Peace, love, creativity: Hope of mankind The nature of creativity, part two
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The creative person has a high degree of
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sensitivity to sensory experience. He
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openly exposes himself to these experiences favors
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them as elements as combinations one in relation to the other and builds these
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experiences into perceptual Guiche Delton through fantasy.
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A person like this is able to tolerate ambiguity
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and has a sensitivity to his own needs and to the needs of others.
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He is able to establish what we call a multiplicity of
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identifications is able to use aggression
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and not use hostility. There is most of all a strong
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sense of ego identity.
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Before I elaborate on these ideas I would like to discuss the idea
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that there is a hostile angry tendency to view of the artist
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the creative person the one who is different as a really some
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kind of a nut. Marcel Proust
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further decided that neurosis is an extra quickly wound up
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with Art he said and I quote everything great in the world comes from the
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Writings.
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But some of our artist friends today who make these buttons I think of adequately answered
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Marcel Proust I just saw one yesterday and it says Marcel Proust is a yenta.
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I saw another one just tonight that says he she is
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keeping company.
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Why is this attitude towards the artist this angry hostile destructive
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attitude so prevalent. Well you know it's true that many artists many creative people on
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a rhotic. But I assure you that I have seen the active excesses of a
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McGill Ianni and others more than matched by the unconscious fantasies of some
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so-called normal people. Remember also that this
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attitude towards the artist is most intense
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in a closed society whether it be bourgeois or Soviet.
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In these type of society use the true artist the
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unique creative individual is referred to as a model degenerate.
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The protectors of these close societies are impelled by
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necessity to preserve at all costs. Their
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investments in the material world and each one of
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them feels threatened with the oddest search for other
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worldliness. Unfortunately the artist himself also
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Forster's this pose. It gives him special powers it makes
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him a member of a special society. And this pose for the
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artist is a self-deception which
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rationalizes his eccentricities which in reality have nothing to do
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with his creativity. And conversely
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I hope that the artist would understand the Philistine.
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Remembering that the Philistines attack on art be
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tres his attraction to it. The Philistine
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really has the unconscious recognition that the
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form of the creative act reveals his own hidden wish
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which is Venn defended by guilt and its counterpart anger.
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What else forced to the notion that the poor artist and his
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creativity is linked to the Rose has an illness.
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Much comes from my own literature the psychoanalytic literature and its conceptualizations.
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Freud hypothesized and I stressed the importance of understanding that for
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Freud it was a theory and not a dogmatic assumption that
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artistic creation allows the person to escape the painful
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reality or the tension generated by repressed impulses
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and through the use of talent. The artist reconciles opposing forces
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this conceptualization is essentially based upon a trauma
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theory. The inescapable conflict of psychic
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forces. And some English psychoanalysts of possible to the
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creative act as the one which reenact the death and the
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reincarnation of the loved one. A colleague of mine in a recent paper
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delivered at the Mental Health Institute made some formulation from the analysis
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of artists and he found that there was the presence of a permanent and
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usually severe injury to infant child narcissism
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related to a congenital usually hidden body defect and that the
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artist's florid and rich fantasy life as a
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restart to function. Changing that defect into a mark of excellence.
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Well the objection to these investigations are manifold. But I would
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like to comment that they usually take the form.
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But the origin lies in trauma aggression
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or the dark side of man and man should really be
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considered in the prologue and sense as being basically good and creative and that
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art is an expression that flows from love
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instead of hate.
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The trouble with these idealistic philosophies are that they ascribe moral and
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ethical judgments.
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To proponents of the opposite ideas who do not view their formulations in value
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terms and who derive these formulations from clinical
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observations made in judgement free atmospheres.
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We misunderstand these formulations if we view them as relating all
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activity and creative activity as emanating
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from the unconscious and synonymous with it. Many years ago
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the group of artists called the surrealists experimented with a method that they
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call the Exquisite Corpse. In this little
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experiment a group of artists would get together. And they would make a
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composite drawing each artist being totally
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unaware of what the others had put on the paper before him.
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And Dali's paintings from nine hundred twenty nine to 34 very
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often portrayed broadly in scenes in which childhood
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experiences and memories were painstakingly reconstructed with full
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attention to the special sexual symbolism of Freud in
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theory they were very very shocking pictures and I'm sure that Dolly fully intended them to be
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shocking pictures which abounded in most of the fetishes
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transplanted from the case histories and craft ebing. And we are told
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that Freud one day went to an exhibition of these paintings looked around
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and said what a fanatic for.
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While there are strong connections certainly
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in surrealistic art probably in all art connections that relate to
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the unconscious. It's not all of it. The
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concept of ego the concept of the identity of the artist the personal
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identity and the social identity of the artist is a very
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important aspect of the creative process.
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Creativity in this sense is individuation.
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And now that it is extremely unpopular to be
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religious I'd like to put these formulations in a religious sense.
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When we aspired as man to
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being able to create. We ceased to be
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the instruments of God and chose to think
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that we could be as he.
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This by the way is the Christian sense of guilt. Man's
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original sin is rebellion against God
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and his attempt to be the creator.
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In the development of each individual person. This
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process psychologically and inexorably
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repeats itself in turn explaining the
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persistence and the extensiveness of all of these religious myths.
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Our sense of ourselves our self knowledge.
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Are at the beginning primarily experienced as a conscious
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willing which is in essence in a geisha or a denial of
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willing and others and a feeling of unworthiness.
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In separation namely guilt. And
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the second stage of guilt is where this will this self-knowledge this
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existence of I as an individual is consciously defiant
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and is affirmed. That is to say Pride begins
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man in his will or wishes to be omniscient and creative.
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And we all know then that pride goeth before a fall.
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Translating this religious material into psychological
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terms we can attempt to
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re-establish paradise by denying the existence
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of our own uniqueness by giving up our own
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self-knowledge which separates us from the existence of others.
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By a return to being normal just like everybody else
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an undifferentiated part of the whole mass.
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I've been talking about creativity in the person. But attention
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should also be focused on the suppressing or stimulating
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quality of culture.
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We can for instance speculate whether the Hebrew religion
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with its prohibition against the making of graven images suppress the
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production of art amongst the Jews.
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We would question what in Greek culture encourage
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sculpture in literature. While the Egyptian F OSS
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produced work in stone but practically none in words.
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And of course in our own culture with this idea that the arts are sissy.
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Or the bourgeois parent who warns his offspring don't become a
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musician unless you can become a great virtuosi.
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Hasn't the emphasis in our culture on X Prince aquí words whether they be
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diplomas or Dollars been the end temptresses of creative work.
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Which should carry no more threats or blandishments.
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Other than the sum of its own achievement. You know the
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creative process has been broken down into a few elements.
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The first of these is preparation. The period of getting information extending from
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minutes to use.
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You can see that the creative person can take his time. But to the
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neurotic with his low tolerance for anxiety I would be very uncomfortable in the
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preparatory stages and would have to use defensive measures. One
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neurotic result is an increase in narcissism and a denial that any
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preparation is needed. I can the neurotic says do
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it any time I feel like it. The second stage of creativity is called in
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cube Asian where there is a period of inattention to the problem
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the next and most dramatic stage is illumination. Here there is a tremendous
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upsurge of feeling which has been described by many artists and
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scientists as suddenly forming into the mind a process of being
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overwhelmed by peak experiences.
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Well elimination signals the actual presence in
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consciousness of creativity and now Rock remains as its upbringing. This is the
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stage of revision polishing the details are to be filled in
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a dogged work to be done. During a brief
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period of creativity there are many many times both in
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great artists and great people where
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their sense of selves is locked against the ordinary run of reality
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processes. Time is not attended to food is forgotten.
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There was also a considerable amount of frustration. The reports of
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genius at work belie the totality and smoothness of their
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productions. It really isn't a question of
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how the creative person does the work of creativity. The question
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is how can we tolerate the anxiety. The
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normal or the none creative man
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is the one who has surrendered his own identity or who has never expressed
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his unique self culturally accepted reality is
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the only one he knows and his own experience of himself
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is like a persona that is the Greek mask the
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mask that a person holds before himself so that others will know right he
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is. The healthy person but creative
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person.
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And here I include the neurotic person.
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Here's a responsive to external reality. He
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learns from the impressions of experience in the mature
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person frustrations of life give rise to discontent. This is
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inescapable on easing his pain and frustration a part of the human parcel
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and pervades all of our lives and the wounds we must suffer. But in the
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neurotic these frustrations are intensified and give rise to the
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multi-faceted phenomenon of mental disorder. The neurotic some live out
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their lives in complex and compulsive rituals serving goals of which they are not
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aware. For sowing purposes but they do not understand
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and verbalizing excuses that they call reasons.
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Freeing the creativity of ourselves
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means freeing ourselves from the entrapment of internal conflicts.
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It loosens the bonds of our associations and permits the pre interplay of our
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experience. We can be puzzled and critical
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without being defensively angry or frightened.
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Our concentration is increase. And each new development
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each new production is sought with the desire and not compulsion.
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We have the courage to let go of the old and face the new
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without loss of our identity.
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The transformation of the offensive into true
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creativity comes about when private
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needs are sacrificed to the demands of communicability.
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May I make some concluding notes. And of course
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they'll be very atonal.
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I would differentiate in our separated our unique integrated
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selves.
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The sense of being what you are
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without defense of guilt in the face of the opinions of others
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and angry reactions to their criticisms.
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This I notice that is generated by our
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creative impressions and expressions that
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is bound to our memories. That is tied to our
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hopes.
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Unfortunately in our society is shaped
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by the market place where our
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individuality suffers domination and repression
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so that the ability to respond becomes
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instead of responsibility. I
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wish and desire become
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duty and performance and the
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justification of our actions our atomic
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ties they become manufactured
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items they become dispensing
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machines that we labeled the group
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a paycheck. A society the
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operad the MER the programming.
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The less the opportunity for creative action. Action yes.
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Always action or else we die. But action
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that is programmed can only be a techno
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catatonic action. There is in such experience
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there is such action and reaction. Little or
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no expression or assertion of the self. Unless it
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comes in the furious rattling of a mob action. Or an
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impotent kick at the machine that has failed
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to dispense our good ease.
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The sanctuary.
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Of old time Argon.
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God is dead for oit is out dated.
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Some of us turning to Jackson Pollock as in former days we might have turned to a
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Moloch. We are lost
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in our inability to think about ourselves to
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communicate our own feelings to somebody else without
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fear that these feelings these secret thoughts these hidden
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desires will be used by another individual by a
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boss by a political party by a state
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by an organization to dominate and to
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destroy our own unique participation in the idea.
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But we need neither despair nor destroy. We need neither to bear
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guilt or to express anger. But the STRIVE
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constantly to bring faith to walk creative selves.
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As the expression of the alive in this that is the interaction
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between identity and the world we live in. Thank you very much.
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I was.
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Six when you heard
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Alfred Jones co-director of the mental health consultant Center in New York as he spoke
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on the topic the nature of creativity. This was
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another programme in the series. Peace love and creativity the hope of
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mankind. On our next program Raymond Langley Professor of
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Philosophy at Manhattanville College will discuss Spangler and the Decline
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and Fall of the West.
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These programs originate at the Cooper Union forum in New York City and are recorded by
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radio station WNYC. The programs are made available to the station by
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the national educational radio network.
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