Discipline is not the only distinction between the true artist and the dabbler or dilettante. To subject oneself to hard work and the evaluation of one's fellow man is no small accomplishment.
The development of artistic insight rather than an externalization of one's specific neurosis is another. One must combine the innate curiosity and vitality of youth with the maturity and dedication of experience.
In her classic on the archetype of Eternal Youth, Puer Aeternus, Marie Louise vonFranz discusses the artist and puer complex.
In the really great artist there is always a puer at first, but it can go further. It is a question of feeling-judgment. If one ceases to be an artist when ceasing to be puer, then one was never really an artist. Objectifying the puer, is only the first step. Puer has to learn to carry on with the work he does not like, not only with work where he is carried away by great enthusiasm, which is something everybody can do ... being carried away by a festival of work. Puer has to kick himself again and again to take up the boring job through sheer will power.
Puer is also the impulse to feel special, precocious, or gifted. The complex is a desire. What, then, are the psychological criteria for an "artist"?
VonFranz lists some in her work, Creation Myths.
...these four factors --
- originality
- consistency
- intensity
- subtlety --
... (show) the differences between someone who has creative fantasies and someone who is only spinning neurotic nonesense ... the continuity of devotion an individual is capable of giving his fantasy is very important and shows the difference between someone who is gifted with creative fantasy and somebody sucked into sterile unconscious material.
There are also certain psychological types more adapted or inclined toward artistic expression. Different types -- both introverts and extroverts -- pursue different areas of art, such as fine art or performance art.
Many artists are Dionysian temperaments strong on Sensation-Perceiving (SP).
This penchant for acting on impulse contains a seeming paradox, for SPs, living only for immediate action, become the world's great performing artists: the virtuosos of art, entertainment, and adventure. The great painters, instrumentalists, vocalists, dancers, sculptors, photographers, athletes, hunters, racers, gamblers -- all need the skills which come only from excited concentration on an activity for long periods. No other type can mobilize what virtuosity takes: untold hours of continuous action. ... In a sense the SP does not work, for work implies production, completion, and accomplishment. The SP has no such desire for closure, completion, finishing. He is process-oriented. What ensues from his action is mere product, mere outcome, mere result, and is incidental. Thus, the SP's "work" is essentially play.(Kiersey, Bates, 1978)
In Myers-Briggs terms, ISFP is known as "the Artist"; ESFP as "Entertainer"; INFJ as "Author"; INTO as "Architect"; ENTP as "Inventor"; ISTP as "Artisan"; INFP the "Poet" while ESTP is a born "Promoter".
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