Santa Fe: Creativity & Madness Conference 2014

                                                                              Santa Fe, New Mexico

Just returned from a stimulating stay in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Invited to stay with friends, I took this photo of their courtyard lotus pond with koi fish. When not attending the Conference, I would lay in a hammock and watch the pond, the varied show of passing clouds, and an occasional thunder storm with lightning flashes. Beats television reruns! Santa Fe is a magical place and the energy which abides in this desert land and mountains draws one in and lifts the spirit.

This was the 25th year for the Creativity & Madness Conference in Santa Fe, and my first time to be invited to present a keynote talk and teach a workshop. The theme of the conference composed mainly of psychiatrists, psycho-therapists, social workers,  doctors, caregivers, & neuro-scienitists focuses on the study of creative genius and madness.

Though I am not a doctor, I do hold a graduate degree in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and my latest book, Heal Your Self with Writing, offers an alternative methodology for treating grief and trauma as well as a creative  tool for a deeper dialogue with the authentic Self.

My first play, On the Edge, was about Virginia Woolf’s stuggle against madness in a world gone mad, i.e., Hitler and WWII, so I chose this as my talk. “On the Edge: the Razor’s Edge between Creative Genius and Madness”. The audience of over six hundred responded enthusiastically and about fifty later attended the Heal Your Self with Writing workshop. I was happy to see how open these professionals were to alternative self- healing. Many purchased the Heal Your Self with Writing book which I signed, some doctors ask me to sign them to their patients. “I think this may help a patient of mine.” These doctors could not only think outside the box of their medical training, but they deeply cared about their patients.

There were several stimulating and thought-provoking presentations. Among them were:

Conversing with Patients about Hallucinations to Create a Work of Art by Dr. Lewis Mehl Madronna

The Mind and Music of Frederic Chopin by Dr. Richard Kogan

Personality Traits of Biblical Figures by Rabbi Sam Kenner

Rabbi Kenner told a memorable joke about the Gaza outburst of violence at this time:

An Israeli asked God if our people will ever find peace with the Palestinians?

God replies, “Yes, but not in my lifetime.”

The Healing Paradox: A Revolutionary Approach to Curing Illness by Dr. Steven Goldsmith

Here an M.D. declared that the reason western medicine fails is because its approach is to ‘fight’ the disease.  So here is another example that ‘times they are a changing’.

Other talks centered on Vincent Van Gogh,  Ernest Hemingway, Debussy, Nureyev, and Shostakovich who suffered under Stalin and the Russian Revolution.

The talks were recorded and video-taped. Copies can be found at www. creativityandmadness.com

The  conference is held every July in Santa Fe and well worth the time.

After the six-day Conference, I relaxed with my friends, watched the slow moving koi fish swimming under the lily pads and walked along the road, where I took the photo below of  rural Mail Boxes of those choosing to ‘get away from it all’ even if it is only 15 minutes from downtown Santa Fe.