Mind physiology and pathology, and cure for healing are the three pillars of Instinct. Human Birth Theory leaves no way out: creativity and destructiveness are opposing realities.
The “death instinct” has two directions: as a “pulsion” when it is accompanied by vitality and as a “annulment pulsion” when, devoid of vitality, it makes what is as if it were non-existent. Fagioli says: “[The disappearance fantasy, as] contained within itself, turns into creativity, in the sense that it creates a new condition starting from annulment (…) of a condition that is currently being experienced ”.
With this premise we can discuss our assumption: art is not madness.
Many words related to the physiology of birth (fantasy, vitality, recreation, creativity) are also fundamental concepts in art, just as the pathological dimension of envy “kills” both vitality and creativity. The isolation of the artist and the mentally ill are similar only at first glance and only a superficial (violent!) view of them can combine the “strange” appearance of both.
Instinct has challenged and pushed to radicalization all the ideologies it fought: organicism, psychoanalysis, existentialism … united by the idea of a “perverse, unknowable and religiously unchangeable unconscious” (Maggiorelli, 2017, p.127). But, Fagioli, with his theory, with his therapeutic and artistic practice (architecture, drawings, sculptures, poems, music …) has also opened hitherto unimaginable perspectives to the world of art: a healthy identity can express itself artistically in a deeper and happier way. The artist, who falls into depression because he cannot hold his creative dimension, can know and experience the emergence of irrationality in an absolutely new way.
But what is creativity? As expression of irrational reality, it manifests itself through the recreation of birth and the first year of life, when the “capability to imagine” is structured in “fantasy” combining originality (uniqueness of the person) and universality, while touching dynamics that go back to the beginning of human life and to the origin of the species.
But why does this false myth of “genius and madness” persist down to us? Why does the link between art and suffering persist?
The answer of Human Birth Theory is clear-cut: to cancel the unconscious, human creativity and any idea of transformation. Our culture, based on rationality, lives as destructuring any activity linked to the unconscious and therefore imposes reason as the only human identity. A perspective that is nothing but an “evolved” modification of religious thought, the one which, built on the fantastic idea of an omnipotent external god (alienation), has always tried to eliminate images and irrationality.
It is therefore not surprising that, within a liberal-Freudian conception, even in the current exhibitions and events, the link between creativity and schizophrenia finds various supporters. Images are proposed as art while, far from any idea of beauty, they celebrate banality, disorientation or emptiness. An example of this is the current Venice Biennale of art, which has placed the unpleasant mixture of human, animal and machine as its central theme.
Bibliography
Books
- Andreoli, V., (2022-2023). Genio e follia: Dodici volumi che raccontano il furore dell’arte. Roma: Mind e la Repubblica.
- Associazione Ipazia Immaginepensiero Odv. (2019) Psiche e arte: Vol. 6. Per un nuovo pensiero sulla creatività. Roma: Author.
- Barison, F. (1993). Schizofrenia: Anders e apatia. In Psichiatria generale e dell’età evolutiva. Padova: La Garangola.
Braidotti, R. (2019). Preface: The Posthuman as Exuberant Excess. In Francesca
Ferrando (Ed), Philosophical Posthumanism (p.XI). London: Bloomsburry Academic. - Carnevali, R., Giorgini, L., Masillo, A., Polese, D. (2014). Silvano Arieti. Interpretazione della schizofrenia. Roma: L’Asino d’oro.
- Carrington, L. (1979). Giù in fondo. Azzate: Adelphi.
- – (2018). Il latte dei sogni. Azzate: Adelphi.
- – (2018). La debuttante. Azzate: Adelphi.
- Cabanne, P. (2013). Chi ha ucciso Van Gogh? Milano: Skira.
- Crippa, E. (2021). Paula Rego . London: Tate publishing.
- De Micheli, M. (2009). Le avanguardie artistiche del Novecento. Milano: Feltrinelli.
- Eccher, D. (2022). La follia nell’arte contemporanea. Milano: Skira.
- Fagioli, M. (2013). Bambino, donna e trasformazione dell’uomo. Roma: L’Asino d’oro.
- – (2017). Istinto di morte e conoscenza Roma: L’Asino d’oro.
- – (2009). Left 2006. Roma. L’Asino d’oro.
- – (2010). Left 2007. Roma. L’Asino d’oro.
- – (2015). Left 2012. Roma. L’Asino d’oro.
- – (2019). Left 2016-2017. Roma. L’Asino d’oro.
- Gombrich, E. H. (2001). Freud e la psicologia dell’arte. Torino: Einaudi.
- Jaspers, K. (2001). Genio e follia: Strindberg e Van Gogh. Milano: Raffaello Cortina.
- Jaspers, K. (2000). Psicopatologia generale. Roma: Il Pensiero scientifico.
- La Biennale di Venezia. (2022). Catalogo della 59.Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte.
- Il latte dei sogni. Milano: Mondadori.
- Lombroso, C. (2000). Delitto, genio e follia. Milano: Bollati e Boringhieri.
- Lombroso, C., & Laschi R. (2009). Il delitto politico e le rivoluzioni. Kessinger publishing,
- Lusatti, V. (2013). Pericolosità del malato di mente. Roma: Edizioni universitarie romane.
- Maggiorelli, S. (2017). Attacco all’arte. La bellezza negata. Roma: L’Asino d’oro.
- Montanari, M. (1975). Sigmund Freud. Tre saggi sulla teoria sessuale. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.
- Pratesi, L. (2015). Arte come identità. Roma: Castelvecchi.
- Prinzhorn, H. (2011). L’arte dei folli: L’attività plastica dei malati mentali. Roma: Mimesis.
- Sgarbi, V. (2009). Arte genio follia. Il giorno e la notte dell’artista. Milano: Mazzotta.
- Smail, D.L. (2017). Storia profonda, il cervello umano e l’origine della storia. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.
- Tonietti, U. (2011). L’arte di abitare la terra. Roma: L’Asino d’oro.
- Vasari, G. (1986). Le vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani. Torino: Einaudi.
- Wittkower, R., & Wittkower, M., (2005). Nati sotto Saturno. La figura dell’artista dall’antichità alla Rivoluzione francese. Torino: Einaudi.
Magazines
- Aberth, S. (1992). Leonora Carrington (Book Review). Art Journal, 51 (3), 83-85.
- Fagioli, F. (2004). Arte e schizofrenia. Il sogno della farfalla, 2, 57-59.
- Fagioli, M. (2001). Realtà umana dell’artista e opera d’arte. Il sogno della farfalla, 4, 5-34.
- – (2002). Arte: informazione e trasformazione degli esseri umani.
- Il sogno della farfalla, 4, 5-29.
- – (2013). Le forme del linguaggio: Dibattito. Il sogno della farfalla, 2, 3-28.
- Homberg, A. (2007). Forse Orfeo non deve morire. Considerazioni sul rapporto fra arte, follia e pazzia. Il sogno della farfalla, 2, 41-54.
- Polese, D. (2013). Dipingere l’invisibile. Da Klee agli artisti astratti, una ricerca per l’identità psichiatrica. Il sogno della farfalla, 2, 97-124.
- Vendrame, G., & Quaranta, F. (1999). Ferdinando Barison e la “creatività” schizofrenica.
Il sogno della farfalla, 2, 21-36.
Press kits
- La Biennale di Venezia – 59.Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, https://www.labiennale.org/it/press
Web
- Video intervista Rai a Cecilia Alemani, https://www.raicultura.it/arte/articoli/2022/04/Cecilia-Alemani-107908b4-d7c2-4bdb-b786-0e4b7797ac7e.html
