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Animus and creativity in psychotherapy: a position statement
Author(s) -
Liotta Elena
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of analytical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.285
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1468-5922
pISSN - 0021-8774
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-5922.1997.00317.x
Subject(s) - creativity , archetype , psychology , neglect , object (grammar) , psychotherapist , statement (logic) , psychoanalysis , social psychology , epistemology , literature , philosophy , art , linguistics , psychiatry
Calling attention to what the author calls the ‘maternalization of our profession’, a warning is sounded to psychotherapists, and women practitioners in particular, not to neglect their own creativity in the course of professional development undertaken to take better care of patients. Development of the animus, here reformulated as ‘an archetype of the capacity for non‐relationship’, is seen as a balancing alternative to the usual training in the capacity to contain object relations. A literary parallel can be found in Ibsen's play, The Woman from the Sea. It is hoped, too, that through her own initiation into a creative life, the analyst will be better able to help the analysand find a connection with a ‘creative centre’.