Seite - 77 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

Psychosexual development in puberty 77 with the dwarves, attacked by a chainsaw . . . but laughing, absurdly. Under- neath this there is a wooden stamp with the large black letters DEPORT. At the lower right, there is a cartoon figure who is being shot down by a machine gun. The combination of images chilled me, I don’t get a good feeling look- ing at them. They are in diametrical opposition to James’ behavior and the aura I feel around him. They make me think twice, and make me anxious. Discussion At first it is obvious how happy H. is over James’ progress. She is almost proud that he can appear punctually for class, has friends and has integrated himself well into the class. His academic achievement was always good, and therefore does not get special attention here. However, H. is disturbed when James’ creative work reveals dark, aggressive and destructive feelings. And yet we can interpret this positively: James now has the confidence to show his destructive fantasies in his work, especially appropriate to a collage. Melanie Klein (1944) and Hanna Segal (1952, 1991) further developed Freud’s thought that artistic depiction constitutes a liberation from tensions in our psyche (Freud 1908a, 223). In a satisfying artis- tic expression, the artist is able to deal with his inner destructive and harmful objects and seek an artistic solution that constitutes a reparation for the damaged object. The conscious and unconscious confrontation with psychic pain, ugliness and death in the artist’s inner world leads to a reparation and thus to aesthetic experience. Important burdensome themes for the artist, which often cannot be expressed in words, are expressed artistically. I would also understand and inter- pret James’ collage piece as a form of artistic expression. Revealing feelings creatively in drawing class is very helpful for James, even if it disturbs his teacher. The image of a young man tied to the ground by dwarves and threatened by a large chainsaw is supplemented by a picture pasted over this, showing three soldiers with a machine gun. The title “Born to be Wild” presum- ably expressed an aspect of James’ feeling for life: he has long missed his protect- ing family and become “wild”. The stamp with “DEPORT” can be an indication of his “deportation” to his grandparents, as well as his own father’s outcast status. We see that James can now express his feelings in quite a normal fashion; he no longer employs explosive psychotic part objects centering around murder and feces, but instead uses socially acceptable modes of representation. The teacher accepts James’ collage. How do his fellow classmates react? Are they as disturbed as H.? As can be seen in the transcript: At the beginning of drawing class, the “bizarre objects” are hung on the wall. At first, the “audience” members try to interpret them. After this, each art- ist explains. The students find James’ dark, bloodthirsty picture witty; they laugh at the soldiers, one of whom is in his underwear. They pay no attention to the title “Born to be Wild”. Homer – the cartoon character – can’t be shot down anyway, as they astutely observe. All in all, James’ work is received with mirth.