Exploring the dimensions of creative psychology using poetry

Abstract

A piece of poetry is not only a bundle of words and figurative language; it is also an expression of human consciousness and unconsciousness, a part of writer’s as well as society’s psyche. A poem carries along with it the knowledge, the wisdom, the culture, the conflicts, the science, the philosophy, the art, the ideologies, the emotions, the perspectives and numerous other qualities. This interactive project has through the use of creative psychology, served as an inspiration to the participants directly or indirectly to express themselves through poems as well as appreciate the various qualities attached to the poems. Good communication skills are a basic necessity for the development of each and every discipline, whether it is administration, education, business or anything else. When it comes to creativity; exchange/sharing of thoughts, ideas, and knowledge definitely contributes to it. In this project, three channels of communication have been used to maintain a bidirectional and interactive discourse between an author (in curriculum), teachers and students, which include video conferencing through skype, interaction through social medium-facebook and face to face interactions. Creativity has its roots in constructive coordination of thought processes mainly convergent thought process and divergent thought process which has been utilized in this experiment to produce works of literature in the form of two books “Smile Thy Sorrows” and “Preserve Thy peace”.

Introduction

Communication, that too through distinct words and languages is an unique privilege being enjoyed by the human species on earth. Good communication skills are a basic necessity for the development of each and every discipline, whether it is administration, education, business or anything else. When it comes to creativity; exchange of thoughts, ideas and knowledge definitely contributes to it. In this project, three channels of communication have been used to maintain a bidirectional and interactive discourse between an author in curriculum, teachers and students, which include video conferencing through skype, interaction through social medium, facebook and face to face interactions. Creativity has its roots in coordination of thought processes mainly convergent thought process and divergent thought process. Creativity is the basic element that is a pre requisite for major artistic as well as scientific breakthroughs. Works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Einstein, Kabir, Shakespeare etc. speak for themselves. Launch of Sputnik 1 by Russia and Mangalyan by India, are similar examples of highly creative scientific endeavours. In a literature class, an effective discourse or interaction can make readers more interested in reading and appreciating a given piece of writing, explore more into words, impart ease of interpretation, provide multiple perspectives, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach, expand the horizons of thinking and in turn enhance creativity. Sometimes a sight, visual or audio happens to be an inspiration to bring out a poet or a writer out of dormancy and another time thoughts may get expressed in the form of visuals, audio or writings.

E xpression of creativity in any form of art or science is essential for enriching and celebrating the human intelligence and this experiment has included this aspect also in the present work. A piece of poetry is not only a bundle of words and figurative language; it is also an expression of human consciousness and unconsciousness, a part of writer’s as well as society’s psyche. A poem carries along with it the knowledge, the wisdom, the culture, the conflicts, the science, the philosophy, the art, the ideologies, the emotions, the perspectives and numerous other qualities. This interactive project has through the use of creative psychology, served as an inspiration to the participants directly or indirectly to express themselves through poems as well as appreciate the various qualities attached to the poems. If we have a look at some previous works we find that, decades of research by organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers show that socially diverse groups (that is, those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation) are more innovative than homogenous groups(Phillips;2014). The outcome of this work also fulfils similar kind of objectives in terms of innovation, creativity and understanding of each others’ perspectives. Creativity in any kind of art including poetry is deeply related to psychology which has either direct or indirect impact on the creativity. In this context, it is also important to point out that in a lecture "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry" to the Society for German Language and Literature, Carl Gustav Jung (1922) has pointed out that psychology has no insight into the nature of art; however, psychology can yield insights into the processes of artistic creation. He opined that artistic works are of two kinds: those revealing signs (not symbols) from the personal unconscious of the artist and those revealing the symbols or archetypes of the collective unconscious of the human race. Gibbs (1994) has mentioned that traditionally viewed as tool of poets and politicians, figurative language is found not only in the treasured pages of literature but throughout ordinary speech and writing. He also mentions that the language of great poets is clearly more creative, and more poetic, than employed by ordinary speakers. This also gives a way to the idea that by creating an environment conducive to enhance creativity, a speaker may turn into a poet, if he gets enough stimuli, knowledge and a platform to express his creation in the form of a poem. How much is enough, this is however a vague statement. Sternberg (2006) stated that creativity is often obvious in young children, but it may be harder to find in older children and adults because their creative potential has been suppressed by a society that encourages intellectual conformity. So, efforts have been made by interactive discourse to bring out the normal as well as suppressed creative potential in the form of poems during this project. According to Arthur Cropley (2010), free production of variability through unfettered divergent thinking holds out the seductive promise of effortless creativity but runs the risk of generating only quasi creativity or pseudo creativity if it is not adapted to reality. He opines that therefore, creative thinking seems to involve two components: generation of novelty (via divergent thinking) and evaluation of the novelty (via convergent thinking). In the present project also both components of thought processes have been utilized to create the work of poetry by the participants. Anna Aguilar-Amat (2012) says, “Once I defined poetry as: "an endless game that breaks conventional thinking and goes over the limitations of standard language”. I can now see that the poetry game is not confined to the field of the verbal and can be found in every kind of genre.” Again in her words, she says, “We could say that poetic thinking is the art of combining and recycling: the ability to relate things to each other that exist separately and that together are worth more than the sum of their parts, and the ability to see things from non-standard points of view. It could also be explained in terms of convergent / divergent thinking.”

Methodology

In this project, three channels of communication have been used to maintain a bidirectional and interactive discourse between an author (in curriculum), teachers and students, which include video conferencing through skype, interaction through social medium-facebook and face to face interactions.

a. Video conferencing through Skype:

It was April 2011 when Purwanti Kusumaningtyas and Annita (Lecturers; English Department, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga, Indonesia) initiated an experiment to connect the students of their university with the authors in their course curriculum. One hundred and fifty students were connected in Salatiga (Indonesia) with an author in Kullu (India). This interaction lasted for two hours in which students and teachers interacted thoroughly with an Indian author Sanju Paul whom they read as a poet in their curriculum. The experience was overwhelming for the author as well as teachers and students of the university.

It formed a long lasting connection between all three parties involved teachers, students and the author. It also acted as a catalyst in enhancing the literary appreciation skills of the students. Later on skype interaction became a frequent feature of the poetry classes.

b. Interaction through facebook

Another technique of interaction was connection of the students to the author through social medium facebook which enabled them to have interaction with the author as and when they desired further reflecting enhancement in their creative skills as appreciated in their research methodology presentations and dissertations. It is a convenient medium for students as well as teachers to study and research author’s literary works, life and activities on a regular basis up to the limit, the writer wishes to open his timeline for them.

Skype as well as facebook have opened new doors in the field of author-teacher/student interaction. Now students, teachers and authors are just one chat window away from each other.

c. Face to face interactions

In November 2011, an experiment on “Semi hypnosis as a tool for teacher education” was presented by Sanju Paul during the International seminar with the theme “Teacher Education in the Era of World Englishes” at SWCU, Salatiga, Indonesia in continuation to the drop experiment that was presented at Assumption University, Bangkok during the year 2009 by her. A poetry workshop was also conducted under Sanju Paul’s guidance which was coordinated by three Lecturers of ED, SWCU (Purwanti Kusumaningtyas, Lany Kristono and Danielle Donelson Sims) in which students of English Department participated. During this experiment students interacted with the author very enthusiastically and frankly. They also participated in writing and reading their own poems. The scenario though began quite formally; it soon became very informal removing the barriers of hesitation. As the hours passed and the day approached the end, the group has undergone intermixing in terms of exchange of ideas as well as emotions. That was the time when Sanju Paul finally decided to write in association with these teachers and students for the next five years. As a part of the experiment, Sanju decided not to come up with any individual poetry book of her own as single author during this period so that this experiment with the theme “to create together” could be conducted in ubuntu spirit. Later on artists/writers from some other parts of the world were also included in the process. As a part of this project which was named “Poetry project-ED with Sanju Paul” a book titled “Smile Thy Sorrows” has already been published. “Preserve Thy Peace” is the second outcome of these efforts in print.

During the experiment the divergent as well as convergent thought processes of the participants were utilized to form this volume of work.

Findings and Discussion

The final result of this project in black and white is two books namely “Smile Thy Sorrows” and “Preserve Thy Peace” which include poems, pictures and reviews on poetry. First book “Smile Thy Sorrows” was published during the year 201.. containing five chapters namely ‘Heal Thy Heart’, ‘Crab Thoughts’, ‘Deal Thy Death’, ‘Tributes’ and ‘Salatiga Poets’. Second book “Preserve Thy Peace” published in the year 2017 consists of eight chapters namely ‘Epiphany: Speak Thy Silence’, ‘Neuropoetry’, ‘Chemopoetry’, ‘Music of Himalayas’, ‘Where Thoughts Diverge’, ‘Beats of Java’, ‘Juvenile Random Scribbles’ and ‘Rainbow Dreams’. It is not possible to mention all the contents of the book inside the boundaries of this paper so a few examples will be shared to provide some glimpse of the contents inside. The poems apart from fulfilling objectives already mentioned also include previously spoken as well as unspoken voices and efforts to give voice to the voiceless, fulfilling the target of concern for social issues and welfare. .

1. SMILE THY SORROWS: This book was the outcome of an effort to induce and encourage poetry from students, appreciate literary works through reading and develop Asian literatures through writing. From this first outcome of ‘Poetry Project: Sanju Paul-ED, SWCU’, some poems written by students are being shared below.

1. May the Sky be

May the sky be weary

may the sky be excruciating

thy shall stand

thy soul is strong

as the golden pillares

where thy shelter lies

thy shall behold

for thy heart

is stronger

than the evils lurking in the clouds

may thy be blue

thy shall stand

hold into thy heart

and rest accused

in thy majestic shelter

which thy soul holds

which thy heart stays

Indrajaya Sartono

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