Table Of ContentScansion in Psychoanalysis and Art
Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art examines a strain of artists spanning
more than a century, beginning at the dawn of photography and culminat-
ing in the discussion of contemporary artists, to illustrate various psycho-
analytic concepts by examining artists working in a multitude of media.
Drawing on the theories of Sigmund Freud, who applied psychoanalytic
methods to art and literature to decipher the meaning and intention of the
creator, as well as Jacques Lacan’s dissemination of scansion as a power-
ful disruption of narrative, the book explores examples of the long and
rich relationship between psychoanalysis and the fine arts. While guiding
readers through the different artists and their art forms – from painting and
music to poetry, collage, photography, film, performance art, technology
and body modification – Sinclair interrogates scansion as a generative pro-
cess often inherent of the act of creation itself.
This is an intriguing book for psychoanalysts, psychologists and crea-
tive arts therapists who wish to explore the generative potential of scan-
sion and the relationship between psychoanalysis and the arts, as well as
for artists and art historians interested in a psychoanalytic view of these
processes.
Vanessa Sinclair, PsyD, is a psychoanalyst based in Stockholm. Dr
Sinclair is the author of Switching Mirrors (2016), editor of Rendering
Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Politics and Poetry (2019),
and co-e ditor of On Psychoanalysis and Violence: Contemporary Lacanian
Perspectives (2018) with Dr Manya Steinkoler.
Art, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis Book Series
George Hagman, LSCW
Series Editor
The Art, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis book series seeks to highlight original, cutting
edge studies of the relationship between psychoanalysis and the world of art and the psy-
chology of artists, with subject matter including the psychobiography of artists, the crea-
tive process, the psychology of aesthetic experience, as well as the aesthetic, creative and
artistic aspects of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Art, Creativity, and
Psychoanalysis promotes a vision of psychoanalysis as a creative art, the clinical effective-
ness of which can be enhanced when we better understand and utilize artistic and creative
processes at its core.
The series welcomes proposals from psychoanalytic therapists from all professional
groups and theoretical models, as well as artists, art historians and art critics informed
by a psychoanalytic perspective. For a full list of all titles in the series, please visit the
Routledge website at: www.routledge.com/ ACAPBS.
A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Reading Literature
Reading the Reader
Merav Roth
Psychoanalysis, Intersubjective Writing, and a Postmaterialist Model of Mind
I Woke Up Dead
Dan Gilhooley, Frank Toich
Poetry and Psychoanalysis
The Opening of the Field
David Shaddock
Affect in Artistic Creativity
Painting to Feel
Jussi Saarinen
Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art
The Cut in Creation
Vanessa Sinclair
Scansion in Psychoanalysis
and Art
The Cut in Creation
Vanessa Sinclair
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Vanessa Sinclair
The right of Vanessa Sinclair to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by
her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Sinclair, Vanessa, author.
Title: Scansion in psychoanalysis and art : the cut in creation / Vanessa Sinclair.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. |
Series: Art, creativity, and psychoanalysis |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020023829 (print) | LCCN 2020023830 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367567262 (paperback) | ISBN 9780367567248 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781003099147 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychoanalysis and the arts. Classification:
LCC NX180.P7 S55 2021 (print) | LCC NX180.P7 (ebook) |
DDC 700.1/05–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023829
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023830
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 56724- 8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 56726- 2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 09914- 7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Newgen Publishing UK
For
Carl Abrahamsson
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Introduction 1
PART I
Sowing seeds/ setting the stage 19
1 A cut in time: the advent of photography 21
2 Reimagining the frame: the birth of modern art 37
PART II
Unleashing the unconscious 55
3 The art of noise 57
4 Psychoanalysis and Dada 72
5 Collage, photomontage and assemblage 85
6 Disrupting the expected: Marcel Duchamp 100
PART III
Revolution of mind 113
7 Surrealism/ Acéphale 115
viii Contents
8 Double- bind: cutting the bonds of gender 133
9 The cutting edge: avant- garde and experimental cinema 147
10 The cut- up method of the Beats 161
PART IV
When art becomes life (and death) 175
11 Acting out: pop, street and performance art 177
12 Cut from the collective: alternative communities 188
13 Body modification, polymorphous perversity and Pandrogeny 197
14 Technology, morbidity, death and the unexpected 209
Index 222
Acknowledgments
There are always many people involved in the creation of a book. I’d like
to thank Kate Hawes at Routledge for all of her support in this process;
George Hagman for welcoming me into his brilliant series; Genesis Breyer
P- Orridge, Val Denham, Gail Denham, Annie Bandez, Charlotte Rodgers,
Katelan Foisy, Vicki Bennett, Gustaf Broms, Trish Littler, Kasper Opstrup,
Joe Coleman and Whitney Ward for their friendship and inspiration;
Jamieson Webster, David Lichtenstein and all the colleagues who have
worked with Das Unbehagen over the years for the sustenance of commu-
nity; Paul D. Miller, David Gunkel, Aram Sinnreich, Eduardo Navas and
Mark Amerika for introducing me to the world of remix; and, of course,
my husband Carl Abrahamsson for his endless support, tireless motiva-
tion, inspiration and incredible work ethic.
Parts of this book have been published and/o r presented in various for-
mats throughout the years, as these ideas have taken shape and evolved into
their current form. I would like to thank all of those involved in the follow-
ing events and publications: “The Zeitgeist creating Psychoanalysis and
Dada” first published in The Fenris Wolf, vol. 7 (2014, Edda Publishing)
edited by Carl Abrahamsson; “Das Unbehagen of Duchamp, Dada and
Psychoanalysis” in DIVISION/ Review: A Quarterly Psychoanalytic
Forum, No. 10, Spring 2015, edited by David Lichtenstein; “The Cut in
Creation” first presented with Katelan Foisy at Morbid Anatomy Museum,
Brooklyn, January 2016, hosted by Joanna Ebenstein and Laetitia Barbier;
“The CUT/ in Ritual, Psychoanalysis & Art” presented at the Occult
Humanities conference, New York University, Manhattan, February 2016,
hosted by Pam Grossman and Jesse Bransford; “Cutting-u p the Image of
the Father/ Reconstructing the Third” presented as part of the exhibition
Father Figures are Hard to Find at NGBK, Berlin, April 2016, on invitation
