I know Freudian psychoanalytic techniques are largely discredited and that Carl Jung seems more important now. I have never been that sure why, but I guess that Freud was so fixated on strange ideas that they become hard to handle in the context of everyday life and just getting along and being normal. That being said I think artists can benefit from thinking about how they maifest their personalities in the context of ego.
Which means recognizing that you have drives, the id, and that some are acceptable and some are not. Many artists are beloved who make art about their unacceptable drives, two quick ones are Robert Crumb and Francis Bacon. Lucian Freud, Sigmunds grandson, has painted his daughter nude stretched out on a velvetish looking couch.
The superego is what is socially acceptable or enforced, like laws, or religious rules, or just generally accepted behavior. It is at odds with your natural drives, the id, and how you negotiate the two ends up being your personality.
So how do you talk, write, and paint about your secret drives without becoming socially unacceptable? Should you make art that recognizes the secret feelings that everyone has (admit it), and then becomed beloved by strangers and ostracized by your family?
