Creativity, Genius, and Mental Health/Mental Illness

Discussion of Joseph Campbell's work with an emphasis on the personal creative impulse as well as the sociological role of the artist in today's global community.

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zoe
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Post by zoe »

Yes the continuum has many presentations. This may be of interest.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the ... -savantism

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Yes, Zoe, it'll be interesting to see if anything substantial comes of this theory. :)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

zoe
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Post by zoe »

Well the two modes of cognition would explain many interactions, especially conflicts that take place. The duality as proposed would have some relationship to thought processes that at least superficially explains tendencies to favor lines of thinking.

JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Hey all you inquiring minds out there.

Cindy recently pointed out to me the relevance that color can have within the minds ability to reveal certain propensities. I came across this fascinating article this morning and thought it might have an interesting connection to the role our senses play in relation to perception.

http://news.yahoo.com/kids-choice-winne ... 34758.html


Take this little test if you like if you are curious to see if it relates to you.


http://www.synesthete.org/

( Here is the link they provide to describe the term. ):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia


Although I originally started to post this topic in the " Jung in the Weeds " thread; it seemed a better fit here. I'm also wondering if Cindy has thoughts on how this might be related to the psychological aspect of how we interpret our experience? :idea:
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Hi, James, and thanks so much for waiting for my reply. :)


As I mentioned that I would do elsewhere, I did go through my bookmarks and hadn't saved as many links as I thought. Here are a few of them, though, that might interest you, too, in some way.

ABSTRACT. Jungian Personality Typology and Color Dreaming: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1967-04562-001 (I wasn't willing to purchase the article, so...)

Colours and Cultures
: http://www.colorsystem.com/?page_id=572&lang=en

Colour Order Systems in Art and Science
: http://www.colorsystem.com/?page_id=551&lang=en

PSYART ONLINE JOURNAL. Color and Emotion--A Psychophysical Analysis of Van Gogh’s Work: http://www.psyartjournal.com/article/sh ... ical_analy (Includes Van Gogh's synethesia.)

Synethesia: http://www.harding.edu/gclayton/color/t ... hesia.html


Sorry that I can't offer more, still, happy reading!



P.S. In the two Color Systems links, click on boxed images for a larger view.
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Cindy these links are so very cool! 8) Although I am no " analyst " in exploring some of the material you so thoughtfully provided here are some things that caught my eye that also led me to other connections that seemed to me to relate to interpretative perception; both through the sensual as well as the psychological portals of individual experience.

http://www.colorsystem.com/?page_id=1288&lang=en

( click on " detailed text " at the end of the paragraph to access the whole article. )


The link on " Synethesia " had a fabulous separate link at the bottom of the page of a video combining dance, color, and music which led to another linked connection to Loie Fuller and the beginning of " Modern Dance ".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92QnjYEy ... re=related

( Then here. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CA0Pd2H0NQ

What is interested me in particular about these links is that not only do they have a relationship to the psychological and emotional realms through the physical senses as noted through cultural symbolism; but also the artistic ones also have a curious interconnect with Joseph and Jean Campbell.

Modern Dance and it's beginnings in Paris was also around the same time Joseph went there to study while the explosion of the Modern Arts movement during that 30 year period was taking place. And when he taught at Sarah Lawrence and met Jean she was studying dance under Martha Graham.

( Although this may seem somewhat of a bit of a stretch here; my point has to do with the intersection of " new ways " of approaching and understanding what human perception and experience were all about. ) And whether you are addressing visual art like Paul Cezanne or Pablo Picasso, poets like Guillaume Apollinaire; writers like Ernest Hemingway or James Joyce, music like Claude Debussy or Igor Stravinsky, dance as not only created by Sergei Diaghilev with the Ballet Russes but with the emergence of what would later be called Modern Dance like Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan; entertainers like Josephine Baker, photograhers like Man Ray just to name a very small few; these particular artistic connections link directly to those intersections of which Paris was the main crossroads of the 20th century. And although Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were not in Paris; if it seems I am reaching here just think for instance what Joseph Campbell was trying to teach or illuminate and the way or method he was using. And it seems to me an even more solid connection that relates to this rather interesting cross-pollination of these artistic and psychological concepts of color, movement, symbols and the way that they are interpreted that even now continues forward as people discover even newer dimensions of possibilities.

( Here is a short clip on the making of " Paris the Luminous Years " that further illustrates this point. ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNl7eksFjmI


Definitely pretty cool I think. :idea:

Thank you so much for your kind insights with this. :)
Last edited by JamesN. on Thu Aug 21, 2014 9:39 pm, edited 5 times in total.
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Oops, James, I forgot to include an important one:


Alchemy and Colour: http://www.philipball.co.uk/index.php?o ... &Itemid=22


:)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Excellent addition Cindy.
If you were a painter during the Renaissance, you were probably something of an alchemist too....

To some of those artists, alchemy was just a chemical technology: a convenient manufacturing process for making colours and other useful substances, such as turpentine and varnishes....

To other painters, alchemy was more profound, and they used its symbolism in their art...

There was no getting away from alchemy for artists of that time, for both painting and alchemy are intimately bound up with colour. To alchemists, colour changes signified the successful progress of the Great Work: the synthesis of the Philosopher's Stone...


Without the alchemical search for the Philosopher's Stone, artists in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance might never have acquired some of their most valued pigments. Justus von Liebig realized that it was the very futility of the quest that made it such a stimulus to chemical research: 'In order to know that the Philosopher's Stone did not really exist, it was indispensable that every substance accessible· should be observed and examined.' But we should not see early colour chemistry as a mere technological spin-off of alchemy's higher pursuit; rather, the benchtop experimentation and the intellectual and spiritual concepts were intimately entangled in the eyes of artists, 'scientists', craftspeople and philosophers alike.

" Philosopher's Stone " was interesting.


http://www.crystalinks.com/philosopherstone.html

8)
Last edited by JamesN. on Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

So you know, James, Jung's own intense study of Alchemy led him to say that the spiritual alchemists were actually the first "depth psychologists." Their quest for The Philosopher's Stone had influence on his conceptualizations of individuation and Self.

Ciao!
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

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Post by JamesN. »

Cindy this subject concerns the human ( and/or artistic ) drives that propel an individual. I came across this article this morning and out of curiousity. I went to the " Happyify " website; and then on to the book " Flourish " listed below.

http://news.yahoo.com/katie-couric-happ ... ZJUDMwNF8x


( That led to this. ):


http://www.happify.com/


http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/ ... piness-app


( And then on to this. ):


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/scien ... d=all&_r=0


Now after reading through some of this material my first impression was that it seems almost like a little bit of a " New Age " approach instead of a more solid psychologically grounded inquiry; however; I think there might be some basis for exploring here. So my question concerns the ( confusion ) or difference between the idea of what we might call ( happiness ) and the search for " meaning ". I think it would go without saying as Joe mentions that one must understand and accept the deeper dimensional relationships of both the pain and pleasure within " the rapture or experience of being alive "; as he put it. And contained within these struggles of the individual to seek the realization of their own path my question is; ( Would there indeed be a difference between the search for " happiness and/or meaning? " within the monomyth or " Hero's Journey " ). Now I realize of course that this may sound a bit convoluted and that a component of the process of " Individuation " involves assimilation of some of the clues that may be included as part of the experience or illumination. And I also understand that this search for " fulfillment " might just represent another aspect of this evolvement ; but one of your earlier quotes of Jung's about: " creating a light of meaning in the darkness of mere existence seems to indicate that there is something more to consider if I am clear on this.

My initial thought is that they might be one in the same; ( however ) Jung also states when one reaches later life the " symbols " begin to change their interpreted meaning for the individual because of the interplay between the " inferior and superior " aspects of the self. ( The first half is about the trajectory and realization of life possibilities in the arch of the solar rising; and then the peaking and decline of the individual's inevitable trajectory toward the realities of death. ) And that within this whole " integration " process between all these separate aspects of the individual's growth toward a more harmonized self-realization lies the root of at least part of this perceptual change; i.e. " enantiodromia ". So my impression is that along with the particular life stage one has reached; this inner drive of the individual to define their own sense of meaning, ( purpose ), and/or happiness " changes " over time. ( Again if I am understanding these concepts correctly. )
:)
Last edited by JamesN. on Sat Aug 02, 2014 5:46 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Addendum: After I reworked the above post it occured to me that it might be better suited for the " Jung in the Weeds " thread so we can certainly move it there if need be. :wink:
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Post by Cindy B. »

I'm sorry, James, that I've not yet responded to your post. As you know, I haven't been feeling well so haven't been online much. Look for me again soon...I hope. :roll:
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

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Post by JamesN. »

Cindy don't give it another thought; just wait till whenever you feel better and I will look for you then. :wink:
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Thank you so much, James. I've not forgotten the other matter, too, that's come up in PMs. :)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Cindy; I'm so sorry you have not been feeling well; but in keeping with the topic I just came across this most amazing artist I thought I might share to cheer you up; ( but alas he has some issues ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUtn3pvWmpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOisfieMPS4

( He has many fans but perhaps a somewhat limited perspective. :wink: )

I hope this brightens your day a bit. :)
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

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