Changes

The term "creativity" is not used by Sigmund [[Freud ]] but the [[concept ]] is [[Freudian ]] if we [[understand ]] it to mean the creative [[imagination ]] embodied in [[fantasies ]] or daydreams. These may or may not receive further elaboration and be transformed into a [[work ]] of art, regardless of its specific [[nature]]. However, it is primarily Melanie [[Klein ]] and Donald [[Winnicott ]] who are [[responsible ]] for establishing the concept as an [[active ]] attitude of the ego with respect to its [[objects]].

As early as the Studies on [[Hysteria ]] (1895d), Freud realized that the [[world ]] of fantasy ([[Anna O]]'s private theater) can take the [[place ]] of the [[real ]] world, and this includes the researcher captivated by his [[subject]]. In discussing [[humor ]] (1905c), Freud also emphasized the [[freedom ]] of the intellect in the face of highly constrained situations. [[Literary ]] creation (1908e [1907]) appeared to Freud as an extension of [[children]]'s daydreams, situations in which the fantasy is affirmed in the face of the [[empire ]] of [[reality]], without, however, leading the subject to misinterpret it as happens in delusional states. It is precisely this ability, whose origin remains mysterious, to turn fantasies into a reality inscribed in a work of art and therefore something that can be shared with [[others]], that constitutes creativity, regardless of the field of endeavor. Freud was especially interested in literary (Dostoyevsky, Hoffmann, Jensen) and artistic creation ([[Leonardo ]] [[da Vinci]], [[Michelangelo]]).

[[Melanie Klein ]] (1929) had a very different outlook on creativity, which she saw as an impulse experienced by the [[infant ]] to repair the [[object ]] that had been initially [[split ]] into [[good ]] and bad and attacked during the [[paranoid ]] [[phase]]. The creative function is therefore initially curative but goes hand in hand with the [[representation ]] of a [[unified ]] object. In this [[sense ]] the creative function constitutes a reconstitution of the ego and the object, which having been simultaneously destroyed, subsist in an empty or mutilated [[state]].

[[Donald Winnicott ]] (1971) gave the fullest extension to the concept of creativity by emphasizing its function as an attitude in the face of [[outside ]] reality and not necessarily successful or recognized creative work. He contrasted creativity and submission to the outside world but, unlike Freud, emphasized the fact that fantasy [[life ]] could diverge from the creative attitude. Fantasizing is not [[living ]] but can, on the contrary, as Freud noted with respect to [[hysterics]], isolate the [[individual ]] from life; it will never serve as an object of [[communication]].

For Winnicott, while creativity is related to dreaming and living, it is not really a part of our fantasy life. The [[experience ]] of [[self ]] can only be achieved through that [[physical ]] and [[mental ]] creative [[activity ]] whose [[model ]] is [[game ]] playing. Creativity is not the creative capacity but something [[universal]], inherent in the very fact of living. In the [[case ]] where the individual submits to outside reality to the point of losing himself in it ([[false ]] self), his creativity [[disappears ]] and remains hidden without however [[being ]] destroyed. It is in this way deprived of contact with the experience of life. "The creative impulse," Winnicott writes, "is [[present ]] as much in the [[moment]]-by-moment living of a backward [[child ]] who is enjoying breathing as it is in the inspiration of an architect who suddenly [[knows ]] what it is that he wishes to [[construct]]" (1982, p. 69).

The concept of creativity is much closer to the question of activity than to the production of a work of art. This aspect is only sketched out by Freud but was theorized by Winnicott for whom the concept is associated with considerations of the ego and non-ego and the transitional [[space ]] that serves as an "outlet" for primary [[narcissism]].

# Klein, Melanie. (1975). [[Infantile ]] [[anxiety ]] situations reflected in a work of art and in the creative impulse. In The Writings of Melanie Klein (Vol. 1). [[London]]: Hogarth. (Reprinted from International Journal of [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis]], 10, (1929) 436-443.)