'Killing the angel in the house': creativity, femininity and aggression

The author brings to bear an art historical perspective on the psychoanalytic understanding of creativity as an object relationship, proposing that the creative endeavour is determined by a wider, more complex network of internal and external object relationships than is usually assumed. The workings of tradition, language, contemporary practices, methods and materials are explored. Creative block is considered in the context of the determining relationships, with particular reference to the role of aggression. The position of the latter within psychoanalytic theories of creativity is surveyed and it is proposed that aggression has a pivotal place not primarily in instituting sublimation, reparation or reaction formation but simply because the processes of creativity demand it. Virginia Woolf's image of 'Killing the Angel in the House' is analysed and used to track the implications of gender, focusing on the concept of the muse. It is pointed out that traditionally, the fear, guilt and anxiety associated with aggressive creativity has been mediated by the muse, which is compared to the internal good object. Drawing on art history, artists' statements, and clinical material, the author illustrates the disparate means by which the presence of 'muse' can be internalised to infuse the relationships that constitute creativity.