The creative mystique : from red shoes frenzy to love and creativity

Through the life stories of women such as Camille Claudel, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Anne Sexton, Suzanne Farrell and others and through clinical case studies, Susan Kavaler-Adler offers penetrating insights into the nature of the creative process. Kavaler-Adler contrasts unsuccessful psychological treatments with object-relations therapy that is able to resolve the pathological narcissism of creative addiction and allow the emergence of healthy modes of self-expression. Read more... Abstract: Through the life stories of women such as Camille Claudel, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Anne Sexton, Suzanne Farrell and others, the author offers insights into the nature of the creative process. Clinical case studies are incorporated into the discussion. Read more... Content: 1. Pathology and Health of Creativity: Compulsion and Mystique or Dialectic -- 2. "The Love-Creativity Dialectic": A Theory of Psychic Health -- 3. The Red Shoes Myth and the Story of Camille Claudel -- 4. The Story of Suzanne Farrell and George Ballanchine -- 5. Katherine Mansfield: A Theory of Creative Process Reparation and its Mode of Failure -- 6. The Genius and Sorrow of Virginia Woolf, Part I -- 7. The Genius and Sorrow of Virginia Woolf, Part II: Vision and Art -- 8. Diane Arbus and the Demon Lover -- 9. Some More Speculations on Anna O.: Demon Lover and Arrested Creativity -- 10. Anne Sexton's Treatment, Part I -- 11. Anne Sexton's Treatment, Part II, and Addendum on her Demon Lover Complex -- 12. The Case of Lois, Part I: Red Shoes Frenzy, Mystique, and Creative Compulsion -- 13. The Case of Lois, Part II: Healing and Movement Towards The Love-Creativity Dialectic -- 14. The Case of Ms. C.