'I have a face, but a face is not what I am. Behind it lies a mind, which you do not see but which looks out on you. This face, which you see but I do not, is a medium I own to express something of what I am'.
David Bell (2000)
Pathography — Where Art Practice meets the Practice of Psychoanalysis
Pathography
The word Pathography was first introduced by Freud in the publication of Leonardo Da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood (1910). He wanted a way to explore the psycho-biography of an artist through the analysis of the artwork.
Pathography is further defined by psychotherapist Nicky Glover as 'The viewing of art as a privileged form of neurosis where the analyst-critic explores the artwork in order to understand and unearth the vicissitudes of the creator’s psychological motivations' (2009).
Imago-X
Publishing a broadsheet four times a year IMAGO-X brings the arts alongside psychoanalytic discussion. I have trained as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist after many years of working professionally in the arts, alongside my own art practice, so it is a natural progression for me to bring together my interests in both psychoanalytic and art practice.
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Art Practice Website Spencer Rowell
In my thesis, I introduce the origins of the idea of developing a method that analyses artwork to reveal something of the artist’s pathography. I describe my experience of bringing my own art practice within sight of my psychoanalytic training and practice. I discuss how this method where artwork is made in the knowledge it will be analysed, means that an internal conversation can be made public; the artist’s relationship with his or her practice. I call this a form of self-portraiture where a series of viewpoints accompanied by a written narrative can express more of a sense of who one is.
An Exploration of Pathography within Phototherapy, An Analysis of the Photographic Self-Portrait PhD Thesis
