The Freudian Artist – On Creativity
Visual creativity can sometimes be overwhelmed by surface thinking ergo Freud’s “Ego” – and almost anything that increases adrenaline can suppress “Ego” and lead one to run more purely on Super-Ego – the subconscious direction that athletes term “The Zone” and Samurai Warriors called “Emptiness” but are essentially letting the brain direct the body without interference from second-guessing. Caffeine, oxygen, exercise, sex, and rage are all really good means of directing oneself to that goal. Less so are both fear and meditation. Oddly meditation is usually focusing on relaxing – which heightens ones Ego. Fear is used by most motivators because the motivators themselves are usually motivated by fear. Fear works best when it translates directly to and through rage – but it can work by itself. The problem is that fear actually increases the Egos desire to remain in control because it decreases trust in the Super-Ego. Fear of the Super-Ego is the main obstacle is using fear. Once someone has been trained to work with that technique, however, it can be more predictable than some of the other techniques – which is why the military uses it. They aren’t trying to increases creativity – they’re increasing rote mechanical productivity. Artists who’ve had military service can often translate pretty well. Those without will rarely put up with it because of the easier and frankly better ways of becoming “creative” and “productive”.
