Most of us are frustrated by the limits put on us, whether they are the limits of our own body (God, I’m personally disgusted by the limits imposed by my recent surgery) or the limits imposed by society. However, Rollo May argues, “that limits are not only unavoidable in human life, they are also valuable” … Continue reading “On the Limits of Creativity and Passion for Form”
Rollo May believes that “Creativity occurs in an act of encounter and is to be understood with this encounter as its center.” The result of this encounter between the artist and his “world” view is the author’s vision: The vision of the artist or the poet is the intermediate determinant between the subject (the person) … Continue reading “Creativity and Encounter and The Delphic Oracle as Therapist”
Rollo May tries to explain not only the nature of creativity but the conditions under which it emerges, relating much of what he says directly to what artists themselves have to say about their art. He sees the creative act as a dialectical relationship that takes place between two poles, the artist and an outside … Continue reading “The Nature of Creativity and Creativity and the Unconscious”
Inspired by Hesse’s tales, I decided to re-read Rollo May’s The Courage to Create. May, an existentialist psychologist, is one of the few modern psychologists that I actually enjoy reading, perhaps because he often sounds more like philosopher than a psychologist or perhaps because he spends as much time exploring exceptional people as he does … Continue reading “The Courage to Create”