Creating a blog is lonely business. It reminds me very much of the standing in front of a blank canvas and reflecting on “what am I going to do this time?” One feels quite alone when starting a new artwork -the first rough sketch, loose lines, starting marks – and over the years, I have transformed this initial state of anxiety or fear into one of hopeful expectation. Creation is about hope and exploring internal and external potentialities. Up to this point, I seem to be alone in my dialogue concerning blog creation.
This reluctance to initiate a creative work is addressed in my creative workshops by my facilitation and dialogical process. I have the other interlocutor do the under-painting. This typically reduces the anxiety and allows each person to experiment with brushes, paints and method.
What is apparent to me is that the individual personality is at work here. Of course, I would argue that all creative processes find their source in the locus of self-development. This leads me nicely to a topic that will be super ordinate level of categorization – Art Evaluation. I will discuss this in greater length in a future entry. Today, I will focus on one questions among six presented by an introductory textbook in the humanities.
“In studying the humanities, we focus our attention on works of art that reflect and embody the central values and beliefs of particular cultures and specific historical moments. In our approach we consider the following questions:
……
3. What does the work express or convey? What does it reveal about its creator? What does it reveal about its historical and social context?
These questions lead us to considerations of a work’s meaning.
……………………….
See (pp. xix, Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities, 2nd Ed., 2005)
The question of personality is framed within question 3 – What does it [the artwork] reveal about its creator?
In turn, this question of personality leads to my third question for reflection:
When creating a blog, what does the blog reveal about the personality of the creator? In the case of a dialogical driven blog the question can be asked what does the blogging creation process reveal about the dialogical partners – the self-selecting web of interlocutors?
Here is why I think this is particularly relevant:
First, the most recent scientific journal of psychology is probing the long time hypothesis of creativity being linked to abnormal personality “types”.
Example 1:
“Abstract: Why are genetic polymorphisms related to severe mental disorders retained in the gene pool or a population? A possible answer is that these genetic variations may have a positive impact on psychological functions. Here, I show that a biological relevant polymorphism or the promoter region of the neuregulin 1 gene is associated with creativity in people with high intellectual and academic performance. Intriguingly, the highest creative achievements and creative-thinking scores were found in people with the T/T genotype, which was previously shown to be related to psychosis risk and altered prefrontal activation.” (Keri, Szabolcs, 2009,Genes for Psychosis and Creativity: A Promoter Polymorphism of the Neuregulin 1 Gene Is Related to Creativity in People With High Intellectual Achievement, Psychological Science 6-Jul-09).
Example 2:
Concerning the DRD4 Long Allele that “has been linked to approach-related behaviors (e.g., novelty seeking), positive effect (e.g., feelings of euphoria and reward dependence), and stimulus responsivity in human and nonhuman animals…..We found evidence that a gene involved in the regulation of dopamine moderates the relation between frontal brain activity and two basic components of early temperament, one cognitive (i.e., attention) and on affective (i.e., regulation). (page 831, 837, Schmidt, L. A., Fox, N. A., Perez-Edgar, K., Hamer, D.H., 2009, Linking Gene, Brain and Behavior: DRD4, Frontal Assymmetry, and Temperament, Psychological Science, 7/1/2009, Vol. 20, N. 7)
Example 3:
Concerning a special issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science addressing the Next Big Questions in Psychology David M. Buss discusses at length the question:
“The key question is this: How can evolutionary psychology successfully explain personality and individual differences.” (Buss, David M., 2009, Perspectives on Psychological Science July 2009, Vol. 4, No. 4).
Second, this hypothesis is thousands of years old. Galen, second century Greek physician developed Hippocratic (4th century BCE) ideas of nine temperamental types that were derived from the four humors of yellow and black bile, blood, and phlegm which were mixed (Latin verb temperare – to mix) within two polar pairs of warm-cool and dry-moist bodily qualities. The Greeks “personality” models were actually preceded by the Chinese by 2,000 years though it different in that, an emphasis on energy (ch’i) and constant fluctuation and transformation of physiological and psychological functions rather than more-or-less permanent personality types (see pp. Kagan, 1994, pp. 2-11).
[I will leave the astrological discussion for another time].
So the take home for today is how much does the creative act depend on individual personality profiles? Are some people born creative? Are they born to create art? Is this their calling as a human? Are creative people prone to by crazy?
I have a database with hundreds personality profiles created using the Birkman Method®. In a future entry I will present some data that “informs” this hypothesis. It would be a good research project to test 100 or so artists and discuss the results.
