Creativity and Fear of Isolation

I have been reading a book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.  In it he presents the results of his study of creativity via interviewing a number of people who he says have been “involved in the kind of creativity that leaves a trace in the cultural matrix” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). Madeleine L’Engle, Linus Pauling, Jonas Salk, Ravi Shankar, Benjamin Spock, and Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann are some familiar names among dozens of “creative” people who aided him in his work.  He cites a time in Elizabeth Neumann's life when her well-being threatened by an early death, but was healed through a homeopathic cure that “so improved her health that thirty years later she works harder than any four persons half her age. It seems that the energy of these people is internally generated and is due more to their focused minds than to the superiority of their genes” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, p. 58).  I mention this because Mihaly is one of my favorite authors and I believe that there is a connection between creativity and willingness of a person (people) to resist conformity for fear of isolation. Fear flat lines creativity. I also am helped by his distinctive definition of  “creative”(above) that marks her work whether or not one agrees with the content of the work.

I would like to share an illustration from my religious setting: non-denominational charismatic flavor with distinct and rigid views on politics, social justice, and morality. These views are generally shared by a loosely joined larger national if not global group.

My young daughter wore a t-shirt to services one Sunday promoting the movie, “Amazing Grace,” and it looked very much like a t-shirt supporting Obama. The several women who approached her overtly ridiculed the politics they thought she was promoting. She said nothing in defense, but shared it with me. She was thought to be “out of sync with public opinion” on a micro scale in our church.  Am I correct in thinking this dynamic Neumann discusses also functions in this context?  Is this not the issue Bonhoeffer had with the state churches in Nazi Germany (Bonhoeffer, 1995)?  I believe she was experiencing the “pressure people feel to conceal their views when they think they are in the minority” (Griffin, 2009, p. 372).

 It would seem that if this “spiral of silence” (Griffin, 2009) is permitted to hold sway in a person (people), they must also suffer the loss of creative thinking and courage to change. 

References

Bonhoeffer, D. (1995). The cost of discipleship. Austin, Tx: Touchstone.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Perennial.

Griffin, E. (2009). Communication:a first look at communication theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Anarchist Incognito

 Carl Rogers' name sounds innocuous maybe because of an unconscious association with the mild -mannered  Mr. Rogers from the television series. The communication theorist, Rogers, is a  surprising character who offers the world a radical picture of human connection that serves to shake up cozy paradigms. Reading his work has jarred my world. Carl Rogers, according to Timothy Leary, is not what he appears to be but is a “Libertarian Humanist Anarchist cross-dressing as a gentle, dignified, sober scholar” (Leary, 1996). His ideas resonate with the hearts of people who long for true community,  to be heard, to be unjudged. Rogers admits of his own desire to be heard, “I can testify that when you are in psychological distress and someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good” (Rogers, 1980).

Authentic, deep human connection has a magnetic and healing effect. Experiencing the other in honesty and awareness is a profoundly sacred encounter between “essentially spiritual beings” (Leijssen, 2008). Energy, enthusiasm, and hope for human transcendence characterize the writings and ideas of Carl Rogers. Many of his words leave the reader with a sense of centeredness and quiet. He presents to the world a vision for the uncharted adventures of human engagement and release of human potential.  His ideas that were to him “all shiny and glowing with potentiality” he discovered “can to another person be a great threat. (Kirschenbaum,H., Henderson,V., 1989). Howard Kirschenbaum, Rogers’ biographer and interpreter, claims him as “America’s most influential counselor and psychotherapist—and one of its most prominent psychologists.”

References

Leary, T. (1996). Commentary. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66(2), 301-307.

Leijssen, M. (2008). Encountering the Sacred: Person-centered therapyu as a spiritual practice. Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, 219-225.

Rogers, C. (1980). A way of being. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

 http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/m30jsZx_Ngs-carl-rogers-gloria-counselling-pt.aspx

Embryonic Philosophy of Communication

I am in process of developing a personal philosophy of communication. My focus is in three arenas: intrapersonal dialogue, interpersonal dialogue, and organizational dialogue. This may mean little to the reader of this post, but it serves as an ongoing record of my work at this time.  Marty 


“Communication is the simultaneous experience of self and other…transcending one’s current self, overcoming one’s current self, to become more than what one was through connection with another."(G.S.Shepherd in "Communication as Transcendence")  I support this definition cautiously and humbly as one that resonates with my developing philosophy of communication that builds upon a healthy intimate engagement with the inner dialogue. From this place we are better equipped to creatively and boldly embrace the other(s). Both of these working together form a place for a dynamic expression in the larger world of organizational vision.

an easy reflection




M.C. Escher  "Bond of Union"

 "When my experiencing of this moment is present in my awareness and when what is present in my awareness is present in my communication, then each of these three levels matches or is congruent. At such moments I am integrated or whole, I am completely in one piece....congruence is the fundamental basis for the best of communication." 

Carl Rogers.."Experiences in Communication"


"I don't know you because of who you are (by race, religion, ethnicity, sex, etc) but by who you are becoming in an experience of communication...identities are never fixed, but are rather under constant re-creation..." 
Gregory Shepherd in Communication as Transcendence

I am determined to maintain some kind of regular record of my new life path.  Right now I am  experiencing a pleasant exhaustion from a day full of writing, reading  and other kinds of communicating so.....I am posting some of the highlights from some (now familiar)books in lieu of a original post.

"What makes the act of two persons speaking to one another a conversation for them and a densely significant communicative act or event..." 
Jeffery St. Johns--Communication as Perspectives on Theory page xiv


"The majority of students he talked with on more than one hundred campuses are in 'political retreat' believing that the world is indeed unfair and the future precarious, but that they have little possiblity for altering it."
Jane Rinehart McDonaldization Revisited p.24

 "Rogers believed that his clients' health improved when his communication created a safe environment for them to talk."
Communication: A First Look at Communication Theory, Em Griffin p 50

Carl Rogers is a new man in my life. I have read he is considered to be a radical communicator (maybe not to be trusted) ...As one tired of mundane and guarded communicators, I find Carl refreshing and look forward to a more intimate knowledge of him in days to come:

"When...someone really hears you (concentrated listening)  without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good."
Carl Rogers in A Way of Being

"What I really dislike in myself is not being able to hear the other person because I am so sure in advance of what he is about to say that I don't listen." 
Carl Rogers in A Way of Being

"....and the enemy is us" ... pogo

Last winter I stayed several days at Pecos monastery in northern New Mexico. It is a pleasant society consisting of a dozen Benedictine monks and a couple of nuns. They are genuinely hospitable and simply pleased with the presence of a guest with no pressure of religious expectations.    The monastery is located in a remote village fifteen miles outside of Santa Fe. I went there with the intention of regaining some internal silence and renewed attentiveness. A blizzard arrived about the time that I did. The place is quiet anyway and the snow added to it with a foot of soft insulation. The individual guest rooms are spartan , chilly, and could foster a sense of loneliness if it were allowed foothold.

I looked forward to mealtimes. They  are communal.  Dinner is in total silence. Breakfast and lunch consequently invite all kinds of conversation: stories, jokes, and questions. The monks are a non-judgmental bunch and quite open to all kinds of dialogue. Nothing seems to shock or offend them. One morning about halfway through a breakfast of lox and bagels and thick oatmeal, a person entered the dining area with garb of animal skins and a scent that corroborated the outfit. The welcome by the brothers was robust and familiar. Initially, I thought this was a male person, but after getting food from the buffet, he sat down at my table and I soon concluded—though still with a bit of doubt—that this was actually a woman. I think she was only in her late forties, but well-weathered. She had a story.

I was taken with her. She is Julie and she lives alone in a cave about twelve miles from the monastery. She reads the Philokalia continually when she is not painting. She is adept with words. The monks give her occasional meals and conversation. Her natural home has no utilities and she hikes in once a month to enjoy a place of human contact, living mostly the life of a solitary person.

We sat talking long after the monks had done the breakfast dishes and left to do their other monk business.  I learned a lot about Julie. I learned that her work is represented by a well-respected gallery in Santa Fe. She was married briefly. No children. We talked about many things. She has lived alone for over 20 years. Her cave has no mortgage and she requires little for her existence. She seems content, but she returns ritual-like to sporadic contact with this community.

Living well in relationship may be the supreme human challenge (and unrivaled human joy *). At some point Julie decided to leave us to live alone in her cave. Assumption of heroics aside, I am compelled to wonder if there was an event or series of events, an insult, sense of inadequacy, lust, fear, or rejection that drove Julie to her cave over two decades ago.  If that be so, I suppose that fear of some kind impelled her to enter into her isolation. As unique and meaningful as her life appears, something is unresolved. I say that without censure because something in her hermit life reflects in my own. 

Deep and unfettered connection with another or others must be the bottom line purpose of human communication. I have little experience with it but I find myself seeking it like a madwoman. I find my conversations tend toward settling into core matters with an aversion to affectation. (although I certainly do that well also) And in that pursuit of clarity, I discover as Pogo says “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

If I were to submit myself to hauling about a large bag of rocks on my shoulders each day the burden of the unnatural load will soon distort my body and hinder my movement. I suspect most of us unconsciously tolerate heavy relational baggage that equally distorts and hinders freely loving and connecting. I may be completely wrong about Julie. It’s a good story that generates some wonder and mystery and questions.

A friend and I had a discussion this afternoon that prompted this post. We discussed the ideas of our histories with others and how we feed our pain and fuel this baggage—about the damaging effect of our sorry stories… that altogether serve to keep relationships in the realm of fraudulence and control. I want to add to this post next time with some of the content of that conversation.

* Thanks, Laura B.

a toast to clarity in 2011!

“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee,

and just as hard to sleep after."

                                                                        ------Anne  Morrow Lindbergh

                                                                                                                         

Sometime during my freshman year in high school my mother disappeared for several days. My queries about her absence were met with abruptness and silence from my dad. When the police brought her home, nothing was discussed--no explanations. She went to the bedroom. He followed her and shut the door and there was silence. Several days later all was back to “normal.” We all knew, but we did not discuss or ask questions. Concealment and power-plays like this were integral to our unchallenged family culture. It was life-as-usual in my formative years and it worked to instill in me a longing for clarity in communication and non-manipulative influence in others’ lives.

My interest in communication-----in linking thought to expression--- emerged not because of excellent role models, but was instead born of frustration with the apparent absence or abuses of them. The demise of intimate relationships, the aha moment that found no receiver, the vision that fell flat for lack of buy-in, the charades in social engagements, all affirm this deficit.  My work in ecclesiastical and academic settings has served to further convince me of this void.

Over the next two years I am participating in a graduate program in communication and leadership from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. I created this blogspot to keep a journal of this stimulating time in my life—a time of learning and growth. I want to do a “Julie and Julia” kind of commitment to regular (at least weekly) postings—tracking some of the ideas, quotes, paradigm shifts, creative dreaming, and inspiration acquired in this new journey.  I do not intend this as simply a self-serving endeavor. I would like to imagine it offering the reader food for pondering and responding.

It’s about two hours until the new year.  I guess this is an appropriate  time to launch this project---A toast to clarity in 2011!