Creativity As An Order Through Emotions: A Study of Creative Adolescents and Young Adults

By Krystyna C. Laycraft

The book “Creativity as an Order through Emotions” contains five life stories of young creative people. The author analyzes their psychological growth and the role of creativity in their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781927559598

Book preview

CREATIVITY AS AN ORDER THROUGH EMOTIONS

Copyright © 2013 by Krystyna C. Laycraft.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without prior written permission.

Promontory Press

www.promontorypress.com

ISBN: 978-1-927559-37-6

ISBN: 9781927559598

Second Edition: May 2014

Editor: Rick Mickelson

Book Designer: Louise Beinhauer

Printed in India

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated with love to

my husband, Brian,

my son Bartek and his wife Ania,

my daughter Bogusia and her husband Alex,

and my grandsons, Kasper, Jakub, Oskar, Robert, Konrad,

and Gabriel.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editor’s Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Creativity as Developmental Process

Organization of the Book

PART I

CHAPTER 1: CHAOS THEORY

Chaos Theory – Version 1

Chaos Theory – Version 2

Positive and Negative Feedback

Attractors

Bifurcation

My Illness Through Chaos Theory

Self-Organization

CHAPTER 2: EMOTIONS AND CONSCIOUS FEELINGS

Emotional Processes

Conscious Feelings

The Psycho-Evolutionary Theory of Emotions

Revision and Extension of the Psycho-Evolutionary Theory of Emotions

PART II

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

CHAPTER 4: CREATIVITY AS A RETREAT

Stephannie – The Artist and Scuba-Diver

Life Story

Psychological Development

Pattern Model of Creativity

CHAPTER 5: CREATIVITY AS AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE ORDER OUT OF CHAOS

Alasdair MacEwan – The Young Composer

Life Story

Psychological Development

The Process of Creativity

Summary and Conclusion

Additional Comments

CHAPTER 6: CREATIVITY AS AN IDENTITY FORMATION

Krista Jennings – the Contortionist

Life Story

Psychological Development

Creativity Through Self-Organization

Formation of Self-Identity

Summary and Conclusions

CHAPTER 7: CREATIVITY AS A SOURCE OF THE INNER SELF

Marsha – The Young Writer

Life Story

Psychological Development

Process of Creativity

Summary and Conclusions

CHAPTER 8: CREATIVITY AS A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Eton – the Spiritual Artist

Life Story

Psychological Development

Pattern Model of Creativity

Summary and Conclusions

PART III

CHAPTER 9: THE MODEL OF CREATIVITY DEVELOPMENT

Horizontal Creativity

Vertical Creativity

Integral Creativity

Development of Creativity in Five Participants of the Study

Kandinsky’s Process of Creativity Development

CHAPTER 10: SIX LESSONS ON CREATIVITY

Lesson 1: Solitude

Lesson 2: Negative Emotions

Lesson 3: Interest, Motivation, Intention, Attention

Lesson 4: More Positive Emotions

Lesson 5: Self-Identity Formation

Lesson 6: Creativity and Psychological Development

CHAPTER 11: FINAL CONCLUSIONS

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS

REFERENCES

INDEX

List of Figures

List of Tables

Table 1: A classification of the 28 secondary emotions

Table 2: A classification of the 17 tertiary emotions

List of Artworks and Photographs by Krystyna C. Laycraft:

Cover Page: Mixed media artwork: Love as Chaotic Attractor Mixed media artworks from series of I Ching:

Creative (1), Great Strength (34), Joy (58), Retreat (33), Difficult Beginnings (3), Harmonious Joy (16), The Well (48), Inner Truth (61), Development (53)

EDITOR’S FOREWORD

It has been a great honour to edit this work. A great deal of effort and inspiration went into its creation and its results and findings are welcomed with great joy. The truth of the matter is that creativity transforms young people and through them, the world.

This book reveals the many secrets of that transformation and places them on a foundation of solid science based on the qualitative and empirical strategies employed. It also reminds us of the universal value of solitude in nature, contemplation, meditation and tranquility. These are the signposts of the soul and can no longer be denied.

Rick Mickelson

AwareNow Publishing

www.awarenow.ca

PREFACE

Creativity has continuously shaped and guided my life. I was never interested in just one aspect of life; I love physics, nature, poetry, and the visual arts. My creative forces did not fade with age but rather intensified, deepened, and expanded into areas such as psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience.

As a high school student, I was fascinated by the power of mathematics as a language for physical phenomena. I enjoyed the challenge of working on problems and found great joy and satisfaction when they were solved. This was a period of discovery for me and I began expressing an interest in nature through poetry and drawing. By the end of high school, I decided to study the challenging field of theoretical physics to discover the secrets of nature.

Throughout university, I was excited to discover and understand complicated mathematical functions after long and exhausting calculations. These solutions were always a happy surprise and kept me moving forward.

Many years later, while working as a scientist at the University of Calgary, I was fascinated by the forms, patterns, and colors of the Aurora Borealis. I tried to discover their nature and expose their secrets using mathematics and physics. It was a time when better tools for dealing with these dynamic and complex phenomena were becoming available. I started to learn and apply the latest concepts of chaos theory such as attractors, bifurcations, and feedback loops.

Unfortunately, my love affair with the Aurora Borealis ended after five years due to a camera failure on the satellite. I then had to decide what to do next.

After rethinking my life, I decided to shift my focus completely by becoming immersed in the business world. I decided to open a high school for international students. This was a very challenging period as I had to stretch myself intellectually, emotionally, and physically. After running this school for many years, I was exhausted and came close to having a complete breakdown.

At times I think I was born under a lucky star. Right at this critical point, my dearest friend, Dr. Helen Diemert, invited me to a series of her lectures on the fundamental arts. This was a happy surprise and I accepted her offer with deep gratitude. I intuitively felt that this would be a very important decision for me. As a result, I found something special that changed my life. I fell in love with the process of being by myself in nature, deeply observing, noting, and catching the beauty of trees, wild flowers, streams and clouds. I was inside a great phenomenon and felt liberated and stimulated by its existence. Every weekend I escaped to the Rocky Mountains to create drawings, paintings, and photographs of nature. I always returned home energized and fulfilled. I became more open, sensitive, and compassionate toward my students and teachers. I was also able to run the school more efficiently and elegantly by decorating it with my paintings and photographs.

Then I opened a small gallery and organized art shows for creative students and friendly artists. Other teachers started joining me and brought new ideas and activities with them such as making masks and using them for improvisations and organizing concerts. Our school started to breathe with creativity.

After many years of doing this, my life changed again and I found myself on a ranch in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. By this time, I had become a full time artist specializing in the acrylic and pastel paintings of trees, clouds, and fields. Later, I created twenty paintings that expressed the concepts of chaos theory and sixty-four small art-objects based on the ancient Chinese book, the I Ching.

But deep inside me was a scientific mind that wanted to know why I felt so great when drawing, painting, or photographing. Why did doing art energize me and why did I spend so much time thinking about my next artistic projects? Why did I enjoy being around other artists so much? So I began to return to physics and the idea of self-organization.

One day, I had an aha! moment! Why not apply it into the study of creative experiences? With all these conceptual tools, I felt ready to create something new. To my two dimensions of artist and physicist, I added the role of educator. It was this three dimensional me that wrote this book.

Krystyna C. Laycraft,

Lorell Ranch, 2012

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, I wish to thank all the participants who opened their hearts and shared their life experiences and creativity with me. I learned a great deal from them and they influenced me immeasurably.

I also wish to thank Dr. Veronika Bohac Clarke, Dr. Jo Towers and Dr. Ian Winchester for their academic guidance during my graduate studies at the University of Calgary.

I wish to thank Dr. Helen Diemert who ignited my interest and passion for art and provided me with a basic knowledge of artistic techniques. I sincerely appreciated her support, friendship and encouragement.

I wish to thank my husband Brian who was always supportive during my journey through this pursuit. He listened patiently and constantly questioned my ideas which helped me to rethink and justify my premises.

I wish to thank my publisher and editor, Rick Mickelson, who spontaneously accepted this book and worked persistently to complete it.

I wish to thank all of my artist friends, each one of whom was an inspiration for this book.

I wish to thank my daughter Bogusia and son Bartek for their love and thought-provoking comments.

And finally, I wish to thank my parents Maria and Zygmunt Troszkiewicz who gave me a great upbringing and provided me with happy memories of my childhood and adolescence. I thank my father for constantly challenging me and my mother for her love, patience, and understanding.

Creativity is a fragrance of real health. When a person is really

healthy and whole,

creativity comes naturally to him, the urge to create arises.

(Osho, 1999)

INTRODUCTION

The main purpose of this book is to throw light on the role of creativity during the periods of adolescence and young adulthood. I will present five stories of young people who were actively involved in creative pursuits such as music composition, circus arts, painting, journaling, and writing. Then I will explore how their creativity helps them to interpret, to understand, and to make meaning out of their inner experiences.

The research questions that directed this study were grouped into four areas: cognitive awareness, emotional access, spiritual experience, and self-identity.

Cognitive Awareness in Adolescents:

What role does solitude play in the development of their creativity?

What role does creativity play in their cognitive development?

What roles do interest, motivation, intention, and attention play in their processes of creativity?

Emotional Access:

What role does creativity play in their emotional development?

How does creativity help them deal with their negative emotions?

How does creativity contribute to an increase in their experiences of positive emotions?

Spiritual Experience:

What role does creativity play in their spiritual development?

Self-identity:

What role does creativity play in their self-identity formation?

Adolescence is a turbulent period during which children make their transition into adulthood. It is a time when individuals acquire the skills necessary to survive away from their parents. This is a period of exploring, searching, and questioning. During this time, it is crucial that young people spend time reflecting on themselves and considering their future. This is a period of self-identity formation and searching for meaningful values. Because of the enormous changes in their brains and bodies, adolescents often experience a flood of emotions. They become more sensitive to