"The Artist Within"
Dance and Narcissism

by Joan Lachkar, Ph.D.

This workshop is an outcome of my experience as a dancer and as a therapist. My experience has led me to some in-depth insights into the struggles of the contemporary dancer/artist (abuses, issues around shame, guilt, envy, entitlement, and ruthless need for perfectionism). This work actually originated in dance class when Bonnie Oda Homsey, choreographer, editor of Choreography and Dance, approached me and asked me to write an article for Magazine, asking me if I had any insights into the concerns and abuses of dancers. We decided the article would discuss the parallels between dance and psychoanalysis with the focus on differentiating healthy narcissism from pathological narcissism (both in dancers, choreographers, mentors). These parallels led to another discovery there are many different type of narcissists (a garden variety), but today we are going to focus “The Narcissist the Artist.”

In writing, researching and studying narcissism, and having been around dancers, musicians, artists my whole life, I can to the realization that artist is a special breed that require special treatment techniques, whereby the “normal” application within the domain of narcissistic proper might not apply.

In both fields one has to have enough grandiosity, pomposity, narcissism and arrogance to pull it off. Psychoanalysis and dance share the mutual desire to express feelings. The dancer uses the body as a vehicle of expression; the psychologist uses counter-transference (or feelings as a reaction to the patient). As clinicians this work is important because we live in the hub-up of the entertainment industry, and many therapists today are treating artists (dancers, musicians, writers, actors, psychoanalysts). So we need to understand that the artist does require special kind of treatment, and therapists must be very careful not to kill the artist’s narcissism.

Today we will discuss the “healthy artist/artist” contrasting them many different other kinds of “narcissists.” For example, there is pathological narcissism, part of the grandiose self that infects and invades the psyche that guards against dependency needs, real need sand desires. It is a false self, a self that belies the “true self” and interferes with the capacity for healthy object bonds. “Look at me I am all powerful, famous, omnipotent “I don’t need this relationship. I don’t need this treatment, and I don’t need you!” So we have a treatment dilemma, how do we help the artist hold on to the necessary part of the narcissistic/grandiose self (essential for creativity), while at the same time wean away the pathological side? With the artist we must be careful not to destroy the omnipotent self essential for the artist’s work.

Introduce Ourselves

Can Any of You Think of Artists in Movies?

• Frida: (Even during bouts intense crippling pain she used her art to survive and create (Diego Rivera).
• "White Oleander:" Daughter “understands” her mother the artist. “Mom you always have something else to do than go to Open House).
• ‘Because Mom is an artist that’s why’.
• "The Pianist:" Used his music to survive, soothe and in the end bond with others.

Some Challenges Facing Therapists in Treating Artist

• Artists with talent
• Artists with no talent
• Artists who are blocked

A very disturbed young dancer who came into treatment with me several years ago: She was aloof, withdrawn, low affect, and lacking in passion and feeling. Whenever I would call this to her attention, she would respond with outrage. One day she went to an audition for a scholarship at a prestigious school back east. She returned too her session crying and overwhelmed with emotion. “They said I danced with no expression, that I was cold and distant, that I lacked passion. This was a major break through for her and for the treatment. The choreographer told her she had great technique but was a cold fish.

• Artists who are talented who feel overly entitled that others should support them while they pursue their careers (Wagner)
• The “starving artist” refuses to work (“beneath” them)

Hello, Dr. Lachkar. I am a musician, have no money, no insurance, but I need treatment and cannot afford to pay you!”

Important to understand the emotional climate and background of great musicians in the 19 Century. Great composers were expected to have their genius coddled, stroked, and nourished. Society masked their dependency by petting and supporting them. It was prestigious to be patron of the arts.

Musicians were paid to conduct, compose and were supported by Aristocrats. It was acceptable that they could have tantrums, act crazy as long as they displayed great genius (Beethoveen , Bach and Mozart). Beethoven got away with being temperamental. Society became more tolerate of the moody/pretentious musicians and even expected it (became the model not conform).

This would be an example of the omnipotent/grandiose self. We need to dispel the myth of the starving artist. “I can’t diminish myself and get an everyday job. Many artists were bankers, butchers, plumbers. Mussorgsky was a military man. Matisse was a lawyer, Chekov was a doctor. Borodin a chemist, and many had many children and families to support. Anis Nin wrote pornography. Dickens wrote journal articles for newspapers. Mozart wrote junk music extra money “Musical Joke.”

• The “victimized artist” those who never get a break continual stream of rejection/betrayal.
• The “victimized” artist who can never be perfect enough
• Gelsey Kikrland is a good example of a ballet star who underwent plastic surgery and tried starvation diets, eventually becoming anorexic. Her pain and self-abuse resulted from pressures she was under from the dance world. Yet, while suffering from these, she was still able to perform beautifully. Through the years of these abuses she could no longer handle it. Her career declined after 1976. She finally began the long process of recovery. But, at the same time, she was forced to stop dancing, which was her true love. Part of her recovery was spurred by meeting and falling in love with Greg Lawrence. The couple helped each other out of the drugs and negativity they had fallen into.
• Artist who have realistic losses (injuries, aging, loss of beauty)
• Hannaya Hom choreographer at 90 years old, states, “The mind can get in the way, and when you release your mind that is where creativity lies.
• Artist needs constant approval (bring in songs, art work)
• Artists who are not professional but think and feel like an artist
• I remember seeing my analyst after a terrible ballet class. I said, I just didn’t do well today. He turned and looked at me and said, why should that matter you are not going to be a professional dancer anyway. Somehow when he said that something in me died, I did not dance with the same vigor and vitality

IN TREATMENT THE THERAPIST MUST HAVE:

Some tolerance for chaos and disorder. Art and Psychoanalysis do not come in a neat package.

• Freud in Moses of Michelangelo (1914), pointed out that psychoanalysis and artists share one thing in common – that they can tolerate things in life that are not neatly packaged and harmonious. “Every attempt to create “order” must have equal amount of “disorder.”
• How the grandiose self interferes with interpersonal life or having healthy object relationships (dependency needs)
• My husband is a movie producer, travels all over the world, tells me his work comes first.
• How the very nature and culture of the performing arts industry is a ready platform prescripted for narcissistic injuries (rejection, envy, rivalry, betrayal, waiting, competition).
• How destructive teachers/choreographers, conductors, producers can enact and stir up old archaic injuries from parental neglect and abuse.
• How there are legitimate issues facing the artist (aging, physical injuries, loss of talent, beauty).
• How artist develops special defense mechanisms in service of the ego (an outer shield/ protective layer against injury; learn how “to take it!” (criticism, judgment, corrections, pain, adversity). They get through anything without compassion, empathy, when injured it is just “tough luck.” (If you’re looking for sympathy don’t enter a dance studio.

I went to a Baroque concert at Ford Amphitheatre last summer, group of chamber musicians playing Bach. Suddenly an Owl starts howling, the audience roared with laughter, the performers just went right on playing.

How This Work Began

Oddly enough, my interest in marital conflict/tensions began with my interest in the Middle East, mainly in Psychohistory, wrote a paper, The Arab-Israeli conflict: A PA Study, whereby battles between Arabs and Jews were seen to have striking similarities to conflicts in marital dispute. I saw their "political dance” similar to a narcissistic/borderline relationship, as having its origins rooted in age-old archaic sentiments, dynamics similar to couples in clinical practice. Without sounding too narcissistic myself, if figured I could understand Arabs and Jews why not warring relationships. The marriage between these two disciplines led to a second contribution, my book, Narcissistic/Borderline Couples: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Marital Treatment.

As most of you know this work is based on my book, The Narcissistic/ Borderline Couple (now 2nd Edition), and my second book, The Many Faces of Abuse. In Narcissistic/Borderline Couples, I describe what happens when a narcissist and a borderline join together in a marital bond or “bind”? I described their interactions as a “dance,” interactions that are painful on-going, circular, never-ending, that go on and on round and round like a rondo. I began to see choreography, how one partner projects a negative feeling into the other and how the other identifies or over-identifies with that which is projected (introjective/projective process). Thus it became a “dance” between guilt and shame.

This led to my second book, The Many Faces of Abuse, couples who never lay a hand on one another and yet can feel just as violated as those being physically abuse. It extends beyond narcissistic/borderline relations to encompass a variety of other dyadic characterological configurations—such as what happens when a histrionic personality hooks up with an obsessive-compulsive, a dependent with a schizoid, or a passive-aggressive with a perfectionistic/caretaking type personality. In extending beyond narcissistic/borderline relation, I had to show how the grandiose self can invade and infect into other relational love bonds. This of course got very confusing because not only are there narcissistic borderlines, narcissistic obsessive-compulsives, narcissistic passive-aggressives, but there are many faces and phases of narcissism. Although they may all show the same pattern, they form different modes of dyadic attachments (psychodynamics), I then started applying these concepts to cross cultural couples. It was here I came up with the term the “cultural narcissist” the “cultural borderline,” and from there I came up with the term “The Narcissist the Artist.”

So today instead of the “marital couple” we are now transforming this to the “theatrical” or “musical couple” (teacher/student, dancer, choreographer, actor/director/producer), and the potential abuses (relation artist to mentor, dancer to choreographer, musician to teacher/conductor (Toscanini). The teacher who can be loving and kind, can also be cruel and sadistic (like a ballet master/teacher/mentor who abuses his authority). The relationship between the ballet master and the student is a most profound, not only is it an intimate connection it is a bodily one. The trainee is discipled never to question, but to comply to complete obedience and unwavering submission (dance culture). If the authority figure takes advantage of this state, it can lead to splitting and a great deal of confusion.

Purpose/Goals

• To understand how old archaic injuries impairs the artist’s ability to fulfill his or her creative endeavor.
• To apply such theoretical concepts as Self Psychology and Object relations to the treatment of the artist.
• To understand that there is not only a “dance” among the artists but there is also a “dance” among their psychodynamics (between guilt/shame, envy/jealousy, etc.)
• To be able to apply clinical material to artists in treatment.
• To distinguish between six different form of narcissism ranging from normal, primary, pathological, malignant, antisocial, depressive, and now introducing the narcissist “the artist”.
• To critically understand how therapists must not destroy the artist’s “creative” narcissism vital to their aesthetic survival.

So Today We Will Begin

(1) Theoretical Considerations; (2) Defining “The Narcissist the Artist;” (3) Self Psychology vs. Object Relations (4) Different kinds of Narcissists; (4) Psychodynamics of the Artist (Shame/Guilt; Envy/Jealousy); (5) Case Illustrations/Role Play: (6) Treatment Considerations/Treatment Points, Therapeutic Functions (7) Closure, Comments, Q & A and Evaluations

“There is a “dance” between the Artist but there is also a “dance” between their psychodynamics.”

THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Freud (1908) himself searched constantly for secrets of creativity. In his essay “Creative Writers and Day Dreaming,” he asks: “From what source does that strange being draw his material? He replies that a creative writer haves like a child at play in the he creates a world of his own. He states that the child” creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously (and) invests with large amounts of emotional.” Freud goes on to say, “as people grow up they cease to play (and furthermore the adult_ knows that he/she is expected not to go on playing or fantasizing. I am reminded of a mother telling her child, “stop acting silly and grow up!” or “You’re acting like a baby.”

Drawing from many different theoretical frameworks, I have abstracted concepts mainly from self psychology (Kohut) and object relations (Klein, Winnicott, Fairbairn, Bion, Kernberg). Although many see them as an "odd couple" relationship, I have found both to be vital in the treatment/. Self- psychology with its mirroring and empathy techniques is more suitable for the narcissist, and object relations more suitable for the borderline in meeting the borderline's containment needs. On a more cautionary note many therapists have misunderstood, misused/abused self- psychology. We do not empathize with patient's aggression; we empathize with the patient’s vulnerability and pain.

Maybe you don’t have the best technique in the world, you certainly are showing remarkable progress, but your teacher has not right to attack you and put you down like that.

Although both object relations and self psychology are important, I have found Klein's contributions invaluable in the treatment of the artist especially in the artist face internal deficits, distortions, and projections. Klein offers us the concept the introjective/projective process (“dance”) a priceless construct essential in helping us how one partner tends or project a negative feeling and how the other tends to identify or over identify with that which is being projected. These are interactions that go round and round, are on-going, circular never-ending (like a "rondo). In conjoint treatment, we see how certain dynamic mechanisms of the narcissist (grandiosity, entitlement, guilt, withdrawal) can arouse states of unworthiness, non-existence in the borderline (shame, blame envy, abandonment and persecutory anxieties).

Object Relations vs. Self Psychology

Many have found object relations and self psychology are an "odd couple" relationship because both object relations and self psychology are vital in the treatment of couples, but are also in conflict. Object relations is extremely effective in helping partners face internal deficits, distortions, and projections especially for the more pathologically disturbed individual those more inclined to misperceive, distort the therapist's empathic stance as weakness or as being "too" kind or "unduly" understanding. This is important, not only because in fast moving pace, it is also more conducive in helping partners face responsibility.

Self psychology does not emphasize the internal world, nor does it assume the patient is distorting, and if disturbances do occur it usually is because of an arrested development or disruption between self and the self-object tie, and not because of the patients projections, distortions, or delusions. Both have different ways of finding "truth." The self psychologist finds truth via introspection/ and intrasubjectivity, and assumes the patients experience as 'truth," or the truth. The object relationists because the patient distorts and deludes the reality, they are not capable of seeing the truth? And who truth do we listen to? The Kleinians through interpreting the patient's distortions, fantasies and delusions.

Mirroring Vs. Containment (See Therapeutic Functions)

Mirroring is term devised by Heinz Kohut which describes the "gleam" in mother's eye which mirrors the child's exhibitionistic display and other forms of maternal participation in it. According to Kohut at a certain phase appropriate or specific time the child has a grandiose self, however, if not mirrored, the child will grow up craving and starving for constant admiration and attention. Mirroring is a specific response to the child's narcissistic-exhibitionist displays, confirming the child's self-esteem. Eventually, these responses channel into more realistic aims.

I have suggested that self psychology with its mirroring and empathy techniques more suitable for the narcissist, and object relations more suitable in meeting the borderline's containment needs. The narcissist is more in need of mirroring and empathic responses, whereas the borderline is more in need of a hard containing object to bounce off. Furthermore, many therapists have misunderstood, misused/abused self psychology. We do not empathize with the patient's aggression or the destructive behaviors, we empathize with the pain. In couple therapy one might say:

"No you cannot attack your wife, put her down, demean her, but I can understand why you do this."

Containment

This a term employed by Wilfred Bion as the interaction between the mother and the infant. Unlike the Self Psychologists, Bion believed more in containment, that there must be a hard enough object to contain and hold the baby’s anxiety. Bion believed psychological anxieties and conflicts begin to dissolve when there is a mother who can “hold” the baby’s impulsive acts through her capacity reverie by using her own alpha function (the transformation of the meaninglessness into the emotional experience of meaning useful for feeling and thought. The mother's capacity to withstand the child's anger, frustrations, and intolerable feelings, becomes the container for these affects. This can occur if the mother can sustain intolerable behaviors long enough to decode or detoxify painful feelings into a more digestible form. For the artist this translates to a therapist or teacher asserts discipline and allows the artist to the full range of expression to the degree of the development of uniqueness.

Different Kinds of Love Relationships

In Kernberg's Aggression in Personality Disorders and Perversions (1992) describes four kinds of love relationships (1) normal, (2), pathological, (3) perverse, and (4) mature love. His premise is that in normal love, the relationship overcomes the conflict. Internal strivings do not interfere with the capacity to maintain an intimate loving connection. In pathological love, conflict overpowers the relationship, and internal conflicts do interfere with the capacity to maintain a loving relationship. It is love that goes in the wrong direction, implying that people who have been traumatized are like emotional cripples in relationships because they link idealization with eroticism (See Different Kinds of Relations).

When I first met her I feel in love because she was a great violinist, but now all she does is play violin. I am so envious of that violin I wish I could break and smash it (envy becomes the dominant theme).

Kernberg's understanding of aggression provides a valuable guideline in treating regressive love bonds among artists. In perverse relations, it is the love that can kill love. It is the excitement that becomes the replacement for love. Here I have added some more different types. Later I will discuss this more why we get to why people stay inpainful conflictual relations. (See Different Kinds of Relationships).

Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein in Envy and Gratitude notes how envy can destroy the creative process. Creativeness is the deepest cause for envy. Envy seeks to spoil the goodness of what God has created, and is the source of great despair and unhappiness. She gives an example of a very wealthy creative woman who uses her wealth and success to create envy in others. It works two ways. First that you envy others or that I you achieve too much fame and success others will envy you (child purposely lost a spelling bee feared repercussions). If successful she would project an overwhelming amount of envy in her mother and her mother would reject her. Another dimension is violent emotions a creative inner force that is compelled to impact the outer world. One of Klein’s greatest contributions was the freedom and space to develop fantasy life in children. She recognized children all kinds of sadistic fantasies, importance and an inner compulsion to express but not to enact them (mutilation fantasies). Thus inner violence an essential element in creative production.

Introjective/Projective Process

Another one of Klein’s most valuable contributions is the introjectivie/projective process. How one person projects a negative feeling into the other and how the other tends to identify or over-identify with that which is being projected. She states that if a child identifies or has a primary identification with a good internal object it becomes the source of healthy uninhibited creativity.

Example

A dancer comes into class. The teacher (French) ridicules her tells her that she looks like a monkey in the zoo, that if she want to dance like a monkey she should go to the zoo, but if she wants to be a ballet dancer, she has to look and at like a dancer (most of us thought it was funny she ran out of class crying hysterically).

Fairbairn, W.R.D. (See Chart)
Fairbairn’s work is another valuable theorist who has made valuable contributions more than anyone helps us understand not only the different kinds of attachments, why people stay attached to bad internal objects (destructive relational bonds with their teachers and mentors). He expanded Klein's notion of the "good and bad "breast, to the notion that the ego doesn't split into two parts but into multitude of d subdivisions (rejecting object, a tantalizing, tormenting, or unavailable objects). . Of course there can always be a bad external abuser/betrayer, but there can also be an internal one.” “There can always be someone who abuses you, but there can also be a part of yourself that also mistreats and abuses you.”

This creates ambivalence, because thewho promises, disappoints, frustrates the child, the dance master, mentor, who can be loving and kind, can also be cruel and sadistic. . Because the pain is linked to the love object, it also becomes highly charged and sexualized. He helps us understand why couples stay forever bonded to the painful object. As bad as the pain is, it is still better than facing he abyss, the void, the black hole. Because the pain is linked to the love object, it also becomes highly charged and sexualized. This is what is referred to as "traumatic bonding" (Lachkar, 1998).

Why do I stay with a teacher who promises me the world, but even after I practice and do everything he wants me to do, he neglects and ignores me.

Pain stirs up an amalgam of unresolved developmental issues as each seeks out the other to play out their internal drama. (“V” spot). As bad as the pain is, it is still better than the emptiness, the nameless dread, the void, or facing the black hole. Because the pain is linked to the love object, it also becomes highly charged and eroticiized. This is referred to as "traumatic bonding (Dutton, 1981). As least the pain provides one with some semblance of meaning (suicide bombers). At least I feel alive, I know I exist!"

Donald Winnicott (See Chart)
Winnicott (1971) in Play and Reality notes the importance of the transitional space for play and the creative process as essential to all human beings existence (the transitional space in which to play and create). The resistance to allow oneself to work often is met with guilt, perfectionism, harsh critical superego. This is a major issue that confronts the therapist. He offers us valuable concepts as the true and false self, the different kinds of mothering experience (background, doing, environmental).

Donald Winnnicott (1965) is another prominent figure whose unique ideas and language that have enhanced and expanded the diversified field of object relations. His focus, like Klein, was on the importance of the early "mommie and me" relationship providing us with different kinds of mothering experiences (the "being" mommy, the "doing" mommy, the holding mommy, the environmental mommy, the background mommy), the infant's capacity to be alone. Winnicott's concept of the "false self"/"true self," also makes an important contribution to conjoint treatment. In couple therapy the transitional space provides a new opportunity for partners to move from states of dependency and interdependency. One of the most important things we get from Winnicott is the concept of the transitional object and the transitional space.

Winnicott's belief was that the therapeutic environment becomes a recreation of a holding environment of a new opportunity with therapist in the role a "good enough mother" therapist, providing a good holding environment. In couple therapy this transitional space helps partners move from states between dependency and interdependency by making use of transitional objects “particularly Winnicott who adds the dimension of the transitional space (playful/creative) as couples move from one phase to the next”). (See Three Phases of Treatment on p. 161).

A very serious patient says she is going to Florida, may not come back because once her parents seduce her into staying, I may not see her again. I respond, “But you mush come back.” She says, “Why?” “Oh, because you have an appointment with me next Thursday.”

Examples of Playful Artists

Mozart
Mozart was a prankster, whimsical, playful, charismatic, game playing, a general proclivity for the outrageousness his letters were full of jokes, poetry, rhymes, wit, well reminiscent of his music; the Mozart Joke” (Mersmann, Mozart Letters).

Letter to his Sister
Kiss Mama’s hand for me, a thousand times and imprint a hundred little kisses or smacks on that wondrous horse face of thin! Per fare it fine, I am thine!
Schopenhauer said that every genius is already a big child, since he looks at the world as a drama and with pure objective interest.

Horowitz, Vladimar
Infantile, would “short sheet the bed so that when the person entered the bed he couldn’t get into it.

Beethoven
Even though Beethoven was always angry and moody, he had a sense of humor. He played a joke on a woman who asked him for a lock of his hair, instead he gave her a lock of a goat, she found out and was enraged.

Joyce McDougall
McDougal in “The Artist and the World,” has devoted much of her career as a psychoanalyst delving into the mind of the artist, the creative process. Whether it is writing, music, sculpture Joyce, dancing or any of the performing arts also includes scientific and intellectual creativity, business, invention-that there is an enigmatic dimension to creative process that is far beyond our comprehension.
Whether the part of the personality be psychotic, perverse, psychopathic, as long as it allowed them to create, it must be considered healthy.

Donna Perlmutter: Shadowplay
Donna Perlmutter assigns further meaning to the study between healthy and pathological narcissism in her book Shadowplay: The Life of Anthony Tudor. She claims Tudor gave of himself to the dancers, although never in a narcissistic sense. The privilege of appearing in one of his ballets had nothing to do with star turns. Healthy narcissism occurs when the emphasis moves away from grandiosity “Look what I can do!” to that of feelings, creativity and passion. She contrasts Balanchine to Anthony Tudor, claiming that Balanchine was concerned more with motion how things looked, about motion and would expect his dancers to perform acrobatic feats, while Tudor cared more about their emotional insights

A good illustration of this is the pas de deux in L’Apres Midi-d-un Faune, (Robbins), which is staged around a mirror, with two young dancers more “preoccupied with themselves than with each other.” Although Robbins never specifically addressed narcissism, his ballet exemplifies the point.

Example

A 23-year-old woman complained of difficulties in getting close. When vacation time for analyst came erotic transference emerged. Sexual feelings developed in superabundance. Dr. G. was able to show the patient how her tongue, mouth and vagina were flooded with excitement transformed from the breast to the nipple to the premature future of daddy’s penis. All her sensory parts were complaining about the separation (patient who had by and large been abandoned by the preoedipal mother so she preciously rushes to the penis to reach a premature Oedipus complex.

I am reminded of a young male dancer to started to develop his own unique style, only to be rebuffed by his teacher, “Look straight ahead and stand tall!” The young man was devastated especially when he was just beginning to free himself of his rigidity.

NARCISSISM

DEFINING NARCISSISM

Freud (1914) initially referred to narcissism as the state of self-directed libido after the Greek legend of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image. Freud referred to this admired infant part as "His Majesty the Baby," (Freud, On Narcissism, 1914, p. 9). The Kohutian (1971,1977) model of narcissism depicts the more highly developed narcissist, whose primary and normal narcissistic phases were virtually unattended to phase-appropriate time.

Primary Narcissism
Freud referred to primary as an objectless state whereby one does not recognize the need for the other. In this state, the infant does not associate needs with external source for pleasure. It is an absolute state in which all libidinal energy is stored up until the ego gets depleted and then only later is driven to cathect to other objects. In this state the infant has no contact with the outer world, lives in an all omnipotent state, and is a product of complete search for pleasure and comfort. Later as the infant progresses he forms a primary identification with an object that provides ( “the good object/breast”). If the experience is good enough that child learns to tolerate frustration and to depend on outer recourses for love and nurturance. If the experience is negative the child regresses. The transformation from primary to secondary narcissism occurs when the ego does a makeover from a self-narcissistic libido to a later object libido.

“I am now the center of the universe. I am everything my own provider and don’t need anything or anybody. I am the exciting object. I can dance I can sing, and can do almost anything!”

Secondary Narcissism

Secondary narcissism is a defense against the need for object love (Kohut does not believe it is a defense but a reaction to a state of disruption). Freud wrote that the need for the other, and the need for love is a very powerful emotion and over-flowing over of ego libido to the object. Love mimics a psychotic state, a reunion between highly charged emotional and bodily experiences. He claims that the narcissist person who is “in love” is highly cathected to someone who has qualities that he or she wishes to have, or had and no longer possesses (beauty, fame, success, wealth, brilliance, power). The narcissist then embarks on a lifelong journey to try to own or possess these qualities through guilt and envy. Feelings of love are not sustained and are dismissed as soon as the object is devalued or destroyed. The effort of one partner to possess and spoil becomes greater as the energy is diverted more toward the grandiose self.

Did Freud Ever Link Schizophrenia to Creativity and Madness (block out the external world?)

Freud saw schizophrenia as a regression back to the stage of Primary Narcissism, a disintegration back of the “pre-ego” (non-differentiated stage). Many narcissists precipitously turn inward to the exclusion of the external world (maybe this is why artist can paint for hours on end. In some instances the regression is so severe that all intrapsychic representations and connections to the outer world are lost which becomes replaced with a precocious ego precipitiously and prematurely becomes disrupted.). Consequently the child feels emotionally and psychologically mutilated ripped away into an inner world or chaos and randomness. The infant prematurely not feeling contained by the holding environment, in order to survive the child has to make up creating his own internal world or internal drama. It is this internal drama that covertly many artists implicitly share and that we are here to day to explore.

THE NARCISSIST “THE ARTIST” (Cartoon of Male Dancer)

The discussion of Narcissism and “The Artist” would require a different course. Briefly stated, artists, dancers, musicians, painters, writers) need a certain amount of narcissism to function creatively. The only time we need to modify, or chisel the artist’s narcissism is when it no longer works in the service of the ego, or when it severely interferes interpersonally.

The Healthy Artist

The healthy artist displays a certain amount of narcissism, preoccupation with self, and an obsessive involvement with perfectionism, but these aspects do not interfere with the creative process or ability to maintain healthy object relations ("aesthetic survival”). There is the realization of the need for the object that nurtures the self. The healthy artist does need some transitional to experience his art. The therapeutic challenge is how do we help maintain the artist’s “creative process” without destroying healthy object relations?

Brahms seems to have even temper, he became famous at young age. Borodin calm working even tempered.

Example

I remember feeling crushed seeing my analyst after a terrible ballet class. I said, I didn’t do well today. He turned and looked at me and said ”Why should that matter? You are not going to be a professional dancer anyway?” Somehow when he said that something in me died, I did not dance with the same vigor and vitality.

Example

Sara Hughes, the Olympic Gold Medalist who decided to go compete in the National Olympics not to win but to have fun (as compared to those who were out to kill).

Different Kinds of Narcissists

The Narcissist

The narcissist is the "entitlement lover," has an exaggerated sense of self, is preoccupied with self, has excessive entitlement fantasies, and when not properly mirrored will withdraw/isolate themselves (you can imagine what this does to a borderline, who already has a thwarted sense of self). They believe the world owes them something, are dominated by such defenses such as guilt, idealization, omnipotence, and grandiosity, lack empathy, obsessed with perfectionism, and have internalized a strong castrating punitive internal superego. When their personal sense of pride has been threatened will respond with narcissistic rage.
Because of the inability to feel or show dependency needs, the narcissist exacerbates feelings of inadequacy and shame in others. The narcissist cannot allow themselves the kind of dependency an intimate partner yearns for, because it makes them feel too vulnerable. They have internalized a harsh punitive superego, which makes them super critical of others. "I am as perfect mother wanted me to be. I don't need anyone!" I don't need you and I don't need this treatment. Narcissists try to prove a "special" sense of existence (as opposed to the borderline who is busy trying to prove they exist as a "thing in itself").

Narcissists cannot tolerate having needs and unwittingly project this intolerance into others. They confuse their healthy dependency needs with parasitic ones and bond with those who offer the promise of being perfect "mirroring object (often a borderline). Both narcissists and borderlines have difficulty in expressing their needs in clear and healthy ways, and both defend against needs.

In treatment, narcissists cannot allow the interpretations of the analyst to feed them, excite them, or provide help for them. In pathological narcissism, the object does not recognize the need for the breast, will devalue its offerings at any cost. Narcissists are the ones who will quickly flee from treatment when personally injured when not appreciated, or when excessive demands are not met (changing appointment times, asking for special favors, coming in only when it suitable for them).

Normal Narcissism

One who is self absorbed, overly preoccupied with self, has strong desires for fame, achievement, power, but not to the extent of overpowering the relationship, and yet still has the capacity to maintain a loving and intimate bond (Camille and Rodin she was driven to a mental hospital).

The Pathological Narcissist

The pathological artist is the one who functions at the extreme end of pathological narcissism are dominated by as envy, control, domination, competition, where winning becomes more pervasive that the joy of the creative process in and of itself. One wants to destroy that what is enviable. There is little or no realization for the “need” for the object, emotional needs and desires are split off.

Jasha Heifetz
Jasha Heifetz at the age of seven came to Vilnius Russia with his father to play for the famous Professor Leopold Auer. He was surrounded by several older pupils, many who became very famous (Efem Zimbalist, Mischa Ellman). When they heard Heifetz play they all felt very threatened and intimidated, nevertheless they went on to becoming very famous. Except for one—Polyakin. Listening to this kid play destroyed his career, he couldn’t take it. In any event he became a famous violin teacher.

Solari’s Envy of Mozart

Antonio Solieri (1750-1825) composed 40 operas, was so much of a rival and envious of Mozart he was accused to trying to poison him. His envy of Mozart practically crippled him. Mozart was a very warm hearted loving child (would go visit the Empress to play and then suddenly jump on her lap, put his arms round her neck and kissed her heartily. He was a genius and his father was well aware of the kind of jealousy, envy and rivalries stirred up in others.

Malignant Narcissist

The malignant narcissist is usually a leader, someone who uses their omnipotent sadistic fantasies to live out a cause. Someone like Mr. Milosevic, the Serbian war criminal may fit this description. “We killed the Albanians for a good cause.” Here the group under the guise of the “good cause” acts out his worst aggression. Sadism and paranoid features are the most common syndrome in the malignant narcissist, which drives them into fulfilling their own self-serving, political aspirations and becomes the rationale for destructive acts of aggression.

Osama bin Laden, who claims the September 11 attacks were in defense of his own people, the “Will of Allah.’

Wagner was the epitome the artist who felt overly entitled, was paranoid and was above the moral code (had affair a business man’s wife who was funding him. Yet he needed this large expansive ego to produce his operas. Felt overly entitled. Wagner is an example of someone who exploited people; paranoid and distrustful (deaf and had no reliable source of income). Wagner was funded by King of Bavaria (King Ludwig), gave way to the Kings homoerotic proclivities and by writing him erotic love letters for the sole purpose of getting his operas funded. Yet, he could not understand simple arithmetic (two digit multiplication). Paranoid about Jews and realized his dependency on Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer and didn’t want to admit. and about a critic who was nasty and bam blasted Wagner/s work Edward Hanslick. Could not tolerate any criticism. A lot of people hated him and considered him immoral. He predestined to carry out God’s message, overpowered him.

The Depressive Narcissist

Unlike the antisocial narcissist, the depressive narcissist is plagued with guilt embodied by a harsh and punitive superego. They are dominated by persecutory anxieties, self hatred turned inward, are overly perfectionist, and when life does not go the way they imagine their superego runs amuck into self denigration They are the children of parents who demanded perfection, are overly concerned with work, performance, responsibilities, are highly reliable and dependable, and judge themselves harshly (Schumann was depressed).

In 1844 Robert Schumann had a severe attack of depression - following a suicide attempt in 1854. He was committed to the asylum at Endenich; he is said to have suffered from manic depression and psychosis. He feel madly in love with Clara, a champion performer and interpreter of Schumann and Brahms, and was a direct influence on their music.-Her playing was characterized by technical mastery, thoughtful interpretation, poetic spirit, depth of feeling, a singing tone, and strict observance of the composer's markings. One may say he loved Clara that it one of the greatest musical loves of all times, but his love for her was not that of her as a” separate object” but perhaps as a part of his musical world (maternal fusion).

Schumann's increasing emotional instability and inner turmoil along with a growing family brought pressures (difficulty of balancing two careesr).. His alternating periods of intense creativity (the Spring Symphony was sketched inside a week) with depression have certainly led to speculations of bi-polar disorder. In any event Robert's slide into madness in his last two years until his death in 1856 is heartbreaking.

Cultural Narcissist

The cultural narcissist brings to this country a certain about of nationalistic pride and will hold to relentlessly will not adapt and will do anything to maintain his sense of special identity.

Cultural Borderline

Will retaliate fight, become a freedom fighter, a terrorist, do anything maintain the group’s collective identity (suicide bombers).

The Borderline

The borderline is the one dominated by shame/blame defenses, persecutory anxiety, abandonment depression, and such primitive defenses as splitting, projection, projective identification, and omnipotent denial. They have poor impulse control, and feel generally angry with the world. The world has done them in, nd they are relentless in their rebellious and attacking. Borderline patients often develop a preoccupation with pain as a means of bonding with their objects (psychosomatic illness, additions, suicidal ideation, or form sadomasochistic attachments). As mentioned, the borderline does not have much of a sense of self, does not feel entitled, and will do anything in order to establish some semblance of bonding or relatedness.

When threatened tend to lash out with retaliatory responses or self-mutilation (Lachkar, 1983, 1991). As a consequence have poor impulse control, poor reality testing, and impaired judgment. Typically, borderlines have been abandoned, either often by absent parents, alcoholic parents, abusive parents, or emotionally unavailable parents. They frequently perpetuate the cycle by staying in abusive, addictive or obsessive relationship, enacting the role victim by bonding with their objects through pain (either self or other inflicted). The inability to face any internal deficits, tendency to project/ blame keep them in an impoverished state (projective identification tends to deplete the self). Often they are the Don Juan’s and operate by an exquisitely formed "false self" (the self that belies the "true self). In conjoint treatment, therapists often get sucked into unwavering persuasion and seductive lures, making it difficult to keep reality straight.

Example: Beethoven

Beethoven’s hearing disorder affected his social life to the extent, he became difficult to handle in social interactions and could suddenly burst into outbreaks of anger and show bad temper where he usually insulted someone usually women, had trouble never got involved in a normal relation. He was attracted to women he couldn't get, or at least were hard to get. Antoine Brentano was his immortal beloved who later married a friend f his and broke his heart. He lived tormented by unresolved personal

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF THE ARTIST

Not only is there a dance between the artists, but there is also a dance between their Psychodynamics

• Guilt/shame
• Envy/jealousy
• Dependency/omnipotence
• Withdrawal/detachment and attachment
• Entitlement/victimizations

SHAME
Shame is a matter between the person and his group or society, while guilt is primarily a matter between a person and his conscious. Shame is the defense against the humiliation for having needs which are felt to be dangerous and persecutory. Shame is associated with anticipatory anxiety and annihilation fantasies. "If I really show my best performance others will envy me and I will feel humiliated."

GUILT.
Guilt is a higher form of development than shame. Guilt has an internal punitive voice which operates at the level of the superego focusing on perfectionism. It is self hatred turned inward to the demands of an internalized harsh parental figure. “I was not perfect enough, I let everyone down.”

ENVY
Klein made a distinction between envy and jealousy. Envy is a part-object function, is not based on love. Melanie Klein considers envy to be the most primitive and fundamental emotion. It is a part object process not based on love; it exhausts their external objects, and is destructive in nature.

JEALOUSY
Jealousy, unlike envy, is a whole object relationship whereby one desires the object, but does not seek to destroy it or the Oedipal rival (father and siblings, those who take mother away. Jealousy has is based on love, has an Oedipal component, and is a triangular relationship. Jealousy, unlike envy, is based on love, wherein one desires to be part of the group, family, clan, and nation included in the group, the clan, the family. Jealousy has an Oedipal component, is based on love, and is a higher form of development than envy. It is a triangular relationship, in which one seeks the possession of the loved object and the removal of the rival.

WITHDRAWAL VS. DETACHMENT

Clinicians need to be aware of the difference between withdrawal and attachment (Bowlby (1982). Detachment is not to be confused with denial or withdrawal. Withdrawal is a healthier state because it maintains a certain libidinal attachment to the object, whereas detachment relinquishes all cathexis to the object. Children who are left alone, ignored, neglected for over long periods of time enter into a phase of despair. The child’s active protest for the missing or absent mother gradually diminishes and when this occurs the infant goes into detachment mode or pathological mourning. Apathy, lethargy and listlessness then become the replacement for feelings (anger, rage, envy, betrayal, and abandonment).

DEPENDENCY VS. OMNIPOTENCE

Because of the inability to feel or show dependency needs, the narcissist exacerbates feelings of inadequacy and shame in others. The narcissist cannot allow themselves the normal dependency needs required to maintain an intimate love bond, for it makes them feel too vulnerable. They have internalized a harsh punitive superego, which makes them super critical of others. "I am as perfect mother wanted me to be. I don't need anyone!" I don't need you and I don't need this treatment. Narcissists try to prove a "special" sense of existence (as opposed to the borderline who is busy trying to prove they exist as a "thing in itself"). Omnipotence becomes the replacement for dependency. Narcissist cannot tolerate the normal dependency needs required to maintain an intimate love bond. To them it is tantamount to weakness.

ENTITLEMENT VS. VICTIMIZATION

Many artists exhibit excessive entitlement fantasies as a means to enact their victimized selves.

“People should feel sorry for me offer me support. After all I am a starving artist!”

Case of Norm

A middle aged writer/psychologist came to treatment because he had great desire to become a writer. Writing meant everything to him, however, whenever he was around other writers, especially successful ones he would go into an emotional paralysis. His envy caused him enormous anguish, suffering and great psychological torment.

When bridging his feelings of externalized envy into the transference relationship with the analyst, he not only denied his envy, but totally denigrated the analyst and her writings.

N. It happened again, I went to the Writers Academy, and had to walk out. I went into a panic, there sat two well known playwrights. I just couldn’t stand it. A few even produced plays on Broadway. I felt so intimidated and shaky, I couldn’t say a word. I knew they would look at me and think, “gee what a looser.”

Th: So you think these playwrights came to observe you and did not come because they are interested in sharing their work.

N: Well, when you say it like that, that is pretty grandiose of me; they still scare the crap out of me.

Th: Why do you have to compare them to you?

N: Because they’re successful and I’m not. I haven’t written one published piece.

Th: I wonder if you have any similar feelings here?

N. What feelings?

Th: Of envy!

N. Joan, how can I be envious of you? How can you compare what I write with what you write. You write a bunch of psychobabble, I am talking about profound emotional work. Theatre works! No, I am not envious of you if that’s what you’re getting at.

Th: Norm, you put your whole sense of self into your identification as a writer, and yet you are also a very good psychologist.
N: Joan you don’t get it. I hate what I do and I want to be a writer. I hate my work, when patients talk I sit there and count money. My social life sucks, every time I see a woman, I like she doesn’t like me.

Th: Why are you so hard on yourself?

N: Because I hate not having any money.

Th: But your work does bring you an income. I know but that is not the way I want to make a living.

N: I called my father the other day; he gave me the same response. “Hi son you want to speak to your mom? Are you still wasting your time writing all that crap that no on reads?” He’s an old fool!

Th: No wonder you are so hard on yourself and want to run away, don’t want others to see a very shameful and demeaning father who has undermined you and ridiculed you your entire life.

N: But I’m a grown man now I should not allow what that stupid fool says influence me.

Th: Yes you are grown, and have separated from your father physically, but emotionally he is still inside of you. You have internalized a persecutory, shameful, ridiculing father that repeats an old scenario. ‘You are a fool, wasting time!” No wonder it is hard for you to be around others.

N: Silent.

Th: Silent

N: By the way, please hold my check I don’t have enough money to pay you. Besides I want to quit, don’t think we are getting anywhere.

Th: Now you want to run away from me. The same way you want to run away from your patients, play writers, potential women you are attracted to. You may feel externally bankrupted, but you can also feel emotionally/internally bankrupted, and that is the worse kind. We will have to explore how you keep yourself locked in an emotional prison, paralyzed by your fears, and then you wonder why you are not successful. As you do this you kill the creative process. The creative process feeds on new experience, on chaos, conflict, anxieties!

N: Joan, this is one of your best; the other stuff you were saying in crap.

Th: Yet, you think others are judging. Yet no one is judging you, because you are the judge! You are the one who has internalized a very harsh ridiculing internal/ judge/father that demeans you. Then you ridicule me the way your father has ridiculed you your entire life!

N: Silent

Th: We need to stop here. Of course, I’ll hold your check, but we cannot put your life on hold, time to cash in and start a new drama here, and rewrite a new script.

N: Bye, thanks see you next time.

Th: With pleasure!

Example of False Self (Case of Michelle)

Case of Michelle (False Self)

Michelle, an actor entered treatment because of of depression, lost her TV series and could not get other work. Because she was Asian and very tall, she felt she was not getting the parts others were getting, and had a hard time coming to terms with these limitations. She made reference to a “friend,” young sexy, Caucasian female actor who was getting all the parts. She pretended to be her friend but underneath she was seething with envy and rage. “How come she gets the parts? Life is not fair? I really hate her why am I her friend?” Meanwhile she felt lost, despaired, not knowing what she wanted. Should she get a job, leave LA, take medication.

We discussed how for a long time she was able to operate through her false self, and how being an actor exquisitely lends itself to playing “a role,” but now it was no longer working for her. The destructive nature of envy was discussed, how it impedes and infests the psyche (mainly the ego apparatus that copes with reality, part of the psyche responsible for thinking, reality/sensory perception), and how her envy and false self was actually interfering her capacity to get in contact with real feelings. While these primitive defenses are operative it is hard to know what to do. So when she goes to an audition, she freezes up or comes across stiff tense and paralyzed.

TREATMENT

Treatment Points

1. Don't be afraid to confront the aggression. Speak directly to the aggression with technical neutrality by making clear definitive statements. Be empathic toward the pain and the artist’s vulnerabilities, but not the aggression.
2. Continually set goals, reevaluating and reminding the artist why they entered treatment in the first place.
3. Avoid asking too many questions and obtaining lengthy histories. Start right in. The history and background information will automatically unfold within the context of the therapeutic experience and the transference.
4. Avoid self-disclosure, touching or consoling the patient, making unyielding concessions.
5. Listen and be attentive. Maintain good eye contact, speak with meaning and conviction. Talk directly to the issues.
6. Use short clear sentences, keep responses direct, mirror and reflect sentiments with simple responses and few questions.
7. Keep in mind at all times the "healthy artist" or "ideal artist." This image will sharpen your focus and safeguard from getting lost with the complexity of the artist’s inner world.
8. Empathize with the abuse. Be sure not to make the artist/dancer she/he is in anyway responsible for it, but gradually show how they identify or over-identify with the abuse or the negative projections.
9. Listen for the thematic material. Use the artist’s words. Yes there can be an external harsh conductor but there can also be an internal conductor who tries to control and restrain your emotions and inner music
10. The subject and feelings may change but the themes are pervasive (betrayal, abandonment, rejection fantasies).
11. Help the artist recognize and get in contact with "normal" and healthy dependency needs that vulnerability need not detract from creativity but can actually enhance it.

Treatment Considerations

• Speak directly but careful not to destroy the artist’s healthy narcissism essential to “aesthetic survival.”
• Help the artist recognize "normal" and healthy dependency needs from pathological parasitic.
• Identify the defense mechanisms and show how they interfere with the person’s creative/interpersonal life.
• Show how their defense mechanism may work in the service of the ego, grandiosity, omnipotence, entitlement, perversion, eroticism (Matisse and Picasso).

In a recent book, Matisse and Picasso attitudes toward their wives and mistresses with intense eroticism that underscores and links to their work. Matisse’s work, “Woman with a Hat”, shocked Paris as he displayed the savage and ugly form of a woman unlike the traditional prim and proper one. A new ugly form of beauty was being born. By the early 1930s Matisse and Picasso were diligently stealing each other’s erotic content depicting outrageous peek-a-boo fantasies and eroticism of each other mistresses.

• Address and confront the aggression by drawing from lives of famous artists who worked while pursuing their careers. “I can’t work! I need support I am a struggling artist!”
• Encourage the playful side/fantasy life of the artist, dispelling the myth that to be playful is childish / immature.
• Show how neglect of one’s interpersonal relations can lead to depression, psychotic breakdown use examples from great artists in their field (Schubert was depressed, Beethoven, angry, lonely, rageful).
• Encourage the playful side of the artist, dispelling the myth that to be playful is childish /immature.
• Show how the need for approval or specialness can actually interfere with specialness.
• Use your coutnertransference to interface issues around dependency, (envy, competition, entitlement).
• Show how archaic injuries stir up feelings of specialness and entitlement and how this gets reenacted in the transference.
• Keep in mind a "normal artist.” This image will sharpen your focus and safeguard from getting lost within the delusional system of the artist.
• Show how their lack of entitlement and lack of empathy interferes with the creative process, one must have compassion, feelings and sensitivity to others.
• Show how the defense interferes with ego functioning (thinking, creativity, reality, judgment). Connect these events to occurrences in patient’s life).

References

Freud, S. (19__). On Narcissism________

McDougall, J. (1995). “The Artist and the Outer World,” W.A.W. Institute. New York.

Originally I wrote a dissertation on "The Arab/Israeli Conflict: A Psychoanalytic Study" and wheren to view see the Jews and the Arabs a as a narcissistic/borderline coupl, similar to those in Iwas seeing in my clinical practice. I could understand why couples stay bonded to the pain, stay in painful conflictual relations that are destructive never-eding and on going. This led to my first book “the NB.” This was my first "abusive couple. So II figured, it could understand narcissist/borderline couples, why not other warring ones?). Exploring the Middle East, I saw their dynamic relationship as a political dance as having striking similarities to couples I was seeing in my clinical practice. In discussing the paradox of peace, the fantasies of abuses and primitive defenses of trauamtized societies are discussed as well as the role of women, and the identification with charismatic leaders. It was suggested that the narcissistic is more of a collective Israeli diagnosis, based on the myth of Jews as "Gods Chosen People," and Arabs more inclined toward borderline organization based assigning the theme to Arabs as "abandoned orphans." If I could understand Arabs and Jews, why not other warring relational bonds?."

FIVE STEP TREATMENT PROCEDURE

1. Therapist must bond with the artist, mirroring feelings and anxieties before “transitioning” into the artist’s area of conflicts. Before this transition occurs, it is important to form a safe bond. On a more cautionary note, not to move into of “reality” too soon, (too early can constitute a "rapprochement crisis.")
2. Be aware that comparing the artist to others can diminish individuality.
3. Therapist must be aware that each artist experiences anxiety differently, and qualitative differences must be respected (envy, specialness, perfectionism, compulsiveness).
4. Be very positive and reassuring even if you feel the patient has no talent. Focus more on the joy and the playfulness that occurs within the creative process. According to Winnicott, play and creativity is the transitional therapeutic space that must be experienced.
5. Become familiar with the patient’s art form (composers, names of steps, operas) anything the artist is working on or invested in. Use the patient’s words, stay with the metaphor “Be in tune?’

HOW TO LISTEN FOR A THEME

Listen to the Words (External/Internal)

The Controller: “Yes there is a wife who is controlling, domineering, and manipulative, but there is also an internal manipulator that keeps vacillating back and forth. Then it makes it even harder to make decisions and know what to do!”

The Judge: “Yes there is there is a “real” judge who holds you back, does not grant you child support/visitation rights, but there is also an internal judge who is very harsh and critical. This makes it very hard to function because there is this part inside of you always making super critical and demanding”

Playwright: “Yes, you want to get a play produced, but first we must rewrite the script here, the old voice of your parents that say you are worthless and never will amount to anything.”

The Little Adult. Yes, there is this part of you that is the caretaker, the little adult, that has been a parent to your parents your whole life, but then it’s hard to make decisions because you always feel guilty, trapped and beholden to others

Abuser: “Yes, there is teacher who abuses you, but there is also an inner abuser that can be even more destructive, part of yourself than undermines and sabotages every effort and dream.
 

Copyright 2004 by Joan Lachkar, Ph.D.

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