On Not Being Able to Paint

Milner's great study discusses the nature of creativity and those forces which prevent its expression. With a new introduction by Janet Sayers this book brings the text to the present generation of readers in the field of psychoanalysis

Marion Milner (1900-1998) was a distinguished British psychoanalyst, educationalist, autobiographer and artist.

Freud, Foreword. Introduction. Note to Second Edition. Sayers, New Introduction. Part I: The Emergence of The Free Drawings. What the Eye Likes. Being Separate and Being Together. Outline and the Solid Earth. The Plunge into Colour. The Necessity of Illusion. Part II: The Content of the Free Drawings. Monsters Within and Without. Disillusion and Hating. Preserving What One Loves. Part III: The Method of the Free Drawings. Reciprocity and Ordered Freedom. Refusal of Reciprocity. Ideals and the Fatal Prejudice. Rhythm and the Freedom of the Free Drawings. The Concentration of the Body. Part IV: The Use of the Free Drawings. The Role of the Medium. The Role of Images. Part V: The Use of Painting. Painting and Living. Painting as Making Real. Postscript: What it Amounts To. Appendix.