Recently on TEDTalks, Gilbert gave a speech on the subjects of creativity and inner genius which is a MUST see for absolutely anyone pursuing creative fields, especially those wrestling with the issue of dealing with creatives surrounded by more “normal” folks who make the mistake of linking creativity with mental health issues as well as creatives dealing with success in their pursuits and how that success affects them and the expectations of those around them.

One of my favorite books, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Of course, I am not alone – since it’s publication in Februrary 2006, the memoirs have become an international hit and, according to Wikipedia.com, remained on the New York Times Best Seller List for 88 weeks. As of this writing, a movie adaptation is also currently being planned by Paramount Pictures.

The book chronicles the story of author Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey; both physical as she spends a total of one year in Italy, India and Indonesia admidst the cultures after a devastating divorce and failing love affair aside; as well as spiritual as Elizabeth strives hungrily to learn the pure essence of three “disciplines” of life and the living of it: pleasure, prayer and devotion.   It’s a fabulous read, though to be honest, I have this particular book on audio, and the only reason why I have not totally corrupted my copy from repeated, cult-like replaying is simply because it’s in MP3 form, not CD.  Thank the gods.   But I digress.  In her speech on the source and stereotyping of creativity, Gilbert asks,

Is it rational, it is logical, that anybody should be expected to be afraid of the work that they feel that they were put on this earth to do?  And what is it specifically about creative ventures that seems to make us really nervous about each others’ mental health in a way that other careers kinda don’t do?

She goes on to discuss how, certainly in large part due to the reputation brought about to so many creative people, across many genres, falling prey to mental illness, addiction, even suicide, society at large has this kind of “expectation” that creativity and sadness, or suffering, are somehow linked.  When experiencing huge success, especially on the same scale as that experienced with Gilbert and her book of memoirs, the pressure is on from that point onward to match, if not even surpass, such success with a bigger, better, greater “genius”.

How does a creative deal with such expectations?  Gilbert discusses the ancient Grecian concepts of creative spirits or “daemons”, invisible muses which, among other things, provided useful scapegoats should the artist not meet with success on this or that work.  After all, if the work failed, the artist was simply abandoned by his or her muse, and this provided a means for the creative to distance his or her self from that failure, escaping the blame.  They were not “expected” to be geniuses and thus, any success could be attributed to the gods, to the invisible “daemons” of inspiration; and failure, to the cruel absence of that so-called divine influence.

Centuries later, however, somewhere along the line this distancing evaporated.  Human beings in general were put at the center of the universe, and, in the case of creatives, that invisible, unknowable divine influence was abandoned in favor of rationalism, creativity instead being attributed directly to the human spirit itself.  Gilbert admits,

For the first time in history, you start to hear people referring to this or that artist as being a genius rather than having a genius.  And I gotta tell you, I think that was a huge error.  I think that allowing somebody… to believe that he or she is like the vessel… of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just like a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile human psyche.  It’s like asking somebody to swallow the sun.  …I think the pressure of that has been killing off our artists for the last 500 years.  The question becomes, ‘What now?’ Can we do this differently?  Maybe go back to some more ancient understanding about the relationship between humans and the creative mystery?

She poses the concept that, rather than attributing some creatives with the quality of being a genius, perhaps it would safer, saner, certainly more freedom-inducing and creatively inspiring, to recognize every creative has having a genius.  Maybe this would make it easier to identify and relate to our inner creativity “without making us insane”.

This is something that I personally have begun to do some time ago, not necessarily in order to escape the pressure of being held solely responsible for the output of my creativity, nor its success or failure, but because this is how it has come to honestly feel like to me.  And I’m sure I’m not the only one who can tell the difference.  There are days when I simply cannot write fast enough, cannot “sketch” with enough frenzy to even keep up with the very loud, very clear, very “otherworldly voice” that is pouring itself into me, filling me with ideas so fabulous, so personally inspiring, between the ideas themselves and their seeming “conveyance”, I just can’t assume credit for it in its entirety and feel completely honest and authentic with myself.

Then there are those moments when I could loudly admit to almost feeling “abandoned” by creativity as I struggle painfully, fitfully, to design that one buggery little hellish graphical concept (“Oh, for Christ’s sake, it’s just a banner!  A little box! This should be child’s play! Why the hell can’t I pull together a fabulous little concept for this small strip of whitespace?!”)  Though truthfully, if I were asked, I’d be quick to say that I’m certain the abandonment is my own doing and not of any outside, ethereally inspiring creative spirit, as I’ve grown to learn just how eager, how ready and willing the Universe is to move and respond to you when you approach it in an attitude of gratitude and joyful acceptance of it.  In other words, it has not left me. I am willfully, stubbornly and oh-so-foolishly ignoring it.

How do you identify and react to your own inner creativity?  How do you deal with success, if you have had it, and what comes after, especially as it relates to the world’s expectations of you?  And, if you’ve not met success yet, how do you cope with your creativity in the absence of success?

I would dearly love to hear your thoughts.  I also highly recommend watching the TEDTalk videoclip as well, located at http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html