When Art Ceases To Be Integrative - Reconsidering Hanna Segal's Aesthetics

Abstract

The present paper sets out to reconsider three key issues in Hanna Segal’s theory of aesthetics: the role of aggression in creativity, artistic maturity, and the restorative function. In her seminal paper, ‘A Psycho-Analytical Approach To Aesthetics’ (1952), Hanna Segal identifies the roots of art in the depressive position. By drawing emphasis upon certain advances in our aesthetic conception, the question arises as to whether the theoretical implications of her paper ought to be revised. It appears that many of the contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives on art and creativity tend to omit an indispensable element: our innate propensity towards aggression. This paper deviates from Segal’s emphasis upon integration and reparation to focus instead on the paranoid-schizoid elements of our aesthetic experience.