Sublimation ou sinthomation ? Apports et réflexions cliniques sur la création dans la psychose

Abstract

This text is a contribution to the problem of creation in psychosis. We know that the sublimation is a process of the neurotic structure, because of the relationship to the object and to the ego, that is always involved in that. But how is it for the person of psychotic structure for which the function of the object and the ego is quite different? To move forward on this issue, the author proposes the concept of sinthomation, forged from sinthome “invented” by Lacan in 1975–1976. We think that the sinthomation is a process by which the subject of psychotic structure tries to reconnect with reality by creating in himself the elements necessary for access it. Sublimation and sinthomation are deployed on the social fields of art, science and religion. Sinthome, sinthomation and sublimation are terms that this article compares and defines, based on three clinical examples involving the process of sinthomation to varying degrees: a psychotic contemporary painter, a paraphrenic writer Jean-Pierre Brisset, and Vincent Van Gogh.