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“Be creative” seems to be the slogan of our era. We are constantly developing creativity … Where does this desire, this need to use ten fingers and imagination come from? But what if each of us is capable of thinking outside the box?
Recently, coloring books and art books for adults have come into fashion, more and more new hobby markets are opening with goods for needlework, painting, modeling, and creating perfume compositions. We strive to develop potential, we like to make things that you will not find in any store. Does this mean that we are not satisfied with what already exists?
“No matter how many ready-made things there are in the world, they say nothing about us, about our personality and history, so you always want to do something of your own and in your own way,” says Marina Baskakova, a Gestalt therapist1.
Therefore, there are more and more people who create interior design, clothes, jewelry, favorite dishes with their own hands … Their motto is “I do it myself”. Because I want to declare my uniqueness and enjoy it.
Instrumental case
But what about those who cannot boast of golden hands? Fortunately, the field of creativity is vast. Scientists and philosophers create with the power of the mind; dancers enjoy the flexibility of the body and a sense of space; the one who first combined water with flour and made a cake, without a doubt, deserves the title of an outstanding creator.
Just as there are several forms of intelligence, there are many types of creativity. And not all of them are related to IQ, which measures verbal and logical intelligence: according to some historical information, Mozart was not quick-witted.
One of the challenges in the Creativity Test by psychologist Ellis Paul Torrance, another pioneer of creativity assessment, is to find new uses for mundane items like cardboard boxes.
With the development of positive psychology, which seeks to understand the mechanisms that allow us to experience well-being, a new form of creativity has emerged: the art of being happy by inventing your life and happiness day by day.
Where does that come from
Creativity is evident already in the first years of life, when we play with blocks, dolls, robots and cars and give free rein to the imagination, writing stories.
“There is simply no other way,” emphasizes Marina Baskakova, “this is our nature: all children create, build, draw, play something. Another thing is that adults do not always approve of this, because it interferes with order, schedule, and structure. There are many prohibitions: you can not stain the wall with a pencil, hands – with earth. As a result, many give up creativity – someone forever, someone for a while.
Creative potential depends not only on the vicissitudes of our development and the behavior of others, but also on our beliefs. Psychologist, motivation researcher Carol Dweck2 noticed that people who are convinced that the results of their activities depend primarily on their brilliant mental abilities and only to a small extent on their own efforts, as a result, only superficially develop creative potential, even if they were very gifted at the beginning.
But is it really necessary to be creative?
“It is quite possible that someone will live their whole life without creative self-expression,” admits Marina Baskakova. “But during crises, we feel that it is time to reconsider the rules by which we lived, to change the structure of everyday life, to discover ourselves. Creativity helps with that.”
Finding a way to express our inner content, we get to know it and become more holistic, more ourselves.
There is also an inverse relationship. “We are often driven to creativity by negative emotions and states, such as loneliness, anger, despair, jealousy,” notes Alena Ivanova, a clinical psychologist and specialist in the psychology of humor.
What would remain an unbearable burden in the soul becomes the energy and material for creating something new and unusual.
Art therapy: for whom? why?
Psychotherapy with words is not for everyone. Some express themselves more willingly and freely in drawing, painting, sculpture, dance: people who find it difficult to find words for experiences, and those who rationalize everything too much, and also children …
Artistic creativity gives us another opportunity to release our emotions, explore the unconscious, come to bodily calm. This practice is worth getting to know.
Entrance to the unconscious
Neuroimaging methods allow us to see that the brain activity of a poet who builds a chain of associations is similar to brain activity during delirium. The connection between giftedness and insanity has been noticed by many researchers. How dangerous is this for us?
“Yes, the thinking of people with schizophrenia is similar to the characteristics of creative thinking,” agrees Alena Ivanova. – Also, the manic state, which occurs with various diseases, at the initial stage can contribute to working capacity, including creative. But a painful state occurs only if the content of the unconscious completely blocks consciousness. And most of us can still draw a line between fantasy, no matter how violent it may be, and reality.
From the point of view of psychoanalysis, creativity arises due to the mechanism of sublimation: in a state of frustration, the sexual energy of the libido can be redirected to socially approved activities. But won’t our capacity for love, physical and emotional, decrease if we put that energy into creativity?
“No, of course not,” says the clinical psychologist. – Creativity raises the level of energy, and not only sexual, but vital energy in general, precisely because it is in demand and finds its expression. All lovers know this: they want to sing and compose poetry, and this does not at all weaken their feelings.
Not like everyone else
What was once an individual, intuitively found way of doing things becomes, over time, generally accepted.
“Society denies the individual the right to use the natural method, forcing him to master the accepted mode of action, and only then allows him to work … Housekeeping becomes a profession; the furnishing of the apartment becomes the work of the designer. The same happens with many areas of activity, for example, with mathematics, singing, acting, military operations, planning, thinking, and so on, ”said Moshe Feldenkrais, the creator of the system for developing human potential through bodily movement.3.
We are often afraid or ashamed to sing, dance, draw something if we have not been taught to do it “correctly”. But creativity is a world where we set the rules ourselves. Many of those who we consider geniuses were at odds with the educational system.
The cosmonautics theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky remained in the second grade of the gymnasium for the second year, and was expelled from the third and continued to educate himself. Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky was given the following description in the fourth grade: “He does his homework assignments very poorly, if not at all. Notebooks are sloppy, dirty…”
The spirit of defiance inherent in creativity can cause protests from others.
“Geniuses can be frightening or strange,” notes Marina Baskakova. There is something disturbing in any work. It changes the quality of life, brings spontaneity into it: the creator does what he wants and how he wants. Those who do not allow themselves to do this feel humiliated.”
Well, not every occupation and not all the fruits of our creativity will be approved, but after all, not only the result is important to us, but also the path to it and the freedom that we experience. Are we not like the geniuses who change the course of history in this?
Vinnikkota sausages
According to the British psychoanalyst, creativity is not the privilege of artists. It manifests itself in our relationship with the world.
Creativity helps to give meaning to our existence, but it is not limited to “artistic creation,” says Donald Winnicott, and shows this with an example: “You can cook sausages traditionally or according to an original recipe. The result will be equally good, but creativity will blossom everyday life … If we manage to surprise ourselves, this is a manifestation of creativity.
Winnicott argued that those who know how to apply this approach can make any boring business interesting for themselves. It doesn’t take talent to enter the creative life. But it’s better to have a “good enough mother,” in Winnicott’s famous phrase. This is a mother (or a relative who performs her functions), who captures the needs of the child and knows how to be close to him, but in such a way that her presence does not suppress.
“Some children have to grow up in an environment of fabulous creativity, focused on the needs of adults, but not the child. Such an environment is suffocating and overwhelming, and the child learns to step back, ”Winnicott notes.
But if a “good enough” mother creates a feeling of confidence in the child without imposing anything on him, he develops imagination and builds a mental “transitional space”, where he reinvents the objects that he lacks (breast, nipple).
This space of illusion will later become the space of desires, creativity and inner life. It occurs when a child grows up in safety and learns to be free – “has the right to exist.”
1 Master class by Marina Baskakova “Creativity or suffering: choosing our own path” will be held at the Psychologies workshop. Read more at master.psyday.ru
2 C. Dweck Flexible Mind (Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2019).
3 M. Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement (Academic Project, 2020).