How Creativity Can Expedite Your Therapy!
Waking Up to the farthest reaches of human personality is a story of the coming together of art and science. They are not opposites, but sometimes they must be considered that way. The Enlightenment was needed to break from Church and Faith. Romanticism was needed to reconnect with what is spiritual in human nature. Modernism and postmodernism are variations on that dialectic in so far as we must filter these archetypal values through differing subjectivities and cultural diversities: people of color, queer people, and so forth. These values are not only historical but also operate in the contemporary psyche. In simple terms, the “mind” and the “heart” in the story of us all waking up from the group mind and discovering the psyche as the source of all truth and knowledge.
I will tell a story, but if you wait till the end, I will invite you to an event. And a collaboration with a critical bi-activist and organizer, Peter Dewitt of GayWellness.com. Wait, let me tell you now. Gaywellness and Dr. Doug will host an Open Mic event at Doug’s house on Saturday, July 17, from 5-7, called Mind=Blown.
And guess what? I will premiere my novelist memoir, “Fractured Colors: Tales of a Broken Rainbow: A Memoire of Gay Psychological Fragmentation and Integration.” I will be reading from the first chapter, “The Baby Will Fall Out of Your Vagina,” which details the sudden and abrupt birth of Little Doug.
Back to the original story of how the mind becomes aware of itself. To answer this question, how creative are you if you are doing therapy or inner work? Have you ever thought about writing down your memories? Have you ever thought about painting a feeling or a dream? Does your therapist talk to you about the different selves that are in you? How about the baby? The inner attacker? For starters.
Paint a picture of your inner attacker. It could be the image of a parent. Give it a try, and let me know how it goes.
Whatever we call gay, I remember having an entire imaginary life. I was told I had an imaginary friend named Nancy that my parents tolerated. I would probably have been an actor or singer because I was very good at that. But in one camp drama, my mother went backstage and informed me that I was to be a doctor or a lawyer and no two if and or butts.
I also was a very bookish Jewish kid, which got me into an Ivy League College, but I always wanted to be an artist. I dropped out of NYU to be with a performance artist.
When I started therapy, I discovered that drawing images of the psyche was better. I was able to differentiate different figures. All that art I haven’t shown for 30 years but shall.
Becoming a psychologist takes a lot of work and a lot of discipline. It is science, hard work, discipline, and training. Especially if one is going about therapy in a psychoanalytic way. Learning how to work “in the transference” takes many years. A client tells a story while giggling and forces you to giggle back, so you are recruited into being a mocking other. How can you, in good conscience, participate in this “transference.” But if you abruptly call attention to what is happening, you will lose your client. So you must digest your hurt rage and shame and ask your unconscious for advice. My clients do not know this, but when I listen to them, I also go deep inside and discover the images I painted. So when I hear my client say they fell in love, or when they beat up on themselves, I am connecting with my own “child” or “mocking other” or “lover.”
But the problem with all this training, not to mention all of the institution building I have done, is that it is hard to find the TIME to create. To make good money, one must see a lot of patients. One wants to read Virginia Woolf and calm down.
But, for some reason, the goddess of aging brought me a new capacity to break free from too much adherence to institutional life. And I have refunded my creative childhood. I would love to share more with you. Please come to the Open Mic on Saturday, July 15.
