What is Writer's Block?
-The writer Hjortshoj wants to move away from Writer's Block 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 exercise (10)
“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) Edmund Bergler
-Bergler worked with Sigmund Freud in Vienna clinic in 1930s ; among first generation of psychoanalysts after Freud (2)
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 the tendency 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)
-1. The ego ideal, as described by Freud, grows out of his infantile megalomania, which is by no means a characteristic negligible 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.
--Victoria Nelson “On Writer’s Block:” she argues that WB is related to conscious ego and unconscious self (creativity, 4)
-Top Study (Britain)
Schizophrenia Subgroup (pg 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 (5)
-no increased rate in holding creative occupation
Other Research Studies:
“Creativity and Mental Illness: Prevalence Rates in Writers and Their First-Degree Relatives” Nancy C. Andreasen (1987)
Sample: - 30 writers from University of Iowa Writers Workshop
- 30 controls matched for socio-demographics
-27 Men, 3 women
- first-degree relatives
Method: - diagnosis of writers and controls based on current criteria for mental disorders
Review of Findings •
writers were 3 times more likely to have mood disorder
4 times more likely to have bipolar disorder
4.5 times more likely to be alcoholic
• both creativity and mood disorders seem to run in families
“Affective disorder may be both a ‘hereditary taint’ and a hereditary gift” - Andreasen “Mood Disorders and Patterns of Creativity in British Writers and Artists” Kay Redfield Jamison
Purpose: - to ascertain rates of treatment for effective 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
“Creative Achievement and Psychopathology: Comparison Among Professions” Arnold Ludwig (1992)
Sample: All individuals whose biographies were reviewed in the New York Times Book Review section between 1960 and 1990
n = 1,006 Subjects were divided into 19 professions Method:
- Creativity ratings were based on Creative Achievement Scale (CAS)
- Psychopathology ratings were based on symptom clusters described in the ICD-9
Findings:
• significantly higher rates for psychopathology and treatment among persons in the creative arts
• patterns of psychopathology in creative arts were different than in other professions with creative arts showing earlier pathology
• Total lifetime Depression scores were found to significantly predict the level of creative achievement across all professions
-"More recent studies have further strengthened these conclusions. Andreasen, for example, demonstrated increased risk for affective disorder in general and for bipolar disorder in particular in 30 creative writers at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, compared with healthy controls.12 Similarly, Jamison found increased risk for affective disorder in 47 British writers. Ludwig used reviews of biographies published in the New York Times Book Review between 1960 and 1990 as selection criteria, identifying 1005 eminent individuals. Based on their biographies, he found an over-representation of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia-like psychosis and depression in the creative arts group." (British Study).
And now, I will read an excerpt from my book "Dragon Earth." It's from Chapter 6 of my book titled "Autumn Bash Party."~
