Psycho-analysts view creativity as somehow stemming from the unconscious or in some cases pre-conscious mind. The main proponents of this theory include Freud, Jung, Kris, Rank, Adler and Hammer.
People become creative in reaction to difficult circumstances or repressed emotions. For example, as Freud maintained, people repress memories of traumatic episodes or events, and the emotions related to these events are released through creative outlets.
People are able to demonstrate creativity when they link the personal unconscious with the collective conscious.
Regression precedes creativity.
Feelings of inferiority contribute to creativity.
Sublimation of unconscious wishes, pre genital and libidinal urges determined creativity in an individual.
Creative activity is a form of day dreaming.
Unconscious mechanism of sublimation opens avenues of expressions for the unfulfilled psychic forces.
It is essentially a symbolic activity and symbols are nothing but characteristically human expression of the excess libido that cannot be absorbed in the direct living experience through the world of senses. So it must find some expression through symbols and metaphors.
However, other theorists maintain that the psychoanalytic theory lacks credence because it fails to take into consideration that people are both biological and social beings.
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