THE Changing Mind

8/14/2019 THE Changing Mind

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THE CHANGING MIND

by Paul

Henrickso,Ph.D. tm. 2009

When ones concept of the structure of the world

gets challenged it opens up a Pandoras box of

potential.and, maybe, beneficial.change.The choice, of course, is up to us and all we have initially to be is

flexible.

Every once in awhile, as the saying goes, one must take stock, and

usually, taking stock means listing inventory. This is something

one must do for ones self largely, I imagine, because we are the


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only ones who can assess the value of anythinganything, that is,

in our lives.

While I have serious reservations about those who have touted the

values, inevitability, and the necessity for a new world order and

they generally have in mind a world, if I read them correctly,which theysee as having more sameness, in the others at least if not in themselves.

than difference, and this is where I believe them to be demonstrably

wrong, and regrettably this sort of repression of the spirit leads

to violence, or, in some very interesting cases in new forms of

creative expression as in the African-American population which

had, during the days of slavery, been forbidden to talk among

themselves while they worked, so they sang and made-up songs

instead .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXlCB31i_5U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsXyDrf9HO0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YWrxz5XhQM

While the human spirit is willing to play role games from time to

time, they do find it necessary to return to a home base which acts,

understandably enough as a reference point in both space and time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXlCB31i_5Uhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsXyDrf9HO0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YWrxz5XhQMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXlCB31i_5Uhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXlCB31i_5Uhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsXyDrf9HO0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsXyDrf9HO0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsXyDrf9HO0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YWrxz5XhQMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YWrxz5XhQMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YWrxz5XhQMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXlCB31i_5U


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In respect to the world out there I do see myself in

this bear cub. It is sometimes helpful to speak

from the subjective personal experiences one has and it is in that

connection that this drawing of one Joe Poirier which I did when he

was a student of mine at Tantasqua Regional School in Sturbridge,

Massachusetts was, as it turned out, one of the more successful

devices (although when it was happening I had not thought of it as

a device at all) to secure Joes confidence in a teacher as a type and

an adult outside of his family circle.

The reason Joe became important had to do with what he had

taught me about the limitations on mental operations placed on the

consciousness of people AND the resilient determination of the

individual to realize himself(as he feels himself to be at any point in time)

despite socially contrived consensual agreements as to who and

what he is.

Joseph was 15 years old and in the ninth grade and had already

been held back at least one year but, as I recall, it had been two

years (perhaps the discrepancy depended on when his birthday was.) His

official I.Q. was listed at 90. As one can see from the drawing he


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was somewhat taller than the usual 15 year-old, very shy, very

attentive and highly responsive which indicated he was also a good

listener and one who would have been anomalous for one with an

I.Q. of 90. His grade average was a D with a couple of Cs and

Fs thrown in.

I was troubled by the discrepancy between Joes official record at

the school and his performances in my class so I asked the

psychological counselor to test him again. He did test Joseph and

his I.Q. now came out at 110, at a time when I.Q. changes were not

supposed to change (1954). By the next grading period his grades

had been raised by his teachers by another one and a half grade

points.

It should be noted that Joseph Poirier was a French Canadian living

in dominantly English environment in rural Massachusetts and thathis father was the schools janitoralmost the lowest social level

you can achieve. I maintain that this combination of environmental

factors not merely contributed to, but determined, Josephs self-

perception and that as a result of persons need to be accepted into

his community Joseph had at least provisionally, accepted the

groups mindless, but socially acceptable, assessment as to who he

was. But, I suspect, he never quite let go of the suspicion that he

was really something more than the groups consensus of who he

was. Definitions can be deadly.

When Joseph recognized that there were other points of view and

points of view that were more in agreement with his own

subliminally repressed assessments he blossomed.

There is a part of me that resists coming to the conclusion that the

repression of an individual is justified by the individuals finally

having overcome and to have realized himself in some creative

fashion. Such a conclusion is too similar to the conventional idea

that a true artist must suffer. Although, I will admit that there are

strong evidences which support that contention. If, indeed, ithappens to be true, it does not follow that societal repression is

justified. This presents us with a moral conundrum and a kind of

built in system of guilt and a penancethe price of being human.

moral development at a price.


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Is the human being , no matter who, or where, so dissatisfied with

who he is, fearful that without enhancement of some sort his

appearance will be so insufficient that he will not be able to make

it in this world? Is that why some people use the visual image of

their bodies as an image of who they are and others, more

discretely, perhaps, add a bunch letters after their name such as

John Doe, BA, MBA, Lld, Ph.D. ,F.I.I.A.L?...are these, in some fashion,

not like a birth certificate, a needless verification that the person

standing before us is a breathing being and had been born? My

point is this, why do we need a symbol as evidence of reality when

the reality stands before us?

All of the above questions are related to my major concern which is

the development of those senses which tell us, or should be able to

tell us, who a person is at the moment of meeting and one , by

extension, should not have to depend upon a third persons

recommendation that the subject is trustworthy and legitimate, or

that a document placed in the archives of the Smithsonians

Department of Oral History proves an individual to be as worthy as

it claims him to be.

I am concerned with the development of an individuals ability to

make and to refine judgments based on data he can observe and

verify. I fully realize that this may put [politicians and other spin

experts out of business, but I do consider it a requirement for the

development of a just and sane society.

I confess that I am, otherwise, at a loss as to how to explain the

motivation for tattooing ones body at all, anywhere, to say nothing

of the entire surface of ones body. But then man is, if nothing else,

inventive. It is that inventiveness we associate with the expression

being creative.


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The third photo from the left shows us a chief from the small island

of Ulithi. There were two whom I met in the early 60s and they were

most willing to pose for their photographs having, presumably, no

apprehension, as do Turks, of a photograph taking anything from

them. It is my understanding that the tattoos which cover a great

deal of his body refer to who he is and to his genetic ancestry. Such

pride seems common to all societies it would seem and is, therefore,

not unusual. What is, of course, unusual, at least from a westerners

point of view, is his relative nakedness. This, understandably

enough, is also quite reasonable since the climate in Ulithi is

tropical and being naked does not present a problem. Except for the

case of Lord (Tarzan) it is extremely unusual for a westerner to go

naked even in the tropics.

It is quite other with the naked granny in the photo to the left. I

have not come across an explanation for her extraordinary behavior

and it does seem extraordinary from quite nearly any point of view.

I do not know the subject matter of the images her body carries

which makes her more of a mystery that the character in the film

The Illustrated man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn4zl0UnmGQ

The fourth photograph depicts a celebration of a circumcision. I am,

personally, not a little perplexed as to why this socio-medical

operation should be so important. There seems to be no clue as tothe reasons behind the timing of it, that is from the eighth day after

birth as with the Jews to thirteen or fourteen years as with other

groups. My view of the operation is very practical and I have

difficulty in attributing other meanings to it.

As children it seems not at all unusual to role-play various

occupations, a fireman, a magician, a clown, a superman or

Halloween ghost and, as children, we rarely take our personal

participation in these roles as seriously as we do after we become

adult and professionalize them. Then, a fireman outs out real fires,and surgeons cut into real bodies, and priest, of whatever kind, hold

the keys to salvation, or. In sum. Since Sigmund Freud made his

appearance some of us have also felt the need to have assistance

in finding out who we really are, why we do what we do and what

we must do to be normal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn4zl0UnmGQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn4zl0UnmGQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn4zl0UnmGQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn4zl0UnmGQ


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While Freud assigned causes of behavior to early childhood

experiences, Carl Jung never seemed to drop the idea of a supreme

being. When, at 84 years of age he was asked whether he

believed in God his answer was No. I know.He was, I believe,

using senses for which we may yet not have a namehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLJsiQ4h3fY

Costumes, or specific types of body covering, or sometimes the lack

of it, designate social roles and while those who wear these items

may not in their own private behaviors live up to the various ideals

these costumes are designed to suggest, they do serve as official

reminders of authorityspiritual authority. That is actually quite

an awesome responsibility. Many individuals are unable to live up to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLJsiQ4h3fYhttp://images.google.com.mt/imgres?imgurl=http://studio-online.com/socomments/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/geoffreyholder_s.jpg&imgrefurl=http://studio-online.com/socomments/?p=959&usg=__o0TXh0Yuy1iJvgyKxD4nLaJ5btU=&h=526&w=350&sz=25&hl=en&start=39&tbnid=yDz2KJZr3dZ0qM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=88&prev=/images?q=baron+samedi&start=20&gbv=2&ndsp=20&hl=en&sa=Nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLJsiQ4h3fYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLJsiQ4h3fYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLJsiQ4h3fY


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it and eventually succumb to reading the script without acting the

part. In so doing, somehow admitting that the personal

responsibility to seek divine guidance is so tenuous an endeavor,

one so filled with uncertainties that those fearful of the unknown

need, or think they need, a rather magical figure to follow ---and

upon whom they, in error, think they can lay the blame. I prefer to

place the authority back upon the individual most concerned.

I tend to consider there to be a parallel in the description here of

devout religious behaviors and those artists, of which there are so

many, who anticipatingly and hopefully believe their status as

creative genius will be achieved at least in the mind of an

insensitive , ignorant, and lazy public if, in some way, they flatter

convention. It is convention which is the blinder for the perception

others might otherwise have.

I do believe that any human being who makes a mark on a piece of

paper is giving true expression of who he is at that moment. If

person A works like person C then therein lies the value of

person A. He is, therefore, a copier, in one or several ways, of

Person C. If, as observers we recognize this then the matter of

person As level of creative genius is established. If person B

comes up with work that mystifies us and makes it difficult for us to

understand as observers, we are responsible, like other seekers

after truth to work at understanding, to test, and test again, our

perceptions and to try to place those perceptions into an

appropriate vocabulary so that they may be communicated.

In this process what we, as critics, should be looking for are

evidences (in the case of artists) of behavior with the material in

hand which are non-standard, irregular and unconventional. Then,

having identified them we attempt to determine why they are the

way they are and how these behaviors function to solve whatever

the original problem may have been.

This process eliminates much of the considerations some make as towhether a work of art should be beautiful or not. Beauty, if it exists

in this scenario, does so only in the clarity of the solution.

My personal preference would be a more private, introspective and

reflective search for the self which is what is sometimes

represented by the classic hermetic monks cell.


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something somewhat removed

from the noise of social and familial conviviality. Or, at times, whole

communities felt it necessary to separate themselves for a variety

of reasons from other groups. They solved these perceived

problems in various waysways, which were often very unusual.

When viewed from this perspective it might be easier to accept the

notion that all religions develop a brand of theatrical inducement to

bedazzle, befuddle and bemuddle and encourage belief in the extra-

ordinary, all of which services the purpose of control. Now, at this

point, I should again emphasize that my view is that it is the

individuals responsibility to search for himself where he needs to

look. All other entertainments are distractions. Additionally, one of

the ways an individual graphic artist performs this search is in

discovering what his relationship is with the medium he uses and

the symbols he develops. By way of example, let us ask this

question what was the search Albert Pinkham Ryder was involved in

that allowed him to work on a single painting for several years and


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to pile pigment upon pigment so that, even after 100 years, the

paint is not yet thoroughly dry?

And, to ask another difficult question, what was it that Cezanne

really meant when he remarked that he wished to do Poussin over

again according to nature? Cezanne

Poussin.

It is my contention that, while, at some point, Cezanne had truly

conceptualized the solution to whatever problem he thought he had

was to do exactly that and as one, probably logical, step in that

direction he created his Bathers to the left after Poussins Panic

celebration. However, as some of us already know, the creative

process does not function in an orderly step-by-step recipe, or

linear, fashion. It takes divergent paths and while Cezanne may have

started out in one direction, with a rather vague concept only

beginning to stir in his consciousness he responded, whim-like, to

unexpected, unplanned ideas, or even accidents so that he ended

up having discovered something very different, very different

indeed, from the look of Poussin. Cezannes Mont

St. Victoire. It is this work, I believe, which comes close to realizing

another of Cezannes observations, that of reality being made up of
http://images.google.com.mt/imgres?imgurl=http://dbeveridge.web.wesleyan.edu/wescourses/2001f/chem160/01/Mont-Sainte_Victoire/images/Cezanne%27s_MSV,_1900.jpg&imgrefurl=http://dbeveridge.web.wesleyan.edu/wescourses/2001f/chem160/01/Photo%20Gallery/photo_gallery.htm&usg=__Jd23m-mqtmMKUV21mjqQ_rtgZaU=&h=712&w=877&sz=200&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=MjMGqSPWfjhodM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=146&prev=/images?q=cezanne&gbv=2&hl=en&sa=Ghttp://images.google.com.mt/imgres?imgurl=http://bp3.blogger.com/_hOqI9H5CI-Y/ReJ14TVaN-I/AAAAAAAAAV8/OTkKTBpXA_I/s400/Triumph+of+Pan+Poussin.jpg&imgrefurl=http://opptg.blogspot.com/1987_02_01_archive.html&usg=___vuVyqpdbkfochsZdP-6p9qShok=&h=382&w=400&sz=45&hl=en&start=40&tbnid=unuo5IJ3OH-plM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=124&prev=/images?q=poussin&start=20&gbv=2&ndsp=20&hl=en&sa=Nhttp://images.google.com.mt/imgres?imgurl=http://www.writedesignonline.com/history-culture/cezanne.grandes-baigneuses&imgrefurl=http://www.writedesignonline.com/history-culture/postimpressionism.htm&usg=__tWw5XdkRdaca7dBXdN0xtz0F4Tw=&h=713&w=1208&sz=143&hl=en&start=8&tbnid=PXq-wJrSh3WfHM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=150&prev=/images?q=cezanne&gbv=2&hl=en&sa=Ghttp://images.google.com.mt/imgres?imgurl=http://americanart.si.edu/eyelevel/images/ryder_moonlight.jpg&imgrefurl=http://eyelevel.si.edu/2008/02/the-ryder-moon.html&usg=__c8JOhdyB3c8LclFWSfUMgfOQk5k=&h=269&w=300&sz=36&hl=en&start=11&tbnid=TKSJRivT2kw1fM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=116&prev=/images?q=albert+ryder&gbv=2&hl=en&sa=G


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spheres, cones and cubes. It will take a little looking to see this

work in that way, however.

Someone has observed the following:Of the springing line, the guilt-freesensuosity and the ecstatic lyricism of earlier Poussin, there is never a trace in Cezanne.

I would agree that that description of a springing line , guilt-free sensuosity(sic?) and ecstatic

lyricism cannot firmly be attached to anything Cezanne had done, nor can it be attached to Poussin,

early work or late. Poussins figures while anatomically and conventional as the characters roles

were conventionally scripted do not exist within their painted environments even as, ironically

enough they do in the work of Rubens.

If there is anything outstandingly similar in the work of these two artists it is the way they treated the

human body. I would grant that Poussin was probably better trained to observe the human body than

was Cezanne and technically better equipped to represent it anatomically, but neither of them, it

seems to me, were ever successful in achieving a springing line, guilt-free sensuosity(sic?) and

ecstatic lyricism. Cezanne did make a few very clumsy efforts to represent passion and he had,

actually, gone a few steps further in that direction that did Poussin with, the exception of the

celebration with Pan, illustrated above. This painting might tell us that had Poussin not been

governed by pre-conceptions of an aesthetic ideal so rooted in literary prototypes and more open to

the material nature of the pigment, the compositional potential of graphic vocabulary and his own

neural responses he might truly have been a creative genius. As it is, he sacrificed all that to

contemporary concepts of good manners and offered his time very little indeed and us only an

attitude of what should be avoided.


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The theory that these remarks touch upon changes the role of what,

even in the recent past, has been identified as technical control

over ones medium. Well, this statement is obviously insufficient to

carry the weight required of it. There is more to the matter of

technical expertness than the exhibition of the ability to follow in a

sequentially prescribed way to achieve a prescribe end result. The

whole idea of creative effort, in the arts or in any other activity is

the idea of new arrangements. This too, needs elaboration for it is

not newness for the sake of newness such as is most often found

among those still struggling for self-identification. Creativeness is, I

would suggest, most readily identified as such when all the

elements in a persons efforts come together into a new

(zeitgeistian) conceptual package.

It is almost a given that this cannot take place within a short of

period of time or within a limited experience. On the other hand we

have the outstanding examples of Masaccio who died at 27,

Caravaggio (37), and Van Gogh (37),Only five major research projects in the area of psychedelic drugs and creative

performance have been reported and most of these have been described by the

experimenters as "pilot studies" rather than full-scale experiments with conclusive

results. L.M. Berlin et al., (1955) investigated the effects of mescaline and LSD upon

four graphic artists of national prominence. There was an impairment of finger-

tapping efficiency and muscular steadiness among the four artists, but all were able

to complete paintings. A panel of art critics judged the paintings as having "greater

aesthetic value" than the artists' usual work, noting that the lines were bolder and

that the use of color was more vivid. However, the technical execution was

somewhat impaired. Actually, this report may have some substantial

value to it in that it seems to point out that in what for an artist may

be a normal state of mind when thinking creatively he has tapped

some chemical, similar to that in psychedelic drugs, that allows him

the freedom to let loose the traditional restrictions associated with

technical control. It is the sort of study that might be used as

parallel to the understanding of social behavior, in which connection

the following anecdote and observation may be helpful. Although, Imight add, that I do have serious reservations about the use of the

term genius, not in its application to Schubert, but anybody.I

find it more destructive than helpful.

Brief Life Span ofa GeniusFranz Schubert (1797-1828) was born when Mozarthad been dead six years, and Beethoven was approachingthe first crisis of his career. Popular legend used to


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interpret the "bohemian" behavior of the Schubert circleas the irresponsible gaiety of the artist's life. Infact, it grew from a deepening despair (sic?). Schubert andhis friends were acutely conscious of the political oppressionin Austria. Corruption had gone too far. Onemight almost say that Schubert is a composer of Friendship.All his greatest music he wrote for himself andhis friends; yet by writing this music he was no longerable to keep himself alive. As a freelance musician hadto produce entertainment music for a degenerate aristocracyand a sentimental bourgeoisie whose taste hecould no longer share. While he enjoyed writing hisinnumerable waltzes, he would have preferred to spendsome of the time composing symphonies and sonatas.His own quintessential music seems to be created simultaneouslyout of conflict with the world and out ofutopian yearning. Hence his music's combination ofstrength and melancholy. He seeks his music to resolvehis frustration in love, to create a world in which idealsare not corrupted. Communing with solitude, he discoversa world of imagination which can sooth andsatisfy as real life cannot.Harman A, Milner A, Mellers W:

Man and His Music-The Story ofMusical Experience in the West.

New York, Oxford University Press, 1962

CHEST, VOL. 62, NO. 1, JULY, 1972

Copyright 1972,

For yet another life-enhancing experience I refer you to this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPET4RAe6yQ

These are the sorts of observations that lead me to suspect that the

purpose and the practice of creative artistry is to bring about a

more satisfactory and balanced gestaltat least for the creator ifnot for a greater society., but for the greater society as well if it is

true that artists lead and foretell or is it that they only react and,

like Goya, express terror?.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPET4RAe6yQhttp://images.google.com.mt/imgres?imgurl=http://www.goyatobeijing.org/gallery/images/goya.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.goyatobeijing.org/goya.html&usg=__RcARFVpqPijU9B6npAKvp1rFmYM=&h=443&w=550&sz=81&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=WT3DylJ-q5liEM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgoya%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DGhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPET4RAe6yQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPET4RAe6yQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPET4RAe6yQ

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