Linda Schierse Leonard

Monday, April 02, 2001

By Marylynn Uricchio, Post-Gazette SEEN Editor

Linda Schierse Leonard is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and a member of the San Francisco Jung Institute. She is also the author of five books including "The Wounded Woman: Healing the Father-Daughter Relationship" and her new book, "The Call to Create: Celebrating Acts of the Imagination." Leonard has a doctorate in philosophy and specializes in Jungian psychology and philosophy in literature, creativity and the arts. She lectures and teaches around the country and maintains her private practice in Aspen. Leonard was here this weekend to give a lecture and workshop for the Pittsburgh Jung Society (412-682-8172).

Q. Do we all have the same basic potential to be creative?

A. Yes, I think we do. I think that it's part of the human condition to be called to create. That's something unique that we have within us.

Q. What makes one person more creative than another?

A. The question of genius aside, Mozart, Beethoven, that's simply a great gift that's relatively rare. A lot of what makes a difference has to do with whether someone wants to create, if they want to put in the work. Do they recognize that they have a call to create? Some people don't recognize that because the culture has defined creativity in a narrow way, a rational, product-oriented way, doing something, producing something, and not seeing that life is a creative project. So matters of discipline, work, passion, recognizing that they have a creative call, I would say, account for a lot of the difference.

Q. How does talent intersect with creativity?

A. We're all given talents in different areas, but we have creativity in all areas of life. Let's say we're given a talent in art. I would still have to accept the talent and challenge that goes with it, and then I would have to do the work that's required to embody the talent. But we all have the talent to create life. We're all challenged to lead a creative life. To grow personally, to change and transform and become more conscious of who we are, to contribute from that consciousness something to society and community.

Q. What's your definition of creativity?

A. The word means to bring something new into being. It doesn't matter what it is. So a mother giving birth is a creative act, changing your life, self-transformation, that's a creative act. It's a process first and foremost. There will be an embodiment of the creative act in one form or another if we follow through with the challenge. What's most exciting about creativity is it's really a discovery process.

Q. Does the imagination have a function?

A. It's part of creativity. It's essential to our lives, too. We need to tap into our imagination to create something new, whether it's in our own life or an art form. What blocks some people from being creative is they don't open to imagination. In a creative process, you have to be able to receive inspiration, you have to be open to receive something other than yourself.

Q. What psychological obstacles impede our creativity?

A. First, we confine what is creative. That's an obstacle because it narrows what we can do. Then we have various complexes that come from both our culture and our families. There are some inner voices: the cynic, which casts doubt and says why bother? The tyrant, which operates on fear. The critical voice is important, but only when it's healthy. The perfectionist will say it has to be perfect, and that stops a lot of people from starting anything at all. I can't do it, I would say, is the voice of the victim who thinks they can't do anything. And there is the voice of the conformist who wants us to stick to the status quo.

Q. Are we as screwed up in our dreams as we are in real life?

A. Dreams will show the hang-ups and give you the patterns where you're blocked, but also open up new possibilities. Dreams guide us to new ways, and they show us where existing problems are. But you have to honor the dream as giving knowledge. You have to really work with a dream, you have to try and understand what it's saying to you. A dream speaks to an individual personally, so you have to understand it in the context of your own life.

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