Poetry Shrink-Wrapped: A Retired Analyst Compares Poetry and Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Retirement is most satisfying when it embraces an artistic endeavour, as
both self-analysis and art pursue emotional truth. Psychoanalysis and poetry
share the same root, which is free association. The prosody of poetry is examined
for its analytic meanings. There are overlaps between transference and
metaphor, the unconscious and symmetry, the analytic frame and a regular
frame for writing poetry. In the field of Bion’s O, both analysand and writer
are free of the constraints of the superego, which produces writer’s block. The
author shares some personal experiences as both analyst and poet.