The Psychodynamics of Poetry by Emily Bilman – Exploring the relations between narcissistic trauma and psychoanalytic symbolism in poetry.
I focus on the analysis of the primal scene, the Oedipal conflict and its non-resolution symbolised in T.S.Eliot, Paul Valéry, and my poetry. To emphasise sublimation, I refer to the Kleinian case studies, suggesting the resemblances between poetry writing and children’s therapeutic play. T.S. Eliot’s combined personae as Tiresias-Narcissus, and my combined personae in “The Mirage” are related to Klein’s combined parent figure as a defense against castration anxiety.
I maintain that poets revert to multiple and to combined personae to resolve their intrapersonal conflicts and write about transgression with a neutral impersonal persona which makes up their “virtuality”. My concept of the poet’s “virtuality” is considered to be a defence against poetic ambivalence. Finally, I compare the processes of poetry writing and psychoanalysis and write about André Green’s concepts of “negative narcissism” and “the neuter gender” to show how the sublimated death drive dominates the poets’ life-crises.
Reviews for The Psychodynamics of Poetry
“Emile Bilman is an accomplished poet in her own right. She has written a very interesting book which describes and analyzes some of the deeper impulses which underlie her work, as well as the poetry of Paul Valery and T.S. Eliot. This book will be of interest to poets and poetry-lovers alike.” – Stephen Browne – Review on Amazon