Writer's Block Case Studies

Hello everyone! This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinaire. I wanted to write about additional information on Writer's Block and on another writer's block case study. This was conducted in Britain where researchers examined 47 female writers. Tomorrow, I will post additional comments concerning this study and the past three studies that I looked at. Are you ready? All righty. Here are the notes from the powerpoint "Creativity and Psychopathology" that I found from the Harvard Website! :-)

Writer’s Block Case Study Notes:

Creative genius has been associated with three
types of psychopathology:
mood disorders
psychosis and psychosis-proneness
alcohol/drug abuse
(and sometimes OCD)

List of Artists with these kinds of disorders (or suspected to have had them):

Michelangelo
Vincent van Gogh
Cezanne
Shelley
Keats
Lord Byron
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Hemingway
Herman Hesse
Tchaikovsky
Wagner
Schumann
Edgar Allan Poe
Dostoevsky
Tolstoy
Faulkner
Nietzche
William James
Isaac Newton
Nikola Tesla
Virginia Woolf
Sylvia Plath
Anne Sexton
John Forbes Nash
Charles Parker
Jackson Pollock
Kurt Cobain

Romantic Period
• music, literature, art focused on emotional
rather than intellectual content
• importance of mysticism, dreams, supernatural
• creativity associated with nonrational process
• best work at the border of sanity/insanity
• The Proud Badge of Affliction
Romantic poets embodied the concept of the
“troubled spirit” and creativity

“Mood Disorders and Patterns of Creativity
in British Writers and Artists”
Kay Redfield Jamison Purpose: - to ascertain rates of treatment for affective illness
in a sample of eminent British writers and artists
- to examine seasonal patterns of moods and productivity
- to inquire into the role of very intense moods in writers’
and artists’ work (1989)
Sample: 47 British Commonwealth artists and writers
who had won high medals or awards
Findings
• 16% poets treated for bipolar illness
• 55% poets treated for a mood disorder
• 62% playwrights treated for a mood disorder
• periods of high creative productivity roughly
corresponded with hypomanic mood
• 60% of subjects felt that moods were integral
and necessary or very important to their creativity

Creativity and Mental Disorder Study Pt. 2

Hello everyone!! :-D This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinaire. I have some concluding thoughts about the creativity and mental disorder study.

Creativity and Mental Disorder Study

Hello everyone! :-) This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinaire. I am a little tired, but I just had to blog about this study concerning writers and their relationship to mental illness. This, of course, is a controversial topic but something that I want to dig into. There's an assumption that writers have a proclivity to illnesses such as unipolar depression and schizophrenia that the regular population does not. Is this true? Depends on who you ask. Let's look into this one study from researchers at the British College of Psychiatrists. :-D

Title: "Creativity and mental disorder: family study of 300 000 people with severe mental disorder."

By: Simon Kyaga, Paul Lichtenstein, Marcus Boman, Christina Hultman, Niklas Långström and Mikael Landen

Creativity and Mental Disorder: Family Study of 300,000 people with Severe Mental Disorder
-Throughout this article, creative professions denotes the aggregated artistic and scientific occupations, whereas creative occupations is used for creative professions as well as for any of
the subgroups (i.e. artistic, scientific, visual artistic and non-visual artistic) (2)
-study of 300,000 people with mental disorder (2)
-visual artistic = visual artists, photographers, designers, display artists
Non-visual artistic = performing artists, composers & musicians, authors, other literary and artistic work
-NEED TO POST DIAGRAM FROM PG.5!! 

-creativity is associated with mental disorder; Aristotle said: “No great genius has ever existed without a strain of madness.” (2)
-creativity – psychiatric disorder studies in 2 types: interviews and biography analyses
-Lange-Eirchbaum study of 800 people regarded as geniuses published in 1931 (2)
-Conclusion: no definite relationship between high mental capacity and mental illness, but these individuals had increased rates of psychopathology (2)
-increased creativity in 40 American adults with bipolar disorder compared to those using same treatment, 16 (2)
-Study: Swedish citizens, looked at people with Schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and unipolar disorder (3) from 1973 to 2003
-diagnoses coded by ICD-8, ICD-9, and ICD-10 (3)
-Non-visual artistic occupations: performing artists, authors, composers, musicians, other literary and artistic work
-males (16,342) 63.7% and females (9,298) 36.3%
-median age = 43.6 years, mean age = 45.5 years
Schizophrenia Subgroup (5)
-demonstrated no difference in having creative occupation
-decreased likelihood to hold scientific occupation
-increased occupation of holding artistic occupation
Bi-Polar Subgroup (5)
-increased likelihood of holding creative occupation
Unipolar Depression
-no increased rate in holding creative occupation

Edmund Bergler Pt. 3

Hello, hello, and hello!! How are you doing today? :D This is Vincent LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinare!!! This is the last post that I am writing concerning the one and only Edmund Bergler. Last time, I posted a whole host of notes! O.O This time, I'll post less notes, but I'll have a mini diagram to accompany this post (at the top). I hope you enjoy this last post on Mr. Bergler. :-D


-“Bergler further developed a unique clinical treatment regimen consisting of not only orthodox treatment methods (transference, resistance, dreams, etc.), but the inclusion of educational materials for clients, so that thay may learn about what they are dealing with, and, in effect, become their own therapist through setting up a 'dialogue' between the conscious
and unconscious components of their mind.” (13)



I: Drives (megalomania, aggression, libido)
II: Superego (Ego Ideal and Daimonion)
III:Conscious Ego
IV: Objective Reality (relationships, social
issues, environmental concerns)
The grey area represents self-realization as
a composite of all 4 areas.
UNCONSCIOUS DYNAMIC: I - II
CONSCIOUS DYNAMIC: III – IV


Group 1: “Inherited drives” such as aggression, megalomania,
Group 2: Unconscious Conscience, the Superego consisting of the Ego Ideal and Daimonion
Group 3: Counteracts groups 1 and 2, acts like a defense attorney
Group 4: demands of reality, adds to individual’s troubles (12)
Super Ego = Group 3
Group 2 = The Judge (12)

Some Examples of Psychic Masochism (from Bergler's View):

-Homosexuality
-Writer’s Block
-Fashion

Edmund Bergler Pt. 2

Hello everyone!! How are y'all doing today? This is Vincent LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, book blogger extraordinaire! :) Today, I want to follow up on Edmund Bergler. Remember him? Of course you do! He's the man who came up with the term 'Writer's Block.' We got into a lot of technical information and terms surrounding 'neurosis,' 'masochism', and 'megalomania.' Just to recap before I post more notes about Psychic Mashochism...what does that term mean? This is what Mr. Bergler said in his own words: "it is the unconscious wish to defeat one's conscious aims, and to enjoy that self-constructed defeat." Interesting, is it not? Let us continue and examine the theory of Psychic Masochism. :)


(The Superego) Made up of two things:
-1. The ego ideal, as described by Freud, grows out of his infantile megalomania, which is by no means a negligible characteristic in any child.
2. Daimonion: a cruel inner jailer, tormentor, and torturer. (6)

-Daimonion confronts the ego with its self-created ego ideal, asking if all the aims promised during childhood have been achieved. If the answer is in the negative, the result is guilt.” (6) **Main point linked with Writer’s Block.
Psychic Masochism in Adults:
“1. Unconsciously, the psychic masochist provokes disappointment or refusal, through his behavior or his misuse of an external situation. When disappointment or refusal materializes, the outer world is unconsciously identified with the image of the ‘refusing’ mother of the earliest stage of development, the pre-Oedipal, ‘gimme’ phase.
2. Pseudoaggresion, denoting unconsciously mobilized defensive aggression, aimed not at the outer enemy but as alibi presented to the unconscious conscience (the superego). On the surface, the pseudo aggression seems to be the product of righteous indignation, and a move made in self-defense against the external enemy; the psychic masochist remains unaware of the part he has played in bringing about his disappointment.
3. Still unaware of the part he has unconsciously played, the psychic masochist consciously pities himself for his defeat and humiliation; at the same time he unconsciously enjoys masochistic pleasure.” (8)

Edmund Bergler Pt. 1

Hello everyone! How are y'all? This is LaVel Moorehead: reader, writer, and book blogger extraordinare! :-) Today, I want to blog a little bit about Edmund Bergler. Do you know who he is? Well, of course you don't. He's the man who came up with the term Writer's Block back in 1947. Cool, huh? I took notes about him, his life, and his theory concerning what's known as "psychic masochism." Read on my friends, read on, and learn about the background on writer's block and Bergler's theory on how WB comes about.


Edmund Bergler and Psychic Masochism Notes
“For thirty years it has been my gradually developed belief that...a complete overhauling of our thinking concerning the structure of neurosis is necessary. It is my contention that the first and foremost conflict of the new-born, infant, baby, consists in the fact that he must come to terms with his inborn megalomania. That conflict invariably and without exception results in
a masochistic solution, the ‘pleasure-in-displeasure pattern. This constitutes the ‘basic neurosis’.” (1)

Masochism: gratification gained from pain, deprivation, degradation, etc.,inflicted or imposed on oneself, either as a result of one'sown actions or the actions of others, especially thetendency to seek this form of gratification.

-megalomania: a symptom of mental illness, marked by delusions of greatness, wealth, etc.
-Bergler was an Austrian Jew, fled Nazis in 1937-1938, wrote 25 psychology books, 273 articles published in professional journals (2)

-Bergler worked with Sigmund Freud in Vienna clinic in 1930s ; among first generation of psychoanalysts after Freud (2)

-“True, the neurotic outsmarts the torturer by changing his torture into inner pleasure. But this pleasure is unconscious; and every ounce of unconscious pleasure must be paid for with tons of conscious misery.”(3)


Development of Psychic Masochism in Infants:
“1. offense to infantile megalomania;
2. mobilization of fury, inexpressible fury;
3. turning of the child's aggression against himself." ...but this doesn’t work...the
child becomes too uncomfortable...
4. “Thus we have to add a fourth point:...libidinization* of the boomerang aggression by making it an UNCONSCIOUS pleasure. Nobody can go through the protracted helplessness of childhood without acquiring some traces of this psychic poison. Psychic masochism is a universal human trait...”” (2)

Examples of this:

“TROUBLEMAKER # 1: Infantile megalomania.
Each time the infant’s megalomania is offended (his needs not tended to
automatically), fury is aroused.
TROUBLEMAKER # 2: Helpless fury: Aggression. This is the aggressive DRIVE
operating. But the infant’s means of expressing this fury are ineffectual: crying,
vomitting, spitting, flailing of arms and legs, etc.
TROUBLEMAKER # 3: Psychic Masochism.
“The child’s intuitive genius finds a solution! By learning to ‘like’ displeasure, he extracts pleasure from an ‘impossible’ situation. This pleasure-in-displeasure pattern’ is technically called psychic masochism.” (It is important to understand that this ‘solution’ is not arrived at consciously by the child. His rational faculties have not yet developed. These ‘troublemakers’ form unconsciously.) (5)
-“We have said above, in describing the emergence of psychic masochism, that the child learns to like displeasure... libido can therefore add to the child’s troubles when frustrated or deposited in the wrong place. Unexpectedly, we find libido seated in the ‘trouble council’ as Troublemaker #4.” (5)
-Trouble Maker #5: The Super Ego also known as the Unconscious Conscience

Understanding Writing Blocks Pt. 3

Hi everyone! This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinare. I have the third and final part to Keith Hjortshoj notes. His book "Understanding Writing Blocks" both illuminates a simple concept, but also the strange complexity of Writer's Block. You ready for the notes? Go get em'! :-)

Chapter 7: Putting Writing In Its Place
-writing blocks are psychophysical (93)
-writing blacks have emotional implications (93)
-Syntax Block: Andrea story (student of Hjortshoj) where instead of writing her dissertation, she drew complex diagrams chunk full of info (relates to idea of confusion, 95-96)
-Factors helping Andrea: 1. she’s unreliable judge of own work
2.writing became “interesting and clear” to friends and family when she implemented strategies
3.enjoying sensation of movement, not editing while writing as much, being able to explain
Gender
-75% people coming to Hjortshoj are women
-suspects that men suffer more from WB because of pride issues (I disagree, 103)
Productivity Requirement
1. Making writing a clear priority in your life
2. Set aside time for writing when you are most relaxed and alert
3. Find a particular place for writing
4. Decide the time and place to write (108-110)
Chapter 9: What Can You Do?
-How can you tell if you’re blocked or not > Are you making progress with writing projects are are you getting nowhere? (128)
1. Writing is a real psychophysical activity (129)
-Text you produce is also real (130)
Advice
*When considering q’s to one’s writing, write down answers
*put understanding into practice (133)
-compartmentalize writing projects and difficulties (more thoughts WON’T make you more productive, 134); keep work confined to less than 4 hrs a day
*Fine models for writing projects to examine (134)
*Try to avoice isolation with task (134)
*finally, don’t be stuck with defeatist attitude: “Woe is me, I have WB!” (135)

Understanding Writing Blocks Pt. 2

Hey everyone! This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, book blogger extraordinare! This is part two of the Keith Hjortshoj notes. :D Again, I'm posting notes in bullet form and then commenting on the end. I still need to make an ending comment about Hjortshoj and his definition of WB, so I'll get to that in this blog. Read on. :-)

-Hjortshoj wants to move away from WB as psychological disorder (8)
-WB (Hjortshoj’s definition) = capable, motivated writers who seem incapable of completing certain kinds of writing projects (8)
-task at hand often critical to
- writer often has too many ideas to put down on page
-writing not purely menial, thinking in itself doesn’t produce writing (9)
-both mental AND physical excercise (10)
-ex: F.M. Alexander (Australian Actor) lost voic b/c he stood a certain way thinking that he would project voice but he failed to do so properly (10)
-blocked writers often “very industrious” (11, hmm!) :)
-Chapter 4
-avoid editing while you compose
-editing breaks natural flow of writing, writer can feel immobilized while doing it
-many blocked writers edit and become frustrated
-some people need plans (outlines) before writing, some don’t; anthropologist Cliffort Geertz wrote and abandoned outlines when necessary (41)
-”If you feel that you are not able to write up to that standard you imagine the world has set for you, in theory you should be able to lower that standard to the point at which writing becomes possible, even easy.” (Don’t let conscious self get in the way! 51-52)
-Chapter 5: Transitional Blocks in Undergraduate Studies
-Belief: undergraduate students avoid WB because they can “adapt to changing expectations” (don’t know if I agree or disagree, 59)
-transitional blocks “positive” in writing process
-blocks may result from “confusion”
-confusion = complex issues can be simplified into brief sentences, clarity

Understanding Writing Blocks

Hi everyone! How are you? This is LaVel: reader, writer, and book blogger extraordinare! I've been gone for a while, but I'm back! I'm here to churn out more articles and blog posts about writer's block! You ready? I'm focusing on the author Keith Hjortshoj and his book "Understanding Writing Blocks." To make the blog post more concise, I'll be posting notes in bullet form. After, I'll share a few comments on what I think about the book so far. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts on whether you agree/disagree with what the author is saying, questions, etc! :-)

“Understanding Writing Blocks”
By: Keith Hjortshoj
-John S. Knight Director of Writing at Cornell University
-designed class specifically on writing blocks

Introduction
-Zachary Leader quote on Writers Block (1991): “The first point to make about Writer’s Block is that relatively little has been written about it.”
-people assume it’s a psychological disorder
-psychologists and writing teachers interchange Writer’s Block with Writer’s Anxiety (2)
-there’s a 1974 Dr. Upper essay titled “An Unsuccessful Tratment of a Case of Writer’s Block”
-also there’s a monograph by Mike Rose called “Writer’s Block” (check it out if you want)
-”Young, inexperienced writers rarely encounter serious blocks.” According to author, it’s related to advanced undergrates, graduates, scholars, professional writers (3)
-Writer’s Block traditionally linked to mental disorders, “just in their [writers’] head,” insecurity, anxiety, perfectionism (3)
-Jerrold Mundis’s book “Break Writer’s Block Now!’ (Check it out if you want)
-Victoria Nelson “On Writer’s Block:” she argues that WB is related to conscious ego and unconscious self (creativity, 4)
-Hjortshoj says that problem with Nelson and other WB books is that they focus on expressive writing, not writing projects such as undergrads might have (like a paper, 4)
-WB derived from term “mental block” obstacle, lapse, aversion (5)
-What WB is NOT (in Hjortshoj’s view): 1. isn’t a delay in writing process, delays are normal
2. lack of inspiration isn’t WB, inspiration not synonymous with being blocked from writing
3. Lack of motivation isn’t WB, but can result from a block
4. Lacking knowledge isn’t WB
5. WB not reliably linked to personality types and conditions
6. WB rarely affects all forms of one’s writing (agreed!)
7. WB occurs at certain stages in writing process (6-7)
-Hjortshoj wants to move away from WB as psychological disorder (8)
-WB (Hjortshoj’s definition) = capable, motivated writers who seem incapable of completing certain kinds of writing projects (8)
-task at hand often critical to
- writer often has too many ideas to put down on page
-writing not purely menial, thinking in itself doesn’t produce writing (9)
-both mental AND physical excercise (10)
-ex: F.M. Alexander (Australian Actor) lost voic b/c he stood a certain way thinking that he would project voice but he failed to do so properly (10)
-blocked writers often “very industrious” (11, hmm!) :)

-I enjoyed the first part of Hjortshoj's book, I really did. First, I think it's correct of him to say that not much research has been devoted to Writer's Block because let's face it, he uses a lot of conjecture instead of "hard" evidence. For example, such and such percent of writers exprience depression, so on and so forth.

-He remarks that the traditional defition of Writer's Block is tied with mental disorders. This is true, in fact, he takes issue with the traditional view. To some extent, I agree with him but I believe that disorders such as depression can be a writing block. More on this later.

-Hjortshoj's definition of writing block...now this is the more controversia portion of his book. In fact, Hjortshoj stakes his whole book on WB being tied solely to academic writers, not creative writers. I totally disagree that WB is only a problem with academic writers. I would argue that creative writer's have to "adapt to changing expectations" like academic writers do (like myself.) Sure, I have different professors that want me to turn in papers for different subjects, i.e. biology, english, government and politics. Hjortshoj acts like creative writers don't have changing expectatios, that an editor will take a fiction author's work w/ no "expectations." Most editors don't take other writers' work because their work isn't different than other writers; thus, new writers have to find their own unique voice. I would think that it's harder for a creative writer like myself to find a unique voice than an academic writer that has to write with in a specific, elevated form of writing.

-More on WB later! I need to get to bed, but I will blog more about Hjortshoj's "Understanding Writing Blocks" tomorrow, okay? Hav a good night! I'll see you tomorrow. :-)

-LaVel

New Book on Writer's Block!

Hi everyone! How are you? This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, book blogger extraordinaire. Unfortunately these past couple of weeks, I've been hemmed in by schoolwork. Hopefully, I'll get to blog more in the upcoming weeks. For now, let me skip the intros and get right to the new book I just picked up: "Writer's Block and How to Use It" by Victoria Nelson!

I just read chapter one of the book titled "What Is Writers Block." Surprisingly, I even read the preface! Shocker. The lovely Ms. Nelson says in the preface that she draws her approaches to writer's block from precepts on humanistic psychology and "its ideological forebears." What a mouthful! I had to turn away from the book and blink a couple of times. It's not as sciency as the last book, which is a relief. Also, this chapter is short; in fact, this book is approximately 170 pages. Thank GOD! Let me share a few points from chapter one. :-)

-Writers Block = temporary or chronic inability to put words to paper; yes, I've had this problem multiple times!
-Writers Block isn't bad per se. Wow, when I read this, I was shocked, but Ms. Nelson explains herself beautifully. Writers Block isn't "bad" because it's a "unconscious" reassessing of one's work. As Ms. Nelson says "the block is a signal to readjust the way you are approaching your work it is not the problem itself."
-Nelson cites the poet Carolyn Kizer who said, "The unconscious creates, the ego edits." Images and thoughts form the unconscious, the ego forms the conscious. One point that I disagree with Ms. Nelson is that Writers Block is involuntary. She says that Writer's Block solely stems from writers having a "blockage" from images and thoughts. However, writers block can stem from the ego; a writer can look down on his/her work and refuse to write. Ms. Nelson admits so herself later in the chapter. ;-)
-The child analogy: you may be an adult, but if you want to learn how to play, be a child and play child games once again! Likewise with writing, we need to learn how to love ourselves instead of looking down on her work. Of course, their is a difference between caring for oneself and narcissism. Writers need to encourage each other because the art is hard enough without negative thoughts!
-The Harvard Analogy: Ms. Nelson says that sometimes, we need to rip up out "Harvard application" because it can overwhelm our "ignominy of kindergarten." In other words, thinking that one's writing must be on the level of Jane Austen for example takes the fun out of writing. We want to stack up when 1, your writing may not be on that level and two, writing is supposed to be fun and a learning process. So breathe! Writing is an art and there's so much to learn. :D

Thankfully, this is all I have tonight. I need to settle down for the night and breathe; I've done so much today that I feel like I'm running in circles. :] Have a wonderful day, y'all. Post a comment on my blog and share your thoughts on whether writer's block is solely voluntary, involuntary, or in the middle. Have a great night. :]

-LaVel