The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholenessby Lawrence H. Staples.
Who we most deeply are is mirrored in our artistic work. Our need for mirroring simultaneously attracts us to and repels us from our creative callings and relationships. It is one of life's great dilemmas.
Artist's block and lover's block flow from the same pool. Often, we fear deeply the very thing needed to create original art, to experience intimate relationships and to live authentic lives: we are frightened by the impulse to be fully revealed to ourselves, and to others, as this most often entails exposing the unacceptable shadowy aspects of our humanity and risking rejection.
Mirrors in all their manifold guises permit us to safely see and experience ourselves in reflection and become better acquainted with the rejected, ostracized aspects of our personalities. Creative work is one of the few places where we can truly express and witness lost aspects of our authentic selves.
Within us a treasure beckons. This is what we spend our lives pursuing. What slows and distracts us is not the object we long for, but where we search. To find this precious gem, we must eventually return to our own creative spirits.
A few of the topics explored in THE CREATIVE SOUL include:
- THE CREATIVE INSTINCT
- OUR UNIQUE IDENTITY
- SOME ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
- SOME PREREQUISITES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
- GIVING VOICE TO THE MANY LIVES WITHIN
- DREAMS AND ACTIVE IMAGINATION AS TRIGGERS TO CREATIVITY
- CREATIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE
- ART AND THE QUEST FOR WHOLENESS
- THERAPY AS ART
- FEAR OF SELF-REVELATION BLOCKS CREATIVITY
- INTIMACY AND CREATIVITY
- CREATIVITY, GUILT, AND SELF-DEVELOPMENT
- CREATIVITY AND LONELINESS
The Creative Soul, along with the entire list of Fisher King Press publications, can be purchased at the Fisher King Press online bookstore.
