THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS 37:3-12 (1977)
CREATIVITY AND ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS Jane Simon This paper will attempt to explore the question of creativity, its relation to altered states of consciousness, and the relationship of altered states of consciousness to the analytic process. I think the " h i g h " of altered states of consciousness is experienced in many situations, some of which--for example, TM, yoga, etc.-- have become very popular today. Currently, there is a revival of interest in these phenomena among the public and more recently among psychiatrists. These meditative techniques have been known for many years as an integral part of the Eastern religions, including Zen and yoga, and have recently become of interest in more academic circles. "If we look deeply into such ways of life as Budclism...and Yoga, we do not find either philosophy or religion as these are understood in the West. We find something more nearly resembling psychotherapy . . . . the main resemblance between these Eastern ways of life and Western psychotherapy is in the concern of both with bringing about changes of consciousness, changes in our ways of feeling our own existence and our relation to human society and the natural world. ''I Altered states of consciousness {referred to hereafter as ASC) have been considered a regressive phenomena by classical psychoanalysts, including Ernst Kris and others. Kris explains that creativity comes from "'regression in the service of the ego.;' That is, the initial creative inspiration comes from the person's ability to regress to primary-process thought; the later elaboration of the idea requires the person to use secOndary, logical thought to carry out the inspiration. Today this stance is open to question.* ASC could represent a progression, an integration, rather than a regression. The psychologist Abraham Maslow might describe a creative insight as a ."peak experience," and Karen Horney postulated that the " h i g h " of Zen meditation might represent an integration or a self-realization. Other psychologists who have identified with the counterculture suggest that ecstasy induced by drugs or fasting or contemplation or self-hypnosis may be a means of personal growth. An ASC is defined as " a qualitative alteration in the over-all pattern of *Some researchers believe that primary- and secondary-process thought belong to different hemispheres of the brain; that the right hemisphere, is responsible for primary, creative thought while the left controls secondary, logical reasoning.2 Jane Simon, Faculty, American Institute of Psychoanalysis of the Karen Homey Psychoanalytic Institute and Center, New York.
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mental functioning, such that the experiencer feels his consciousness is radically different from the way it functions ordinarily. "The ASCs experienced by almost all ordinary people are dreaming states and the hypnagogic.., states, the transitional states between sleeping and waking. ''3 The hypnagogic state of consciousness occurs in the transition from wakefulness to sleep and from sleep to wakefulness. In these states dreamlike images appear behind the closed eyelids, coming into awareness fully developed rather than having been logically or discursively developed by the intellect. There are many instances in which unconscious processes reveal themselves to the waking self through hypnagogic-like imagery in words, symbols, and gestalts that result in brilliantly creative solutions to perplexing problems. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is provided by the German chemist Kekule in his account of how he discovered the benzene ring structure, one of the fundamental building blocks in organic chemistry. He had been working on a chemistry textbook, but without much Success:
My spirit was with other things. I turned my chair to the fireplace and sank into a half-sleep. Again the atoms flitted before my eyes .... Long rows, variously, more closely united; all in movement, wriggling and turning like snakes. And see, what was that? One of the snakes seized its own tail and the image whirled scornfully before my eyes. As though from a flash of lightning I awoke; this time again I occupied the rest of the night working out the consequences of the hypothesis. (Quoted in Burnshaw !970, p.177) The artist's act of creation is similar. It is in the artist's act of creation that he comes closest to self-transcendence. James ]oyce ~ recognized this, saying, "The mystery of esthetic like that of material creation is accomplished. The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible." The process of analysis/is a creative experience. Our neurotic ways of functioning gradually die and new ways of interaction are born. The analyst is the midwife intent on bringing forth a healthy baby. He/she must be sensitive, intuitive, and tuned into the unconscious. It is the unconscious which is the gold mine of creativity.
The Analytic Process Rollo May s states that "creativity occurs in an act of encounter and is to be understood with this encounter as its center." Analysis represents an innerdepth encounter with the self. The purpose of therapy is to encourage individuals to recognize their own possibilities, enlightening new aspects of themselves and their interpersonal relationships. "This process taps the source of creativity in people. It turns them toward their own creative springs." Within the course of psychonanalysis or psychotherapy a sudden, over-
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powering insight may occur. This has been referred to as the " a h a " experience. The " a h a " experience, or the phenomenon of the sudden insight, belongs in the category of ASC. "Suddenly with genuine certainty and precision, some new truth becomes realized which shakes one's psychic constitution to its foundations . . . . It comes 'out of the blue' always in the absence of conscious effort, and may occur inside or outside the analytic hour. ... The subjective quality of the sudden insight experience is mentioned by several patients--that is, a vivid, photographic clarity of the spot where the i~sight occurred. Senses are heightened at the moment of insight. ''6 I will illustrate this with a patient's experience in which he suddenly remembered a scene from the movie Fantastic Voyage. He could almost see before him the scene of the young woman being attacked by antibodies that she had produced against her own body by damaging the inner ear as she traveled through the blood vessels as a creature reduced to the size of a red blood corpuscle. He asked himself why he had thought of this scene, feeling it so intensely, and then associated it to a human relationship in which he was involved and which had been destructive for him. In his interaction with this other person, he had created antibodies which he now felt to, be psychically attacking him and draining his energy. He was determined to pull them from his body as the people i~ the film pulled these stellate structures, adherent like blood suckers, from the woman's body, allowing her" to breathe again. He realized he had to get out of this destructive relationship which was draining his energy. This was a sudden, vivid visual insight which represented a definite change in him. The process of creative insight has been divided into phases. 7 ~First there is a long period of work on a problem; attempts at solution are baffled. With superhuman obstinacy, the work is continued. There is psychic frustration. In the second phase, conscious efforts are relaxed. This looks like a relinquishing of the compulsive, logical, dialectic, and teleological thinking. Work has been abandoned, attention absorbed by irrelevant material; this is a period without conscious thought. It is at the end of this phase that the insight occurs. "The third phase or the 'aha' experience occurs most usually when the individual is away from the task and is part of some ordinary, mundane situation -- e.g., 'a flash of l i g h t ' . . . . The moment of insight is exciting." Artists and writers tell of this in many different ways. Toynbee, the famous historian, stumbled upon the idea for his monumentous undertaking of the Study of History. "The 3.5-million word, twelve-volume story of mankind, which took forty years to complete, was begun on Saturday, Sept. 17, 1921, when the author was traveling west from Istanbul in the fabled Orient Express. He had spent the day watching the awesome Thracian countryside slip by and pondering the region's glorious and gory past." ~ Toynbee states: "That evening I was still standing at the window, overwhelmed by the beauty of the Bela Palanka Gorge in the light of the full
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moon, as our train bore down the Nish. If I had been cross-examined on my activities during that day, I should have sworn that my attention had been wholly absorbed by the entrancing scenes that were passing continually before my outward eye. Yet, before I went to sleep that night, I found that I had put down on half a sheet of notepaper a list of topics which in its contents and their order, was substantially identical with the plan of this book as it now stands." The sudden insight involves "the abolition of a narrow-ranged consciousness and the substitution of a more integrated personality." Homey equated Zen enlightment with her own "self-realization" as breaking through the shell of "egocentricity. ''9 "Both the Zen idea of Satori, the sudden flash of enlightenment and the concept of 'self-realization' were concerned with shattering the restricting bonds of individual egotism and self-absorption/ '1° One transcends ego-boundaries and may feel at one with the universe, peaceful without inner conflict.* " I n the healthy individual the Socratic, dialectic, logical process compliments the mystical, intuitive, non-teleological process. These are not in conflict . . . . We can also use the analogy of a rhythmic movement back and forth from a high-powered to a low-powered field of consciousness. Severe inner conflicts upset this healthy, rhythmic process and impair the capacity for insight, creativity and growth . . . . ,,6 Martin explains how this combination can be achieved in the analytic process. " A diffusion of consciousness and the de-localization of conflict is helped by free association, by non-dialectic, random self-expression, and by meditation and contemplation . . . . As the same conflict is brought to awareness and recognized in various levels of functioning and is then relived with the therapist, some of the most sudden insights occur. ''6 There is value in conflict: "Conscious admission of conflict involvement is a prerequisite for all insight and creativity. ''6 ~Rollo May agrees with this and alters a previous view of his regarding TM as stimulating creativity. He believes that TM furthers one aspect of creativity, namely spontaneity, or intuitively "feeling one's self into the universe. ''s However, he states that TM omits the element of encounter which is essential for mature creativity: "The aspects of struggle, of tension, of constructive stress...are forgotten in T M . " Altered States of Consciousness
Rollo May's disagreement brings us into what has been regarded by some as the opponent camp to psychoanalysis. I will include the mystical experience, hypnosis, transcendental meditation, the relaxation response, and biofeedback. *"Zen meditation producesa relaxation of bodily and mental tension and when full developed brings a mental condition called Satori deep peace and clear ecstatic consciousnessand oneness with all creation. This highest state of consciousnessis the goal of Zen.''4
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The mystical experience, or feeling of sudden ecstacy, has certain similarities to the creative insight. William J ames' book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, is still the best study of ecstacy. He characterizes such experiences as "ineffable" (defying expression), "noetic" (providing an overwhelming experience of understanding), "transient" (lasting but a short time, although the "afterglow" may persist a lifetime), and "passive" (the person feels "grasped" by some sort of superior power). 11 No matter where the place or who the person, certain common themes pervade, such as joy, light, peace, fire, warmth, unity, certainty, confidence, and rebirth. In a recent study, 11 40 percent of a sample of people interviewed in the United States said they had experienced one or more mystical experiences, (responding positively to the question, "Have you ever had the feeling of being very close to a powerful spiritual force that seemed to lift you out of yourself?". Like the mystics of the classic tradition, the interviewees perceived the phenomenon as fundamentally cognitive. They did not necessarily see a person or a vision, but saw the "way things really are. The core of the event is knowing something or Something. The joy, peace, heat, light, and other such aspects of the experience are perceived as the result of knowledge. ''11 This study also found, on the basis of a brief psychological wellbeing scale, that there was a high correlation between frequent ecstatic experiences and psychological well-being. The experience of meditation can be defined as "an exercise which employs repetition to turn off the active mode of consciousness and allows a 'bypass' to be developed into the quiescient, receptive mode. ''12 Meditation is now being physiologically studied, and many reports find that it leads to an increase in the alpha rhythms of the brain (very slow, high amplitude brain waves that range in frequency from eight to thirteen cycles per second and which appear during relaxation and are blocked during arousal) and to other changes associated with relaxation. Let us turn to another ASC, hypnosis. Not too much is known about hypnosis and creativity. One way in which hypnosis and creativity diverge is that conventional reality is relatively unimportant for the daydreamer and the hypnotized person. The importance of conventional reality is guaranteed to the creative person, however, for it constitutes his worthy adversary: " i t [reality] is the stuff that the creative imagination transforms. ''~3 This takes us back to a previous point, that the encounter with self and reality is lacking in hypnosis, and, therefore, the creative process might not be expected to occur. "Observing a susceptible hypnotized subject, one sees a person who appears to be in quite a relaxed state. His breathing is slow and regular; he does not move unless directed to do so by the operator; he lacks spontaneity. He follows the orders of the hypnotist rather mechanically without much expression and with a fixed gaze. He may act or respond to suggestions
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which may be quite irrational (concept of trans-logic by Orne... ). The emotional factor has been particularly important in shaping the history of hypnosis and defining its current status. One who observes demonstrations of hypnosis may have different emotional reactions. He may experience awe and wonder originating from his own need to exercise power over another • person; he may be alarmed about the evil implications in the influence that the hypnotist seems to have over the subject. The opportunity to surrender to an all-powerful person may excite him or the thought of participating in a mysterious practice from which he derives a feeling of adventure and personal importance might prove challenging . . . . ,,14 The giving up of power or control over oneself is reminiscent of the mystical experience in which one feels taken over by a greater being or power. Also, physiological changes may occur in hypnosis. Benson and others have observed that if it is suggested to the hypnotized person that he is feeling peaceful and lolling on a beach in the Caribbean, physiological changes that correspond to those seen during TM or the relaxation response will occur. Yoga seems to contain a large element of self-hypnosis. Suggestion is considered the most important step of y0ga. 16 These suggestions include physical suggestion (every thought influences our body), suggestions of senses (we constantly give and receive suggestions through our sense organs), verbal suggestion (we repeat an idea over and over and with time achieve success), mental suggestion, environmental suggestion, and autosuggestion (to attain perfection in this practice). "Autosuggestion is the greatest energy of all, and it is the greatest of all cures/' Yogic meditators seek to attend to one focus until all inner and outer distractions fall away, while Zen meditators seek to remain aware of each hereand-now moment without getting carried away into discursive thought. Thus yoga may be a well-organized system of au[ohypnosis and exercises involving the body and mind to gain control of them. " B y auto-suggestion a beginner should re-establish confidence in his mind. Thus,.he will be able to conquer his sufferings, fears, phobias, and other conscious and unconscious mental waves." I think that, to a large extent, analysis aims to accomplish such goals, but in addition attempts to help us understand the workings of our interpersonal relationships. Biofeedback is a main focus of attention today. 17 Related to biofeedback and TM is the relaxation response popularized by Dr. Herbert Benson. 18 The relaxation response has conferred considerable respectability on the technique, by decreasing blood pressure in "pharmacologically treated hypertensive patients who regularly elicited the relaxation response." From the Eastern, Western, religious, cultic, and lay practices that led to the Relaxation Response, Benson has extracted four basic components: (I) A quiet environment, which contributes to the effectiveness of the repeated
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9
word or phrase by making it easier to eliminate distracting thoughts. (2) A mental device -- to shift the mind from logical, externally oriented thought, a sound, word, or phrase repeated silently or aloud. (3) A passive attitude in which distracting thoughts are disregarded and attention redirected to the repetition or gazing. (4) A comfortable position to prevent undue muscular tension. Benson also states that it is important to remember that there is not a single method for eliciting the Relaxation Response. TM is only one of the many techniques that incorporate these components. 18 TM is the technique taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who speaks of meditation as "turning the attention inwards towards the subtle levels of thought until the mind transcends the experience of the subtlest state of thought as the source of thought." The technique does not involve forced concentration or contemplation or any form of physical or mental control. The meditator is given a mantra by a teacher trained by Maharishi, and he is asked to meditate twice a day for about twenty minutes.* During TM, an increase in skin resistance has been observed, indicating decreased perspiration and increased relaxation. Alpha waves are produced that "appear to involve the entire dominant hemisphere within a few minutes after the individual starts to meditate and spread quite rapidly to the opposite hemisphere." Two possible negative consequences of TM have been observed. (The population studied consisted of individuals who had been hospitalized for psychiatric illness.) One was the appearance of "rather primitive, very distressing thoughts and ideas." Another was an extension of these into the precipitation of an overt psychotic episode. It is noted that negative consequences have been rare and that they seem to have occurred with people who meditated more than twice a day for longer than the usual twenty minutes. Dr. Benson has also observed that, if done excessively for weeks on end, the Relaxation Response or TM can lead to hallucinatory or dissociative states, is Brain waves have also been studied in creative people.2 Martindale found that most people produced alpha waves when they are relaxing and reduce alpha frequency when they are working on a problem. Creative people produce less alpha when they are relaxing and increase their alpha frequency when they work on an imaginative problem. "Creativity and intellectual ability require two different thought processes: the former call for low cortical arousal and defusing one's powers of concentration; the latter calls for higher cortical arousal and focused attention." Overall, creative people are not better able tb control or suppress alpha *This differs from Zen meditation in which the meditator tries to remain aware of the present moment; he establishes a mental vantage point from which he observes the flux of his own mental states. Rather than concentrating on a given focus, the awareness meditator follows his own breathing and his own thoughts and sensations. 3
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waves. Martindale, like Rollo May, fears that TM may stifle creativity. It has been found that people who practice TM regularly have few spontaneous fluctuations in their skin conductance, but creative people have many. He fears that all the effort to promote biofeedback gadgets, alpha machines, and meditation may have the side effect of decreasing our ability to think creatively. With the use of these methods (TM, RR, biofeedback, and hypnosis), it appears that we are at times bypassing the conflict or the encounter, the confrontation with self in relation to reality that is necessary in order to create or to gain creative insights. Psychoanalysis seeks to improve our awareness of what is going on in our present relationships with people and in our relationship with ourselves. "The ultimate goal in analytic treatment is to bring about changes in the personality which enable the individual to dispense with neurotic trends, to resolve inner conflicts, to find and develop his real self, his real values and goals and to start on a new way of life. ''19 The creative person will become more so during the analytic or therapeutic process. He/she will not need TM or biofeedback in order to get in touch with his emotions or bodily sensations. The mystical experience seems more akin to the creative insight or the " a h a " experience in the overwhelming feeling that something is now known or understood. It appears from the above evidence that we cannot bypass the "encounter" with self and reality and still allow our creativity to blossom. The "alpha-wave" high is not always a creative high. It may be a high of gaining control of a bodily function -- for example, controlling blood pressure - and represents a "bypass" phenomenon. The bypass process may be a bypass of conflict and creative insight, but for some people the control of autonomic body functions may be helpful. To hypothesize about brain circuitry, it may be that the stimulus passes from higher cortical centers into the lower, perhaps the more .primitive limbic syStem. However, these bypass techniques also constitute a bypass in that they will not result in insight and would best be used in conjunction with verbal therapy or analysis. Many people who can profit from the analytic relationship may not need to step outside its context to acquire these other techniques. As Martin explains, they are built into the analytic process, by the encouragement of a diffusion of consciousness, by free association, random self-expression, and by meditation and contemplation and exploration of dreams. A patient in the course of analysis may discover the alteration in his or her consciousness. One patient of mine spontaneously used autohypnosis to get rid of her anger. She imagined she was letting go of her anger; it was flowing out of her body, down her arms, into her finger tips, and then into the air. Spiegei 2° says many of us often use self-hypnosis without being aware of it, as we all do in the transition between waking and sleeping. TM, the relaxation response and yoga may represent a state of self-hypnosis. Biofeedback
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may represent a similar state of consciousness for those who must have objective evidence, such as machines emitting sounds, to reinforce the fact that they are controlling their own bodies. For individuals who are not concerned with creative insight and personal growth involving interpersonal relationships but are concerned with altering an autonomic function, a technique such as TM, biofeedback, hypnosis, or yoga may be more suitable than analysis or verbal psychotherapy. At times, perhaps, the two techniques can be integrated for those who want to obtain insights and also want to control an autonomic function which might require the use of TM. Summary
I propose that the separate camps of analysis and ASC are not necessarily so far apart. ASC occur within the analytic or therapeutic situation: during the hour, in the course of dreams, and in the " a h a " experience of the creative insight. A passive, meditative state, a scanning state, is at times encouraged. A concentration on feeling emotional and bodily sensations may lead to control over these. At times hypnosis has been used within the course of analysis for traumatic neurosis or conversion hysteria. 3 Meditation is often employed. Biofeedback is a useful technique for individuals who must have objective evidence that they are controlling an aspect of their bodies. Some individuals may not be able to get in touch with their bodily sensations any other way. The healthy individual confronts and encounters conflict and then lets go of conflict, alternating between active and passive states. Severe conflict prevents this, causing decreased creativity and productivity and neurosis, psychosis, and psychosomatic disease. A severely conflicted person cannot cope with the experience of ASC. Perhaps it is not accidental that we define brain functioning in terms of brain waves; in the healthy brain we observe rhythms like those ocean waves, beating on the shore and then receding. Alpha waves alternate with beta waves, primary process alternates with secondary process,, sleeping alternates with wz.king, activity alternates with passivity, the creative encounter alternates with meditation, and together they constitute the whole of psychic experience. References
1. Watts, A. Psychotherapy, East and West. New York: Ballantine, 1961. 2. Martindale, C. What makes creative people different, Psychology, Today, July 1975, 44-50. 3. Frontiers of Consciousness (J. White, ed.). New York: Avon, 1974. 4. Joyce, J. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 5. May, R. The Courage to Create. New York: Norton, 1975.
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6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
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Martin, A.R.The dynamics of insight. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 12, 1952, 24. Hutchinson, E.D. The nature of insight. Psychiatry, 4, 1941, 31. New York Times, October 23, 1975, p. 1. Developments in Horney Psychoanalysis (J. Rubins, ed.). New York: Krieger, 1972. Ms. Magazine, June 1975. New York Times Magazine, Jan. 26, 1975, pp. 12-25. The Nature of Human Consciousness (R. Ornstein, ed.). New York: Viking, 1974. Hypnosis: Research Developments and Perspectives (Erika Fromm and R.S. Shor, eds.). Chicago: Aldine, 1972, pp. 255-291, K.S. Bowers and P.G. Bowers, Hypnosis and creativity. Khatami, M. Hypnosis as a healing art. The Human Influence in Medicine, MSD, April 1975. Scarf, M. Tuning down with TM. New York Times Magazine, Feb, 1975. Mishra, R.S. Fundamentals of Yoga. New York: Anchor, 1974. Frontiers of Psychiatry, Roche Report, Nov. 1, 1975. Benson, H. The Relaxation Response. Are You Considering Psychoanalysis? (K. Homey, ed.). New York: Norton, 1946. Spiegel, H. Personal communication, course PM 4-5, Columbia Medical Center, November 1974.
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CREATIVITY AND ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS Jane Simon This paper will attempt to explore the question of creativity, its relation to altered states of consciousness, and the relationship of altered states of consciousness to the analytic process. I think the " h i g h " of altered states of consciousness is experienced in many situations, some of which--for example, TM, yoga, etc.-- have become very popular today. Currently, there is a revival of interest in these phenomena among the public and more recently among psychiatrists. These meditative techniques have been known for many years as an integral part of the Eastern religions, including Zen and yoga, and have recently become of interest in more academic circles. "If we look deeply into such ways of life as Budclism...and Yoga, we do not find either philosophy or religion as these are understood in the West. We find something more nearly resembling psychotherapy . . . . the main resemblance between these Eastern ways of life and Western psychotherapy is in the concern of both with bringing about changes of consciousness, changes in our ways of feeling our own existence and our relation to human society and the natural world. ''I Altered states of consciousness {referred to hereafter as ASC) have been considered a regressive phenomena by classical psychoanalysts, including Ernst Kris and others. Kris explains that creativity comes from "'regression in the service of the ego.;' That is, the initial creative inspiration comes from the person's ability to regress to primary-process thought; the later elaboration of the idea requires the person to use secOndary, logical thought to carry out the inspiration. Today this stance is open to question.* ASC could represent a progression, an integration, rather than a regression. The psychologist Abraham Maslow might describe a creative insight as a ."peak experience," and Karen Horney postulated that the " h i g h " of Zen meditation might represent an integration or a self-realization. Other psychologists who have identified with the counterculture suggest that ecstasy induced by drugs or fasting or contemplation or self-hypnosis may be a means of personal growth. An ASC is defined as " a qualitative alteration in the over-all pattern of *Some researchers believe that primary- and secondary-process thought belong to different hemispheres of the brain; that the right hemisphere, is responsible for primary, creative thought while the left controls secondary, logical reasoning.2 Jane Simon, Faculty, American Institute of Psychoanalysis of the Karen Homey Psychoanalytic Institute and Center, New York.
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mental functioning, such that the experiencer feels his consciousness is radically different from the way it functions ordinarily. "The ASCs experienced by almost all ordinary people are dreaming states and the hypnagogic.., states, the transitional states between sleeping and waking. ''3 The hypnagogic state of consciousness occurs in the transition from wakefulness to sleep and from sleep to wakefulness. In these states dreamlike images appear behind the closed eyelids, coming into awareness fully developed rather than having been logically or discursively developed by the intellect. There are many instances in which unconscious processes reveal themselves to the waking self through hypnagogic-like imagery in words, symbols, and gestalts that result in brilliantly creative solutions to perplexing problems. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is provided by the German chemist Kekule in his account of how he discovered the benzene ring structure, one of the fundamental building blocks in organic chemistry. He had been working on a chemistry textbook, but without much Success:
My spirit was with other things. I turned my chair to the fireplace and sank into a half-sleep. Again the atoms flitted before my eyes .... Long rows, variously, more closely united; all in movement, wriggling and turning like snakes. And see, what was that? One of the snakes seized its own tail and the image whirled scornfully before my eyes. As though from a flash of lightning I awoke; this time again I occupied the rest of the night working out the consequences of the hypothesis. (Quoted in Burnshaw !970, p.177) The artist's act of creation is similar. It is in the artist's act of creation that he comes closest to self-transcendence. James ]oyce ~ recognized this, saying, "The mystery of esthetic like that of material creation is accomplished. The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible." The process of analysis/is a creative experience. Our neurotic ways of functioning gradually die and new ways of interaction are born. The analyst is the midwife intent on bringing forth a healthy baby. He/she must be sensitive, intuitive, and tuned into the unconscious. It is the unconscious which is the gold mine of creativity.
The Analytic Process Rollo May s states that "creativity occurs in an act of encounter and is to be understood with this encounter as its center." Analysis represents an innerdepth encounter with the self. The purpose of therapy is to encourage individuals to recognize their own possibilities, enlightening new aspects of themselves and their interpersonal relationships. "This process taps the source of creativity in people. It turns them toward their own creative springs." Within the course of psychonanalysis or psychotherapy a sudden, over-
C R E A T I V I T Y A N D A L T E R E D STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
.5
powering insight may occur. This has been referred to as the " a h a " experience. The " a h a " experience, or the phenomenon of the sudden insight, belongs in the category of ASC. "Suddenly with genuine certainty and precision, some new truth becomes realized which shakes one's psychic constitution to its foundations . . . . It comes 'out of the blue' always in the absence of conscious effort, and may occur inside or outside the analytic hour. ... The subjective quality of the sudden insight experience is mentioned by several patients--that is, a vivid, photographic clarity of the spot where the i~sight occurred. Senses are heightened at the moment of insight. ''6 I will illustrate this with a patient's experience in which he suddenly remembered a scene from the movie Fantastic Voyage. He could almost see before him the scene of the young woman being attacked by antibodies that she had produced against her own body by damaging the inner ear as she traveled through the blood vessels as a creature reduced to the size of a red blood corpuscle. He asked himself why he had thought of this scene, feeling it so intensely, and then associated it to a human relationship in which he was involved and which had been destructive for him. In his interaction with this other person, he had created antibodies which he now felt to, be psychically attacking him and draining his energy. He was determined to pull them from his body as the people i~ the film pulled these stellate structures, adherent like blood suckers, from the woman's body, allowing her" to breathe again. He realized he had to get out of this destructive relationship which was draining his energy. This was a sudden, vivid visual insight which represented a definite change in him. The process of creative insight has been divided into phases. 7 ~First there is a long period of work on a problem; attempts at solution are baffled. With superhuman obstinacy, the work is continued. There is psychic frustration. In the second phase, conscious efforts are relaxed. This looks like a relinquishing of the compulsive, logical, dialectic, and teleological thinking. Work has been abandoned, attention absorbed by irrelevant material; this is a period without conscious thought. It is at the end of this phase that the insight occurs. "The third phase or the 'aha' experience occurs most usually when the individual is away from the task and is part of some ordinary, mundane situation -- e.g., 'a flash of l i g h t ' . . . . The moment of insight is exciting." Artists and writers tell of this in many different ways. Toynbee, the famous historian, stumbled upon the idea for his monumentous undertaking of the Study of History. "The 3.5-million word, twelve-volume story of mankind, which took forty years to complete, was begun on Saturday, Sept. 17, 1921, when the author was traveling west from Istanbul in the fabled Orient Express. He had spent the day watching the awesome Thracian countryside slip by and pondering the region's glorious and gory past." ~ Toynbee states: "That evening I was still standing at the window, overwhelmed by the beauty of the Bela Palanka Gorge in the light of the full
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moon, as our train bore down the Nish. If I had been cross-examined on my activities during that day, I should have sworn that my attention had been wholly absorbed by the entrancing scenes that were passing continually before my outward eye. Yet, before I went to sleep that night, I found that I had put down on half a sheet of notepaper a list of topics which in its contents and their order, was substantially identical with the plan of this book as it now stands." The sudden insight involves "the abolition of a narrow-ranged consciousness and the substitution of a more integrated personality." Homey equated Zen enlightment with her own "self-realization" as breaking through the shell of "egocentricity. ''9 "Both the Zen idea of Satori, the sudden flash of enlightenment and the concept of 'self-realization' were concerned with shattering the restricting bonds of individual egotism and self-absorption/ '1° One transcends ego-boundaries and may feel at one with the universe, peaceful without inner conflict.* " I n the healthy individual the Socratic, dialectic, logical process compliments the mystical, intuitive, non-teleological process. These are not in conflict . . . . We can also use the analogy of a rhythmic movement back and forth from a high-powered to a low-powered field of consciousness. Severe inner conflicts upset this healthy, rhythmic process and impair the capacity for insight, creativity and growth . . . . ,,6 Martin explains how this combination can be achieved in the analytic process. " A diffusion of consciousness and the de-localization of conflict is helped by free association, by non-dialectic, random self-expression, and by meditation and contemplation . . . . As the same conflict is brought to awareness and recognized in various levels of functioning and is then relived with the therapist, some of the most sudden insights occur. ''6 There is value in conflict: "Conscious admission of conflict involvement is a prerequisite for all insight and creativity. ''6 ~Rollo May agrees with this and alters a previous view of his regarding TM as stimulating creativity. He believes that TM furthers one aspect of creativity, namely spontaneity, or intuitively "feeling one's self into the universe. ''s However, he states that TM omits the element of encounter which is essential for mature creativity: "The aspects of struggle, of tension, of constructive stress...are forgotten in T M . " Altered States of Consciousness
Rollo May's disagreement brings us into what has been regarded by some as the opponent camp to psychoanalysis. I will include the mystical experience, hypnosis, transcendental meditation, the relaxation response, and biofeedback. *"Zen meditation producesa relaxation of bodily and mental tension and when full developed brings a mental condition called Satori deep peace and clear ecstatic consciousnessand oneness with all creation. This highest state of consciousnessis the goal of Zen.''4
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The mystical experience, or feeling of sudden ecstacy, has certain similarities to the creative insight. William J ames' book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, is still the best study of ecstacy. He characterizes such experiences as "ineffable" (defying expression), "noetic" (providing an overwhelming experience of understanding), "transient" (lasting but a short time, although the "afterglow" may persist a lifetime), and "passive" (the person feels "grasped" by some sort of superior power). 11 No matter where the place or who the person, certain common themes pervade, such as joy, light, peace, fire, warmth, unity, certainty, confidence, and rebirth. In a recent study, 11 40 percent of a sample of people interviewed in the United States said they had experienced one or more mystical experiences, (responding positively to the question, "Have you ever had the feeling of being very close to a powerful spiritual force that seemed to lift you out of yourself?". Like the mystics of the classic tradition, the interviewees perceived the phenomenon as fundamentally cognitive. They did not necessarily see a person or a vision, but saw the "way things really are. The core of the event is knowing something or Something. The joy, peace, heat, light, and other such aspects of the experience are perceived as the result of knowledge. ''11 This study also found, on the basis of a brief psychological wellbeing scale, that there was a high correlation between frequent ecstatic experiences and psychological well-being. The experience of meditation can be defined as "an exercise which employs repetition to turn off the active mode of consciousness and allows a 'bypass' to be developed into the quiescient, receptive mode. ''12 Meditation is now being physiologically studied, and many reports find that it leads to an increase in the alpha rhythms of the brain (very slow, high amplitude brain waves that range in frequency from eight to thirteen cycles per second and which appear during relaxation and are blocked during arousal) and to other changes associated with relaxation. Let us turn to another ASC, hypnosis. Not too much is known about hypnosis and creativity. One way in which hypnosis and creativity diverge is that conventional reality is relatively unimportant for the daydreamer and the hypnotized person. The importance of conventional reality is guaranteed to the creative person, however, for it constitutes his worthy adversary: " i t [reality] is the stuff that the creative imagination transforms. ''~3 This takes us back to a previous point, that the encounter with self and reality is lacking in hypnosis, and, therefore, the creative process might not be expected to occur. "Observing a susceptible hypnotized subject, one sees a person who appears to be in quite a relaxed state. His breathing is slow and regular; he does not move unless directed to do so by the operator; he lacks spontaneity. He follows the orders of the hypnotist rather mechanically without much expression and with a fixed gaze. He may act or respond to suggestions
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which may be quite irrational (concept of trans-logic by Orne... ). The emotional factor has been particularly important in shaping the history of hypnosis and defining its current status. One who observes demonstrations of hypnosis may have different emotional reactions. He may experience awe and wonder originating from his own need to exercise power over another • person; he may be alarmed about the evil implications in the influence that the hypnotist seems to have over the subject. The opportunity to surrender to an all-powerful person may excite him or the thought of participating in a mysterious practice from which he derives a feeling of adventure and personal importance might prove challenging . . . . ,,14 The giving up of power or control over oneself is reminiscent of the mystical experience in which one feels taken over by a greater being or power. Also, physiological changes may occur in hypnosis. Benson and others have observed that if it is suggested to the hypnotized person that he is feeling peaceful and lolling on a beach in the Caribbean, physiological changes that correspond to those seen during TM or the relaxation response will occur. Yoga seems to contain a large element of self-hypnosis. Suggestion is considered the most important step of y0ga. 16 These suggestions include physical suggestion (every thought influences our body), suggestions of senses (we constantly give and receive suggestions through our sense organs), verbal suggestion (we repeat an idea over and over and with time achieve success), mental suggestion, environmental suggestion, and autosuggestion (to attain perfection in this practice). "Autosuggestion is the greatest energy of all, and it is the greatest of all cures/' Yogic meditators seek to attend to one focus until all inner and outer distractions fall away, while Zen meditators seek to remain aware of each hereand-now moment without getting carried away into discursive thought. Thus yoga may be a well-organized system of au[ohypnosis and exercises involving the body and mind to gain control of them. " B y auto-suggestion a beginner should re-establish confidence in his mind. Thus,.he will be able to conquer his sufferings, fears, phobias, and other conscious and unconscious mental waves." I think that, to a large extent, analysis aims to accomplish such goals, but in addition attempts to help us understand the workings of our interpersonal relationships. Biofeedback is a main focus of attention today. 17 Related to biofeedback and TM is the relaxation response popularized by Dr. Herbert Benson. 18 The relaxation response has conferred considerable respectability on the technique, by decreasing blood pressure in "pharmacologically treated hypertensive patients who regularly elicited the relaxation response." From the Eastern, Western, religious, cultic, and lay practices that led to the Relaxation Response, Benson has extracted four basic components: (I) A quiet environment, which contributes to the effectiveness of the repeated
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word or phrase by making it easier to eliminate distracting thoughts. (2) A mental device -- to shift the mind from logical, externally oriented thought, a sound, word, or phrase repeated silently or aloud. (3) A passive attitude in which distracting thoughts are disregarded and attention redirected to the repetition or gazing. (4) A comfortable position to prevent undue muscular tension. Benson also states that it is important to remember that there is not a single method for eliciting the Relaxation Response. TM is only one of the many techniques that incorporate these components. 18 TM is the technique taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who speaks of meditation as "turning the attention inwards towards the subtle levels of thought until the mind transcends the experience of the subtlest state of thought as the source of thought." The technique does not involve forced concentration or contemplation or any form of physical or mental control. The meditator is given a mantra by a teacher trained by Maharishi, and he is asked to meditate twice a day for about twenty minutes.* During TM, an increase in skin resistance has been observed, indicating decreased perspiration and increased relaxation. Alpha waves are produced that "appear to involve the entire dominant hemisphere within a few minutes after the individual starts to meditate and spread quite rapidly to the opposite hemisphere." Two possible negative consequences of TM have been observed. (The population studied consisted of individuals who had been hospitalized for psychiatric illness.) One was the appearance of "rather primitive, very distressing thoughts and ideas." Another was an extension of these into the precipitation of an overt psychotic episode. It is noted that negative consequences have been rare and that they seem to have occurred with people who meditated more than twice a day for longer than the usual twenty minutes. Dr. Benson has also observed that, if done excessively for weeks on end, the Relaxation Response or TM can lead to hallucinatory or dissociative states, is Brain waves have also been studied in creative people.2 Martindale found that most people produced alpha waves when they are relaxing and reduce alpha frequency when they are working on a problem. Creative people produce less alpha when they are relaxing and increase their alpha frequency when they work on an imaginative problem. "Creativity and intellectual ability require two different thought processes: the former call for low cortical arousal and defusing one's powers of concentration; the latter calls for higher cortical arousal and focused attention." Overall, creative people are not better able tb control or suppress alpha *This differs from Zen meditation in which the meditator tries to remain aware of the present moment; he establishes a mental vantage point from which he observes the flux of his own mental states. Rather than concentrating on a given focus, the awareness meditator follows his own breathing and his own thoughts and sensations. 3
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waves. Martindale, like Rollo May, fears that TM may stifle creativity. It has been found that people who practice TM regularly have few spontaneous fluctuations in their skin conductance, but creative people have many. He fears that all the effort to promote biofeedback gadgets, alpha machines, and meditation may have the side effect of decreasing our ability to think creatively. With the use of these methods (TM, RR, biofeedback, and hypnosis), it appears that we are at times bypassing the conflict or the encounter, the confrontation with self in relation to reality that is necessary in order to create or to gain creative insights. Psychoanalysis seeks to improve our awareness of what is going on in our present relationships with people and in our relationship with ourselves. "The ultimate goal in analytic treatment is to bring about changes in the personality which enable the individual to dispense with neurotic trends, to resolve inner conflicts, to find and develop his real self, his real values and goals and to start on a new way of life. ''19 The creative person will become more so during the analytic or therapeutic process. He/she will not need TM or biofeedback in order to get in touch with his emotions or bodily sensations. The mystical experience seems more akin to the creative insight or the " a h a " experience in the overwhelming feeling that something is now known or understood. It appears from the above evidence that we cannot bypass the "encounter" with self and reality and still allow our creativity to blossom. The "alpha-wave" high is not always a creative high. It may be a high of gaining control of a bodily function -- for example, controlling blood pressure - and represents a "bypass" phenomenon. The bypass process may be a bypass of conflict and creative insight, but for some people the control of autonomic body functions may be helpful. To hypothesize about brain circuitry, it may be that the stimulus passes from higher cortical centers into the lower, perhaps the more .primitive limbic syStem. However, these bypass techniques also constitute a bypass in that they will not result in insight and would best be used in conjunction with verbal therapy or analysis. Many people who can profit from the analytic relationship may not need to step outside its context to acquire these other techniques. As Martin explains, they are built into the analytic process, by the encouragement of a diffusion of consciousness, by free association, random self-expression, and by meditation and contemplation and exploration of dreams. A patient in the course of analysis may discover the alteration in his or her consciousness. One patient of mine spontaneously used autohypnosis to get rid of her anger. She imagined she was letting go of her anger; it was flowing out of her body, down her arms, into her finger tips, and then into the air. Spiegei 2° says many of us often use self-hypnosis without being aware of it, as we all do in the transition between waking and sleeping. TM, the relaxation response and yoga may represent a state of self-hypnosis. Biofeedback
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may represent a similar state of consciousness for those who must have objective evidence, such as machines emitting sounds, to reinforce the fact that they are controlling their own bodies. For individuals who are not concerned with creative insight and personal growth involving interpersonal relationships but are concerned with altering an autonomic function, a technique such as TM, biofeedback, hypnosis, or yoga may be more suitable than analysis or verbal psychotherapy. At times, perhaps, the two techniques can be integrated for those who want to obtain insights and also want to control an autonomic function which might require the use of TM. Summary
I propose that the separate camps of analysis and ASC are not necessarily so far apart. ASC occur within the analytic or therapeutic situation: during the hour, in the course of dreams, and in the " a h a " experience of the creative insight. A passive, meditative state, a scanning state, is at times encouraged. A concentration on feeling emotional and bodily sensations may lead to control over these. At times hypnosis has been used within the course of analysis for traumatic neurosis or conversion hysteria. 3 Meditation is often employed. Biofeedback is a useful technique for individuals who must have objective evidence that they are controlling an aspect of their bodies. Some individuals may not be able to get in touch with their bodily sensations any other way. The healthy individual confronts and encounters conflict and then lets go of conflict, alternating between active and passive states. Severe conflict prevents this, causing decreased creativity and productivity and neurosis, psychosis, and psychosomatic disease. A severely conflicted person cannot cope with the experience of ASC. Perhaps it is not accidental that we define brain functioning in terms of brain waves; in the healthy brain we observe rhythms like those ocean waves, beating on the shore and then receding. Alpha waves alternate with beta waves, primary process alternates with secondary process,, sleeping alternates with wz.king, activity alternates with passivity, the creative encounter alternates with meditation, and together they constitute the whole of psychic experience. References
1. Watts, A. Psychotherapy, East and West. New York: Ballantine, 1961. 2. Martindale, C. What makes creative people different, Psychology, Today, July 1975, 44-50. 3. Frontiers of Consciousness (J. White, ed.). New York: Avon, 1974. 4. Joyce, J. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 5. May, R. The Courage to Create. New York: Norton, 1975.
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Martin, A.R.The dynamics of insight. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 12, 1952, 24. Hutchinson, E.D. The nature of insight. Psychiatry, 4, 1941, 31. New York Times, October 23, 1975, p. 1. Developments in Horney Psychoanalysis (J. Rubins, ed.). New York: Krieger, 1972. Ms. Magazine, June 1975. New York Times Magazine, Jan. 26, 1975, pp. 12-25. The Nature of Human Consciousness (R. Ornstein, ed.). New York: Viking, 1974. Hypnosis: Research Developments and Perspectives (Erika Fromm and R.S. Shor, eds.). Chicago: Aldine, 1972, pp. 255-291, K.S. Bowers and P.G. Bowers, Hypnosis and creativity. Khatami, M. Hypnosis as a healing art. The Human Influence in Medicine, MSD, April 1975. Scarf, M. Tuning down with TM. New York Times Magazine, Feb, 1975. Mishra, R.S. Fundamentals of Yoga. New York: Anchor, 1974. Frontiers of Psychiatry, Roche Report, Nov. 1, 1975. Benson, H. The Relaxation Response. Are You Considering Psychoanalysis? (K. Homey, ed.). New York: Norton, 1946. Spiegel, H. Personal communication, course PM 4-5, Columbia Medical Center, November 1974.
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