The Creative Soul

January 28th, 2009

With Great Pleasure, Fisher King Press announced:

Available February 14th, 2009

The Creative Soul:
Art and the Quest for Wholeness
by Lawrence H. Staples

Who we most deeply are is mirrored in our artistic work. Our need for mirroring simultaneously attracts us to and repels us from our creative callings and relationships. It is one of life’s great dilemmas.

Artist’s block and lover’s block flow from the same pool. Often, we fear deeply the very thing needed to create original art, to experience intimate relationships and to live authentic lives: we are frightened by the impulse to be fully revealed to ourselves, and to others, as this most often entails exposing the unacceptable shadowy aspects of our humanity and risking rejection.

Mirrors in all their manifold guises permit us to safely see and experience ourselves in reflection and become better acquainted with the rejected, ostracized aspects of our personalities. Creative work is one of the few places where we can truly express and witness lost aspects of our authentic selves.

Within us a treasure beckons. This is what we spend our lives pursuing. What slows and distracts us is not the object we long for, but where we search. To find this precious gem, we must eventually return to our own creative spirits.

Topics explored in THE CREATIVE SOUL include:

• OPPOSITES AND CREATIVITY
• THE CREATIVE INSTINCT
• OUR UNIQUE IDENTITY
• SOME ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
• SOME PREREQUISITES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
• LA PETITE MORT
• GIVING VOICE TO THE MANY LIVES WITHIN
• DREAMS AND ACTIVE IMAGINATION AS TRIGGERS TO CREATIVITY
• CREATIVITY AS AN INNER PARENT
• CREATIVITY WITHIN BOUNDS
• THE CREATIVE GAP
• THE POWER OF SMALL
• CREATIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE
• ART AND THE QUEST FOR WHOLENESS
• THERAPY AS ART
• FEAR OF SELF-REVELATION BLOCKS CREATIVITY
• INTIMACY AND CREATIVITY
• THE IMPORTANCE OF MIRRORING
• CREATIVITY, GUILT, AND SELF-DEVELOPMENT
• CREATIVITY AND LONELINESS
• LIFE AND THE TENSION OF OPPOSITES

Available from your local bookstore, from a host of online booksellers, and directly from Fisher King Press: The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness by Lawrence H. Staples / ISBN 13: 978-0-9810344-4-7 / Publication Date: Feb-2009 / Order your copy at www.fisherkingpress.com or call +1-831-238-7799.

The Importance of Mirroring

by Lawrence H. Staples
author of Guilt with a Twist

It takes prolonged mirroring of the forbidden feelings by an accepting and tolerant therapist, minister, or friend to undo what our parents and God hath wrought. Mirroring is an indirect experience that permits us to safely see and experience our selves.

It is our need for mirroring that simultaneously attracts us to and repels us from therapy, creative work, and relationships. We are drawn to creative work for the same reason that Frida Kahlo was—it is one of the few places that we can truly see and express our selves. But the fear of being seen also sets up a fearful resistance. Our deep need to be truly seen draws us to anything that will reflect our selves back to us, whether it is art, therapy, or relationships. But our deep need to avoid the pain of rejection causes us to resist those things that will reflect our true selves. It is one of the great dilemmas of life. Fortunately, there is within us a psychic entity that keeps growing into greater fullness as we become increasingly conscious. It is our self, a reflected image of God, the archetypal Self. That is actually what we spend our lives looking for. What slows and distracts us in our search is not the object of the search, but the direction we turn in order to find it. The self is found inside us. That is the precious treasure we seek. And, if we are to find it, we eventually must look where it is. The creative act of self-development results in the development of our unique identity, who we most deeply are. It is our particular manifestation of our self. As I have pointed out, we all, every one of us, have a unique identity. We just are not conscious of our unique identity until we have done a lot of inner work.

The work we do looking on the outside is not a waste. Rather, it is an off-Broadway performance of the real drama to come, merely a warm-up or a tune-up for the main event. There is nothing wrong with off-Broadway; it is merely a detour that may help us get where we are going. The longer we spend looking outside, however, the longer it takes to get where we wish and need to go.

Lawrence Staples is the author of the recently published

Guilt with a Twist

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