Ego And Creativity

Responding to a magazine question: "What kills creativity?" - actress Gillian Anderson once replied succinctly, "Ego."

One sense of this word "ego" is a distorted self-regard, what psychologist Carl Jung referred to as "inflated consciousness... hypnotized by itself."

Many people recognize the need to modulate this kind of ego in order to facilitate the creative process. And there are other, more internal and subtle aspects of consciousness that help create the more external kinds of "ego" behavior, and that may interfere with access to creative awareness.

We have powerful tendencies to set up judgments about others, ourselves and the reality we live in, that limit creative expression.

As actress Madlyn Rhue noted, "The mistake we all make is in thinking that certain standards exist and that we must meet these standards in order to establish our place in the universal hierarchy. But hierarchies in artistic expression are not valid nor universal; they're personal." [from book "Actors as Artists"].

Creativity teacher and writer Julia Cameron has commented, "We tend to think, or at least fear, that creative dreams are egotistical... This thinking must be undone." [from "The Artist's Way"]

Creativity proceeds from a relatively unencumbered exploration of potentials -- in the world and ourselves.

Mary Rocamora, founder of the Rocamora School in Los Angeles which provides classes in awareness training, notes "A technical rendering of the idea of 'ego' would include any self-judgment, or any ideas and concepts about 'how things should be'. That voice comes in and starts to mess with the creative process. Ego is any place where thinking is superimposed on awareness."

She notes that many arts are based on the "interface between technique and freedom. Once the form has been mastered, creativity is freedom within the form, a matter of the unknown interfacing with the known. The real magic is when awareness recognizes its own process, when it sees that childlikeness, that innocence, spontaneity, sense of abandon, that lets impulse emanate through form."

One key aspect of expressing creative talent in the world is how we identify ourselves, including whether we see ourselves as "outgoing" or "shy."

Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, is featured in an online course about his book, set up by Oprah Winfrey at her site Oprah.com.

Oprah commented to him, "But what surprised me is that you say that often people who are also shy are also acting out of their egos. And you say whenever you feel superior or inferior to anyone, that's the ego in you. Why is that?"

Tolle explained, "Well, if you're shy, then what you fear is to be found wanting. But so you dare not... and disapproval or criticism would represent an injury of your mentally made sense of self which is the ego. And so a shy person would not dare to say anything because they're afraid of ego loss."

Tolle also says, "Any mind activity is much more likely to be beneficial and to be creative if it's preceded by presence and stillness."

Writer and psychotherapist Connie Zweig, with a Jungian perspective on emotional and creative freedom, writes about the concept of the hidden, relatively non-conscious part of our psyche that has "forbidden" feelings, secret wishes -- and creative urges: "The shadow acts like a psychic immune system, defining what is self and what is not-self. For different people, in different families and cultures, what falls into [self] and what falls into shadow can vary.

"For instance, some permit anger or aggression to be expressed; most do not. Some permit sexuality, vulnerability, or strong emotions; many do not. Some permit financial ambition, or artistic expression, or intellectual development, while some do not." [from "Meeting the Shadow.."]

Philosopher and spiritual teacher Krishnamurti (1895 - 1986) has had much to say about self and not-self, and how thinking can interfere with access to reality.

He has written, "Truth can come to you only when your mind and heart are simple, clear, and there is love in your heart; not if your heart is filled with the things of the mind... Then you are simply a human being without a label, without a country. This means that you must strip yourself of all those things and allow truth to come into being; and it can come only when the mind is empty, when the mind ceases to create." [from "The Book of Life"]

Creativity consultant Viki King, has written about how thinking impacts expression: "Let's say there's a big black box that is your creativity, and you think that what is inside the big black box is a little blonde puppy. But no matter what you do -- shout, cajole, bribe -- you can't get it to come out of the box. You know why? It's not a blonde puppy. It is not what you think it is, and your preconception of what it is keeps it in there." [from her book "How To Write A Movie In 21 Days.."]

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly writes, "To prevent its annihilation, the ego forces us to be constantly on the watch for anything that might threaten the symbols on which it relies [for identity]. Our view of the world becomes polarized into 'good' and 'bad'... things that support the image of the self... and those that threaten it. This is how the third veil of Maya works: it distorts reality so as to make it congruent with the needs of the ego." [from book: "The Evolving Self.."]

These "needs of the ego" are often a strong issue for filmmakers. Ashley Burnham, an art department coordinator (on the film "Pleasantville" among others) has commented, "I think everyone is constantly fighting with ego. There are so many creative and talented people in this industry, but a lot of them don't know how to put egotism on the shelf or come to terms with it. So many times, it clouds your vision."

Mary Rocamora gives a specific example of dealing with ego in the context of filmmaking: "An actress I have worked with was recently in a major film where the very green director insisted that he knew what he was doing. She had had nothing but conflict with him for a while, just because he was unresponsive, and didn't realize that she knew more about movie making than just being 'the actress.' "So at one point she went into the editing room unannounced, and she just put her arm around his shoulder to try to create connection.

"She started saying 'What would happen if we moved this scene over here, and put that one there?' This was all in a very light, non-threatening way, non-invasive, and not adversarial. "She spent a day with him, and all of a sudden, he was responding, and moving into a creative consciousness about how to edit this movie that would never have happened if he had been left to his own devices.

Melora Hardin, an accomplished singer and actress, finds that working as an actor "you're constantly being tested. It's such a team environment, doing any kind of show or movie, so you're constantly maneuvering around all these different personalities.

"It's sometimes hard to stay in awareness because you've got to create a good working situation with these people, and the tendency is to let the ego come marching in and think it can take care of everything, and make everybody comfortable.

"I always envision my ego as a marching soldier who says 'I've got everything under control' and tries to be like my Knight in Shining Armor, like this very heroic character, and ultimately it's really not.

"The best part of you for the team is your awareness, the part of you that can actually sit back and be patient." But, she notes, awareness is a slower process, and "there's not a lot of support for that in our culture. We're a much more fast-paced society that appreciates and rewards the fast thinker, the fast talker, the wise-cracker, the banter. That's definitely true in filmmaking. Not that awareness can't banter, it certainly can, but the ego gets more strokes than awareness does."

Hardin says that beside the awareness training classes she has had (at the Rocamora School), what helps is "anything that connects me with my body. Dancing and yoga, any physical activity, anything that is quieting and intimate and personal to you.

"Dancing can be incredibly self-focused, but with a specific, focused intention. You can be really self-centered, but it's not in a way that spins out your ego; it's focused on achieving a task, like making the line from my hand to my toe more beautiful today than it was yesterday.

"There's something so meditative and completely egoless about that. Anything where you have to focus so intently on what the discipline calls for is a great way to keep yourself quiet and focused-in. It just makes your brain shut up."