Out of the Blue: The Choice is Up to You!
Welcome, Creative Heroes! It’s day three of Dr. Eric Maisel’s virtual book tour through the Artella Café promoting his book, The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression (VGB). What an amazing stroke of fate - or providence! (Depending on your “vocabulary of meaning” – please read the book...) The very topic for the blog contest I won in order to have the honor of hosting this interview was about heroes while Dr. Maisel states that his book is all about the heroism required of creators who struggle with their inevitable bouts of existential depression! In VGB he writes about why he believes they are prone to this type of depression and describes a practical plan for managing it.
Harqn2: What strategies about making and maintaining meaning can we expect you to discuss in your book to assist creative people in averting debilitating depression?
EM: A main strategy is simply to become aware of the concept that meaning does not exist until you make it and that it does not stay afloat unless you actively maintain it. A corollary idea is that without a vocabulary of meaning, it is very hard to think about and talk about meaning issues, which is why I include such a vocabulary as an appendix to the book. When you have phrases like meaning investment, meaning crisis, meaning spark, meaning leak, and similar terms to employ internally, you have a new way of speaking to yourself that reminds you about your central obligations and helps you actually become a passionate meaning-maker.
Harqn2: Based on the premise that creative people inevitably will experience depression because they regularly experience doubts about the meaningfulness of their work, how might having a strong religious/spiritual faith both benefit and hinder the struggle to find and make meaning?
EM: This is a tricky question for me because I am both an atheist and an anti-religionist who believes that god-talk is a betrayal of our common humanity. As soon as you inject that a god has told you something, you have trumped any rational discussion of a subject. Naturally, a believer may find it easier to avoid feelings of meaninglessness because he can take comfort in his beliefs and in this sense he may have an easier time maintaining meaning. To my mind, to make meaning is to accept that you are the sole arbiter of what is going to count as righteous and meaningful in your life.
Harqn2: In the chapter Sounding Silence you discuss Negative Self-Talk and it's role in meaning crises, do you think as creatives we sabotage ourselves and our abilities?
EM: Yes, all the time. We are continually saying things to ourselves (though often just out of earshot) like “It’s too late for me” or “There’s too much competition” or “I don’t really have what it takes.” These negative thoughts need to be heard and disputed, and then more affirmative thoughts need to be substituted. More insidiously, as we are tricky creatures and because we don’t want to know to what extent we are disappointing ourselves by not creating, we couch our negativity in language that sounds true but that really isn’t. Today, the two most common phrases of this sort are “I’m too busy” and “I’m too tired.” We say these things because we know that they have enough grains of truth in them that we can believe them without examining them too closely. If we want to change this dynamic, we need to begin to say things to ourselves like “I’m very busy, but not too busy to spend twenty minutes on my novel.” In this way we honor the truth of our situation while at the same time not avoiding our existential responsibilities.
Harqn2: Depression has many negative connotations. How might depression help bring to light issues that other more positive states of being may not?
EM: It isn’t so much that depression brings to light these other states. It is rather that, at least at this point in the evolution of our species, to don the mantle of personal meaning maker, which is the righteous and proper thing to do, means that you look life squarely in the eye and do what it takes to manifest your potential and act as the hero of your own story—and by accepting all this you open the door for depression, since it can be depressing to see the truth about reality and depressing to struggle so hard to bring forth beauty and good works. The depression isn’t any kind of blessing or positive state, but it may be an inevitable by-product of our decision to live honorably.
Harqn2: Could you explain more about the importance of a creator's task in being able to find a certain freedom of attitude when reckoning with the facts of existence, while still maintaining authenticity?
EM: Nice to get a simple question now and then! :-) I often think of this particular task as dream-upholding while reality-testing. If you do not actively keep your biggest dreams afloat, they are likely to get swamped and submerged by everyday reality. At the same time, if you do not reckon with the facts of existence—for instance, what your particular marketplace wants or what sales tactics actually work (rather than those that the books say work)—you are likely to relegate your dreams to fantasy-land. The freedom in attitude resides in not attaching to outcomes: you hold your dream, you do the work, you reality-test well, and you leave the rest up to the gods of whimsy. Be fiercely ambitious while not attaching to outcomes: that is the secret!
Harqn2: Thanks for stopping by my blog today Dr. Maisel. Oh, look! Here comes Spot, my editor. She’s brought her copy of the Van Gogh Blues. I think she wants an autograph… you don’t mind do you, Dr. Maisel? Thanks again! Be sure to check back tomorrow when Dr. Eric Maisel visits Be-Bop Bo’s blog on day four of his virtual book tour in the Artella Café.
For more information about Dr. Eric Maisel's work see his website: http://www.ericmaisel.com/
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Just for fun – Spot wanted to share a few of her favorite quotes from the book
“Your two eyes are not enough—you must cultivate a third eye with which you monitor the ebb and flow of meaning in your life.” –Dr. Eric Maisel Ph.D.
“Maybe you can’t deliver a miracle—but maybe you can. Stand up, even if your legs are wobbly, and deliver.” --Dr. Eric Maisel Ph.D.
“You are free to choose your meanings since meaning is entirely up for grabs. But you are also obliged to choose your meanings, as meaning means nothing until you tell the universe where you stand.” --Dr. Eric Maisel Ph.D.
“Point of View” by Lori Minick, Collage on Paper