Literary Creativity

Freud's Theory

Freud theorized about literary creativity, drawing upon his own ideas about neuroses, dreams, and therapy. He postulated that literature was inherently autobiographical in nature. That is, writers egotistically portray themselves as the hero. Freud also thought writers are halfway between normal, psychologically healthy adults and neurotics. Although normally healthy adults are ashamed of their fantasies and suppress them, either because they are seen as childish or they are improper, immoral, or outside of societal norms, writers feel compelled to communicate these fantasies. Neurotics are compelled to confess their fantasies to their therapist to remove their symptoms, but writers do not exhibit neurotic symptoms. Freud saw writing as a defense mechanism that manifested itself through creativity, rather than through neurotic symptoms and pathologies. Writing, Freud thought, was a form of confession as seen in therapy, which is why he thought that writers could be thought of as borderline neurotics.

In addition, Freud speculated about why literature is so pleasurable for both the reader and the writer. He wondered why people enjoy the fantasies that writers give them, but not the fantasies [Page 538]that they hear from other people. Freud thought that autobiographical character of literature is softened by the writers, which appeases the initial revulsion that people feel from hearing about the intimacies of others. This is similar to Freud's concept of the structure of dreams, where distortion suppresses our tendency to censor ourselves. Also like dreams, the hero of the stories is our own Ego, although the Ego may also be split into several different characters.

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