Video clip source: Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove
In this 1987 clip, psychologist Rollo May (1909-1994) explains how anxiety is not a symptom to be cured but rather a call to create.
May contends that when anxiety arises, we have several options:
Run away from it
Numb it
Embrace it
He makes the case that when we embrace anxiety, we gain a sensitivity to the world, a deeper self-awareness, and thus the ability to create. To this end, in his book, Courage To Create, he says something beautiful:
“Creative people, as I see them, are distinguished by the fact that they can live with anxiety, even though a high price may be paid in terms of insecurity, sensitivity, and defenselessness for the gift of the “divine madness,” to borrow the term used by the classical Greeks.”
From this quote, you may wonder, how exactly does embracing anxiety lead to creativity?
In his book, May gives us a clue. For him, creativity is not just about expression. It's also about the experiencing, which gives us the…
