DECEMBER 2006 Fred Culver -
Many intensely creative people suffer from bipolar disorder . . . the list goes on and on. My advice to my suffering friends is, “Do not let them call you sick!” This is not meant to diminish the concern I have for them, nor to lessen the intensity by which they live and struggle. When Yin and Yang split apart—pain, pain, pain—what is important is to commit to the ‘middle way,’ the constructive and integrative process. Yang (active) is ‘turned on,’ and Yin (passive) is ‘turned off.’ One is aggressive to an extreme, and the other is conciliatory to an extreme. Creativity is constructive and integrative, keeping tension with the extremes until a symbol forms the ‘middle way.’ Dipolar replaces bipolar through aggressive conciliation, sustaining the ‘play of opposites.’
QUOTE: William Butler Yeats 1865-1939 (Nobel Prize in Literature) “The mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write. … I have always considered myself a voice of what I believe to be a greater renaissance - the revolt of the soul against the intellect.”
‘Acting out’ or ‘repression’ by themselves do not produce personal growth; what is required is to stay with ‘both’: dark/light, inside/outside, good/evil, highest/lowest, yes/no until integration occurs; then, giving ’style’ to existence is possible.
QUOTE: George Bernard Shaw (Nobel Prize in Literature): “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
"Normal" people, unfortunately, live external lives and are unable to accept the responsibility of creating who they are, living imitative and adaptive lives (norms). Bipolar people at least experience the spiritual demand of existential freedom, and consequently, they have the possibility of overcoming the neurotic split. Being a “divided-self” is never easy ... however it can be joyous if you are able to overcome the ego’s need for external support; only the free person creates.