The Internal Collaborator: Creative Method as Transitional Subject

Abstract

Creative artists often report that their ideas come from a source that feels external. Psychoanalyst Michel Émile de M’Uzan calls this phenomenon a transitional subject, the unconscious projection of a person that sits at the boundary of “me” and “not me.” This paper extends de M’Uzan’s ideas to creativity by proposing the concept of an internal collaborator—a transitional subject manifest in an artist’s work method that protects the ego through the inevitable loss that comes with proceeding from the creative idea into work with external materials. Entering into a relationship with this divided part of the self, artists repeat, reject, or sublimate prior relations with authority figures like parents, teachers, and historical institutions. To elaborate, the author offers a case study of his own life history, music, and depression to show how creative methods are constructed in tandem with the unconscious self, and how the relationship with one’s internal collaborator affects an artist’s mental well-being.