Leonardo da Vinci: A Psychosexual Study of an Infantile ReminiscenceFreud, Sigmund
Science
Leonardo da Vinci: A Psychosexual Study of an Infantile Reminiscence
Freud, Sigmund
Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Views on art; Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519; Painters -- Italy -- Biography; Psychoanalysis -- Case studies
characteristics of Leonardo which remained unexplained through
psychoanalytic effort are first, his particular tendency to repress his
impulses, and second, his extraordinary ability to sublimate the
primitive impulses.
The impulses and their transformations are the last things that
psychoanalysis can discern. Henceforth it leaves the place to biological
investigation. The tendency to repression, as well as the ability to
sublimate, must be traced back to the organic bases of the character,
upon which alone the psychic structure springs up. As artistic talent
and productive ability are intimately connected with sublimation we
have to admit that also the nature of artistic attainment is
psychoanalytically inaccessible to us. Biological investigation of our
time endeavors to explain the chief traits of the organic constitution
of a person through the fusion of male and female predispositions in the
material sense; Leonardo's physical beauty as well as his
left-handedness furnish here some support. However, we do not wish to
leave the ground of pure psychologic investigation. Our aim remains to
demonstrate the connection between outer experiences and reactions of
the person over the path of the activity of the impulses. Even if
psychoanalysis does not explain to us the fact of Leonardo's artistic
accomplishment, it still gives us an understanding of the expressions
and limitations of the same. It does seem as if only a man with
Leonardo's childhood experiences could have painted Monna Lisa and Saint
Anne, and could have supplied his works with that sad fate and so obtain
unheard of fame as a natural historian; it seems as if the key to all
his attainments and failures was hidden in the childhood phantasy of
the vulture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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