They advocate the flexibility of human development and believe that they have the ability to overcome conflicts and setbacks and constantly develop in a positive direction. In other words, a writer can completely overcome the pain of repressed desires, and his creation is a positive and active performance process, not a passive release of inner tension.
The above shows that the new psychoanalysis school transcends the classical Freud's view of literature and art and is more reasonable and objective than Freud's view of literature and art.
Thirdly, humanistic psychology examines Freud's view of literary creation.
If the new psychoanalysis school transcends the classical psychoanalysis school, then humanistic psychology transcends the psychoanalysis school.
1. The theory of psychoanalysis comes from the psychological analysis and research of neurosis and mental patients, and the theory of humanistic psychology comes from the research of healthy people. Therefore, the theory of humanistic psychology is more representative and universal. It is of greater value and practical significance to explain literary and artistic creation with anthropological theory.
2. Humanistic psychology divides people's needs into five levels from low to high, and Freud's sexual desire is only a part of his lowest physiological needs, so his literary view based on sexual desire is extremely limited. More importantly, according to Maslow's theory, the motivation of literary and artistic creation comes from other higher-level needs, such as the need for love, the need for reputation, status, prestige, honor, domination, recognition, attention, importance, nobility and appreciation, achievement and responsibility, etc., not just sexual desire or physical needs.
3. Freud believes that literary creation is the satisfaction of the writer's unsatisfied wishes in fantasy, and this special fantasy of the writer depends on his ability to sublimate his subconscious wishes. Maslow, on the other hand, believes that literary and artistic creation is one of the main characteristics of self-fulfilling people. He said: "A composer must compose music, a painter must paint and a poet must write poems, otherwise he will never be quiet. What a person can be, he must be, and he must be true to his nature. This need can be called the need for self-realization. " [2 1] It can be seen that Maslow believes that the main motivation of writers' creation is the need to give full play to and utilize their own potential, and this need is the social need of people. This further negates Freud's theory of sexual desire. Maslow also believes that creativity can be found in all self-fulfilling people, and its corresponding characteristics are flexibility, spontaneity, courage, frankness and modesty, rather than "sublimation". Maslow also clearly pointed out that "great people are also diligent people." "Inspiration can buy a dozen for a dime. However, from inspiration to Tolstoy's War and Peace, it takes a lot of efforts, strict self-discipline and a lot of training ... leading to the creation of practical works, such as great paintings, novels, bridges and new inventions, not only depends on personal creativity, but also depends on other qualities, such as persistence, patience and diligence [22]. It can be seen that literary and artistic creation must have creative personality and will characteristics such as persistence, patience and diligence, rather than relying on the writer's free association or fantasy as Freud said.
4. Freud thought that the creator was similar to a psychopath. This is also ridiculous to humanists. Maslow believes that writers are self-actualizers, and self-actualized people are not only different from mental illness, but also self-perfected. In Maslow's view, the greatest feature of self-improvement people is that they are less disturbed by negative emotions such as desire and anxiety, and less gloomy. They have a more harmonious personality, and their hearts are always unified. When faced with challenges or threats, when challenges are extremely critical, they are very calm. He can control himself, feel that he has power, can control his own destiny, and is not afraid, ashamed or depressed about his mistakes. They are less anxious, hostile and uneasy. This is far from Freud's "creator of mental illness".
5. Freud regarded Oedipus complex as the release of subconscious desire aroused by creation when the appreciator appreciated literary works. Maslow, on the other hand, believes that aesthetic demand is an important part of the highest level of self-realization demand, and the emergence of art forms such as music, dance and even poetry all stems from people's demand for beauty, and the satisfaction of aesthetic demand can enrich people's emotional life. It also points out that evidence of human aesthetic needs can be found in every culture. In short, aesthetic needs will improve a person's values, enhance his interest and make his physical and mental development healthier. It can be seen how low and absurd the Oedipus complex, the source of Freud's beauty, is.
Above, we analyzed and criticized Freud's view of literary and artistic creation with the thoughts of neo-Freudianism and humanistic psychology. Of course, neo-Freudianism and humanism also have their historical limitations, but after all, they go further than Freudianism. Using their theory to look at Freud's view of literary creation, we can also see the limitations and mistakes of Freud's view of literary creation.
Marxist thought about the relationship between social existence and social consciousness is the scientific basis for us to know, analyze and evaluate Freud's view of literature and art.
1. Marxism believes that people's needs are not only diverse and complex, but also regular, that is, people's needs develop synchronously with human history, especially directly related to the history of production development; The satisfaction of human needs is closely related to human social interaction, that is, human nature is the sum of all human social relations; In the practice of human life, new demands are constantly emerging. At the same time, it emphasizes that human needs are not only the decisive factor of human actions, but also restricted by social and historical conditions. Freud attributed the artist's creative activities only to human sexuality, completely ignoring the complexity of demand, denying the correlation between creative motivation and social relations, ignoring the law of demand's continuous generation and development in social life, and denying the constraints of its social and historical conditions. So Freud's theory is bound to fall into the quagmire of idealism.
2. Marxism believes that people's spiritual needs are manifested as: "People as the main body develop their own talents on the one hand, and enjoy cultural achievements on the other hand" [23], adding: "Both developing their own talents and enjoying cultural achievements must be achieved through concrete materials. No matter whether people's needs are generated by their stomachs or fantasies, they must be met by the attributes of commodities (under the conditions of commodity production). [24] It can be seen that the writer's creation is the expression of spiritual needs, the embodiment of the writer's free display of talent, and the process of enjoying the existing cultural achievements. The writer's imagination can only be generated on the basis of reality, which completely denies that Freud's motivation for the writer's creation comes from the suppression of Libido, and the writer's fantasy is released through sublimation. Thus, Marxism points out that creation comes from reality, not from instinct.
3. Marxism believes that social consciousness comes from social existence, and at the same time it can reflect social existence and transform reality. Literary and artistic works are the crystallization of the writer's thinking through the experience of real life and the spiritual product of the writer. They are bound to respond to reality, intervene and guide it. This criticizes Freud's wrong view that art "does not invade reality" and "is always beneficial and harmless" A good literary and artistic work can not only give people pleasure, but also cultivate people's sentiments, stimulate people's fighting spirit and transform people's values; On the contrary, literary works full of pornography and murder will increase the number of violent crimes, thus disturbing social stability and making people feel insecure. Real life has proved that art has its social function.
Of course, from the perspective of historical development, Freud's view of literary creation also has its positive factors. His psychological analysis of literature and art is itself a pioneering work; His exploration of the subconscious field in literary and artistic creation and his exposition of the three elements of fantasy, that is, fantasy is the recent inducing occasion, and past memories and future situations are the constituent elements of fantasy, which is of reference value to the study of art psychology. In a word, Freud's view of literary creation has played a great role in expanding the scope of psychological art, deepening the inner world of authors and readers, and communicating the relationship between literature and psychology.
Before mentioning the fourth factor that affects the formation of dreams, I want to quote many examples of dreams I have collected. Part of the reason is to explain the mutual cooperation of the above three factors, part of it is to provide some evidence to support the conclusions that are not proved by enough reasons, or to find some inevitable conclusions. When explaining the operation of dreams, I find it difficult to support my point of view with examples, because the situation supporting a certain proposition is meaningful only under the overall content of dream interpretation, and it loses its meaning without the whole. However, on the other hand, even superficial analysis will lead to countless contents, which will confuse us and make us forget a series of ideas that we originally wanted to explain. This technical difficulty will be my excuse. Then, if the reader finds all kinds of things in the following description, there is nothing in common (except those related to the contents of the previous sections).
I want to start with a few special or unusual dreams.
A lady dreamed that a maid was standing on a ladder, as if cleaning the window, with a chimpanzee and an orangutan cat beside her-later she turned it into a long-haired silky cat. The servant threw these animals at her; Chimpanzees hug her. It's disgusting. -The dream achieved its goal with a very simple strategy; Metaphorically, it is clear that "monkey" and "beast" are generally used to insult others. And judging from the situation in the dream, they just said throwing abuse. In the following many dream cases, we will encounter many dream operations using this method.
Another similar dream: a woman gave birth to a child with a twisted head. The dreamer heard someone say that the child grew up according to its position in the womb, so it became like that. Doctors say that stress can make the brain look better, but that will damage the child's brain. She thinks it's a boy, so it won't do any harm. -this dream just implies a changed "impression of children", which is exactly what the doctor explained during the treatment.
The following is an example of a dream.