The Permeable Threshold: Architecture and the Psychoanalysis of Children Cameron White 13 April 2009 Adviser: Spyros Papapetros

Second Reader: Christine Boyer A Senior thesis submitted to the School of Architecture of Princeton University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of the Bachelor of Arts in Architecture.

The author would like to extend his sincere gratitude to Professor Spyros Papapetros for his guidance and patience in the preparation of this work.

Thanks to my mother, Patty, my father, Ronnie, and my brother, Kyle, for their love and support throughout my academic career, especially in this final year at Princeton.

And thanks to all my friends, for everything you do.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Psychological Projection and Enclosure: Freud, Klein, and Ravel

10

Creativity and the Permeable Boundary: Winnicott, Rank, and Neutra

36

Enculturation and the Architectural Threshold: Piaget and Van Eyck

61

Image List

81

Reference List

82

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Introduction
Manmade objects profoundly influence spatial experience, serving a central role in personal and collective memory formation while providing a material backdrop for social interaction. It is not surprising, then, that the significance of the architectural environment becomes even more pronounced when considering the childs psychological development. Indeed, the childs spatial experience takes place within a unique context; his or her understanding of objects comes not from societal norms, but rather from a less culturally determined set of criteria. Yet, despite the importance of architectural design in this regard, such considerations are often undermined in deference to tradition or other cultural preconceptions. The artificially imposed disconnect between the professional practices of planning and construction and the nave processes of childhood is symptomatic of a broader tendency to rely on professional expertise to impose decisions from the top-down, with minimal regard for the specific context into which they are interjected. Architectural design in particular is viewed as requiring a nuanced and refined set of skills far beyond the grasp of the non-professional. Nevertheless, the ubiquity of architecture along with its role in shaping the childs experience and its relative lack of intellectual accessibility reinforces the need to carefully consider the effects of design decisions upon the childs psychological development. Societal denial of the significance of the childs perspective is exemplified in the conceptual foundation of applied psychology, which remains prominent as a method of facilitating an individuals behavioral adaptation by eliminating outward manifestations

White 6 of psychological idiosyncrasy within a particular cultural context. Whereas psychoanalytic therapy seeks to uncover the unconscious mechanisms often rooted in childhood experience that underlie neurotic behavior, applied psychology aims to alter or eliminate the subjects outward symptoms in order to encourage conformity to a set of culturally-defined norms and values. Founded upon the writings of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), early psychoanalytic theory argues for the importance of childhood experience within an individuals psychological development. Specifically, Freud differentiates conscious from unconscious psychological processes, and describes the ego as a boundary mediating an individuals internal reality and the external reality of cultural experience.1 Along these lines, Freud defines projection as a response to otherwise inescapable internal anxieties, a tendency to treat them as though they were acting, not from the inside, but from the outside, so that it may be possible to bring the shield against stimuli into operation as a means of defen[s]e against them.2 Similarly, Freud understood introjection as acting in the opposite direction, a process by which objects in the external world are incorporated into an individuals internal reality during early stages of psychosexual development.3 The appeal of a view that recognizes the importance of the individual and the validity of his or her experiential reality is made evident by the infiltration of psychoanalytic theory into objects of contemporary culture, such as Ravel

J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis, The Language of Psycho-Analysis, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1973: 130-43. 2 Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920g), in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud Vol. XVIII, ed. James Strachey, London: Hogarth Press, 1953-74: 29. 3 J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis, The Language of Psycho-Analysis, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1973: 229-31.

White 7 and Colettes operetta LEnfant et les Sortileges [The Child and the Spells]. The importance of projection in the opera is emphasized in a review by psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, who along with post-Freudian analyst Otto Rank was instrumental in the development of the study of object-relations. Later in the twentieth century, the writings of D. W. Winnicott based in large part upon Kleinian and early Rankian theory recognize the relationship between patient and therapist as that of subject and object, an insight that he would later extend to reveal the therapeutic potential of introjection through object-usage. In addition, Winnicott appropriates Ranks concerns with the subjects milieu in his reevaluation of the psychotherapeutic environment, a development with major theoretical consequences within the realm of architectural discourse. Through his written theories and therapeutic practice, Winnicott revives the psychoanalytic significance of creativity and play, setting himself apart from the anti-functionalism of play theorists such as Roger Caillois. Through his work, Winnicott demonstrates the psychological necessity of an environment that properly facilitates creative expression, as well as the possibility of play as a means of dissolving professional barriers to encourage participatory design. Winnicotts relative success in the implementation of such therapeutic innovations occurred in parallel to less celebrated attempts generally ignored and often ridiculed to apply these same principles to architectural design, including the efforts of environmentalist architect Richard Neutra. Jean Piaget explores the childs development of spatial cognition in great detail in his classical work The Childs Conception of Space (1948), which provides scientific

White 8 grounding for many of the principles that had been put forth by Winnicott and other postFreudian theorists in the early- to mid-twentieth century. According to Piaget, by the time an individual has reached adulthood he or she has learned to interpret visual cues in order to understand the spatial characteristics of his or her surroundings. Although in the adults mind such spatial conceptions exist in the realm of objective observation, in fact even simple geometrical relationships are not inherent properties of perception, but instead products of cultural conditioning occurring during critical periods of development. 4 Children are taught as part of what is perhaps a cultural expression of humanitys evolutionary instinct to interpret space based on conventions rooted in cultural doctrines imposed by rational or aesthetic norms. As part of the process of enculturation, these considerations come to dominate the childs conscious experience of spatial reality. Pre-cultural spatial experience refers to the manner in which children experience space prior to this intellectual and psychological indoctrination. One of architectures primary functions in the adult world is that of physical enclosure. Equally significant in the world of the child is the role of architecture as a psychological enclosure. In the same way that all manmade objects impose arbitrary physical boundaries on the natural world, architectural objects compel users to move, to rest, to interact to exist only within the spatial limits they define. In regards to the childs pre-cultural consciousness, then, architecture exists and acts in opposition to the childs instinctual tendency5 to curiously explore and learn from his or her
4

Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder, The Childs Conception of Space (1948), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963: 6. 5 Anna Freud, Some Aspects of Instinctual Satisfaction and Frustration in Family and Nursery Life, in The Writings of Anna Freud, Volume III (1939-1945): Infants without Families: Reports on the Hampstead Nurseries, New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1973: 621.

White 9 surroundings. The built world serves as a constant, physical reminder of all the hallmarks of adult consciousness: Design considerations such as functionalism and aesthetic appeal are embedded and continually reinforced through the prominence of architectural objects, which are relatively permanent and unchanging. Moreover, the various ways in which a given object is used or experienced by a child (unrestricted by societal norms), as well as his or her perception of the objects relative position and scale, are often indicative of fluctuations in the childs psychological state. In light of Freuds characterization of the ego-boundary,6 it becomes clear that architectures role within the context of the childs experience is two-fold: On the one hand, the childs internally-defined psychological reality is projected into objects in the outer world through creative expression; on the other hand, externally-imposed architectural objects profoundly affect the childs inner reality. In this way, the egoboundary facilitates both projection and introjection by mediating the childs interactions with architectural objects in the outside world. Taken together, these phenomena generate a complex subject-object pairing between the child and his or her environment,7 which in turn suggests an opposition between internal and external reality centered around the axis of the ego-boundary. Moreover, if the original pleasure-ego wants to introject into itself everything that is good and to eject from itself everything that is bad,8 then architecture must accept its doubly ambivalent role as the recipient of both immense trust and deeprooted hatred the source of both ominous dread and unconditional compassion.
6

Sigmund Freud, Instincts and their Vicissitudes (1915c), in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud Vol. XIV, ed. James Strachey, London: Hogarth Press, 1953-74: 136. 7 Ibid. 8 Sigmund Freud, Negation (1925), in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud Vol. XIX, ed. James Strachey, London: Hogarth Press, 1953-74: 237.

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Chapter 1
Psychological Projection and Enclosure: Freud, Klein, and Ravel Freuds conception of the ego-boundary as mediating internal and external reality had profound implications on the development of psychoanalytic theory. In addition to recognizing the developmental significance of the childs interactions with the outside world, the psychoanalysts writings challenged longstanding notions about the nature of human perception. Rather than an objective feed of sensory data, Freud argues that each individuals experience of externality is deeply affected by the character his or her inner psychology. These ideas seem to relate to works such as LEnfant et les Sortileges [The Child and the Spells], an opera by Ravel and Colette that portrays architecture as an object of the childs creative impulse. By focusing upon the childs ambivalence marked by his simultaneous love and hatred of the same (maternal-architectural) object the opera suggests the possibility of constructive psychological projection, a notion that is probed by Austrian psychoanalyst Melanie Klein in her analysis of artistic expression.

The Child and the Spells, or What happens to children who do not do their schoolwork LEnfant et les Sortileges [The Child and the Spells] a libretto by SidonieGabrielle Colette set to Maurice Ravels musical score, first performed in 1925 stands out from contemporary works for its exploration of the childs psychological perspective. In the librettos opening scene Colettes stage directions account for considerations of scale in order to visually represent the world as perceived by its child inhabitant:

White 11 Enter Mama (or rather as much as can be seen with the ceiling very low and the entire scale of all the furnishings and all the objects in exaggerated dimensions, in order to make more striking the smallness of the child) that is to say a skirt, the lower part of a silk apron, a steel chain from which hangs a pair of scissors, and a hand. This hand is raised with the index finger pointing.9 This description immediately takes into account the roles of relative size and countenance in the childs experience of external objects in his environment: the subjects mother is deconstructed in a series of partial objects skirt, apron, scissors, and index finger. Once she has entered his bedroom, the mother confronts the boy about his incomplete schoolwork. The boy begins to tantrum, damaging objects as he attempts to escape his mothers control. After he is locked in his room as punishment, these same objects come to life as projections of his rage. The furniture begins to physically and psychologically attack the child, represented musically in Ravels score through [t]he succession of different musical styles and genres produced by the animated objects, which disrupt the comfortable familiarity of the environment.10 Throughout this ordeal architectural objects are presented to the viewer through a reproduction not of culturallydefined, objective experience, but rather of the childs psychologically-defined, distinctly pre-cultural conception of the world. The childs fantasy grows increasingly detached from reality: This transition is represented onstage by his gradual passage from his semi-enclosed bedroom into a neighboring garden. Early in the opera, the potential for reconciliation between the boy and his mother is undermined by his inability to successfully resolve the contradiction
9

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Maurice Ravels LEnfant et les Sortileges: Fantasie Lyrique en Deux Parties, trans. Katharine Wolff, Bryn Mawr, PA: Elkan-Vogel, Inc., 1932: 5. 10 Steven Huebner, Ravels Child: Magic and Moral Development, in Musical Childhoods and the Cultures of Youth, eds. Susan Boynton and Roe-Min Kok, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2006: 70.

White 12 between his creative urges and the physical boundary imposed by architecture, which appears here as a projection of the psychological enclosure represented by his mother. The maternal and architectural boundaries define a threshold between internal and external reality. The childs eventual recognition of these boundaries as permeable entities represents empowerment gained through the ability to move freely between internal and external space. Moreover, through this experience the child is able to recognize the possibility of all enclosures (including that of the ego-boundary) as twofold, and as a result he is able to overcome the burden of infantile anxiety.

Psychological projection and enclosure A ballet version of the opera in a 1986 performance by the Netherlands Dance Theater (choreographed by Jiri Kylian)11 opens with the plays young protagonist in his bedroom, as two cats rest in front of an active fireplace nearby. Mama12 enters the room and begins to chastise the boy. Despite his best attempts to escape his mothers control, he is ultimately restricted by the physical boundaries of his mothers hands, his book, and the table. These mobile frames act collaboratively to psychologically confine the child [fig. 1]. In reaction to this enclosure the boy once again begins to act out. The childs mother similarly reacts to this outburst by attempting to force the boy into enclosure first by straddling his body [fig. 2], then by locking him in his room.

11

Maurice Ravel, Lenfant et les sortileges [ballet version], DVD, directed by Netherlands Dance Theater (Jiri Kylian), Chatsworth, CA: Image Entertainment, 2001. 12 Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Maurice Ravels LEnfant et les Sortileges: Fantasie Lyrique en Deux Parties, trans. Katharine Wolff, Bryn Mawr, PA: Elkan-Vogel, Inc., 1932: 5.

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Figure 1. The boy is physically and psychologically enclosed by his mothers hands, his book, and the table.

Figure 2. The boys mother straddles his body in an attempt to assert control over his actions.

White 14 Beyond their role in defining physical boundaries, objects within this scene reveal the childs experience of architecture as a psychological frame, and more specifically as an agent of domestication. Freud describes instincts as the psychical forces responsible for the tensions caused by the needs of the id.13 Throughout the opera, the childs instinctual needs come into conflict with such culturally imposed expectations as the completion of his schoolwork. Just as his mother acts to counteract his instincts through the enforcement of cultural norms, the homes exterior walls (acting upon the house cats) and the bricks lining the fireplace (acting upon the flames) directly challenge nature with a set of arbitrary restrictions. At one point during his tantrum, the boy asserts his control over the movement of the cats tails, a symbolic reference to the flames flickering in the background [fig. 3]. This image represents an early example of the childs attempts throughout the opera to control objects by means of instinctual gestures. The boys destruction continues as he runs around the room toppling furniture, ripping down wallpaper, and tossing a caged squirrel out of an open window. Suddenly, the furniture he had been abusing moments before comes to life. Masculine and feminine faces emerge through the backs of two chairs [fig. 4], which now move around the boy upon human legs. The male chair begins to dance with his female companion as the boy looks on. Later, the chair lifts the child into a seated position [fig. 5]. In these examples, the objects act both as screens upon which anxieties are externalized and as boundaries enforcing conformity through enclosure, thus mediating both projection and introjection across the childs ego-boundary.
13

Sigmund Freud, An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (1940a [1938]), in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud Vol. XXIII, ed. James Strachey, London: Hogarth Press, 1953-74: 148.

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Figure 3. The boy attempts to bring nature under his control, moving the cats tails in reference to the flames that burn in the background.

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Figure 4. The boy projects his fears into furniture objects, represented onstage with human characteristics.

Figure 5. As the female chair looks on, the male chair enforces the childs conformity to its culturally-defined function.

White 17 In addition to relative position and scale, a comparison of the manner in which a given object is used or experienced by the boy at different points in the opera provides insight into the childs varying psychological condition. In many points throughout the opera the boys actions are representative of the psychoanalytic notion of ambivalence, in which the subject projects conflicting emotions, usually love and hatred, simultaneously into the same object.14 In his analysis of Little Hans, Freud describes the observation of sexual symbolism in a five-year old subject, and dates the phenomenon back into the years when the child is first learning to master language.15 In the midst of this same pre-cultural period of development, the operas young protagonist predictably experiences a wide range of ever-changing emotive states. Early in the play the boy projects varying psychological states into a large table in his bedroom. During his initial tantrum, he attempts to dominate the table by standing on top of it. Later, when he is frightened, he hides underneath it. The table is then shown in its culturally-defined role as a surface for schoolwork. Later, after his mother has locked him inside the room, he violently overturns the table, the ultimate rejection of the restrictions represented by the architectural object [fig. 6]. Within this sequence, the boys ambivalence is expressed through his positioning relative to the tabletop surface, which could serve as a physical representation of the ego-boundary. Considered in this light, the childs actions can be interpreted as a complex psychological expression of his instinctual need for both freedom (represented through the boys positioning above/outside the

14

J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis, The Language of Psycho-Analysis, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1973: 26-9. 15 Sigmund Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, in The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, trans. & ed., Dr. A. A. Brill, New York: Random House, Inc, 1938: 594, footnote 1.

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Figure 6 (left). The boys ambivalence toward the table is represented by his varying position relative to the tabletop surface. In the final image, the boy overturns the table in frustration. Figure 7 (above). Freudian diagrams show the impermeable boundary as incapable of simultaneously fulfilling the boys dual desires for creativity and protection.

White 19 boundary) and security (below/inside the boundary) [fig. 7; above]. Because of his inability early in the opera to reconcile the paradox of these conflicting needs, the boy acts to destroy the objects into which he projects his frustration. Since the tabletop surface is impermeable, the boys only means of rendering it two-fold and thus overcoming his infantile anxieties is to physically overturn it. Later in the opera, the boys anxieties are once again made evident through his interactions with architectural objects: time is personified by a grandfather clock (with a penis-like16 pendulum) which chastises the boy; and [a]rithmetic17 is personified by a gray-haired, bearded math professor, wearing a jacket covered in computational symbols and holding an extendable finger allowing him, like Mama in the operas first scene, to accusatorially point at the child from across the stage [fig. 8]. Through the imagery of the former scene, Colette reveals time as yet another arbitrary, external force acting to restrict the childs instinctual impulses. Once again, the childs varying experiences of the clock and pendulum reveal his ambivalence, as the swaying of the pendulum externalizes his own internal oscillations. In addition to variations in usage, the juxtaposition of activity and passivity is also symptomatic of the childs ambivalence towards his environment.18 Although at one point it appears that the boy wants to join with the clock in play, he ultimately displays passivity, lying flat on his stomach, face toward the ground, as the clock straddles his body [fig. 9]. Like the mother earlier in the play, the clock now forces
16

Melanie Klein, Infantile Anxiety-Situations Reflected in a Work of Art and in the Creative Impulse (1929), in Love, Guilt, and Reparation and Other Works: 1921-1945, New York: Delacorte Press/ Seymour Lawrence, 1975: 211. 17 Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Maurice Ravels LEnfant et les Sortileges: Fantasie Lyrique en Deux Parties, trans. Katharine Wolff, Bryn Mawr, PA: Elkan-Vogel, Inc., 1932: 11. 18 Sigmund Freud, Instincts and their Vicissitudes (1915c), in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud Vol. XIV, ed. James Strachey, London: Hogarth Press, 1953-74: 128.

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Figure 8. Arithmetic threatens the boy by pointing from across the stage, recalling the prominence of the mothers index finger in the operas first scene.

Figure 9. The passive child is straddled by the clock, symbolic of external restrictions on his instinctual urges.

White 21 the boy into subservience in order to control his innate urges. In the latter of the two scenes, the boy after being chased by the gray-haired man behind a chalkboard breaks through the boards surface, along with several multi-colored hands, which frenetically scribble unintelligible drawings on the board as the boy looks on. The dual actions of these hands are indicative of the paradoxical co-existence of destruction and creation, evident throughout the childs progression through this pre-cultural state. More generally, the chaos expressed in these two scenes is symptomatic of the boys confusion as he attempts to confront abstract objects imposed upon him through education. If projections represent ego-defense through the externalization of anxieties, then the danger for the child lies in the fact that once they have been projected these objects are subject to their own laws of reality.19 The same ambivalence revealed earlier is articulated in later scenes through the boys projection of his mother and father into various female and male object pairs, which dance together while the child hopelessly attempts to fulfill his proper role within their union. The boy changes rapidly between active and passive roles, and during various instances of subservience, the child can be observed hiding behind architectural elements as a means of shield[ing]20 himself from the external reality of what he has projected [fig. 10]. Yet because he is creating them, such images are both internally and externally inescapable. The boys psychological conflict is crystallized most succinctly, perhaps, at the conclusion of one such dance

19

Sigmund Freud, Extracts from the Fleiss Papers - Draft H: Paranoia, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud Vol. I, ed. James Strachey, London: Hogarth Press, 1953-74: 207-12. 20 Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Maurice Ravels LEnfant et les Sortileges: Fantasie Lyrique en Deux Parties, trans. Katharine Wolff, Bryn Mawr, PA: Elkan-Vogel, Inc., 1932: 8.

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Figure 10. The child uses architectural elements to shield himself from projections of his anxieties.

Figure 11. A manifestation of the Oedipal complex is representative of the boys ambivalence toward objects of his projections.

White 23 sequence in a reference to the Oedipal complex [fig. 11; above], which Freud describes as instinctually rooted in a conflict of ambivalence.21 As the opera progresses, the boys interactions with architectural objects become increasingly intimidating and anxiety-producing. In reaction to these events, the boy recedes deeper into his inner world and becomes disconnected from external reality. The boys escape from his ideational enclosure is expressed architecturally as a gradual transition from the house to a fantastic garden; the transition is represented onstage by the successive pulling away of a series of panels [fig. 12]. However, the comfort of his freedom is fleeting, and he continues to externalize his fears even once he is outdoors.22 As with the architectural objects inside the home, the boys ambivalence is once again evident in the varying nature of his interactions with the natural objects in the garden, and he continues to vacillate between the roles of activity and passivity. Although he is now free from the cultural restrictions imposed by maternal (and architectural) enclosure, so too are his psychological fantasies, which continue to intimidate and attack the boy. This chaotic series of events is calmed only through the triumphant return of the boys mother, who is now portrayed onstage as a large doll-like structure, a towering presence more architectural than human [fig. 13]. Although the childs first reaction is to revert to his earlier state of anxiety, it soon becomes clear that the key to his happiness lies in his reconciliation with his mother. In order to escape the angry animals, the boy tries to climb beneath his mothers skirt an embrace of maternal protection that stands

21

Sigmund Freud, Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety (1926d), in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud Vol. XX, ed. James Strachey, London: Hogarth Press, 1953-74: 102. 22 Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Maurice Ravels LEnfant et les Sortileges: Fantasie Lyrique en Deux Parties, trans. Katharine Wolff, Bryn Mawr, PA: Elkan-Vogel, Inc., 1932: 12.

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Figure 12. The successive pulling away of panels represents the childs transition from interior to exterior space through the architectural threshold.

Figure 13. The mother-figure is represented in the operas final scene as a looming, doll-like figure, more architectural than human.

White 25 in contrast to his earlier resistance against her. However, his attempts are thwarted by the animals, who lift away the skirt to reveal a cage structure, once again identifying the mother with the physical enclosure of architecture. The boy clings to the outside cladding of the prison,23 inside which is trapped the squirrel he had earlier defenestrated. The animals gather around the cage, threatening to attack as the squirrel pleads with the boy to leave for his own safety. The child is struck for the first time by empathy identifying with the hardship imposed by enclosure and reciprocates the squirrels selflessness by remaining near the cage. The boy and the squirrel physically express this psychological connection by reaching through the threshold space of the cage in order to embrace one another in mutual compassion [fig. 14]. In the ensuing confusion, one of the squirrels limbs is broken. The child uses his mothers scarf (which he has been carrying in his pocket) to bandage the squirrels wound. Once they have witnessed this compassionate act, the animals empathize with the child and seek to assist him the way he has assisted the squirrel: He suffers He has a wound He bleeds He has dressed the wound We must tie up his hand and stop the blood. The Child knows how to cure ills What shall we do? We have wounded him What shall we do?24 Although they had earlier mocked him for calling out for his Mama, the animals now become intent on helping the boy. The animals tilt the cage sideways, and it is transformed once again into a place of refuge. He is free to leave as he pleases; but the boy rests quietly inside the very structure with which he had previously refused to be assimilated [fig. 15]. The animals then fully restore the mother-figure, thus facilitating the

23 24

Ibid: 13. Ibid: 14.

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Figure 14. The boy and squirrel express mutual compassion in their embrace through the architectural threshold.

Figure 15. The boy's acceptance of maternal compassion is made possible by his recognition of protection through architectural enclosure.

White 27 boys maternal reconciliation via his acceptance of architectural enclosure as a source of compassion and protection.

Melanie Klein and the sadistic impulses of children An analysis of LEnfant et les Sortileges by post-Freudian child psychologist Melanie Klein (1882-1960) based upon a second-hand account of a contemporary production of the one-act opera in Vienna focuses on scenes early in the performance as indications of the boys instinctual rage. While Klein notes the psychological significance of relative scale and symbolic projection (especially in regards to the boys interactions with his mother),25 the main goal of her argument seems to be the framing of the plays narrative within the broader context of her theoretical doctrine. Klein argues that the boys actions are symptomatic of what Freud terms an early infantile situation of anxiety or danger, in which the child reacts to the prospect of his parents sexual union with sadistic attacks [212-3]. This explanation accounts for the childs rapid transition from anger to fear, as he becomes frightened when his violent impulses begin to turn inward against him. Kleins analysis also considers what happens once the boy has gained control over his lust for destruction. Specifically, Klein argues for the developmental role of projection, explaining that in the opera we see what we discover in the analysis of every child: that things represent human beings, and therefore are things of anxiety [213]. In Kleins view, conflicts between the boy and household objects, later manifested outdoors
25

Melanie Klein, Infantile Anxiety-Situations Reflected in a Work of Art and in the Creative Impulse (1929), in Love, Guilt, and Reparation and Other Works: 1921-1945, New York: Delacorte Press/ Seymour Lawrence, 1975: 210.

White 28 with animals and other elements of nature, are ultimately rooted in psychological tension between the child and his parents [213-4]. The protagonist is able to overcome these impulses, Klein argues, once his development reaches the genital stage, within which the boy is more able [] to conquer his sadism by means of pity and sympathy. This process is represented in the opera when the boy cares for the wounded squirrel: [T]he hostile world changes into a friendly one. The child has learnt to love and believes in love [214]. It is no coincidence that in this moment of compassion the boy cries out for his Mama, with whom he now reunites as a symbol of maternal protection. In order to interpret Kleins analysis of LEnfant et les Sortileges, it is useful to examine the psychoanalytic principles underlying her work. The most important of these theoretical underpinnings is found perhaps in her theory of reparation, which leads her to argue that identification in which the child put[s] [himself] in the place of other people26 is essential to parental reconciliation. Indeed, in Kleins view the act of making reparation represents a fundamental element in love and in all human relationships.27 The operas protagonist gains the ability to show compassion once he identifies with the injured squirrel, and in this way he is able to achieve reconciliation not only with his mother, but with the architectural objects into which he had been projecting his infantile anxieties. Also of particular interest is Kleins advocacy for the use of the play technique of child observation, in which she interprets the childs play actions as the psychological equivalent of free association in adults, and furthermore attempts to link each action
26

Melanie Klein, Love, Guilt and Reparation (1937), in Love, Guilt and Reparation and Other Works: 1921-1945, New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1975: 311. 27 Ibid: 313.

White 29 symbolically to its psychoanalytic root.28 Klein makes explicit the importance of play within her overall theoretical framework in a review of Harvey Lahman and Paul Wittys The Psychology of Play Activities, published one year before her analysis of Ravels opera.29 Criticizing the authors attempt to explain play in quantitative terms as methodological fallacy, Klein proceeds to de-emphasize the role of human nature, characterizing play as the reciprocal response phase of social stimuli [369]. It is through this theoretical paradigm that Klein interprets the caged squirrel and the grandfather clocks pendulum both as plain symbols of the penis in the mothers body; a tear in the houses wallpaper as the fathers penis [] in the act of coitus with the mother; and spilled ink and a poured-out tea kettle as the childs device of soiling with excrement.30 However, as pointed out by Anna Freud, there is an important distinction to be made between the child at play and the adult in free association: purpose. 31 Although adults are instructed to ignore logical boundaries to reach a psychological state of free association, they are nonetheless consciously aware of this process, as well as its purpose. This is not so in the case of the freely playing child, who acts outside of cultural parameters to creatively project into objects. Furthermore, while Klein claims to recognize the paramount importance of social stimuli on the childs development, her
28 Anna

Freud, The Role of Transference in the Analysis of Children, in The Writings of Anna Freud, Volume I (1922-1935): Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Lectures for Child Analysts and Teachers, New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1974: 37. 29 Melanie Klein, review of The Psychology of Play Activities, by Harvey C. Lehman and Paul Witty, Psychoanalytic Review 15: 369-70. 30 Melanie Klein, Infantile Anxiety-Situations Reflected in a Work of Art and in the Creative Impulse (1929), In Love, Guilt, and Reparation and Other Works: 1921-1945, New York: Delacorte Press/ Seymour Lawrence, 1975: 211-2. 31 Anna Freud. The Role of Transference in the Analysis of Children, in The Writings of Anna Freud, Volume I (1922-1935): Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Lectures for Child Analysts and Teachers, New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1974: 38.

White 30 analysis fails to fully account for the role played by the physical environment, instead focusing narrowly on non-physical external events directly linked to various psychosexual phases. Many architectural objects in the opera are undoubtedly symbolic of anxiety; but Kleins classification of every instance of the boys psychological projection as an expression of anxiety seems an oversimplification. While it is certain that in many instances the child projects his mother-figure into objects, against whom he then turns his sadistic rage, more detailed focus upon the character of the childs projections reveals a more nuanced relationship between his internal and external reality. Throughout the opera architecture is cast into the role of protector, physically and psychologically shielding the boy while simultaneously restricting his freedom. At the same time, the child projects into these objects fear and the desire to escape. In one scene, personified flames escape the boundary of the fireplace and rush toward the boy. Although he earlier attempted to control these flames, his initial reaction now is to seek security behind the armchair [fig. 16], as if he now realizes the actual power (and potential destructiveness) of his creative impulse. The boy reluctantly begins dancing with the flames, eventually submitting to their dominance by lying passively on the ground. After narrowly escaping the flames attacks, the boy again seeks refuge in the chair, which is ultimately able to banish the flames back into the fireplace. In contrast to its earlier portrayal as a symbol of anxiety, the armchair now acts to protect the boy and restore order within the household. In addition to viewing the chair as a source of anxiety, the child now recognizes its role as protector.

White 31

Figure 16. The furniture is cast into the role of protector as the boy shields himself from the flames by hiding behind the armchair.

White 32 Architectural objects throughout the opera act as physical analogs to the psychological symbol represented by the boys mother, conceptualized as both providing protection and restricting instinctual free will. In her essay Love, Guilt and Reparation (written eight years after her review of LEnfant et les Sortileges), Klein describes the complex interplay between love and hatred in childrens projections, which she argues has its origins in infants concurrent feelings of compassion and destruction towards the mothers breast.32 Klein also explains the effects of ambivalence on the childs psychological development in a 1934 essay that characterizes good and bad objects as dualistic descriptions of imagos, which are a [f]antastically distorted picture of the real objects upon which they are based.33 In this description, too, disparate psychological qualities are projected into the same object simultaneously. And yet, despite the centrality of ambivalence in Kleins overall work, 34 the term does not appear even once in her analysis of the opera.

The therapeutic potential of the two-fold boundary What is missing from Kleins analysis of LEnfant et les Sortileges is acknowledgment of ambivalence as vital to the childs reparative process. The boys revelatory expression of empathy (described by Klein as identification), which allows him finally to overcome his sadism, does not occur by chance. Nor is it simply the result of advance[ment] to the genital level [214]. Rather, it is made possible through his
32

Melanie Klein, Love, Guilt and Reparation (1937), in Love, Guilt and Reparation and Other Works: 1921-1945, New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1975: 308. 33 Melanie Klein, A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States (1934), in Contributions to Psycho-Analysis, London: Hogarth Press, 1950: 282. 34 J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis, The Language of Psycho-Analysis, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1973: 27.

White 33 recognition and acceptance of the maternal-architectural enclosure as a two-fold boundary. The boy develops empathy only once the permeability of the cages threshold reveals psychological commonality with the wounded squirrel. By turning the cage structure on its side, the animals and the boy act together to overturn a once-restrictive enclosure. But the cage is not toppled in a fit of rage like the table earlier in the play. Instead, it is rotated to create a new type of structure, one that provides protection without restricting instinctual curiosity. The physical and psychological boundaries represented by enclosure have been revealed as permeable; the boy is able to come and go as he pleases. The child recognizes architectures dual roles as protector from threats and facilitator of social interaction; this acts as a material correlate of the development of the ego-boundary as a mediator of internal and external reality. In contrast to the destructive outcomes of the young boys creative urges, Klein presents an account of painter Ruth Kjr, who despite fulfilling the cultural definition of success is afflicted with a deep depression characterized by a feeling of internal emptiness. Kjrs psychological void is manifested in external reality when her brotherin-law, a professional painter, removes a loaned work from her living room wall [215]. Her depression continues until one day she spontaneously decides to fill the void by painting it herself. Although she has no training or expertise, her amateur attempt is the recipient of incredulous praise from her brother-in-law [216]. As with the operas protagonist, Klein describes Kjrs psychological transformation of sadistic desire rooted in the Oedipus complex into anxiety that this impulse will be turned against her. According to Klein, this psychological episode represents the womans earliest anxiety-

White 34 situation, equivalent to castration-anxiety in boys. Visual confirmation of the mother as real and loving, Klein argues, counteracts the introjected image of the mother as a source of fear [217]. With this in mind, Klein characterizes a progression of Kjrs paintings as representing the transition from the impulse to destroy her mother to the compassionate urge to represent her in full possession of her strength and beauty [218]. The blank space on the wall provides Kjr the opportunity to fill her internal emptiness through the psychologically constructive act of restoring her mother through the physical medium of artistic expression. Initially, the void in Kjrs environment is introjected as a symbol of her inability to connect meaningfully with others. It is through her embrace of artistic impulse that Kjr is able to overcome her anxiety and thus her depression. Because she has already been enculturated, Kjr is not able to project psychological reality into the external world with the same creativity as the child described in Ravels opera. And yet, culturally-defined modes of expression also prove insufficient. Artistic expression is unique in that it bypasses traditional communicative mediums, allowing for the projection of otherwise inexpressible processes of inner psychology. The void represents for Kjr the ultimate object of ambivalence: the artist hates the blank space before her; but she loves the process of filling that external object with expressions of her internal reality. Operating within a pre-cultural realm of experience, the operas protagonist is able to creatively project his interior condition into objects of the external world. The adult artist similarly projects her psychological state into a physical realm in an attempt to connect with others in less culturally defined terms. Whether into the architectural object

White 35 or the artistic void, these projections ultimately allow the individual to introject objects following a state of ambivalence. In either case, the potentially destructive sadistic impulse is channeled and becomes constructive, as the once-restrictive ego-boundary is revealed as two-fold.

White 36

Chapter 2
Creativity and the Permeable Boundary: Winnicott, Rank, and Neutra Beyond its role as a medium for projection, Chapter 1 explores architecture within the context of introjection, the phenomenon by which external objects act across the egoboundary to affect the childs inner reality. An analysis of the theories of Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein reveals the possibility of architecture as a psychological enclosure, its restrictive function operating in contrast to its role as a facilitator of uninhibited creative expression. Furthermore, the ego-boundary is characterized as a two-fold threshold both in the sense that exchange across it occurs simultaneously in opposing directions, and in the sense that the psychological processes involved are (often) at once loving and hateful. The psychoanalytic term for this phenomenon is ambivalence.35 Chapter 2 considers the writings of British psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott and Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank in order to argue that the process of creative play in children is similarly two-fold. It continues by analyzing two real-world applications of participatory design, examining its role within the works of American psychiatrist Michael Gnter and Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra.

The therapeutic potential of creative play and introjection The developmental importance of creativity is explored in great detail by British psychoanalyst and pediatrician D. W. Winnicott (1896-1971), who wrote prolifically throughout his career on the psychological behavior of children. Winnicott conceives of
35

J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis, The Language of Psycho-Analysis, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1973: 26.

White 37 play within the context of the childs creative interactions with the external world, ultimately mediated by cultural forces including the physical character of the environment. Based on his reading of Huizingas Homo Ludens, twentieth-century French philosopher Roger Caillois (1913-1978) defines play as an activity that is free, separate, uncertain, make believe, governed by rules, and largely non-productivist.36 Winnicott similarly locates play within a realm distinct from both psychological and cultural reality. But while Caillois resists the notion of productivity, Winnicotts theoretical definition withstands such forms of anti-functionalism through its recognition of creative play as representing the childs acceptance of and psychological adaptation to external reality. Winnicotts 1953 essay Transitional Objects and Phenomena marks an important point in this line of intellectual development. Explaining their role in the childs psychological maturation, Winnicott describes transitional objects and phenomena as experienced by the child within an intermediate area [] between the oral erotism and true object-relationship, between primary creativity and projection of what has already been introjected, between primary unawareness of indebtedness and the acknowledgement of indebtedness.37 Acting within this space, Winnicott argues, the transitional object both facilitates the childs recognition of external reality and offers insight into his or her inner psychology. A newly formed understanding of dependence upon the external world leads to anxiety-

36

Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games, trans. Meyer Barash, Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001: 9-10. 37 D. W. Winnicott, Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena A Study of the First Not-Me Possession, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 34 (1953): 89.

White 38 producing separation, and thus to the childs projections into the environment as his or her fears are externalized. The transitional object, which Winnicott argues is rooted in the infants first notme possession, is regarded as part of neither internal nor external reality [89]. Rather, it is located between the subjective and the objective, within an intermediate zone in which both internal and external stimuli contribute to form the childs illusory experience [90]. Often, the childs fantasies relate to his or her functional interactions with the external world. Winnicott describes outward manifestations of such occurrences as transitional phenomena [90-1]. Despite recognizing that it exists outside the realm of his or her omnipotence, the child asserts rights over the transitional object [91]. Because these rights often come into conflict with the external world, the necessity of an environment that facilitates these conditions is implicit within the Winnicottian definition. On the other hand, the transitional object acts developmentally as a buffer between the childs psychological impulses and the restrictions represented by cultural reality. Winnicott conceives of the ego-boundary not as a rigid separation between the two realms, but rather a two-fold threshold, across which acts of creative play may flow freely. In Kleins interpretation of Lenfant et les sortileges, the childs projections are characterized strictly as destructive manifestations of the sadistic impulse. While Winnicott, like Klein, acknowledges the childs recognition of indebtedness as a precursor to the anxiety inherent in separation from the mother-figure, Winnicott differs from Klein by arguing in favor of the creative potential of this instinctual tendency.

White 39 According to Winnicott, the childs interactions with the transitional object are distinct from his or her relationships to objects both prior to and following the completion of the journey from the purely subjective to objectivity [92]. In the final scene of Ravels opera, the boys introjection of external forces is represented by his acceptance of the animals help in stretching Mamas skirt over the caged scaffold. Thus the motherfigure, having survived his repeated attacks, is physically and psychologically reconstructed through the boys effective use of externally-defined resources. Winnicottian theory similarly accounts for the importance of the childs ambivalent projections: The ability to survive varying expressions of love and hatred is central to the transitional objects role within the childs development [91]. These observations relate to Winnicotts notion of the good enough mother as the facilitator of the infants capacity to experience a relationship to external reality.38 The good enough mother is conceived of, and applied therapeutically, by Winnicott as an alternative to the ideal mother, who constantly attempts and fails to be perfect in the childs eyes. This maturational process begins when the mothers contribution to the illusory experience overlap[s] with the childs creative urge [95] [fig. 17]. It is through the childs recognition of his or her first not-me possession, Winnicott explains, that a shape is given to the area of illusion [fig. 18], thereby allowing the child to similarly reconcile his or her internal condition with external reality. This shape is represented in the material world by a physical object. Existing within a neutral area of experience which will not be challenged [95] the transitional object

38

Ibid: 94.

White 40

Figure 17 (left). Illusory experiences mediate interactions between mother and infant during early stages of psychological development. Figure 18 (right). Transitional objects provide a physical medium for the child's illusory experience, thus facilitating his or her recognition of external reality.

White 41 acts to wean the child from dependence through a dual process of illusion and disillusionment in order to initiate the necessary [] relationship between the child and the world [95-6]. Whereas Kleins interpretation of the opera considers the architectural environment insofar as it relates to objects of the childs psychological projection, Winnicott argues for the importance of an environment that encourages the childs creative play. Klein describes the boys sadistic attacks as inevitable, nonfunctional by-products of his psychosexual maturation, symptoms of neuroses to be addressed and overcome retroactively through culturally-defined interventions. Winnicottian theory, by contrast, recognizes the therapeutic potential inherent within this destructiveness, and advocates for an environmental design that properly facilitates these acts as constructive contributions to the childs psychological development. Winnicott argues explicitly for the importance of the physical and psychological features of external reality in a 1960 essay on the holding environment.39 After relating infantile-anxiety to the threat of annihilation, Winnicott describes within the child alternative states of being and reacting (to the threat). According to Winnicott reacting interrupts being and [thus] annihilates. In this way, Winnicott demonstrates that external reality is capable of facilitating within the child either being or annihilation.40 The character of the environment is important because [u]nder [favorable] conditions the infant establishes a continuity of existence and then begins to develop the sophistications which make it possible for impingements to be gathered into the area of omnipotence.41
39

D. W. Winnicott, The Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship (1960), in The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment: Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development, Madison, CT: International Universities Press, Inc., 1987: 47. 40 Ibid. 41 Ibid.

White 42 Ideally, the subjects environment echoing the original subject-object relationship between infant and mother minimizes threats in order to facilitate within the child a continuity of existence that allows for psychological maturation, culminating with the possibility of introjection. Existing as a threat-free tabula rasa, the artistic medium fulfills this environmental requirement. As demonstrated by Kleins description of Kjr, creative expression may affect not only exterior space, but also the artists internal psychology. To the extent that it provides a neutral object into which to freely project inner processes, the artistic medium is able to survive (because it does not retaliate against) the subjects destructive urges. Through the act of creative expression, the artist destroys the medium through the externalization of his or her psychological reality. The usefulness of psychoanalytic therapy, Winnicott argues, relies on a similar notion of the positive value of destructiveness,42 embedded in the subjects ability to recognize the objective existence of the analyst. By virtue of this recognition the subject is able to allow the psychotherapeutic process which is governed by a set of rules existing outside the subjects omnipotence to become part of his or her psychological feedback mechanism. This characterization of the environment has vast implications on the role of architecture as an agent in the childs psychological development. Where Freud deemphasizes the importance of environmental considerations, Winnicott argues that the environment profoundly affects its users unconscious functioning. By recognizing both physical and psychological experiences as subliminal mode[s] of perception,

42

D. W. Winnicott, Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena A Study of the First Not-Me Possession, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 34 (1953): 96.

White 43 architectural historian and theorist Sylvia Lavin explains, Winnicott renders the two literally isomorphic.43 Because of the two-fold nature of the ego-boundary, physical and psychological reality play equally important roles in characterizing the childs environment during this stage of development. This emphasis on the emotive character of the physical environment reverberated through architectural discourse in the mid-twentieth century. Of particular interest are the works of Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra (1892-1970), whose personal and professional interests in psychoanalytic theory are well-documented. 44 Like Winnicott, Neutra acknowledges the developmental importance of the designers consideration of the psychological perspective: We must get over the notion that design deals only with external objects. Once we recognize that a product of upper brain called design affects ever-greater portions of the innermost human being, related responsibilities loom before us.45 The recognition by Neutra and other environmentalist architects of the psychological role played by architecture is significant, as it introduced the possibility that developments in psychoanalytic thought could be extended physically into the built world.

From object-relating to object-usage In a later extension of his explorations, Winnicott argues in a 1967 essay that interactions with the transitional object demonstrate the childs first experience of play. The efficacy of this play, Winnicott explains, is dependent upon the childs ability to
43

Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004: 29. 44 Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004: 25-32. 45 Richard Neutra, Survival Through Design, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984: 318.

White 44 interact freely with the object, unchallenged regarding its origin and ignorant of its cultural function. The transitional object serves an essential role within the process by which the childs experience of the mother is transformed from internal, conceived of truth into external, perceived reality. After this process of separation is completed the child reconciles with his mother-figure through the union that is represented by the childs effective use of the object within the context of shared reality [369]. While theorists such as Klein have focused almost exclusively on the analysis of acts representing the childs instinctual urge to destroy, Winnicott argues for the psychological importance of equivalent phenomena that occur outside of anxietysituations. He refers to such non-climactic experiences as acts of playing [370]. Both Klein and Winnicott characterize such acts as attempts by the child to mediate internal and external reality. However, Kleins prerequisite of anxiety limits her analysis to destructive acts, which occur when the childs environment has not properly facilitated his or her illusory experience. Winnicott expands on Kleinian theory by considering the importance of constructive play, which he argues can occur only within a properly designed environment. Winnicott more fully develops this theoretical framework in the 1969 essay The Use of the Object, published two years before his death. Winnicott begins his argument by explicitly discriminating between the concepts of object-relating and objectusage.46 In the former phenomenon, the subjects relationship to the object is described as a bundle of projections [712] borne of the subjects inner psychological processes.

46

D. W. Winnicott, The Use of an Object, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 50 (1969): 711.

White 45 As demonstrated in Kleins interpretation of Ravels opera, object-relating is characterized by the childs ever-evolving psychological reality projected into objects of the external world. According to Winnicott, the transition from this state to that of objectusage occurs only once the child has located the object outside the area of [his or her] omnipotent control, thereby recognizing it as an external phenomenon [] an entity in its own right belonging to shared reality [713-4]. The success of this process relies upon the objects ability to survive the childs attempts to destroy it.47 If the environment is able to resist the childs attacks during the stage of object-relating, destructive urges may be channeled into acts of creative expression as the child develops the ability to use objects, which are now able to provide psychological feedback through introjection. The theoretical importance of Winnicotts emphasis on this transition could be illustrated by its tentative absorption into the theories of later writers, including Neutra, who similarly describes his aspirations to design objects that are able to change to usables, to life tools.48 It also offers a compelling alternative to less dynamic frameworks such as Kleins. In her interpretation of Lenfant et les Sortileges, Klein describes the boy as overcoming his sadism by virtue of his transition from the oral to the genital phase of psychosexual development. However, Winnicotts writings suggest that the boy is able to reconcile with his mother and therefore overcome his neuroses in part because the architectural objects that make up his environment survive his attacks. By virtue of the childs innate urges (which are manifested in the childs attempts to destroy through fantasy), objects become externalized, a two-fold process in which the

47 48

Ibid: 713. Richard Neutra, Survival Through Design, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984: 260.

White 46 possibility of object-usage is revealed to the child for the first time: It is not just that the child destroys the object because it exists outside his or her omnipotence, but equally that this process of destruction itself places the object in external reality. In this manner the object develops its own autonomy and life, and (if it survives) contributes into the subject, according to its own properties.49 The phenomenon of introjection is made possible through the childs recognition of the object as an entity whose existence is externally governed. The far-reaching implications of this thesis are made especially salient by Winnicotts characterization of the psychoanalyst as object: He describes the patients development of the capacity to place the analyst outside the area of subjective phenomena as the principal goal of psychological therapy [711]. Like that of the object, the analysts survival is made possible through the ability to avoid retaliation against the patients acts of destruction. At the completion of each phase of this transference the psychoanalyst is rewarded with love, and it is only through successive fantasies of destruction and love that the analyst or, more generally, the object can be fully externalized and therefore effectively used [714]. Thus the analysts role is to facilitate his or her own destruction at the hands of the analysand, in order that the subject may effectively use the analyst as an externally-defined object. Architecture functions within an analogously therapeutic role when it facilitates the childs creative expression. As a result of this maturation, the analyst or object becomes a part of shared reality which,

49

D. W. Winnicott, The Use of an Object, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 50 (1969): 713.

White 47 beyond simply reflecting back into the patient his or her own internal processes, functions as an external entity that can provide psychological feedback through introjection [715].

Winnicotts squiggle technique Winnicotts squiggle technique for psychoanalytic interviews with children explored in great detail by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Michael Gnter50 offers a particularly intriguing example of the therapeutic potential of artistic expression. The squiggle technique begins with the interviewer drawing an amorphous squiggle, which having been inserted into the childs intermediate reality is completed by his or her act of creative expression. The child then draws a squiggle that is completed by the interviewer. This artistic dialog produces various images that can then be discussed with the child, allowing communication about psychological processes that he or she might be otherwise unable to express. In an essay describing use of the squiggle technique to interview children suffering from life threatening illness, Gnter describes the method as allowing the therapist to decisively facilitate access to the childs inner psychology by inserting a medium as a type of buffer.51 Because it is a more preverbal, universal language, artistic expression is able to cut through the culturally-defined differences that normally inhibit communication.52 Most importantly, collaborative creation dissolves the traditional barrier between analyst and analysand, provid[ing] the child with a

50

Michael Gnter, Playing the Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Interviews with Children Using Winnicotts Squiggle Technique, London: Karnac Books Ltd., 2007: 1-39. 51 Michael Gnter, Art Therapy as an Intervention to Stabilize the Defenses of Children Undergoing Bone Marrow Transplantation, The Arts in Psychotherapy 27-1 (2000): 5. 52 Brett Kahr, Foreword, in Gnter, Michael, Playing the Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Interviews with Children Using Winnicotts Squiggle Technique, London: Karnac Books Ltd., 2007: xv.

White 48 wonderful means of engaging in contact with the psychotherapist or doctor who may be perceived at first as quite a scary figure.53 The architectural analog to this process is achieved through the effective use of participatory design, which similarly seeks to bridge the professional divide between architect and client. According to Winnicott, psychoanalytic therapy ultimately consists of two people playing together.54 The squiggle technique facilitates playful interaction by de-emphasizing the culturally-defined boundary that exists between therapist and patient and redirecting analysis at an inanimate third party (the drawing). In the same way, participatory design attempts to facilitate communication in order to constructively translate the psychological reality of the client into the architects realm of expertise. A predictably large portion of Neutras design theory is centered around his client relationships. By demonstrating the desire to understand his users needs and repositioning this interaction within the context of cooperative creation,55 Neutra endeavors to gain insight into each users internal reality, better positioning himself to design an environment that both minimizes threats and encourages creative exploration. In both the squiggle technique and participatory architectural design, collaborative expression is achieved through a partial overlapping of the childs (or the clients) with the therapists (or the architects) intermediate reality. Once they have found common ground in a realm of pre-cultural expression, professional barriers lose meaning as a more primitive and expressive communicative form is embraced. In the case of the squiggle technique, the child realizes the possibility of constructive projection into the external
53 54

Ibid. D. W. Winnicott, Playing and Reality, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1971: 38. 55 Ibid: 50.

White 49 world. Moreover, the childs acceptance of the therapists creations into his or her intermediate realm represents a successful example of introjection. Here creativity is shown as inspiring ambivalence, acting along the ego-boundary as a two-fold mechanism. The complexity of the childs fantasies is revealed through observation of the connections he or she draws between externally-observed symbols and internallyassigned meanings. For example, Fabian (age 12) responds to Gnters earth-house with doors and windows [] representing a stable mother-identification with a fleeting car, indicating that he was hesitant and on the defensive56 [fig. 19]. In a later phase of his research, Gnter combines Winnicotts squiggle technique with a written questionnaire. In his analysis of the data from both interview methods Gnter concludes that the children achieved their astonishing adaptation [] by dealing with the experience on at least two levels. Although the children in the study often effectively coped with their anxieties at a conscious level, many continued to struggle unconsciously with the stress imposed by the threat of their medical conditions. Gnter explains that [i]n normal life these children still could not talk about these problems, because a conscious discussion of them would have jeopardized [their] psychosocial adaptation[s] [189]. In contrast, the squiggle interview technique facilitates a collaborative illusory experience within which the childs fears can be projected into a non-threatening artistic medium.

56

Michael Gnter, Playing the Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Interviews with Children Using Winnicotts Squiggle Technique, London: Karnac Books Ltd., 2007: 45.

White 50

Figure 19. The complexity of the interactions between the child's internal and external worlds is made apparent in squiggle drawings, which reveal pre-cultural connections between his or her psychology and objects in physical reality.

White 51 The Trauma of Birth and the role of aesthetic pleasure In order to properly contextualize Winnicotts intellectual development, it is useful to consider the writings of Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank (1884-1939). Although Rank began his studies under the tutelage of Freud, his later work represents an important philosophical split from his former teacher shared by both Klein and Winnicott grounded in the belief that the infant enters into a subject-object relationship with the mother immediately after separation from the womb. In this view, the birth process represents the first in a series of separations that characterize the childs various stages of psychosexual development.57 Ranks writings represent a major conceptual shift in psychoanalytic theory, made explicit by his 1927 critique of Freuds Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety: [I]t is certain that the newborn infant loses something as soon as it is born, indeed even as soon as birth begins something that we can express in our language in hardly any other way than the loss of an object or, if one wants to be more precise, the loss of a milieu. The characteristic quality of the birth act is that it is a transitional phenomenon [], and that very fact may determine its traumatic character.58 Ranks description of birth as the loss of not only an object, but a milieu, aligns with the importance placed by Winnicott on a sheltering environment facilitated by the mother-figure. Furthermore, Rank describes birth as a transitional phenomenon and links this attribute to its traumatic character, supporting Winnicotts characterization of transitional objects and phenomena as agents of psychological maturation.59
57

Peter L. Rudnytsky, The Psychoanalytic Vocation: Rank, Winnicott, and the Legacy of Freud, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991: 57. 58 Otto Rank, Review of S. Freud, Hemmung, Symptom und Angst (Inhibitions, symptoms, and anxiety) (1927), Mental Hygiene 11: 183. 59 Peter L. Rudnytsky, The Psychoanalytic Vocation: Rank, Winnicott, and the Legacy of Freud, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991: 57.

White 52 The 1932 publication Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development represents the capstone of Ranks intellectual progress on the issues of play, creativity, and artistic expression. In a chapter entitled The Play-Impulse and Aesthetic Pleasure, Rank characterizes artistic success as the simultaneous achievement of both dynamic expression within the arts creator and aesthetic enjoyment within its recipient. 60 Artistic acts, Rank argues, are rooted in the individual need for expression, and specifically in the personal urge to immortalization [93]. In this view, common to all artists regardless of historical or cultural context is the desire to prove the existence of the soul by concretizing it, a process achieved through the external objectification of the artists subjective unreality [96]. Like Winnicott, Rank recognizes both the universality and the developmental necessity of the projection of internal reality into objects of the external world. Rank differs from Winnicott, however, in his characterization of the role played by aesthetic appeal. Within a given culture, Rank argues, aesthetic appeal functions as a common point of reference, allowing the artist to overcome his or her infantile-anxiety by securing societys sanction to symbolically express his or her immortality-seeking inner psychology [101]. While Winnicott similarly describes the environment as a facilitator of creative construction, he departs from Rank by framing this expressions appeal as transgressing culturally-defined parameters such as aesthetics. Rank describes both play and artistic expression as taking place within a collective plane of illusion [106]. Once the artistic object has been released [91],

60

Otto Rank, Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development, trans. Charles Francis Atkinson, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1932: 91.

White 53 others with access to the illusory plane (i.e., cultural peers) may introject the creative expression, thus connecting spiritually to the artist in a process of simultaneous dissolution of [] individuality [110]. Because the object now exists independent of its creator, this process of represents the possibility of eternalization of the artists soul. This constructive projection functions, Rank argues, as a mechanism of defense against the artists fear of death. Winnicott similarly conceives of the creative impulse as rooted in separation anxiety, but deviates from Rank by arguing for its significance within the childs pre-cultural development. Despite his characterization of Rank as the earliest proponent and intellectual historian of objects relations theory61 thus laying the groundwork for the writings of many influential post-Freudian theorists Rudnytsky ultimately criticizes what he describes as the flaccidity of Ranks antipsychoanalytic final period [69]. Although they share common theoretical roots, the positions of Rank and Winnicott in respect to artistic expression are characterized more properly by their differences than their similarities [65]. While Winnicott argues for the constructive value of childhood play, Rank cynically characterizes such explorations as useless for the explanation of creative art.62 By conceptualizing all action as rooted in the fear of death and the urge for immortality, Rudnytsky argues, Rank is forced in the defense of a fuzzy brand of existentialism to all but abandon his previous interests in the psychological significance of childhood experiences of separation and anxiety.63
61

Peter L. Rudnytsky, The Psychoanalytic Vocation: Rank, Winnicott, and the Legacy of Freud, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991: 61. 62 Otto Rank, Art and Artist, trans. Charles Francis Atkinson, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1932: 324. 63 Peter L. Rudnytsky, The Psychoanalytic Vocation: Rank, Winnicott, and the Legacy of Freud, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991: 68.

White 54 Indeed, in nearly direct opposition to Freud, Ranks later writings dismiss the functional potential of childhood experience within the context of creative expression. Winnicottian theory, by contrast, reveals a more open perspective. The importance placed by Winnicott on the environment as a facilitator of constructive development as well as his conception of the transitional objects role in psychological maturation acknowledges Ranks observations regarding the importance of cultural norms, including aesthetic pleasure. At the same time, Winnicott recognizes the therapeutic potential of the childs nave projections, as well as object-usage and introjection as means of facilitating his or her psychological transformation.

Richard Neutra and the permeable architectural boundary Despite a relative lack of consensus among post-Freudian theorists on a range of theoretical issues, psychoanalysis grew into an increasingly powerful force in the earlyto mid-twentieth century, and soon began to affect profoundly other mediums of cultural expression, including architectural design. In response to the development of objectrelations theory and the importance it placed upon the psychological character of built space, environment-centered design described in 1962 by Victor Gruen as necessary if architecture is ever to become meaningful again64 became increasingly prevalent. Along these lines, the works of Austrian-American Richard Neutra sought to transform

64

Victor Gruen, Environmental Architecture, Journal of Architectural Education (1947-1974) 17-3 (December 1962): 97.

White 55 modernisms abstract void into an affective environment through consideration of the emotive character of designed spaces. 65 Despite a personal relationship with Freud during his years in Vienna, Neutras architectural designs were influenced in large part by his interpretation of Rankian theory, particularly Ranks notion of the trauma of birth [51]. In one of the most innovative of his design strategies, Neutra employs spider-leg outrigging, in which normally stabilizing architectural elements such as structural beams are placed indeterminably inside and outside at the same time [fig. 20]. In addition to obscuring the structures edges, Lavin explains that in the case of the Rourke House (1949) the spider legs create what might be called an intermediary zone, a kind of birth canal that mediates the passage from inside to outside. Rank was especially interested in the fear created by bugs and insects in small children, theorizing that the insects ability to crawl into the ground reminded children of their incapacity to return to the womb. Neutras spider legs minimize this anxiety by functioning as architectural umbilical cords.66 In this example, Neutra responds to the infantile anxiety represented by the trauma of birth with an architectural design meant to counteract this fear. Spider-leg outrigging physically and psychologically mediates the boundary between the buildings interior and exterior, minimizing separation anxiety by creating a space that couples creative freedom with maternal safety. Such a design reveals Neutras understanding of architecture as a social art [] an instrument of human fate that not only caters to requirement but also shapes and conditions our responses.67 While his buildings may be rooted theoretically

65

Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004: 3. 66 Ibid: 63-4. 67 Richard Neutra, Survival Through Design, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984: 314.

White 56

Figure 20. Spider-leg outrigging mediates the architectural transition between internal and external space at Neutra's Rourke House (1949).

White 57 in Ranks writings, the importance placed by Neutra on the design of environments that are simultaneously protective and empowering aligns his works with Winnicottian theory. Based in part on his own childhood recognition of the psychological significance of environmental variables including space, texture, light, and shade,68 Neutra argues for the necessity of considerations such as relative scale [25], color [180-1], lighting [185], and transparency [187] in architectural design. Neutras intellectual development was also shaped by interactions with his children, including his second son Dion, who joined his professional practice in the 1940s.69 In a speech paying tribute to his father on the thirtieth anniversary of his death, Dion reflects upon his attempts to extend their shared interests in creativity and human connectedness within the context of modern technological development.70 Neutras relationship with his family is representative of his broader concerns with community, made manifest in larger commissions including school design, described by architectural historian Thomas Hines as his primary interest within the public sphere71 in which Neutra was forced to confront the related social and political issues of the national and international scene [161]. As with spider-leg outrigging later in his career, many features of Neutras addition to the Corona Avenue School in Los Angeles (1935) address the transition between interior and exterior space:

68 69

Ibid: 26. Dion Neutra, The Neutra Genius: Innovations & Vision, Modernism 1-3 (December 1998), reprinted in Dion and Richard Neutra Architecture, http://www.neutra.org/modern.html (accessed 2 April 2009). 70 Dion Neutra, Thirty Years: A Paen to Richard Neutra at the First VDL Open House of the 21st Century (April 16, 2000), in Dion and Richard Neutra Architecture, http://www.neutra.org/tribute.html (accessed 2 April 2009). 71 Thomas S. Hines, Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture, New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 161.

White 58 Bilateral ventilation and lighting came from high clerestory windows on the east above the open-porch, outdoor hallway and from the sliding glass walls on the west that opened to the garden patios. Hedges divided each outdoor class space from its neighbors. Shade trees, adjustable awnings, and a six-foot roof slab overhang protected the classrooms from the sun and the elements. Movable chairs and desks, easily portable between indoors and out, replaced the screwed-down furniture of yore. [164] These features reveal Neutras design theory as potentially corresponding to the Winnicottian definition of the holding environment. Instances of psychological restriction necessitated by cultural norms such as privacy, as well as biological needs such as protection from natural elements are mitigated in several ways. Many of the enclosures are retractable, allowing the user to choose freely between protection and exposure. Similarly, the student is empowered to move furniture between interior and exterior space, minimizing the importance of culturally-defined use. Hedges along the classrooms borders function as permeable boundaries, offering privacy while encouraging community interaction. Enhanced ventilation and strategic window placement allow the built spaces to benefit from natural elements, contributing to the students establishment of an introjective relationship to external reality. As with Winnicott, Neutras professional development is informed both by theory (through his writings) and practice (as an architect). In his most influential work, Survival Through Design (1954), Neutra lays out much of the basis of what would later be called environmental psychology, a design movement that defines architectural space in terms of the transactions and interrelationships of human experiences and actions with pertinent aspects of the socio-physical surroundings.72 A guiding principle in many of
72

David V. Canter and Kenneth H. Craik, Environmental Psychology, Journal of Environmental Psychology 1 (1981): 2.

White 59 Neutras designs is the concept of empathy, which he defines as a far reaching physiological functioning [] as if one were that other individual.73 For Neutra, this empathy characterizes on the one hand the relationship between the building and its user, and on the other hand the interaction between the designer and his or her client [39]. Neutras later writings similarly serve to expose the theoretical basis for his school designs. Lamenting the social predominance of considerations such as economic concerns, which he deemed irrelevant to the child, Neutra describes the classroom within the context of each students individual experience.74 He also characterizes the permeability of the architectural boundary as essential to the design of a facilitating environment, emphasizing the importance of an appropriate visual and physical rapport between interior and exterior space. This rapport is in fact also psychological, relating to Winnicotts description of the childs illusory experience. For example, Neutra writes of transparency in his school designs as help[ing] to ease [the] transition back into the classroom from summer vacation. By affording students the comfort of seeing the outdoors [59], Neutra explains, children are allowed to reflect constructively while fulfilling their culturally-defined obligation to attend school. Neutras designs can be considered as physical manifestations of contemporary developments in psychoanalytic theory, particularly the works of Otto Rank and D. W. Winnicott. By recognizing the trauma of birth as the first in a series of anxiety-producing events, Neutra accounts for the users ambivalence in order to encourage psychological

73

Richard Neutra, Empathy-Infeeling (unpublished), in Sylvia Lavin, Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004: 34. 74 Richard Neutra, Drawing on our Inter-individuality, in Nature Near: Late Essays of Richard Neutra, ed. William Marlin, Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1989: 57.

White 60 feedback through introjection, thus aspiring to the Winnicottian ideal of constructively channeling the sadistic impulse. Like Gnter in his application of the squiggle interview technique, Neutra champions participatory design as a means of combining empathy and professional expertise in order to create psychologically advantageous environments. Despite their shared psychoanalytic dispositions, however, Neutras real-world implementation of participatory design differs profoundly from Gnters. Within the context of the squiggle interview technique, Gnter empowers the child to create an object that functions therapeutically within the course of his or her own psychological development. Neutra also works together with his clients during the design phase, but their psychological input is ultimately filtered through his own set of design principles before the idea is translated into building form. While Neutra certainly goes beyond most contemporary architects in his consideration of the users psychological perspective, the resulting built object is decidedly his own creation. Especially in his larger projects, Neutra relies heavily upon a limited repertory of forms. Although much of his architecture focuses upon the psychological importance of the permeable boundary, within the context of his design process the professional threshold between architect and client, adult and child is never fully dissolved. The threshold is indeed permeable, but never as transparent as one of Neutras glass corners.

White 61

Chapter 3
Enculturation and the Architectural Threshold: Piaget and Van Eyck Through consideration of the theories of post-Freudian psychoanalysts D. W. Winnicott and Otto Rank, Chapter 2 argues for the importance of ambivalence and introjection within an environment designed to facilitate psychological growth. According to Winnicott, an ideal environment minimizes threats while providing an external reality that overlaps (at least partially) with the childs destructive-creative impulse. In Winnicotts view, the integrity of the childs illusory experience is maintained by his or her ability to effectively project inner reality into objects belonging to the outside world. By resisting retaliation, transitional objects become part of the childs external reality, and thus are able to provide psychological feedback through introjection. In addition, Chapter 2 explores the participatory design practices of psychiatrist Michael Gnter and environmentalist architect Richard Neutra as methods of facilitating communication by ostensibly de-emphasizing culturally-defined barriers. Chapter 3 extends these findings by considering the writings of Swiss philosopher and natural scientist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), including the architectural ramifications of the process of enculturation that occurs during early stages of the childs psychological development. It concludes by examining the potential of child-centered planning at the urban scale, analyzing contemporary innovations in playground design by Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck to explore in more depth the psychological implications of the permeable architectural threshold.

White 62 The ego-boundary as a two-fold threshold Urban theorist Mario Gandelsonas has described the development of urban theory in the mid-twentieth century in terms of a subject-object relationship between the architect and city,75 characterized by the projection of idealized urban fantasies into the developing grid, culturally mandated through the unifying impulse of a desire for a democratized post-war society [48]. Yet despite the widespread influence of psychoanalytic theory during this period, the acceptance of its principles into the framework of modern planning required the intellectual support of continued scientific investigation. Whereas Neutra advances the scientific basis for psychoanalytic design by focusing specifically on the psychological role of the environment, the writings of Jean Piaget serve more generally to elucidate the cultural processes underlying the formation of the childs conceptions of external reality. Piaget accounts for the significance of spatial experience within the overall process of the childs enculturation, linking spatial conception with other psychological adaptations, including the development of language. Indeed, architectural historian Myra Levick has argued that the transition from pre-logical to logical thinking described in Piagets writings is parallel to the psychoanalytic concept of the transition from primary process to secondary process thinking.76 In other words, Piagets description of the childs maturation from precultural to culturally-defined spatial experience corresponds closely with the childs development of the ability to therapeutically introject externally-defined objects.

75

Mario Gandelsonas, X-Urbanism: Architecture and the American City, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999: 59. 76 Myra F. Levick, They Could Not Talk and So They Drew: Childrens Styles of Coping and Thinking, Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, 1983: 40.

White 63 Therefore, an understanding of this process is essential in the planning and design of environments meant to fulfill the Winnicottian standard for facilitating the childs psychological development. Moreover, theorist Stanley Greenspan has characterized Piagetian theory as the external (and conscious) analog to the psychoanalytic description of the internal (and unconscious) processes governing child behavior,77 further reinforcing the importance of creativity as an expression of the childs inner psychology, acting across the ego-boundary to mediate his or her relationship with the external world. Piaget lays the groundwork for such theoretical exploration in The Childs Conception of the World (1926), which endeavors to track the natural progression of the childs understanding of external reality through his or her psychological development. 78 Like Freud and other psychoanalytic theorists, Piaget characterizes the childs early inability to discriminate between internal and external reality as resulting in his or her conception of nonliving objects as possessing characteristics of human life and consciousness, a phenomenon he describes as animism [207]. Moreover, Piaget describes projection and introjection as psychologically symptomatic of the biological reality of the two-fold process of assimilation of the environment by the organism and the transformation of the organism into a function of the environment. Although his arguments are framed in terms decidedly more scientific than Winnicotts, Piaget similarly contends that the childs environment, as well as the processes that

77

Stanley I. Greenspan, Intelligence and Adaptation: An Integration of Psychoanalytic and Piagetian Developmental Psychology, New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1979. 78 Jean Piaget, The Childs Conception of the World (1926), trans. Joan and Andrew Tomlinson, Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1979: 1.

White 64 mediate psychological and cultural reality, are essential components in both identity formation and adaptation to the external world [241-2]. Piaget extends this argument further into the realm of architectural design with The Childs Conception of Space (1948), which argues that even simple geometric relationships are not inherent properties of perception, but instead products of conditioning during critical periods of development.79 According to Piaget, spatial concepts emerge in order of evolutionary importance, developing in parallel to other forms of cultural conditioning through a process of gradual construction.80 Piaget describes this development as occurring in three stages: practical, subjective, and objective.81 In the practical phase of development, the child has yet to recognize the egoboundary, and so does not differentiate between self (subject) and other (object). In the subjective (or egocentric) phase, the child recognizes external objects, but overemphasizes his role as their creator and controller [118]. (The psychological importance of this phase in which the ego-boundary is recognized by the child but remains permeable is made evident, for example, in LEnfant et les Sortileges.) Finally, the objective phase is marked by the childs recognition of the self as one of many objects located in external reality, thus the process of enculturation marked by the differentiation of self and environment is completed [118]. During this development the child also begins to coordinate vision with grasping as a means of testing his or her internal processes against the externally-defined
79

Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder, The Childs Conception of Space (1948), trans. F. J. Langdon and J. L. Lunzer, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1967: 6. 80 Ibid. 81 Linda P. Acredolo, Coordinating Perspectives on Infant Spatial Orientation, in The Development of Spatial Cognition, ed. Robert Cohen, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1985: 115.

White 65 conditions of outer reality. Once the childs spatial conceptions have fully developed, his or her visual perceptions are translated into the symbolic realm that dominates cultural reality: Hence from being purely perceptual, space has become partly representational.82 This process is described more broadly as a transition from topological to projective and Euclidean spatial experience [418]. In addition to the concepts of proximity, separation, and order, Piaget describes topological spatial experience as prominently defined by surrounding [104]. In order to study the development of the childs experience of this important spatial concept, Piaget observes the childs understanding of knots, which are unique in that they are both taught to the child at an early age, and by virtue of their geometry do not form visual or sensori-motor [G]estalten within the childs internal reality. Instead, Piaget explains, the child gradually develops his or her understanding of knots, and this development can be observed in changes over time in the childs comprehension of the knots form [105]. Although the child experiences enclosure in three dimensions during early stages of development, an understanding of knots is more difficult because it requires the ability to transition from one to three dimensions within the context of a single object [111]. In addition, in order to properly comprehend the knots form the child must fully internalize the action of knot-tying. Even once the child is able to successfully tie a knot, he or she is initially unable to discriminate between knots and open loops through visual investigation alone [113]. During these early stages of development, the child relies upon vision within the two-dimensional perceptual plane as opposed to potential action within the three-

82

Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder, The Childs Conception of Space (1948), trans. F. J. Langdon and J. L. Lunzer, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1967: 12-3.

White 66 dimensional conceptual plane in his or her interpretation of the knots form [118]. An ability to understand as the same object a knot at varying tautness demonstrates the childs motor anticipation of the potential action of loosening or tightening the knot, representing an important step in his or her transition from a perceptual to a conceptual understanding of enclosure [120]. According to Piaget, this development is predicated upon a dynamic equilibrium in the form of reversible operations of thought, made possible by ideas that extend beyond perceptual patterns to embrace imaginary anticipations and reconstructions, potential actions depicted in imagination [120]. Many features of Piagets description of topological spatial experience particularly his characterization of enclosure align closely with Winnicotts developmental framework. In addition to reiterating the emphasis placed by Winnicott on the design of the physical environment, Piagetian theory recalls the Winnicottian notions of transitional objects and phenomena by explaining the childs grasping as an early attempt to establish a relationship with the external world. Similarly, Piagets description of the childs overemphasis on his or her role as creator and controller during the egocentric phase corresponds with Winnicotts explanation of the childs interactions with his or her first not-me object. Furthermore, Piaget defines the childs passage into the objective phase of development which is analogous to the transition from objectrelating to object-usage in Winnicottian theory as marked by the recognition of objects as culturally functional and existing within external reality. In the practical phase of development, the infant is unable to recognize the egoboundary as separating internal and external reality. By the time he or she has reached the

White 67 objective phase of development, the child has undergone a process of enculturation that has shaped the relationship between his or her psychological and physical realms. The point of entry for consideration of the childs pre-cultural spatial experience for Piaget is the subjective phase, in which by virtue of the childs egocentricity the ego-boundary is characterized as a two-fold threshold, across which both projection and introjection may freely occur. Both Piaget and Winnicott place great importance within the childs development upon his or her recognition of the ego-boundary as the proper frame of reference from which to mediate interactions between internal and external reality. Piagets description of the childs conceptual understanding of knots as made possible through his or her simultaneous responses to internal and external stimuli recalls Winnicotts emphasis on the illusory plane as necessary within the childs development of a relationship to the outside world. Indeed, Piaget later defines play as crucial within the childs assimilation to the social and objective properties of the external environment.83 Along with language, Piaget argues, play serves a fundamental function within the symbolic interiorization of the childs actions,84 facilitating meaningful interaction (praxis) within the context of his or her external environment [63].

83

Jean Piaget, Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood, trans. C. Gattegno and F. M. Hodgson, London: Routledge, 1999: 87. 84 Jean Piaget, Child Praxis, in The Child & Reality: Problems of Genetic Psychology, trans. Arnold Rosin, New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973: 74.

White 68 From perceptual to conceptual reality Within his developmental framework, Piaget describes three types of spatial experience: topological, projective, and Euclidean. As described above, topological space relies on pre-cultural concepts such as proximity, separation, order, and surrounding. During later phases of development, the child experiences projective space predicated upon the ability to understand and project spatial concepts within the realm of geometric construction and [E]uclidean space which requires the recognition of a spatial grid defined by vertical and horizontal axes. These latter two forms of spatial experience which are essential to the childs understanding of a topographical schema develop interdependently, as the child learns to dynamically combine various elementary spatial concepts to understand and express his or her relative position within a plan or layout.85 In order to study this process of development, Piaget describes two experiments relating to the childs understandings of projective and Euclidean space. In the first task the child is shown a doll located within a model environment, then asked to place the doll in the same position in an identical set-up, rotated 180 degrees to account for the childs tendency to rely on topographical considerations. In the second task the child is instructed to draw a layout diagram of a model village at a reduced scale [420]. In the first of these two experiments, the child in early stages of development places the doll based almost exclusively upon topological that is, perceptual as opposed to conceptual [fig. 21] relationships, disregarding projective and Euclidean space in

85

Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder, The Childs Conception of Space (1948), trans. F. J. Langdon and J. L. Lunzer, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1967: 419.

White 69

Figure 21. During early stages of development, the child is unable to produce geometric copies. Nevertheless, the pre-cultural child recognizes and expresses elementary spatial concepts such as "proximity" and "enclosure."

White 70 favor of elementary constructions such as proximity and enclosure [422-3]. This inability to consider the task from a specific point of view, which demonstrates the childs lack of identification with the ego-boundary, is indicative of Piagets practical phase of development [424]. During later stages the child through the logical multiplication of elementary spatial relationships begins to demonstrate recognition of projective and Euclidean space [425-6]. The child is able to successfully place the doll once he or she has developed the ability to take into consideration a sufficiently complex array of perceptual spatial concepts. Similarly, the childs successful reproduction of the plan in the second task requires a selection of particular point of view (that becomes part of identity formation), as well as of a method of pictorial representation (that belongs to cultural adaptation). Furthermore, the reduction in scale requires an understanding of a system of coordinates, extending over both the model village and the surface upon which the representation is to be made [426]. The child develops first the ability to recognize a oneto-one relationship between actual and representative objects, then begins to relate objects to one another, and finally grows to understand each objects relationship to the overall coordinate system [428-9]. Interestingly, Piaget makes note of the childs timorous attitude towards empty space when performing this task during early stages, attributing the tendency to arrange elements near one edge of the representational surface to a prioritization of perceptual continuity over operational accuracy [435]. The childs fear of empty space, Piaget explains, is overcome through his or her development of conceptual spatial awareness

White 71 [440]. This fear is reminiscent of the anxiety experienced by Kjr; however, while Klein couches creative expression in terms of bypassing culturally-defined parameters of communication, Piaget describes here an example of enculturation as creative empowerment, as the childs anxiety conquered through geometric education. As with the example of the knot, the childs initial struggles to represent threedimensional reality within a two-dimensional plane reveals the conceptual weakness of topological as compared to projective and Euclidean space within the realm of abstract representation. The work of Winnicott again provides an interesting point of comparison. Whereas Winnicotts squiggle interview technique facilitates the childs precultural expression via projection into the creative void, in Piagets experiments the representation of external reality requires a culturally-defined understanding of threedimensional reality, as well as of the geometric conventions by which this reality may be translated into two dimensions. As a result, the child clings anxiously to the edge of representational surface until he or she has acquired the set of skills necessary to properly fill the void. Indeed, Piaget credits a combination of enculturation (including geometric education) and natural psychological development in the mature childs ability to successfully complete this task [445-6]. In her interpretation of Ravel and Colettes Lenfant et les Sortileges, Klein downplays the childs instinctual acts as inevitable and, more importantly, useless within the context of psychological development. Similarly, Rank advances an anti-functionalist view of creative play in children, and recognizes the value of artistic expression only insofar as it is mediated by, and subject to the scrutiny of, culturally-defined aesthetic

White 72 values. Winnicott, however, provides a more dynamic model for interpreting pre-cultural expression, focusing most intently on the promotion of psychological development through the design of an environment that simultaneously protects the child from threats and exposes him or her to the possibility of creative expression. This appeal to the value of the childs perspective is also evident in the works of Piaget, who like Winnicott recognizes not only the far-reaching impact of the psychological character of the external world, but also the importance of the childs pre-cultural reality within his or her development of the ability to invent and represent.86

Van Eyck and the architectural threshold Piagets writings underscore the importance of effectively translating theoretical advances in child psychology into the realm of architectural reality. This necessity is made manifest in the consideration of the role of playgrounds in defining the character of the urban landscape. According to historian Susan Solomon, the design of playgrounds represent an opportunity for the architect to affect both individuals and communities by enacting theories of play in a manner that both facilitates the childs creative explorations and encourages productive social interactions. 87 Playgrounds often offer a unique opportunity for the architect to escape the disruptive forces of economic and commercial considerations and focus instead on the creation of spaces that properly facilitate the childs psychological maturation [2-3].

86

Jean Piaget, The Origins of Intelligence in Children, trans. Margaret Cook, New York: International Universities Press, 1952: 341. 87 Susan G. Solomon, American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space, Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2005: 2.

White 73 Along these lines, adventure playgrounds in post-war Europe were purported to apply contemporary developments in psychological thought to the childs built world, embracing the childs destructive impulse by providing scraps of construction material as play objects. Within these utopian setting[s], the childs experience was characterized by camaraderie and uncontrolled activity. Yet despite such innovation, junk playgrounds were physically enclosed, and childrens activities were loosely governed a play leader.88 Paradoxically, these playgrounds created an environment of free expression and interaction by means of enclosure and authoritative direction. As Roy Kozlovsky has observed: [O]n the one hand, modernity has conceptualized play as a biologically inherited drive that is spontaneous, pleasurable, and free. It valorized the subjective experience of play as an attribute of the autonomous, individual self. On the other hand, modern societies began to rationalize and shape childrens play from the outside to advance social, educational, and political goals. 89 Indeed, rather than conceptualizing the playgrounds as facilitators of the childs instinctual urges to play and create, Kozlovsky characterizes these designs as psychological enclosures, instruments of social control representing a politically-imposed shift from a contractual to a subjective model of citizenship. By engendering through a process of enculturation the culturally-constructed desire to be free, Kozlovsky argues, [t]he adventure playground manifests this model of power: through it, the welfare state brought childrens interiority under observation and indirectly shaped it from the outside, while its consenting subjects experienced this employment of power as

88 89

Ibid: 12-3. Roy Kozlovsky, Adventure Playgrounds and Postwar Reconstruction, in Designing Modern Childhoods: History, Space, and the Material Culture of Children, eds. Martha Gutman and Ning De Coninck-Smith, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008: 171.

White 74 a space of freedom and agency [172-3]. In the case of adventure playgrounds, psychological principles were appropriated by those in power under the guise of promoting free play and creative expression in order to gain access to the childs internal reality while manipulating his or her external reality for political ends. The playground designs of mid-twentieth century Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck demonstrate an awareness of the effects of the physical environment upon the childs inner reality, as well as the important role to be played by the child within the urban context. The two-fold nature of this relationship is indicative of the designs as appealing to the childs subjective phase of development. Of particular interest to the consideration of architecture as a permeable boundary is the importance placed by van Eyck upon the threshold, based in part on his studies of Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. Buber defines threshold space as the bearer of inter-human events, and art as witness to the relationship between humans and nature.90 In this way, he bestows architecture with the enhanced importance of mediating human relationships, both with the natural world and within the realm of social interaction. Van Eycks playgrounds aspire towards these ideals by attempting to integrate the child into his or her urban context, thus facilitating two-way interaction between the child and the city.91 On the one hand, the city is opened up to the child, its objects now acting as potential mediums for creative expression. On the other hand, the urban environment is recognized to profoundly affect the childs psychological development, reinforcing the importance of child-centered design. Van Eyck describes his playgrounds often sited
90

Georges Teyssot, Aldo van Eycks Threshold: The Story of an Idea, Log 11 (Winter 2008): 34. van Eyck, Child and City, in Collected Articles and Other Writings: 1947-1998, eds. Vincent Ligtelijn and Francis Strauven, Amsterdam: SUN, 2008: 104.
91 Aldo

White 75 upon previously vacant plots of land as responsive to both their sites and users.92 Many of Van Eycks playgrounds are bordered by low curbs, separating the places of play from the street without creating a physical barrier [16]. In this manner, van Eyck like Gnter and Neutra simulates within a real-world context several concepts described by psychoanalytic theorists. By constructively filling voids in the urban landscape and enclosing them within semi-permeable boundaries, his designs facilitate within the user a simultaneous sense of security and freedom to engage the totality of the urban landscape. Van Eycks Bertelmanplein playground in Amsterdam exemplifies many of these guiding principles. Materials and colors match the surrounding urban landscape, representing physically and symbolically the playgrounds integration into its urban context. The playgrounds various elements are arranged non-hierarchically; thus the function of each object is limited only by the childs imagination [18]. The wall enclosing the sandbox, for example, acts as a semi-permeable boundary that can be climbed upon or jumped over, and also provides seating for parents, reducing the significance of the culturally-defined hierarchy between children and their guardians [fig. 22]. Similarly, play tables provide a surface upon which children can create objects by molding sand. The materiality of van Eycks objects crafted from untreated wood, concrete, and metal further appeal to the childs pre-cultural experience, exposing him or her to an array of psychologically stimulating textures [19].

92

Susan G. Solomon, American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space, Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2005: 14-5.

White 76

Figure 22. The sandbox at Van Eycks Bertelmanplein playground in Amsterdam is surrounded by a semi-permeable architectural threshold.

White 77 Echoing Winnicotts ideals, van Eycks designs do not impose cultural definitions for object use, but instead encourage the childs own processes of discovery. To this end, his playgrounds are filled with elementary forms, relevant to the childs topographical spatial experience and serving as an educational tool within his or her psychological development [114]. To van Eyck, the playground serves the dual roles of exposing the child to the city and forcing the city to reconcile with the presence of its children. As the architect explains: If we create a playground well, we create a world [...] in which the city rediscovers the child. We must not ask the child to discover the city, without at the same time wanting the city to rediscover the child.93 In conceiving of architectures primary role as facilitating interaction among its users, van Eyck sought through his playground designs to transform space into place and time into occasion.94 Beyond conceiving of built objects as representing a boundary between internal and external reality, van Eycks design ideals are centered more cogently around the concept of architectural threshold. Like Neutra who included features meant to mediate the transition between interior and exterior space van Eycks designs endeavor simultaneously to protect the child and to facilitate his or her creative expression. Physical manifestations of the permeable threshold are evident throughout van Eycks playgrounds, both along the perimeter that separates the playground from the surrounding city, and at smaller scales within the playgrounds interior. By minimizing the importance
93 Aldo

van Eyck, On the design of play equipment and the arrangement of playgrounds, in Collected Articles and Other Writings: 1947-1998, eds. Vincent Ligtelijn and Francis Strauven, Amsterdam: SUN, 2008: 119. 94 Liane Lefaivre, Space, place and play, in The Playgrounds and the City, eds. Liane Lefaivre and Ingeborg de Roode, Amsterdam: Stedlijk Museum Amsterdam, 2002: 24.

White 78 of culturally-defined function and instead encouraging creative expression as a means of social interaction, van Eycks playgrounds incorporate the Winnicottian notions of transitional objects and creative play while adhering to the importance placed by Piaget on geometric education. Also like Neutra, Van Eyck embraced the ideal of participatory design, creating playgrounds at the request of local citizen groups and adapting each design to its specific local context.95 Van Eycks focus on the child in general, and on urban playgrounds in particular, takes place within a larger postwar context of child empowerment [58], yet such considerations seem to have informed designs throughout his architectural career. According to Liane Lefaivre, his works represents an entirely different approach to urbanism, incremental, interstitial, ludic, participatory, ground up and polycentered rather than top down and monocentered [77], which can also be characterized as child-like and thus ostensibly pre-cultural. Moreover, in van Eycks designs the boundary between pre-cultural and cultural forms appears not only permeable but also inverted; the adult architect reclaims childhood experience and creativity through his willingness to create with the childs perspective in mind. Through their works, both Piaget and van Eyck opened new avenues of theoretical exploration into the childs psychological development. Piagets research demonstrates the validity of many of the principles advocated by Winnicott and other post-Freudian theorists, while van Eycks playgrounds are representative of the applicability of these theories within the contexts of architectural and urban design.

95

Liane Lefaivre, Aldo van Eyck, Humanist Rebel: Inbetweening in a Postwar World, Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1999: 17.

White 79 Piagets description of the childs maturational process places a renewed emphasis upon the environment, and inspires a more nuanced examination of the process of enculturation. Similarly, van Eycks playgrounds demonstrate the role of architecture as a fundamental constituent within the childs physical and emotive experience, while the framing of his designs as mediating the childs social and environmental interactions strengthens the notion of the urban form as an agent of the childs education.96 Nevertheless, the two-fold nature of the permeable boundary emphasizes a recurring paradox in the design of the childs environment. Although the process of participatory design attempts to incorporate the childs psychical inputs into the architects professional realm, inevitably this incorporation is mediated by cultural norms and traditions that while perhaps well-intentioned are nevertheless as arbitrary as they are ubiquitous. Creative expression offers insight into pre-cultural spatial experience; but interpretation of the childs projections is inevitably biased toward the analysts own culturally-mediated reality. Architecture functions psychologically to shape the environment in which the child develops; but the design of architectural objects is dictated by forces that lie well beyond the childs control or free will, conditioned by the architects cultural politics and psychological biases.

* * *

96

Roy Kozlovsky, Reconstruction through the Child: English Modernism and the Welfare State (PhD diss., Princeton University, 2008): 226.

White 80 Beginning with the example of Ravel and Colettes opera, each of the case studies presented in this thesis demonstrates an inherent tension between the destructive and creative character of the childs pre-cultural actions. As psychoanalytic theory developed between the early- and mid-twentieth century, the childs destructive urges once regarded as a defense against internal processes became characterized further as a reaction to the restrictions imposed by external cultural conditions. Identity-formation, initially understood exclusively in terms of the childs inner world, was recognized as a process inextricably linked to his or her assimilation to the external environment from housing interiors to the larger framework of the city. The gradual recognition of precultural expression gave rise to an emphasis on the functional value of creativity during play. The rational response to this realization is represented by the professional urge to formally codify such creativity in both writing and building practice. However, it is precisely such formal codification that may also prevent the childs perspective of ever fulfilling its potential within the realm of cultural and architectural discourse.

White 81 Image List Figures 1 - 6. Screen captures from Ravel, Maurice. Lenfant et les sortileges [ballet version], DVD. Directed by Netherlands Dance Theater (Jiri Kylian). Chatsworth, CA: Image Entertainment, 2001. Figure 7. Authors diagram. Based upon information in ODonnell, Caroline. Diagram as Remedy: Decoding Freuds Diagrams. In Pidgin 1 (Spring 2006): 184-99. Figures 8 - 16. Screen captures from Ravel, Maurice. Lenfant et les sortileges [ballet version], DVD. Directed by Netherlands Dance Theater (Jiri Kylian). Chatsworth, CA: Image Entertainment, 2001. Figure 17 - 18. Winnicott, D. W. Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena A Study of the First Not-Me Possession. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 34 (1953): 95. Figure 19. Gnter, Michael. Playing the Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Interviews with Children Using Winnicotts Squiggle Technique. London: Karnac Books Ltd., 2007: 45. Figure 20. Lavin, Sylvia. Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004: 63. Figure 21. Authors diagram. Based upon images in Piaget, Jean. The Childs Conception of Space (1948). In The Essential Piaget, eds. Howard E. Gruber and J. Jacques Voneche. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1977: 598-9. Figure 22. Solomon, Susan G. American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2005: 17.

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