The Relationship of Art and Psychology

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how art and psychology stand in a very close relation to each other, psychology having been considered by some scholars as " the closest science to art", because of the obvious psychological involvement of both creator and his audience in the artistic process. The paper further discusses how one of the most circulated themes in artistic creation is that of the subconscious itself, and the typical psychological problems that arise from the conflict between the subconscious impulses and patterns and the conscious world.

From the Paper:

"However, the relationship does not go any further than this, and they avoid actually performing adultery. Four years from their separation, the dull Mr. Duffy sits as usual reading his paper and having supper at the same time, after his usual habit. While reading, he suddenly comes to a newspaper article talking about "a painful case": an absurd train accident who caused the death of a middle aged woman, who is none else than Mrs. Sinico. This is the whole plot of the story. The significant psychological facts about it are, first of all the personality or psychological structure of Mr. Duffy, who is a telling example of a man who leads an ordinary and very well-structured life, filled with numerous life-habits, and who is not able to reconcile his own subconscious instincts and desires with his conscious ideas about life. The details of the room he lives in, as well as of his everyday habits, are indicative of a sort of oppressing emptiness, due to the character's lack of awareness about his own self and his own psychological needs."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bornstein, Marc H. Psychology and Its Allied Disciplines Vol. 1. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1984
• Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. New York: Penguin Books, 1999
• Joyce, James The Dubliners, New York: Oxford University Press, 1976
• Koestler, Arthur The Act of Creation. London: Pan Books Limited, 1975
• Matte-Blanco, Ignacio Thinking, Feeling and Being. Clinical Reflections on the Fundamental Antinomy of Human Beings and World. New York: Routledge, 1988

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