Writing Blocks

When we take a look through an object relations lens at pathological dynamics related to the creative process, we see that those with neurotic conditions can often suffer from creative blocks, or in the case of writers, from writing blocks. This relates to repression processes that operate defensively at an unconscious level. By contrast we see those who are amazingly prolific in creative work, who may suffer from early developmental arrests in the preoedipal period, who have not reached a psychic level of containing repression, but who repeat dissociated preoedipal trauma experience within the content and format of their creative work. They may experience "the compulsion to create" (Kavaler-Adler, 1993, 2000, & 2013). Those with "the compulsion to create" are not merely writing, dancing, or painting, out of a free creative inspiration, but are rather compelled to keep turning to the creative process to express the pain, rage, and anguish of primal trauma that has resulted in primal level loss that cannot be successfully mourned. In fact the manic intensity and rate of the creative process can reflect a pathological mourning state, in which the artist is compelled to repeat their trauma in an infinite variety of ways in their work, but no matter the infinite variety of expression, the unresolved trauma still remains, and the theme of it is repeated continuously. Also, due to the primal trauma and its unresolved loss, the artist's or writer's relationships in the world often break down, or fail to sustain their support and intimacy, so that the creative process itself becomes the external container for the anguished internal world and its dissociated (or "split off") trauma. Creative work can then be the outlet for an externalized version of the internal world trauma, which may not be processed and edited by an observing ego. The creative process becomes the fantasy containing mother that the artist never adequately had in infancy or in the separation-individuation period. However, all that is poured out into the external "toilet breast" mother (a Kleinian term) in the creative process is not necessarily shaped by an observing ego, so it takes on the dynamic of Ronald Fairbairn's (1952) "exorcism" rather than being a locus of processing the affects and memories of loss and trauma, so that true mourning can succeed and integrate the self. Instead, the self that is already split can become further fragmented. Brilliant modern painting and poetry can be devised from such fragmented parts. Just look at the work of Picasso. Or look at the work of such writers as Emily Bronte, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, or Emily Dickinson, as seen in my books on the creative process: The Compulsion to Create: Women Writers and Their Demon Lovers (Routledge, 1993, Other Press 2000, &ORI Academic Press 2013) and The Creative Mystique: From Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity (Routledge 1996, & ORI Academic Press, 2015). On the other hand, in writing or creative blocks, the person with the wish and often talent to create is often stymied by an unconscious fear of expressing anger at those who have opposed their self-expression in childhood, but usually at an oedipal or post oedipal level. Being blocked in their ability to express themselves freely can reflect a submission as well, to those who opposed their free self-expression.