Poetry and Psyche

From Poetic Inspiration to Poetry Therapy

Abstract

The day when poets, philosophers, psychologists, scientists, doctors and artists will find common ground and a shared language is getting closer and closer. Today, we simply recognise that poets felt poetry flowing from a realm beyond the reach of reason – the primal union of being and nature. We know that philosophers emerged from this ancient split, questioning the archaic feeling-and-understanding of poetry. Finally, we know that, since that fateful moment when Freud solved a clinical problem with the verses of a classic poem, psychologists have been trying to understand men’s life experience. What we still don’t know is the enigma of poetry between therapy and madness, andwhere poetic inspiration comes from. We also need to understand how psychology can recognise it. The answer lies in poetry as another science of the Self and care of the Other.