Painting and Our Inner World

by Machotka, Pavel; Felton, Lori

• ISBN13: 9780306474088
• ISBN10: 0306474085
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Plenum Pub Corp

Summary

That painting is at least in part an expression of the painter's personality is obvious from the differences between very impulsive and very controlled painters - between the paintings of a Picasso, for example, and a Piet Mondriaan. But these differences have not been looked at in a controlled setting. In this book, Machotka sets out to understand the images produced by a broad sample of students and to connect them to the students' inner lives - to their interpersonal relations, their wishes and fears, their impulses and inhibitions. Their image making was followed in detail and their personality was studied in a long clinical interview, producing a rich, individual picture of the style and substance of the inner life of each. Then the images were grouped into seven types by cluster analysis. The personal data were found to fit the image clusters closely: for example, images with little form and much narration were produced by people with strong compensatory longings, while dense, collaged images were made by participants who exercised relentless control over one major issue in their life. Other individuals had a strong need to integrate their lives and produced well-formed, well-composed images. As expected, no single motive explained all artistic activity - but the style of the images, such as their inhibited formality, abstractness, or fluid boldness, reflected what could be called the map of each participant's interpersonal world.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Art, the Body, and Relationships	1	(6)
Artists and Their Biographies	7	(10)
The Vicissitudes of Psychodynamics	8	(3)
Research on Individuals and the Question of Types	11	(1)
Types in the Study of Art Making	11	(2)
Types in the Study of Artistic Biography	13	(2)
Types in This Study	15	(2)
Image Makers and Their Purposes: Our Methods	17	(12)
Image Making on the Computer	17	(6)
Personality	23	(1)
Individual Interpretation	24	(1)
Experimenters and Image Makers	25	(1)
Grouping the Participants: Cluster Analysis	26	(1)
The Plan of the Book	27	(2)
First Cluster: Narrative Informality and Compensatory Longings	29	(20)
The Psychological Process Seen Individually	30	(8)
The Psychological Dynamics of This Cluster	38	(11)
Feeling Through to the Flow of Water	39	(3)
Flying Peachy Buttheads	42	(7)
Second Cluster: Inhibited, Disconnected Forms and Downcast, Angry Lives	49	(26)
The Psychological Process Seen Individually	50	(17)
The Psychological Dynamics of This Cluster	67	(8)
Monogram	68	(3)
Garden of Chanterelle	71	(3)
Epilogue	74	(1)
Third Cluster: Bold, Flowing Process and the Direct Expression of Emotion	75	(24)
The Psychological Process Seen Individually	80	(11)
The Psychological Dynamics of This Cluster	91	(8)
Scream	91	(4)
Honeymoon	95	(4)
Fourth Cluster: Dense Paintings and Relentless Control	99	(18)
The Psychological Process Seen Individually	100	(6)
The Psychological Dynamics of This Cluster	106	(11)
Psychedelic Village	107	(4)
Winterland	111	(6)
Fifth Cluster: Imposed Order, Inhibition, and the Acceptance of Parental Standards	117	(24)
The Psychological Process Seen Individually	122	(9)
The Psychological Dynamics of This Cluster	131	(10)
Framed Flowers	132	(4)
My Mother's Garden	136	(5)
Sixth Cluster: Consistent Style and the Need to Integrate	141	(18)
The Psychological Process	142	(17)
Fruit Tree	147	(5)
Temple Cluster	152	(7)
Seventh Cluster: Abstraction, Avoidance, and the Search for Firm Boundaries	159	(20)
The Psychological Process Seen Individually	160	(8)
The Psychological Dynamics of This Cluster	168	(11)
City of Dreams	169	(4)
Type on Flowers	173	(6)
Art Making, Maps of Interpersonal Space, and the World of Art	179	(14)
Dimensions of Art Making	180	(3)
Bringing It Together: Images of the Interpersonal World	183	(3)
The Seven Ways of Doing Art and Artists We Know	186	(7)
Appendix A: Psychological Analysis of the Clusters: A Partial Replication	193	(8)
Joseph Keiser
Kristoffer Berlin
Seventh Cluster: Abstraction, Avoidance, and the Search for Firm Boundaries	194	(2)
Sixth Cluster: Consistent Style and the Need to Integrate	196	(1)
Fourth Cluster: Dense Painting and Relentless Control	197	(2)
First Cluster: Narrative Informality and Compensatory Longings	199	(2)
Appendix B: Interview Forms and Statistical Tables	201	(12)
Post-Image Making Interview	201	(1)
Psychodynamic Interview	202	(2)
Image and Process Assessment	204	(9)
References	213	(2)
Index	215