Storied Mind

Some Rights Reserved by tore_urnes at Flickr

Thanks to isabella, and her recent posts on writing and healing (like this one), I’ve been thinking more about the way writing, creativity and healing fit together. From the beginning of this blog, I had no doubt that creative expression of all kinds, and writing for me, could bring about healing, even if only temporarily. I’m quite sure now that writing has been central to my recovery from depression, but I’m not at all clear how or why it has that effect. I doubt there could be a definitive answer about something buried so deep in the mind, but I’m constantly trying to find new ideas about the process. I’ve recently been reading two books by Anthony Storr, a British psychiatrist, that bring together many insights from the work of leading thinkers and creative writers.

Solitude: A Return to the Self and The Dynamics of Creation explore the role of creativity in healing and the overall process of human adaptation to experience. Here’s a brief paraphrase of a few of Storr’s major points that I’ve found especially helpful.

1. The mind understands the bombardment of sense impressions it is constantly receiving by organizing them into recognizable patterns – that’s a tree, that’s a person, that’s a car. In the same way, the mind needs to find patterns in the welter of feelings, thoughts, associations, images, dreams, etc. that crowd into its psychic space. A wave of emotion is separated into feelings – this is grief, this is happiness. Images appearing in the mind are picked out as memories, not scenes in the outer world. A word is linked to this memory and that feeling. According to Storr, creative work plays an important role in this ordering process.

2. In his view, when creating something ourselves or seeing the works that others have created, we’re attempting to integrate and reorganize inner experience in a way that deepens meaning and produces a feeling of balance. That process moderates internal tensions and brings a sense of peace and fulfillment. The unruly flow of emotions and thoughts grows calm.

3. Depression leads to a feeling of helplessness and paralysis. Doing creative work, to whatever degree possible, is a way of coping with this problem. Each activity contributes to a sense of control and mastery by linking ideas and feelings from different types of experience – or areas of the brain, in terms of neuroscience. Instead of feeling completely overwhelmed, a person can regain some level of confidence in the ability to function by imaginatively organizing physical things, words or fantasies.

4. As I’ve written here, a depressed person can also feel detached from the outer world and need to retreat into complete isolation. Storr points out that creative work is one of the tools for rebuilding the sense of connection between inner and outer worlds. I experience this like a reopening of my eyes to everyday things, colors, sounds and allowing in all the associations they have for me. It’s a reminder that I’m part of the world after all.

5. Many psychologists see the process of human fulfillment itself as the uniting of different aspects of personality and need. Each person makes an ongoing adaptation to new experience and relationships that draws often on unexplored parts of the mind. By integrating these elements, one can build an expanding sense of self and capability. Creative or imaginative work involves ordering symbols and patterns that have deep associations transcending logic and even conscious awareness to draw together different levels of mental activity. This helps an individual achieve the inner wellness on which continuing growth over time remains possible.

6. In an interest analogy to Buddhist traditions, Storr describes the mental state induced by creative activity as one of detachment. The mind becomes absorbed in the task at hand. It can then observe every thought and idea more dispassionately and come up with news ways to work with them. It is somewhat like the state of being completely present in the moment that can be achieved through meditation.

7. While attention is focused on writing or drawing, a sense of peacefulness develops. I usually feel this as a rich sense of satisfaction – even without reference to the specific content of what I’m writing. The act of being in that mental and emotional place restores me at a deep level. The way I put this in one post was that depression and all concerns simply disappear when I get to that unselfconscious level of concentration.

8. Storr finds it important to the process of adaptation and healing that creative work continues throughout life. No one who needs to express themselves this way ever feels they have it right. There is always a drive to do it better next time. And as life and reactions to experience keep evolving, new ways have to be found to reorder the inner world and adapt to everyday life. I think that’s why anyone engaged in any sort of creative activity feels so frustrated when it’s not “right.” The inner balance being sought hasn’t yet been found.

I emphasize these ideas among many in Storr’s insightful books because they resonate so deeply with my own sense of what happens as I write. They also help me understand why the process of doing this blog has changed me, as I’ve tried to adapt to what I’ve gone through. I’ve been working for almost two years with all the inner realities of depression and its impact on relationships, work and just about everything else. It feels right to describe all this as a reordering and reworking of inner experience to create a more balanced whole. That brings me closer to a sense of fulfillment – and peacefulness.

As I’ve mentioned before, after writing about my experience for some time and doing other healing work, I suddenly realized that a basic shift in attitude and belief had taken place. Whatever that inner reordering accomplished, whether conscious or unconscious, I look at myself and everyone around me differently. Healing doesn’t mean getting rid of every problem, but it does mean I can be fully present for my own life and all that it brings. That is a kind of balance I’ve never felt before, and the process of writing feels like the most important activity leading to this change.

It would be helpful to know if these ideas make sense to you. Is this a useful way of thinking about the inner impact of creative activity – any kind at all that you may do?