Cont.
The expression in human behaviour toward positive and valuable products of
his imagination is guaranteed to some extent through the provision of a
precondition.
That precondition is 'openness'
When the individual is open to all his experience then his behaviour will
be creative and his creativity may be trusted to be essentially
constructive and not destructive. (He/she will grow toward the light, as
in the principle of heliocentricity.)
Carl Rogers is clear that it is when we deny, by repressing large often
unconsciously held awareness of total experience then our 'formations' may
well be pathologically determined, socially dangerous and downright evil. But
it is when the individual has 'open' access to all his emotional content,
(unconscious determinations) and even the more visceral content (well done
Leo and At for not being too shy about this fundamental aspect of
humanness;-), as well as some of his highest intellectual capacities that he
can be trusted to be constructively creative. (This forms it seems another
kind of 'creative tension':-)
I found it instructive in this respect that Confucianism warns society of the
'goody goodies'.
It is those who are non-defensive about the possibilities
(positive/negative) within themselves as being connected to the outer
world that a creatively positive and whole formed outcome is more assured.
History is littered with the proof, from Socrates, through Christ to
Sigmund Freud.
We need to take note especially here the words that follow, because in
them is the 'locus' of many people's deep and fundamental need. (Ours too
possibly?) Here is the 'fulcrum' of being and becoming and the 'crucible'
in which one may be transformed freely and willingly, if 'sparingly'.
" If he (the individual) can be aware of his hostile impulses, but also
his desire for friendship and acceptance; aware of expectations of his
culture, but equally aware of his own purposes; aware of his selfish
desires, but also aware of his sensitive and tender concern for another;
then he behaves in a fashion that is harmonious, integrated and
constructive. The more 'open' he is to his experience, the more his
behaviour makes it evident that the 'nature' of the human species tends in
the direction of constructively social living."
2,400 years before these words were written the following was written into
the meanings of the Tao.
"Success in life stems from confidence and lack of self frustrating
anxiety, founded in the knowledge that following the line of least
resistance, in nature as in emotions leads to - the knowledge that in pain
it is alright and advantageous to scream out ones 'inner agony' which is
the natural way of going along with any pain. Taoism is not a philosophy
of compelling oneself to be calm and dignified in all circumstances. The
real and astonishing calm of people like Lao-Tzu comes from the fact that
they are ready and willing, without shame, to do whatever comes naturally
in all circumstances. The unbelievable result is that they are far more
sociable and civilised than those who try to live rigorously by laws and
watchwords."
Hmmm, very Freudian! (very un-tight-arsed?)
Creativity and leadership in this sense is not about apparent personal
heroism given by the denial of ones 'alignment' and 'congruence' to ones
total inner feelings, but precisely it's acceptance via our authentic
expression is that which signifies complete congruence to one's total
'experience' of the world. This is anyway according to Carl Rogers 'true
authenticity'.
One inner condition of constructive creativity appears to be 'openness to
experience': 'extensionality'. Its opposite would be psychological
defensiveness, (see also Argyris?) which is the mechanism by which we protect
the organisation that is 'self' by not allowing certain experiences to come
into conscious recognition except through distortions.
'Openness entails free relaying of experience through the nervous system
without distortion.'
In this way he (the creative individual) is, '-alive to the existential
experience of life in the moment' and not as filtered through pre-existing
categories, whether of custom, training or even consciously determined
'common (collective) sense'.
This way of 'being' speaks of permeability of boundaries in concepts, beliefs
and hypotheses. A tolerance of ambiguity and paradox. It means resistance to
the law of closure. It means 'extensional' orientation.
Rogerswarns us clearly, "Any tyrant on any scale who cannot face and own up
to the weaknesses that are in him may be nevertheless acutely aware and
susceptible to chinks in the armour of others. These people are often
creative in a limited and limiting way. What they create is either incapable
of 'extension' or potentially destructive of social values."
By contrast the more the individual is willing to accept all the aspects and
phases of his experience (both positive and negative) of his creativity the
more will he be personally and socially constructive.
Possibly the most fundamental condition of creativity is having an
'internal locus of evaluation'. Value is not established by praise or
criticism by others but by himself. "Have I made something out of myself
that is satisfying to me?"- "Does this express part of me?"-"Does it
express my joy, pain, and ecstasy?" These are the only questions that need
matter for the creative person.
The basis of evaluation must reside within the creator. If the feeling is
one of '-me (being/becoming) in action.' Actualising potentialities, which
hitherto did not exist and are now emerging into existence, then nothing
can change that fundamental fact. This reminds me of Mnr. de Lange's
notion of 'complementarity' when measuring.
I am looking at a small girl with twinkling eyes surrounded by daisy
flowers now...¦Then, the ability to toy with elements and concepts. To be
able to play spontaneously with ideas, relationships, to juggle elements
into impossible juxtapositions, to make wild hypotheses, to express the
ridiculous; from this and more springs the new emergent evolutionary
forms, with qualities that give them permanent value within the currency
that is beyond mere money or material reward. (Rogers)
The 'essence' is the 'attractor' of the product of the creative
imagination. It is the Sun that guides us from the dark, heliocentricity.
This is the uniqueness of the 'I' that has the task to bring its unique
and authentic seal to the experience it has of the world that is viewed
holistically from as many perspectives as there are eyes open in the world
in any one moment. (Maturana's multiversa?)
This to me is the 'essence' then of the 'unconscious discipline' that
makes the 'aesthetic expression' a signal of human achievement, since it
is in the trusting of the unconscious contribution that adds to the world
without subtracting.
Communication (commutation?) is a key in any creative interplay. It is
doubtful to all theoreticians of creative process and 'mind' that humans
could make creative artefacts and not wish them to be a means of
communicating the essences they contain. It is the only way he can assuage
the anxiety of his separateness and assure himself that while standing
apart from the group he can nevertheless remain part of it in the wider,
looser more creative 'open' sense. "He may not create to communicate, but
having created he invariably desires to share this new aspect of
himself-in-relation-to-his-environment-with others." This recalls for me
Jessica's spontaneous joyous singing of life lived and my own feelings
whenever I get the privilege to make something new.
Love > Freedom.
Love is the highest order outcome of any human action. Did you write that
At, or is it just an influence? "Freedom is both a price and a prize in
life. The individual must be as 'free to be afraid' of a new venture as he
is 'free to be eager' for it. Free to bear the consequences of his
mistakes as well as of his achievements. It is this type of freedom, a
responsibly to be oneself, which fosters the development of a secure locus
of evaluation within oneself, and hence tends to bring about the inner
condition necessary to constructive creativity."
Beyond this one ought to consider for oneself that all the great 'myths of
creation' in nearly all cultures bring together destruction and creation. It
is out of the darkness that the light shines forth. The 'cave' and the 'cell'
are the focal points in which inward stars are born. Destruction lies at the
heart of the endeavour. Nature or God gave man his 'dream time' and 'dream
places'. He gave us the ability to think, express and live symbolically. He
made it thus so that those things most dear and necessary are incapable of
satisfactory, direct expression and so when we resort to the most 'deeply
held values' we resort to symbols. In our symbols we gain the freedom to
manipulate the world inside and outside that of our imaginations. Symbols are
integrative of the world. Symbols are, I believe, the bridges across which we
shall walk to the promised lands of the new millennium.
The manicured and over fertilised, genetically destroyed parks and lawns of
suburbia and suburban thinking and feeling with its shallow preoccupations
must now and first be burned, then slowly the 'prairie' fields will bring
forth new life. New meaning. That will possibly be our new 'home'. In our
beginning is our ending and in our endings are discovered our beginnings.
"We are losing ourselves in a field of dreams"
Peter Senge
Every spear of grass....Whitman.
Best wishes,
Andrew Campbell
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