A Study Of Visual And Performing Artists Ego Functions Narcissism And Attachment Styles

INTRODUCTION "The most seductive thing about art is the personality of the artist himself" - Paul Cezanne (1839-1906). The present investigation purports to examine personality traits (Ego Functions, Narcissism and Attachment Styles) of the Visual and Performing Artists in comparison to a non-artist occupational group. The study assumes that while creative and non-creative persons may not have spectacular differences in terms of gross dimensions of personality, there may be differences in terms of some more subtle, detailed aspects of personality and social interaction. Further, not all domains of creativity (for example: dance, drama, painting, etc.) require use of similar aspects of personality; there may be differences among the domains also. The present study, thus have identified some of such specific and relevant personality aspects, viz., Ego Function, Narcissism and Attachment style in relation to creativity or being artistic. These are the domains in which studies are still very few and the results are tentative; henceforth, this research work purportedto look for the difference between professional artist and occupationally nonartist males and females. The artist professional group has been categorised as visual and performing artists across five specific domains (visual domain: painting and photography; performing domain: vocal music, dance and acting) of creative engagement. Art, Artist and Creativity Persons who dedicate themselves in presenting or representing aesthetically appealing art forms, either visual (like: painting, sculpture, photography, etc.) or performing (like: dance, music, theatre, etc.), are termed as "Artists‟. Artistic production is often creative in nature, when it entails a unique/ unconventional way of presentation. Investigators have always wondered about,