The Curse of Creativity

What is creativity?

It makes sense to me that a creative endeavor is one that attempts to make art. To understand creativity and the underlying process, we should understand something about the point of art. The simple answer is that art tries to elicit an emotional response in the experiencer. When an artist creates a piece correctly, it is impersonal and able to connect with most people.

“This is why every great work of art is objective and impersonal, but none the less profoundly moves us each and all. And this is also why the personal life of the poet cannot be held essential to his art–but at most a help or a hindrance to his creative task. He may go the way of a Philistine, a good citizen, a neurotic, a fool, or a criminal. His personal career may be inevitable and interesting, but it does not explain the poet.” Pg. 199; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Art should be impersonal. It conveys universal content that speaks to all people. The artist is a conduit for the creative energy to flow through. If appropriately done, he will be overtaken completely.

“He is objective and impersonal - even inhuman - for as an artist, he is his work and not a human being.” Pg. 194; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

In the words of Jung, “[...] artistic disposition involves an overweight of collective psychic life as against the personal. Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him. As a human being, he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist, he is “man” in a higher sense - he is “collective man” - one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic life of mankind. To perform this difficult office, it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being.” Pg. 195; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

How art can become universal is when the artist taps into something that is beyond him or herself. The artist metaphorically burrows down through the depths of human consciousness until they can reach the fundamental underpinnings of humankind. There is, as Carl Jung postulates a “collective unconscious,” which connects us all. This concept says that there is a level of human consciousness that is below our level of awareness. This level of being is like a web that interconnects all individuals. It transcends both space and time. It impacts what we experience as humans and also affected by the times. It is an expansive source of symbolic knowledge that most people do not realize. This arena is so vibrant that the artist, primarily the poet, must create and invent ways to try to describe something so complex with devices known as words, sentences, stories, and mythology that are incredibly inept at portraying reality.

A true artist can go to those depths, take unassimilated knowledge (chaos), and bring it up to the level of conscious awareness (order).

“The fundamental act of creativity in the human realm, in the concrete case, is the construction of a pattern of behavior which produces emotionally-desirable results in a situation that previously reeked of unpredictability, danger, and promise. Creative acts - despite their unique particulars - have an externally identifiable structure, because they always take place under the same conditions: what is known is “extracted,” eternally, from the unknown.” Pg. 145; Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

There are different levels of creativity. Some people bring together what were once two distinctly different objects and call it a creative endeavor. Think of something like bringing together two puzzle pieces to form a third, similar, yet differently shaped piece. We could also imagine a mason bringing together brick and mortar. There is now a third yet new structure known as a brick wall. The genuinely creative people generate the puzzle, or they have created a unique substance known as mortar and a new form known as brick. It takes an extraordinary amount of information, knowledge, and wisdom to bring together new constituent elements to create a never before seen form. The person who created the concept puzzle was creative; everyone who has followed is merely bringing together different constituent elements to end with the same form we know as a puzzle.

“The creative process has feminine quality, and the creative work arises from unconscious depths–we might say, from the realm of the mothers. Whenever the creative force predominates, human life is ruled and molded by the unconscious as against the active will, and the conscious ego is swept along on a subterranean current, being nothing more than a helpless observer of events. The work in process becomes the poet’s fate and determines his psychic development.” Pg. 196-197; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

I have spoken in previous posts about knowledge and how we know. There we learned that there is a definite process of generation. Using this method by which we take from the chaos of the unknown and slowly move information up the hierarchy into the known and ordered realm. Jordan Peterson speaks about this and claims that creative behavior sits at the base of the formation of all new knowledge. He then outlines that information travels up levels through the process of imitation, play, ritual, drama, myth, religion, literature, philosophy, rationality, and empiricism. Now, if we as creatives are the “Hero’s of Knowledge,” this is to say, that we go out to face the unknown, and to bring back the knowledge learned from that journey, how might we best go about doing that? What is it that drives us to such an end? Why should we be okay with letting this creative energy overtake our lives?

The Vision

We have all heard people say something about being inspired. The thing about inspiration is that it is fleeting. We can become inspired and “create” something that turns out to be merely superficial. The notion of real creativity points to something more profound and beyond reasonable human comprehension. When we sit in this realm, things happen to us that are nearly unexplainable. The creative will have a vision, something that drives them to assimilate this knowledge.

“The vision is not something derived or secondary, and it is not a symptom of something else. It is a true symbolic expression - that is, the expression of something existent in its own right, but imperfectly known. [...] The subject of the vision lies beyond [the sphere of conscious experience]. Through our feelings, we experience the known, but our intuitions point to things that are unknown and hidden - that by their very nature are hidden and secret. If every they become conscious, they are intentionally kept back and concealed, for which reason they have been regarded from earliest times as mysterious, uncanny, and deceptive. They are hidden from the scrutiny of man, and he also hides himself from them [...]. He protects himself with the shield of science and the armor of reason. His enlightenment is born of fear; in the day-time he believes in an ordered cosmos, and he tries to maintain this faith against the fear of chaos that besets him by night.” Pg. 186-187; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

This quote points to an idea that I like to think of metaphorically looking like many blind men standing around an elephant. They each feel and describe something to the others. Each of the men will feel a little bit different part of the elephant. The part that the single individual feels is unknown to all of the others. Each of the men cannot accurately describe what they feel due to the limitations of our senses and language. Perhaps if there are enough blind men, they could get some semblance of what the elephant looks like, and if they are lucky, they can begin to know what it is they are touching. This, to me, is the idea of the creative endeavor. We have a vision that drives us to explore and attempt to relay knowledge and information below the perceptible sphere. We then move toward that and bring it into the realm of conscious awareness.

The Curse of Creativity

The reason creatives are cursed has many facets. The first being that it is challenging to make a good living being an artist. It is, as Jordan Peterson said, a high risk, yet high reward endeavor. Additionally, real artists are highly complex people. They do not get along with most people. Ordinary folks do not comprehend or understand the artist. True artists often sacrifice everything, their health, and well being to allow the art to flow through them, which to most people, is no less than an absurd notion.

If someone is a true artist and they do not create it in their way, then their soul dies. When we repress something within ourselves, that is how neuroses and other mental health issues can form. To maintain a healthy psyche, as Carl Jung said, we must allow for the proper flow of psychic energies. Otherwise, it can be thought of as a river that is damned. It will back up and flow onto itself, creating turmoil and stagnation.

“The artist’s life cannot be otherwise than full of conflicts, for two forces are at war within him; on the one hand the common human longing for happiness, satisfaction and security in life, and on the other a ruthless passion for creation which may go so far as to override every personal desire. The lives of artists are as a rule so highly unsatisfactory, not to say tragic, because of their inferiority on the human and personal side, and not because of a sinister dispensation. There are hardly any exceptions to the rule that a person must pay dearly for the divine gift of the creative fire.” Pg. 196; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

From this quote, we can see that the artist becomes the conduit for creative energy. Everything falls away except for the artist transforming into the instrument to carry out the purpose of art at a fundamental level. This is a profound place to be, where we can shift the fabric of the times, but we seemingly pay a heavy toll.

 “It is as though each of us were endowed at birth with a certain capital of energy. The strongest force in our make-up will seize and all but monopolize this energy, leaving so little over that nothing of value can come of it. In this way the creative force can drain the human impulses to such a degree that the personal ego must develop all sorts of bad qualities — ruthlessness, selfishness, and vanity (so-called “auto-eroticism”) and even every kind of vice, in order to maintain the spark of life and to keep itself from being wholly bereft. [...]” Pg. 196; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Based on this quote, it makes sense to me that we see artists, especially musicians, “destroying” their lives. When this creative energy overtakes us, the person or “individual” side dies. Our happiness comes secondary. When this happens, certain bad habits can form so that we compensate for the lack of inherent joy within our lives. We think of these as coping mechanisms for not being able to attain life satisfaction and happiness.

” How can we doubt that it is his art that explains the artist, and not the insufficiencies and conflicts of his personal life? These are nothing but the regrettable results of the fact that he is an artist, that is to say, a man who from his very birth has been called to a greater task than the ordinary mortal. A special ability means a heavy expenditure of energy in a particular direction, with a consequent drain from some other side of life.” Pg. 196; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

From here, we can see that “special ability” does not inherently mean “good.” It is an aspect of the human experience that we would like to be “special.” However, it makes sense to me that we must be careful what we wish for because we might get it. When we wish for something, it seems as though we are not entirely sure what it is that we wish for until it is upon us. At that point, we might not like the experience, but it is too late.

As an artist, to be able to comprehend and work with such a wide swath of knowledge, they are unusually bright. Because of this, they see the world through a different lens. They can understand the VAST complexity of this thing that we call reality. Unfortunately, clarity is indiscriminate. That means, if we become clear about all things in the world, then we become clear about all good and bad things. That is to say, if all the bright, pleasant, and benevolent of the world can be seen, so can the evil, horror, and atrocity. The latter part can often override the former. Living in such a space can be uncomfortable at best.

The Responsibility Of A Creative

Because a creative activity is the first step toward the assimilation of new knowledge, it makes sense that there is at least some responsibility. We compound this when we realize the importance of the experience that an artist can bring into the light of conscious awareness.

“The archetypal image of the wise man, the savior or redeemer, lies buried and dormant in man’s unconscious since the dawn of culture; it is awakened whenever the times are out of joint and a human society is committed to a serious error. When people go astray they feel the need of a guide or teacher or even of the physician. These primordial images are numerous, but do not appear in the dreams of individuals or in works of art until they are called into being by the waywardness of the general outlook. When conscious life is characterized by one-sidedness and by a false attitude, then they are activated–one might say, ‘instinctively’–and come to light in the dreams of individuals and the visions of artists and seers, thus restoring the psychic equilibrium of the epoch.” Pg. 197; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Due to the universality and timelessness of a true creative, their work is of paramount importance. To think that work helps to re-balance a society that is hurdling toward extremes is a mind-boggling claim. It is also fear-provoking in the sense that if we do not have someone, or a group of folks that can become the symbolic wise man, where will we end up? That idea on top of the notion that there is true creativity and fake. That not all folks are or can become creative. The idea that we do not know how to “make” someone creative, yet someone who is, could, and or is our savior is an earth-shaking postulate. We might be heading toward our demise, know what we need, but not be able to find it.

“In this way the work of the poet comes to meet the spiritual need of the society in which he lives, and for this reason his work means more to him than his personal fate, whether he is aware of this or not. Being essentially the instrument for his work, he is subordinate to it, and we have no reason for expecting him to interpret it for us. He has done the best that in him lies in giving it form, and he must leave the interpretation to others and to the future. A great work of art is like a dream; for all its apparent obviousness it does not explain itself and is never unequivocal.” Pg. 198; Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Conclusions

The artist dives to great depths to assimilate concepts and knowledge that could help to balance and correct the course of society. The poet serves as a spiritual guide. We have needed these folks since the dawn of time. It seems crucial that we understand the burden that they bear. They bridge the chasm between chaos and order. They reach to the depths of the “collective unconscious” to be able to shepherd information up to a level of conscious awareness. This information, once assimilated, helps to guide the trajectory of our society. It is arguably of paramount importance that we realize how pivotal these people and their work is to our own well being and survival.

“We see that he has drawn upon the healing and redeeming forces of the collected psyche that underlies consciousness with its isolation and its painful errors; that he has penetrated to that matrix of life in which all men are embedded, which imparts a common rhythm to all human existence, and allows the individual to communicate his feelings and his striving to mankind as a whole.” Pg. 198; Modern Man in Search of a Soul