Dalam sebuah pertemuan rutin Masyarakat Psikoanalisis di Vienna, pada suatu siang yang cerah di tahun 1911, Alfred Adler yang kala itu menjadi ketua Masyarakat Psikoanalisis Vienna, menyinggung suatu teori mengenai kreativitas kompensasi.
Melalui teorinya, Adler menganggap bahwa manusia menghasilkan kesenian, ilmu pengetahuan dan aspek-aspek lain dari kebudayaan adalah untuk mengimbangi kekurangan mereka sendiri.
Dengan sedikit mereduksi, Adler hendak memperlihatkan bahwa tindakan-tindakan kreatif adalah reaksi dari perasaan inferioritas kita. Hal ini kemudian menjadi bagian dari tradisi-tradisi psikologi awal, yang kerap mengaitkan hasrat untuk mencipta dan kreativitas dengan masalah-masalah psikologi serta kesehatan mental.
Pendekatan reduktif psikologi atas kreativitas terutama karena melihat pribadi-pribadi yang kreatif, seringkali seperti tidak cocok dengan kebudayaan normatif masyarakat mereka. Van Gogh mengalami psikotis, Gauguin menderita schizoid, Edgar Allan Poe kecanduan alkohol, dan Virginia Woolf benar-benar depresi. Mereka adalah sedikit contoh dari seniman yang eksentrik, hingga yang mengalami kegilaan klinis.
Dalam kajian psikologi modern sendiri, ada sebuah survei kepribadian terhadap 291 tokoh terkemuka dunia dalam kurun waktu 150 tahun terakhir, yang mencoba memeriksa ada-tidaknya hubungan antara keunggulan kreatif dan ketidakstabilan mental. Hasil survei tersebut, yang juga dimuat di The British Journal of Psychiatry (165:1994), sungguh mengejutkan.
Berdasarkan survei dengan catatan medis dan data-data sumber pertama yang dapat dipercaya itu, sekitar 75% seniman, dan bahkan 90% pengarang mengalami ketidakstabilan mental. Sebagian besar tokoh seni itu adalah figur terkenal: Wagner, Monet, Van Gogh, Hemingway, hingga Dostoyevsky.
Ambang Bergerak
Meski demikian, beberapa psikolog lainnya, seperti Rollo May, RD Laing dan Danah Zohar, atau psikiater Kay Redfield Jameson, mengembangkan pendekatan psikologi akan kreativitas secara lebih positif.
Temuan terpenting dari penelitian-penelitian yang pernah dilakukan oleh pendekatan positif tersebut, adalah fakta bahwa sedikit sekali hubungan antara kreativitas dengan kegilaan jangka panjang. Justru, mereka yang berada di ambang gila, atau sekedar menderita skizotipy, yang cenderung mencapai karya-karya terbaik.
Orang yang menderita skizotipy memiliki gejala antara lain: pengalaman tidak wajar, distraksi ringan, sesat pikir, cenderung impulsif (bertindak atas dasar impuls, meracau, bertingkah laku aneh, berpenampilan ganjil), introvert (tertutup) dan menyendiri, mengalami ideasi magis (kecenderungan untuk berpikir bahwa pikirannya mempunyai kekuatan fisik, dapat menjadi kenyataan, atau menghubungkan kejadian-kejadian yang sebetulnya tidak berhubungan), kerap berfantasi dan tidak dapat membedakannya dengan kenyataan, serta mengalami ambivalensi (ketidakmampuan menata pikiran karena melihat beragam nilai, kemungkinan, atau pilihan).
Menurut prof Sutardjo A. Wiramihardja, guru besar Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Padjadjaran, riset skizotipy menunjukkan bahwa derajat kesehatan mental bersifat continuum, dari yang normal, menunjukkan penyimpangan ringan, hingga kegilaan klinis yang berat.
Dan dalam continuum itulah, seperti yang diyakini oleh psikolog William James, seniman kerap memiliki suatu ‘pintu’, suatu ambang bergerak (mobile treshold) yang memungkinkan munculnya kekuatan subliminal yang menguasai keadaan mental mereka.
Salah satu gejala skizotipy, yakni ideasi magis dan fantasi, akan memaksa seniman untuk mengimajinasikan hal-hal yang tidak ada, menciptakan tokoh yang tak pernah ada, membawa mereka pada citra visual yang mengarah pada konsep baru, hingga melihat hal-hal dari sudut yang tidak konvensional.
Dengan demikian, karya-karya terbaik seorang seniman bukan sekedar produk dari gangguan mental, ataupun manifestasi dari perasaan berontak atas keterbatasan dirinya (atau kreativitas kompensasi dalam bahasa psikolog Alfred Adler). Sebaliknya, tindakan kreatif muncul dari intelektualitas yang tinggi, terkait dengan kesehatan emosi yang tanpa kepura-puraan, dan ekspresi individu normal bagi aktualisasi diri mereka saat itu.
Gangguan mental ringan, seperti munculnya gejala-gejala skizotipy, memungkinkan seorang seniman menjadi lebih sensitif, kaya imajinasi, serta lebih orisinal dengan asosiasi yang berbeda dari orang kebanyakan. Dan bagaimana seniman tersebut menyatakan visinya, adalah ketika gangguan mental sedang tidak menderanya.
Ketidakstabilan mental, kegilaan eksentrik, terjerumus dalam penggalian eksistensial di kedalaman kepribadian yang tidak disadari, ataupun penghancuran tatanan lama untuk mencipta sesuatu yang baru, adalah proses acak, bagian mencerahkan namun sulit dijelaskan dari pembaharuan mental 'menjadi otentik'. Hal ini berperan dalam memperluas kesadaran seniman, sekaligus membentuk apa yang disebut dengan kecerdasan identitas.
Visi Para Pencipta
Bagi kita, penafsir seni atau sekedar penikmat, model pendekatan apapun yang digunakan untuk menggali dimensi-dimensi mental dari proses kreatif seorang seniman, mungkin tidak akan terlalu penting. Kita hanya akan sepakat bahwa kegilaan yang berguna inilah yang menjadi manifestasi kecerdasan identitas dari seorang seniman.
Kita mungkin akan tetap meyakini, bahwa seniman bukan sekedar menyingkap kondisi psikologis dan spiritual yang mendasari hubungan mereka dengan dunia, tapi juga berusaha menggambarkan refleksi emosional dan spiritual masyarakat kebanyakan.
Mereka mengekspresikan apa yang dikatakan oleh Carl Gustav Jung, perintis Psikologi Analitis terkemuka, sebagai ‘yang tidak disadari kolektif’ (unconscious collective). Melalui karyanya, seniman turut menjelaskan apa yang ada dalam diri manusia pada waktu dan budaya tertentu.
Lebih jauh, seniman, menurut John Naisbitt, adalah 'lampu penerang dalam tambang gelap'. Mereka menangkap sinyal budaya yang pertama, memetakan wilayah baru, mengundang resiko, sesekali memacu akal sehat kita, dan secara ajaib bisa memperkirakan hal-hal yang akan datang. Mereka, meminjam frase Mc Luhan, adalah a dew line, satu garis embun, yang memberi kita suatu 'peringatan awal yang jauh' mengenai apa yang akan terjadi dalam kebudayaan kita di masa depan.
Dan pendekatan psikologi turut menambahkan kenyataan mencerahkan ini dengan sedikit hipotetis: inilah kegilaan yang cerdas, kegilaan yang paling berguna, dan terkadang juga berbahaya.
Friday, January 11, 2008
CHILDREN IN THE MIDDLE OF DISASTER
In the late of last year, The National Commission of Children Protection (KOMNAS Perlindungan Anak) reports disclosed that almost 40,3 million child in Indonesia have been disregarded their rights during 2007. About 33,9 million among them because of their education slighted, and another 6,36 million didn’t get an adequate health-care and experience exploitation.
Nowadays, after various catastrophe and infectious diseases which cause widespread deaths, we have another embedded potency to completing our failure in fulfilling children rights; which is provide a secure and stable environment for our child.
With those consecutive disaster that happened and experienced by child, we failure to guarantee, provides and also manages a peaceful world for them. This failure becomes enough crucial, because negative impacts which possible emerge do not as clear as physical impacts that usually seen after disaster.
It’s because disaster could trigger, in children thought, an interpretation about inhospitable environment which do not give them safeness to grow up. Disaster not only causes a physical damage, but also has possibility to result in an emotional impact as convinced as psychical ruination.
Basic Assumptions Crumble
Several study of the psychological impact of catastrophe, according to Dr Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, psychologist from University of Massachusetts, finding that natural disaster holds something in common in its psychic impact with what may seem a minor crisis, such as witnessing a brutal crime.
One of those emotional impact is ‘the sense of benign world’ collapsed. This sense is the feeling about a world which full of friendliness and kindliness, can be controlled and fair. And refer to Erik H Erikson’s stage of psycho-social development, a foremost psychoanalyst; this feeling is the part of basic trust, that is forms during early life, as early as the first two or three years of age.
This sense of basic trust attributes the feeling that the world is a predictable place in which good things will come to you. And from that the child comes to see himself as worthy of that kind of care. These beliefs are at the core of a person’s most basic sense of himself and the world.
Children with a sense of ‘inner certainty' experiences the social world as a safe, stable place and people as nurturant and reliable. Children learn to trust external world, as well as learning to trust themselves. But, being victimized directly by disaster could interrupt these developmental processes.
Catastrophe, unexpectedly, causes the most basic assumption about us and the world are undermine. Its attack our deeply held beliefs; basic trust and sense of inner certainty. Suddenly all the world seems malevolent. Our sense of invulnerability crumbled. And because the two beliefs are so intimately linked, said to Dr Janoff-Bulman, we lose not only our sense that the world is safe for us, but that we are worthy of that safety.
Another negative impact when children victimized by disaster is because this incident could leads children to ask, 'why me?' Children may start looking at themselves, and try to find something to blame it on; to justify and make this horrible fate seems reasonable in their mind. That leads them to highlight the negative aspect of themselves, and at the same time can lower their self-esteem. In a few serious case, its cause syndrome of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and victim may undergo a diminished sense of self-worth for ten or fifteen years.
In fact, for professor Erikson, the behavioral consequences of that seriously defective development of basic trust are acute depression in infants and paranoia in adult. Both consequences that we don’t expected.
Reduce Negative Impact
Professor Erikson’s theory of psycho-social development consistent with the epigenetic principle, which is postulate that crisis and developmental stage at childhood are not happened and resolved at that moment. Each development stage, and any crisis of it, not permanently left; it’s reappears at each successive stage of development, and forms the dynamics of personality.
Thereby, psychological recovery process to deal with ‘crisis of basic trust’ at child which victimized by disaster, is a worthy act for development of mental health of our child in future. As recognized to most psychologists, the sense of basic trust is the cornerstone of a healthy personality.
Whenever child becomes victimized by a disaster, they feel the most helpless and passive when confronted by overwhelming danger, and require psychological assistance to reestablish their mental equilibrium. This psychological recovery, which properly done by professional and voluntary help (from para-professional and volunteer), is also significant part to the entire recovery process after disaster.
Our manifestations to foster the psycho-social development of our child are not only through better understanding to the possibility of psychological breakdown after disaster, but also our responsibilities to returning and creating better world for our children. It’s quite helpful, if we look after our environment constantly, producing and also improving an ecological awareness to reducing disaster appearance which is frequently cause by our carelessness.
Even though disaster become unavoidable incident, the important awareness that we ought to kept is to ascertain those disaster not emerge a fatal impact, both physical and psychological, to us and especially to our children.
Nowadays, after various catastrophe and infectious diseases which cause widespread deaths, we have another embedded potency to completing our failure in fulfilling children rights; which is provide a secure and stable environment for our child.
With those consecutive disaster that happened and experienced by child, we failure to guarantee, provides and also manages a peaceful world for them. This failure becomes enough crucial, because negative impacts which possible emerge do not as clear as physical impacts that usually seen after disaster.
It’s because disaster could trigger, in children thought, an interpretation about inhospitable environment which do not give them safeness to grow up. Disaster not only causes a physical damage, but also has possibility to result in an emotional impact as convinced as psychical ruination.
Basic Assumptions Crumble
Several study of the psychological impact of catastrophe, according to Dr Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, psychologist from University of Massachusetts, finding that natural disaster holds something in common in its psychic impact with what may seem a minor crisis, such as witnessing a brutal crime.
One of those emotional impact is ‘the sense of benign world’ collapsed. This sense is the feeling about a world which full of friendliness and kindliness, can be controlled and fair. And refer to Erik H Erikson’s stage of psycho-social development, a foremost psychoanalyst; this feeling is the part of basic trust, that is forms during early life, as early as the first two or three years of age.
This sense of basic trust attributes the feeling that the world is a predictable place in which good things will come to you. And from that the child comes to see himself as worthy of that kind of care. These beliefs are at the core of a person’s most basic sense of himself and the world.
Children with a sense of ‘inner certainty' experiences the social world as a safe, stable place and people as nurturant and reliable. Children learn to trust external world, as well as learning to trust themselves. But, being victimized directly by disaster could interrupt these developmental processes.
Catastrophe, unexpectedly, causes the most basic assumption about us and the world are undermine. Its attack our deeply held beliefs; basic trust and sense of inner certainty. Suddenly all the world seems malevolent. Our sense of invulnerability crumbled. And because the two beliefs are so intimately linked, said to Dr Janoff-Bulman, we lose not only our sense that the world is safe for us, but that we are worthy of that safety.
Another negative impact when children victimized by disaster is because this incident could leads children to ask, 'why me?' Children may start looking at themselves, and try to find something to blame it on; to justify and make this horrible fate seems reasonable in their mind. That leads them to highlight the negative aspect of themselves, and at the same time can lower their self-esteem. In a few serious case, its cause syndrome of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and victim may undergo a diminished sense of self-worth for ten or fifteen years.
In fact, for professor Erikson, the behavioral consequences of that seriously defective development of basic trust are acute depression in infants and paranoia in adult. Both consequences that we don’t expected.
Reduce Negative Impact
Professor Erikson’s theory of psycho-social development consistent with the epigenetic principle, which is postulate that crisis and developmental stage at childhood are not happened and resolved at that moment. Each development stage, and any crisis of it, not permanently left; it’s reappears at each successive stage of development, and forms the dynamics of personality.
Thereby, psychological recovery process to deal with ‘crisis of basic trust’ at child which victimized by disaster, is a worthy act for development of mental health of our child in future. As recognized to most psychologists, the sense of basic trust is the cornerstone of a healthy personality.
Whenever child becomes victimized by a disaster, they feel the most helpless and passive when confronted by overwhelming danger, and require psychological assistance to reestablish their mental equilibrium. This psychological recovery, which properly done by professional and voluntary help (from para-professional and volunteer), is also significant part to the entire recovery process after disaster.
Our manifestations to foster the psycho-social development of our child are not only through better understanding to the possibility of psychological breakdown after disaster, but also our responsibilities to returning and creating better world for our children. It’s quite helpful, if we look after our environment constantly, producing and also improving an ecological awareness to reducing disaster appearance which is frequently cause by our carelessness.
Even though disaster become unavoidable incident, the important awareness that we ought to kept is to ascertain those disaster not emerge a fatal impact, both physical and psychological, to us and especially to our children.
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