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| Projection 4’x3’ |
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| Projection 6’x6’ |
In the car the other day, I
accidentally tuned into a Ted Talk on the value of a “creative life.” The speaker (didn’t get his name) was talking
about two psychologists who were familiar to me: Abraham Maslow, a founder of
the Family Therapy movement who died about fifty years ago along with a
present-day disciple of his, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, creator of something known
as ‘Flow Theory’. It turns out that many of MC’s ideas came from Maslow. My
late husband, a PhD Clinical Psychologist, was a follower of Maslow,
considering his family therapy techniques to be far more helpful in “curing”
neurosis than Freud or Jung or any of the dwellers in the unconscious. Want to
be psychologically healthy? You need to find something creative you enjoy doing
and do it!
Since
I tuned in late to the interview, I only caught the tail end of the discussion
on the therapeutic value of creativity.
Both Maslow and MC (and my husband) believed in its “curative” powers.
Sam had great success with patients, accustomed to having therapists who probed
their unconscious and listened endlessly (at great cost and to no avail) to
their neurotic complaints. He focused on his client’s healthy parts, not his or
her neurosis. If the patient liked to write or play an instrument (whether he
was good at it or not) he or she soon learned that that was what Sam wanted to
hear about. He didn’t want their same old neurotic complaints. Therapy sessions
became joyful and positive and within a short period of time, change in the
“kvetcher” (Yiddish for complainer) was obvious to everyone. Maslow called it
“Self Actualization” and MC referred to “The Flow.”
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| Projection 8’x6’ |
When
Sam caught me whining (yes, I occasionally whine) he would open the studio
door, put his hands on my shoulders and shove me inside, slamming the door
behind me. “I know what you are doing! You’re just trying to distract me,” I
would yell. But after a few minutes in the studio I would notice something that
needed my attention: a painting on canvas, a large charcoal drawing. Within fifteen or twenty minutes, my mood
lifted and I would begin to dance around the studio, brush in hand. Life was
good. It didn’t make problems go away; it just put them in perspective.
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| Projection 7’x4’ |
Maslow
believed that what he called “Self Actualization” was critical to human
happiness and suppressing the creative part of ourselves was what makes us
neurotic. Doing what you love, writing, playing music, performing has a deep
therapeutic effect. My husband’s mantra was: “Activity binds anxiety and
Creative Activity makes it go away altogether.” So, take out your crayons or
your fiddle and get to work (and read
some Maslow or Csikszentmihaly’s Flow Theory if you want to understand
why.)
Renee
Kahn (now off to her studio to create)
