Such as into himself at last Eternity changes him. Notes on me/not-me and David Bowie's avatars
Résumé
Introduction. - As a contribution to a metapsychology of art, the author proposes a dynamic analysis of David Bowie's pluralistic and subversive artistic practice. The purpose is to illustrate the dialectic tension between me/not-me as developed by Donald W. Winnicott (1953) who determined, in the early development of the child, the first distinctions between me and not-me that contribute to the construction of the transitional object and alongside to that of cultural activity. Method. - In order to discuss the concept, the author analyses the art corpus of David Bowie (1949-2016) - one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, combining artistic practices as varied as that of singer, composer, musician, songwriter, dancer, movie and theatre actor, and painter. Results. - After examining four aspects of the dynamics me/not-me for this artist, - his avatars in Nicolas Roeg's cult movie The man who fell to earth (1978), his theatre adaptation of Elephant Man (1980), and his clip Lazarus (2015), it appears to be the dialectic tension between me/not-me that fuels David Bowie's multifaceted art corpus. Discussion. - As a matrix of later object distinctions, Winnicott's ``me/not-me'' could be heuristic in our further understanding of the creative process and its psychic dynamics. Conclusion. - More research is required on other corpuses to test these first hypotheses. (C) 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.