INTEGRATIVE ARTS
By, Audette Sophia
INTRODUCTION
The integrative power of the Arts offers us a means to identify and express
ourselves in our uniqueness,
as well as connect us with the universal.
This paper will explore the relationship between creative self-expression
and self-integration.
We live in a rapidly changing society in which traditional forms and cultural
traditions are dissolving and being replaced by new models of cultural identity.
The modern individual has sought and increasingly been unable to discover a
satisfying sense of personal identity and belonging amongst this changing backdrop.
In a fast-paced media driven society we are conditioned to overlook our own
inner voices (the spiritual) and rely instead on the rational, the material,
and the personal. The integrative use of the arts offer us a means to identify,
express, and affirm ourselves by connecting to a sense of the universal. Through
this, we come to experience the Self as more balanced, cohesive, and connected.
In the act of creative self-expression we affirm our own identities by connecting
‘inner’ and ‘outer’.
CREATIVITY
To begin this exploration, it is helpful to define our terms,
starting with creativity. Creativity is a broad term that can have many different
meanings coming from different perspectives. The way I am referring to creativity
is not problem solving, or fashion or recitation. I am looking at it not from
the scientific perspective, but from the holistic perspective. I am referring
to creativity here as the authentic self-expression of our uniqueness. In the
words of Gabrielle Roth, “…art is not just ornamental, an enhancement
of life, but a path in itself, a way out of the predictable and conventional,
a map to self discovery.” (find page #)The arts in this context are seen
as a bridge between inner and outer worlds, and the goal is not to conform to
some external expectation, but to express our inner self in a way that is both
authentic and artistic. Art, as an expression of creative inquiry can open us
to new depths of insight and original ways of connecting with our world.
“The provision of medicine for the body and soul is
one of art’s many functions. Other aspects of art, and especially its
importance as a commodity and its role as an indicator of ephemeral tastes,
have dominated our culture and alienated us from the healing muses.” (McNiff
3) This is an important perspective, and points us away from the aesthetic,
elitist art paradigm, and towards re-claiming the positive powers of art for
everyone. I believe that we are all born creative, and that it is the right
of everyone to use the arts to explore our depths and to use the modalities
available to us as outlets for expression and as ways to share our inner selves
with others.
Human potential is vast and becomes manifest in many ways.
There are some dimensions of our inner world that can only be connected to the
external world through the act of creative self-expression. Words are limited
in what they are able to convey. We are physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
beings containing rich worlds of feeling and imagination. Some of these inner
states can only be accurately represented through creative modalities such as
movement, metaphor, melody, and image.
This vantage point of creativity necessarily takes us outside of the traditional
sphere of ‘art’ into the domains of psychology and spirituality.
This exploration into the integrative power of the arts brings science, psychology,
art, and religion together. “Beginning in the early twentieth century,
pioneering thinkers in a number of fields began to reintroduce and reconceptualize
the holistic perspective of our ancestors, thereby reclaiming the creative purpose
and power of the arts to heal, to educate, and to facilitate consciousness.’
(Halprin 39)
This paper will introduce some models and frameworks through
which we can both deepen and expand our understanding of how and why creativity
supports the unfolding and realization of human potential.
At this point it is helpful to point out a distinction about the dual nature
of the creative arts. Similar to our in-breath and out-breath, or the spiral
that moves both into the center and from the center outwards, the creative stream
can be followed inwards as a means of self-inquiry, and extended from the inner,
out to others through self-expression. The inward spiral path is one of exploration
and the process of deepening self-understanding, while the outward expanding
spiral path is about giving voice and outlet to what we know and who we are.
Both paths are valuable and equal, and both result in an enhancement of dialogue,
understanding, and connection.
This perspective helps us steer away from only valuing the
productive, end-result orientation, and honors both the process and product
of creativity. This recognition of the paradoxical dimensions of art (inner
and outer) leads us into the recognition that art is far more than the product
or outcome. The art object is ultimately inseparable from the process of its
creation. In art we discover this to be true for everything, including ourselves.
In the artistic process, we ourselves become the art in progress.
“Our creativity enables us to receive deep psychic material, struggle
with and transform it.” (Knill 87) Far from being an arbitrary amusement,
art entered into from a holistic approach becomes a profound catalyst for personal
growth and evolution.
INTEGRATION
What am I talking about when I say self-integration? Words
like integrity and integral refer to a state of wholeness. So, an integrated
person could be said to be one who has found a balanced harmonious relationship
to the parts of themselves, including the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
aspects. What I am calling self-integration has been called by other names such
as self-development, personal growth, and self-actualization. It implies an
integrity of being, resulting from healthy relationship between the poles of
our being; right and left brain functions, rational and intuitive, conscious
and subconscious, physical and spiritual, etc… This does not mean achieving
some perpetual balance and being without conflict or pain, it is more about
being honest with the full spectrum of ourselves and following the conflicts
all the way through to their resolution and our evolution.
“Integration implies a previous state of disintegration. Often, what brings
a person into therapy is the experience of falling apart, of splitting into
discordant fragments, of losing a central self around which the personality
coheres. This break-down is a necessary stage in the development of the self:
it represents the breaking down of the false unity of narcissistic self-identification.
“ (Levine 21)
At this time, fragmentation seems to be a pervasive experience,
internally in individuals, and also in our families, communities, and cultures.
Instead of denying and resisting this and covering up its symptoms, we can see
it as an opportunity for evolution, for a new cohesion to emerge from what is
unraveling, and trust in and facilitate the process. The integral perspective
recognizes the necessary and growth-serving role that breakdown and disintegration
play in the process of self-integration. As Levine goes on to say about the
end results of this identity crisis: “The person is now identified not
with the ego or persona but with the ground of his or her being. Whether this
ground be called the “unconscious” or “God”, it is clear
that what has taken place is an integration of the personality on a deeper foundation.
It is a movement toward wholeness and unity.” (23)
Integral psychologist Haridas Chaudhuri claims that “Broadly speaking
there are three inseparable aspects of human personality: uniqueness or individuality,
universality or relatedness, and transcendence. (74) Creativity can help us
to harmonize and strengthen our relationship with any and all of these aspects.
Through the arts we can affirm and communicate our uniqueness, connect with
cultural and universal currents, and access spiritual and transcendental states.
“Virtually every spiritual tradition distinguishes the self-clinging ego
from the deeper, creative Self; little self as opposed to big Self. The big
self is transpersonal, beyond any separated individuality, the common ground
that we all share.” (Nachmanovitch 29)
As we expand beyond the narrow view of the arts as entertainment, ego gratification
and product, we join the many pioneers who have found much more broad and meaningful
frameworks through which to engage the power of creativity. I now turn directly
into the field of psychology and to four schools of thought which have contributed
to a more holistic perspective of the human psyche and the recognition of the
importance of creativity and the arts.
"When conscious life is characterised by one-sidedness and by a false attitude,
primordial healing images are activated – one might say instinctively
– and come to light in the dreams of individuals and the visions of artists."
Carl Jung
CARL JUNG
One very important pioneer of this field is Swiss psychologist
Carl Jung.
Jung was interested in the unconscious level of the human psyche, and thus found
himself studying symbology, mythology, archetypes, dreams, and mandalas. His
findings provide a lot of support for the foundation of the integrative view
and use of the arts.
In seeking his references to wholeness, I come upon his work
with mandalas. Jung’s first experiences with mandalas was through his
clients drawings and descriptions of dream imagery, and later became substantiated
and contextualized through his study of Eastern traditions of Taoism and Tibetan
Buddhism. He viewed the mandala as an expression of wholeness. “Although
“wholeness” seems at first to be nothing but an abstract idea, it
is nevertheless empirical in so far as it is anticipated by the psyche in the
form of spontaneous and autonomous symbols. These are the quaternity or mandala
symbols, which occur not only in the dreams of moderns who have never heard
of them, but are widely disseminated in the historical records of many peoples
and many epochs.” (Jung 30)
Jung was not a cultural philosopher, he was a psychologist,
so his interest in myth and mandalas was in how they reflect and support the
psyche. In his cosmology, the individual not only has an unconscious, but is
also connected to what he calls the ‘collective unconscious’. This
helps to explain why the same symbols and themes show up in individual psychological
processes and in cultural symbols, myths, and systems. For example, the Jewish
star of David and the Taoist “yin yang” symbol could be said to
represent the collective level of a united anima and animus. Jung believed that
these two fundamental archetypes of the human psyche must be harmonized as an
“indispensable prerequisite to wholeness.” (Jung 30)
Jung put great importance on the process of harmonizing these
dual poles of our being and identifying and integrating our shadow, toward the
goal of what he called individuation. He recognized that this process brought
us into deep, unconscious and trans-rational levels of our being. I think one
of his main contributions to the movement of psychology toward holism was his
validation of these deeper levels of consciousness and his willingness to engage
the psyche in it’s own languages of imagery, archetypes, symbology, and
dreams. “As has already been pointed out, the union of opposites on
a higher level of consciousness is not a rational thing, nor is it a matter
of will; it is a psychic process of development which expresses itself in symbols.”
(Jung 318) What Jung is illuminating in this statement and in much of his work
is this inner track of human development, belonging to a mythic- archetypal,
primal-creative realm. He points to the importance of symbolic languages to
help us to become more conscious of and connected to this dimension of our being.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
This theme of balancing anima and animus, yin and yang, conscious
and unconscious, reoccurs in many mythologies and philosophies. In more modern
neuro science, it would be referred to as balancing the left and right hemispheres
of the brain. Abraham Maslow had an interesting perspective on this, and categorized
these two poles as the primary and secondary processes. Primary processes are
childlike, imaginative, spontaneous, wild, metaphoric, poetic, mythic, and reside
in the deep layers of the self. The secondary processes are logical, sensible,
rational, realistic, mature, and generally functional in the external world.
Both of these are important and necessary. But it is dangerous to the health
of the whole person for there to be a disconnection between, and lopsided bias
toward either one of these.
“What I’m leading up to is that out of this unconscious, out
of this deeper self out of this portion of ourselves of which we generally are
afraid and therefore try to keep under control, out of this comes the ability
to play- to enjoy- to fantasy- to laugh- to loaf- to be spontaneous, and, what’s
most important for us here, creativity, which is a kind of intellectual play,
which is a kind of permission to be ourselves, to fantasy, to let loose, and
to be crazy, privately. (Every really new idea looks crazy, at first.)”
(Maslow 85)
At it’s extreme, the control or repression of primary
processes results in a rigid obsessive compulsive person who is afraid of their
own emotions and impulses and so is stunted in any authentic and spontaneous
expression. Ideally we find a balanced healthy relationship between both poles.
“In the healthy person, and especially the healthy person who creates,
I find that he has somehow managed a fusion and a synthesis of both primary
and secondary processes; both conscious and unconscious; both of deeper self
and of conscious self. And he manages to do this gracefully and fruitfully.”
(Maslow 89)
Maslow also made a significant contribution to general psychological
theory with his now well-known pyramid illustration of the hierarchy of needs.
Up until this point, Freudian analysis and mechanistic behaviorism dominated
our way of looking at human motivation. What Maslow proposed in his model is
that after our basic physiological needs are met, we move onto safety/security,
and then need for love and belonging, and then esteem needs, then cognitive,
aesthetic, and finally at the top of the pyramid, self-actualization and transcendence.
The bottom four he referred to as deficiency needs, and said that only when
these needs were met could we move on toward fulfillment of our growth needs.
This model greatly expanded the scope of psychology as a representation
and validation of the full spectrum of human need and motivation. Its effect
also included a movement away from orientation to psychopathology and a movement
toward health, growth, and fulfillment. Of most significance to this discussion
are the phases of self-actualization and transcendence. Maslow studied a lot
of extraordinary people and found that there were commonalities between them
and that really he was studying a type of person. People who are in the self-actualizing
phase were both oriented to personal growth, but also were almost always involved
“in a cause outside their own skin.” They were often passionate
about a vocation or calling to be of service in their unique way, and were also
characterized by an appreciation of life.
Once a person is self-realized and fulfilling their potential
and purpose, the natural evolution is to transcend the personal self and become
more identified with relationship to the universal or spiritual. This could
most certainly be considered a foundation stone for the later development of
the field of transpersonal psychology.
Maslow’s study of self-actualizing people brought his attention to creativity,
as many people he studied were highly creative people. “My feeling
is that the concept of creativeness and the concept of the healthy, self-actualizing,
fully human person seem to be coming closer and closer together, and may perhaps
turn out to be the same thing." (Maslow 57) This is a very strong
statement drawn from his experience that points to the integral role that creativity
has to play in the actualizing of human potential and the cultivation of wholeness.
He gets even more explicit in this point by saying that; “Creating
tends to be the act of a whole man; he is then most integrated, unified, all
of a piece, one-pointed, totally organized in the service of the fascinating
matter-in-hand. Creativeness is therefore systemic; i.e., a whole- or Gestalt-
quality of the whole person; it is not added to the organism like a coat of
paint, or like an invasion of bacteria. It is the opposite of dissociation.”
(Maslow 69)
Other pioneers who’s work helped to evolve the field of psychology in
the direction of holism include existentialist William James, Gestalt therapy’s
founder Fritz Perls, Alderian Psychology’s founder Kurt Goldstein, existential-
integrative psychology’s founder Rollo May, and Psychosynthesis’s
founder Robeto Assagioli.
PSYCHOSYNTHESIS
Psychosynthesis is a prime example of a psychological framework
whole enough to include the heights and depths of human nature. Psychosynthesis
was developed by the Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli, and expands humanistic
psychology to more explicitly address the spiritual dimension. As the name hints
at, the focus of psychosynthesis is to “…achieve a synthesis, a
coming together, of the various parts of an individual's personality into a
more cohesive self.”
The self through this lens is seen as comprised of the core
self, the sub-personalities, the super-conscious, and the transpersonal self.
One step toward bringing the many parts of the self into healthy relationship
is transmuting and redirecting the biopsychic energies, particularly sexual,
aggressive, and combative tendencies. These energies need safe containers to
be explored and healthy outlets for expression.
Another central intention of psychosynthesis is the awakening
and releasing of the super-conscious spiritual energies, (sometimes known as
the higher self), which has a transformative impact on the personality. The
last main focus of psychosynthesis is the arousing and development of the center
and will, thus strengthening the human capacity to harmonize conflicting drives
and impulses toward creative and responsible action. Following is a metaphor
for the orientation of psychosynthesis to the core self…
“A helpful image is that of an orchestra, where the musicians represent
the different parts or aspects of ourselves. Without a conductor, there would
be little cooperation as each of the musicians would attempt to get their favorite
music played according to their own interpretation. Acceptance of and submission
to the conductor results in integration of the orchestra, and this would subsequently
be reflected in the music. Where the conductor represents the self, the transpersonal
self can be thought of as the composer or the producer.”
The Egg diagram is a map that shows the various levels of
consciousness as seen through the lens of psychosynthesis. This is a one of
the most inclusive and holistic psycho-spiritual models of consciousness.
Looking at this model, I gain an insight into my own thesis. It’s something
about dotted lines, about transcending boundaries and achieving communion with
that which is beyond ourselves, and gaining experience of the full spectrum
of consciousness. Does this not help explain the way humans push at the edges
of their ego’s egg, and seek expansion through success, sex, music, myth,
drugs and religion? Does it help to explain the prevalence of shamanistic practices,
rituals, trance healings, psychotropic plant ceremonies, rites of passage and
initiations; even the fast track of reason and science trying out the dissection
route of this eternal quest for understanding the mysteries within and beyond
ourselves?
DARIA HALPRIN & THE LIFE/ART PROCESS
Daria Halprin is the daughter of dance pioneer Anna Halprin,
and a psychologist and movement teacher. Though she does have a psychological
background, I turn to her work to provide us with an example of how the preceding
collection of philosophical frameworks are tangibly applied to individuals and
groups. Along with her mother she has developed the Halprin Life/Art Process,
which is a holistic movement based form of therapy. As the name suggests, one
of the goals of the work is to strengthen the metaphoric relationship between
art making and life circumstances.
“In this way our lives feed our art by making it real and authentic,
and our art opens and reflects back to us image of who we have been, who we
are, and who we might become. As we find our integrity in the ways we shape
our bodies, movements, images, and feelings through art, with time and practice
we are able to shape more creative relationships with ourselves and others.”
(Halprin 19)
The modalities utilized in her work are mainly movement, writing,
and drawing, but also include active imagination, vocal exploration, and dramatic
enactments. It is informed by humanistic and phenomenological psychologies as
well as somatics, and rests on the foundational belief that “The entire
repertoire of our life experience can be accessed and activated through the
body in movement.”
The Halprin Process explores the interplay between the inherent
knowledge of the body and its creative connection to our life stories. It has
been applied in hospitals, schools, hospices, and been experienced by many individuals
and groups over the past couple decades. The somatic and psychological framework
offers support for the experiential and creative exploration that enriches and
transforms those who take up the journey. This work represents an evolutionary
edge of the psychological domain. This work offers an evolutionary edge in the
personal domain.
“Creativity connects us to the natural process that
exists in all things on the biological, emotional, mental, and spiritual planes.
Tapping into the energy of this foundational life force constantly moving in
us and around us, we can reconnect with the innate human impulse for creation
and evolution." (Halprin 85)
CONCLUSION
All of this research both confirms and substantiates my own
experience as a singer, poet and dancer. My life has been ‘living research’
into the full spectrum of transformative potential of the arts. It is very validating
to find so many supportive philosophies and models that confirm, contextualize,
and expand my own experientially based conviction that the arts not only help
the self move towards wholeness, but also integrate the self into healthy relationship
with the greater Whole.
The creative self-actualizing individual does not evolve into some lofty pinnacle,
they grow into being a person with integrity, within themselves and in all their
relationships. This integrity naturally and organically finds expression in
service; be it social, environmental, creative, or spiritual. Personal integrity
is the foundation of a sustainable society.
Because uniqueness, inter-relatedness, and transcendence are
features of the human psyche, self-expression leads to connection and community
building, and creative communion leads to transcendence of the small self and
service to the Whole. Thus integrative arts covers a vast scope, from individual
to universal, from personal to transpersonal, and has something to offer everyone
no matter where they are in the spectrum of development.
The self that is explored and expressed through creativity
is also transformed through it. As the self changes and grows, the more the
product of their creativity has the power to help other people on their journey
of growth and evolution. Put another way, as we achieve greater levels of consciousness,
what we broadcast from these places will have more transformative impact on
others.
“Life is sacred. Life is art. Life is sacred art. The art of sacred
living means being a holy actor, acting from the soul rather than the ego.”
(Roth 147) As the artist moves beyond egoism and taps deeper levels of
their being, the art they create reflects the archetypal or universal levels
of reality. When a group of people connect at these levels, narrow individualism
is transcended and various degrees of communion, trance, and ecstatic states
can be reached. At a societal level, art is an extremely effective tool for
transcending alienation in a pluralistic world. Art tells us who we are and
where we are going.
WORKS CITED
McNiff, Sean. Art as Medicine, Boston 1992 Shambala
Roth, Gabrielle. Maps to Ecstacy Novato 1989 Nataraj
Assagioli, Roberto. Psychosynthesis, New York 1965 Esalen Book
Jung, Carl. Psyche & Symbol New York 1958 Anchor Books
Maslow, A.H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, NY 1971
An Esalen Book
Halprin, Daria. The Expressive body in Life, Art, and Therapy, London 2003 Jessica
Kingsley publishers ltd.
Levine, Stephen K. Poiesis- the language of psychology and the speech of the
soul, Canada 1992 Jessica Kingsley Publishers ltd.
Knill, Paolo J. Minstrels of Soul, Canada 1993 Palmerston Press
Nachmanovitch, Stephen Free Play New York 1990 Penguin Putnam, Inc
Chaudhuri, Haridas. The Evolution of Integral Consciousness, Ilinois 1977 A
Quest Book