Wednesday 26 March 2008

Creativity and Self-Destructiveness

I'm very interested in creativity and self-destructiveness, because many very creative people, usually famous ones, seem also to be very self-destructive, and I wonder what the reasons are for this. This may be due to the fact that we don't live in a creative society, in terms of learning, education, work and family life, or because creativity is associated with self-destruction by society, and so it gets treated destructively.
 
I want to know whether there is something intrinsically self-destructive about creativity, or whether the self destructiveness is due to social and psychological factors.
 
Many very creative, famous people, end up being very much controlled by their managers, family, and the sycophants and yes-men surrounding them. This often leads to drug abuse or even suicide as the only escape from such falsity, oppression, and social control.
 
Another thing, is that creative people often don't talk or write about society, and the social causes of things such as self-destructiveness. The creative arts are often separated from any kind of political or social analysis, and merely focus on poetry and abstract symbolism. This is why a great deal of lyrics in music are not social or political in their content.
 
Very creative people tend to be too individualistic, creating their own individual ideas of work, rather than also focusing on what it means to have a very creative society in terms of learning, education, work, and general relationships. The creative needs to become the social and political, if it is to achieve its full potential.
 
I think that there's tendency for very creative people to become alienated from their family, friends, and wider society, due to the fact that they are not really understood. There's a tendency to believe about creative persons, that the ego needs to be inflated, and yet very much exposed in creative persons, and that they are prone to madness. These are myths in my opinion, as creative people need the same kind of honest love, socialisation, and support that everyone else needs in society.
 
Then there's also the myth that creative people need stress and tension in order to create very fully or effectiveness. On the contrary, very creative people tend to have a vulnerability to stress, due to the fact that they are very receptive and sensitive to what they experience around them.

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