An expert in contradictions

I have been considering myself as an expert in contradictions for quite a while - an expert with a bioenergetic matrix. Let me  explain where this definition comes from.

Lowen in Pleasure. A creative approach to life (1970, 2006, p. 238) writes: "The condition of being human is a state of seeming contradictions which are spontaneously resolved in the creative process of living."

What is the connection between the experience of contradictions, typical of the human condition, and the creative process of life?

The human being experiences a split because the neocortex has the capacity of self-observation.This split causes anguish: anguish of separation, of differentiation, of death.

Anguish is the trigger of everything good or bad we feel and we do. Anguish is also triggers our creativity, creativity intended as capacity to deal with contradictions.

The basic principle of creativity is summed up by Lowen in the definition of creative act (p. 216): "...is a fusion of two seemingly contradictory views into a single vision (...) The principle of creativity as a fusion and integration of opposite aspects... is the same in all forms of creative expression in life, in cyclic and rhytmical ways."

From the behaviour point of view , "a creative attitude is one that integrates the opposing aspects and needs of the personality into a single expression, a unitary response." (p. 218)

For Lowen an attitude that shatters the integrity of personality by opposing its needs is "destructive". He gives the example of the relation of oppositing drives such the need for security and the need for challenge-excitement, considering them as phenomena of polarity: "Within the framework of the total personality each drive complements its polar opposite. (...) Polar drives oppose each other only when they are dissociated from the total function of the person. (...) Each polar drive furthers the movement toward the other."(pp. 219-220)

Lowen adds: "Polar drives and needs are biologically connected by a rhythmic or pulsatory movement of feeling between the two poles" (p. 220)

So the creative act corrisponds to the moment when the capacity to function according to the principle of polarity expresses itself. This principle is connected with nature, also with the nature that lies within ourselves; in fact, creativity needs to be rooted into this nature through grounding. In particular, through training on the emotional level, where the principle of polarity (p. 225): "is expressed in the polarity of affection and hostility, anger and fear, gladness and sadness, and so on...And on the level of primary sensation, where the same principle is reflected in the pleasure-pain spectrum."

A. Lowen (1970), Pleasure. A creative approach to Life, Bioenergetics Press, Florida, USA, 2006.