When Walls Become Doorways Creativity and the Transforming Illness

Chapter 1 What Is a Transforming Illness? Experts are those who pass through the forest of thorns. Zen proverb What is a transforming illness and how does it work? Can anyone have a transforming illness? And why is creativity central to its effectiveness and so beneficial that artists choose to be creative when they are sick? The psychologist Henri Ellenberger calls the sickness preceding a breakthrough a "creative illness" since it affects productivity.1 I call it a "transforming illness" because the person changes as well as the work. The transforming illness is found throughout humankind, and we see it in shamans, who are the healers of their tribes. Mircea Eliade, the scholar of comparative religion, finds that shamans are only able to access their full abilities after recovering from an illness that transforms them.2 This chapter presents the components of a transforming illness and shows us how it acts to strengthen our lives. Transforming Illness A transforming illness is a time of poor health that profoundly alters your work, your outlook, and your life. It can occur at any age, from early childhood to the very end of existence, and can even happen more than once. It can also take many forms, but whether the transforming illness is a single episode of poor health or a chronic condition, things are never the same afterward. When the transforming illness occurs early in life, it can set the path for a future career; in adulthood it can alter a person's way of living and working. Lawrence Alma-Tadema experienced both stages. Lawrence Alma-Tadema (English, born in Holland, 18361912) wanted to be an artist since early childhood, but his family insisted that he become a lawyer.3 The stress of attending academic classes and making art in his spare time took its toll on the boy, and he contracted tuberculosis. Believing the illness to be terminal, doctors told the family that he should be permitted to do as he wished. Once Alma-Tadema was allowed to be creative without feeling pressured, his health returned and he became an artist. A second transforming illness came in 1870, when he was an established painter living in Brussels. None of the doctors there knew what was wrong, so a friend advised him to consult with the famous English surgeon Sir Henry Thompson. While in London to see Thompson, Alma-Tadema met his future wife. Later that year he settled in the city, and it became the place of his greatest success. Even the end of life is not immune to a transforming illness. Intent to stay creative, artists will produce masterpieces in the face of immi-nent death. Ill from diabetes, Paul Cezanne (French, 18391906) wrote a letter to his son just days before he died.4 "I continue working with pains," he admitted, "but finally something will come of it, and that is all that matters." Change during Illness There are as many variations of transforming illnesses as there are people who have them. Everyone is a potential candidate because no one is immune either to illness or to change. Sometimes during illness change occurs in a split second of insight, that moment of epiphany when the veil drops away and your path becomes clear. At other times it is a gradual transition to a completely new life. Usually the creativity that starts during a transforming illness begins in convalescence, when the acute phase is over and extended rest produces a need to fill the empty hours. Changes can even begin before an illness, but then poor health accelerates the transformation. Specific illnesses can also pose their own problems. To overcome these obstacles, artists like Janet Sobel and Consuelo Gonzalez Amezcua change their mediums and alter their creative process in order to keep working. Janet Sobel (American, born in Ukraine, 1894Zausner, Tobi is the author of 'When Walls Become Doorways Creativity and the Transforming Illness', published 2007 under ISBN 9780307238085 and ISBN 0307238083.