The Lonely World of the Gifted Artist

Dear Editor,

On March 27, 2010 I attended a Psychohistory Forum seminar in New York City conducted by Nellie Thompson on Phyllis Greenacre’s essay on the childhood of the artist—a part of the Forum’s series on Classic Works in Applied Psychoanalysis. A number of psychoanalysts were there to discuss the nature and development of creative genius. The ensuing three-hour discussion was profound and mesmerizing. Following is what I took from the weekend seminar:

There can be no doubt that there are special genetic endowments in the gifted artist that accounts for some of their success. They have special, superior, God-given abilities to see better, hear clearer, move faster and feel deeper than the masses. For example, Francis Bacon was a descendent of the famous essayist Sir Francis Bacon; Claes Oldenburg was eldest son of a successful Swedish diplomat; Beatrice Potter was daughter to an extremely well-to-do British family.

For me, the key insight of the day was when Thompson mentioned that Greenacre had no use of language until age six. This kind of experience must have led to great loneliness, and it occurred to me that this same childhood loneliness was seen in many well-known artists. Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, Paul Talyor, and others experienced a degree of childhood isolation, deprivation, and loneliness, which may have facilitated the development of a deep fantasy life and an unusual imagination. Paul Taylor was moved from home to home and created imaginary playmates. Beatrice Potter was essentially alone with a nanny for the first six years of her life and eventually wrote a daily diary in an invented language only she could read. Jackson Pollack’s family moved about every two, and as a result he never developed friendships as a child. Jasper Johns’ story is the same. This sense of loneliness is common among the creative artists discussed and it forces upon them not only depression, but the development of a vivid imagination that characterizes their adult work.

Often, great artists have a combination of ambitious, supportive mothers and fathers who were absent or failures in some form.

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This is part of Goetzels’ work.

The use of encoded messages used by so many great artists (for example, Duchamp, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Koons) can be understood as an aspect of privacy, withholding, reminiscence, and defense, which serves to guard them from the public and from their own lost past. The use of encoded messages has not been adequately researched to date. A characteristic of this encoding is that it relates to early childhood experiences. Jeff Koons’ famous inflatable rabbits are perfect examples of an early childhood fixation, but this can be seen in Oldenburg, Basquiat, Warhol, Potter, and many others as well.

The unusual confidence of great artists can be understood as an acquisition of an artistic identity to the exclusion of other identity, which allows them to focus and persevere no matter what the rejections. Their confidence need not be seen as pathological narcissism per se, and this may be Greenacre’s greatest quality; she rarely pathologized the artist.

I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to Nellie Thompson for preparing such an outstanding and inspiring presentation. I am sure that Phyllis Greenacre would have approved.

Sincerely,

Tom Ferraro

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