Tortured Artistes, Inc

The tortured artist. The alcoholic painter. The melancholic writer. The bipolar entertainer. The self-destructive singer. The dancer with the eating disorder. The raging actor. All stereotypes, but there are examples in the media all the time.

Do you have to be ‘unhinged’ to be creative? Is the world is telling us that if you choose the path of the artist, you’re different? That you have to be mad, drunk, self-loathing, reckless or high?

“You are not a beautiful and individual Snowflake” Fight Club

Sorry to disappoint you, but these problems aren’t part of being creative any more than they are for the rest of society.

Many people experience mental health issues at some point in their lives (one in four). In a room full of other people? then look around the room and count.

So before you open your case of laudanum, spare a thought for the anxious, alcoholic, drug-abusing, OCD-suffering postman … Or market researcher, call-centre worker, or shop assistant who is just as prone to issues as the ‘artistic genius’.

Self-Harm is not a sign of genius. Another glass of wine is not ‘part of my creative process’. ‘I’ve always been a bit odd’ is not a positive affirmation of creativity.

If we release the need to be damaged, and get on with being creative, our output increases.

To paraphrase Julia Cameron: it’s okay to be a sane, productive, happy, successful artist.

If you’re not completely happy with that idea, here’s why:

“You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes” The Matrix

Like everything in the mind, there’s no single answer. And this article has a size limit!

Carl Jung’s theory of Archetypes highlights that the creative ones are always tricksters. The new idea frightens the territorial tribal chiefs, upsetting the balance of power. So creatives are made to feel different in childhood. That ‘difference’ gets amplified as you get older. (It has to, or it can’t support the emotion attached to the childhood belief).

There are lots of beliefs from childhood about creativity being dangerous, insane, or valueless (‘just for fun’). These might be called ‘Dysfunctional Assumptions’ … For example, you can’t make money from art, or that it’s not a serious profession. These dysfunctional assumptions can stop you from being a talented, happy, successful artist. You end up feeling tortured.

But it’s not all childhood

The creative working environment often supports the dysfunction. Solitude, long working hours, cliques, freelancing (no work, no money), boom and bust productivity (so there’s always a party, drugs, sex, alcohol, etc.), and pressure from the ‘patrons’ to deliver. The trappings of success can be as damaging as the struggle to produce.

The creative head is full of ideas, your mind is over-stimulated, and you have trouble switching off.  Ideas are coming unbidden to your head and they’re compelling; if you have the materials and skills, you can create. If however, those ideas and compulsions become too much, you’re tired, or you don’t have the discipline and focus from formal artistic training, or the skills and materials, then all you have are compelling thoughts.

That’s pretty much the definition of an OCD. An Obsession (unbidden thoughts), which leads to a behaviour (Compulsion) and if it starts to interfere with your life or others it becomes a Disorder.

Perhaps that’s why intelligent people drink more. So … what can we do?

“You can’t handle the truth” A Few Good Men

First, you employ a therapist with a great deal of experience of creative… oh right, you want the one where you don’t have to pay me? There are things you can do yourself:

1)  Watch for thoughts that don’t serve you

If you find yourself thinking anything but ‘I’m an intelligent, creative person, the world is full of fun and opportunity, and others are helpful’ then you’ve got some less useful thinking in there. Awareness or Mindfulness is half the battle. In other words, do not *think* you are a tortured artist. Reject this idea. It does not serve you.

2) Accept that creativity is limitless

You have limitless options in the ways you behave because you’re creative.

3)  Accept You’re Good Enough

You deserve to be happy as an artist. If part of you is saying ‘no’ to that statement then your issues are bound up in a negative core belief. It’s a flat world. Prove it wrong.

4)  Accept Emotions, Thinking And Physical States Are Linked

Change one and you change the rest. Look after your body, and make sure that you experience beauty and profound things every day and that will impact on your thoughts.

5)  Hone Your Craft

This is another word for work. You’ll have spotted that. But don’t let it put you off. If you have to, call it The Craft, or The Work. And this is how it works …

“I only write when I’m inspired, and I make sure I’m inspired every morning at 9 a.m.”  Peter De Vries

When you are doing the work, you know you are doing the work. There’s no lying to yourself. The work takes place when you’re imagining, planning, writing down, typing up, etc. It’s a state of immersion in the creative process.

The rest of the time, you’re a person who has to feed and nurture your creative side with ideas and experiences. You also have to rest, too. So get exercise, and sleep, and the right foods for genius … Or you’re blocking your creative side. The Craft won’t happen.

Creatives create. Output is a sign of a creative, not being a ‘tortured artiste’.

Who’s in charge?

“Carpe Diem Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” Dead Poets Society

All humans have free will.

We can choose.

You don’t have to be a person that’s purely a response to your environment and experiences. Reject the default person. Reject the tortured artiste cliche.

To paraphrase the dodgy but beautifully-written Sucker Punch:

‘Who sends monsters to kill us, and at the same time sings that we will never die? Or who decides why we live and what we’ll die to defend? Who chains us? And who holds the key that can set us free … It’s You. You have everything you need. Now create!’

Good Luck!

BIO: James Elder is a therapist who works with Creatives (and no, I’m not telling you who). He delights in applying psychological techniques to people who are already doing well, but who need to do spectacularly, and those who need that one little thing out of their way to realise their purpose.

He uses a blend of tools including psychotherapy, clinical hypnosis, NLP, and leadership coaching to help his clients achieve more, and offset some of the stuff that goes with the creative lifestyle and the trappings of ‘sudden’ success.