The present book, which has just appeared in Greek, is her fourth and comes from a collection of papers from 1981. It starts with Freud’s theory of dreams and then moves on to many aspects of dreams, such as daydreams and unconscious fantasies. Of course, this path leads her to art, and there, in my opinion, she introduces an important chapter in thinking about the depressive position as a necessary position of the creator.

“From what sources does this strange creature, the creative writer, draw material” (Freud, 1908). This is one of Freud’s most serious problems. He is interested in a double problem: namely, what is this formation and unconscious purpose, and how does he “manage to impress himself so much”? Freud understood that this was the key question and did not pretend to know the answer. Segal sheds light on the components that make up a human creator. Materials are common to all. These are the materials of mental reality: dreams, play. But this is not enough. Art, creativity, as Segal testifies, is an extremely complex mental state that requires maturity. A dreamer can become an artist, but an artist is not only a dreamer. He is also an artisan, treats creativity not as a game, but as hard work, and clearly has a close connection with external reality.

Segal dispels the myth that an artist is a subject living in his own world. The universality of the creator is influenced by the metaphor chosen by him and the power of perceptions in this metaphor. First you create a symbol, and then you bring it into constant contact with the outside world. Walter Mitty as a hero could not himself be a creator. Dreaming is not enough, you need an extremely solid mental inventory as well as knowledge.