{"id":1561,"date":"2014-08-12T09:08:26","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T17:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2014-08-12T09:11:11","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T17:11:11","slug":"santa-fe-creativity-madness-conference-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/?p=1561","title":{"rendered":"Santa Fe: Creativity & Madness Conference 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"100_0048\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Santa Fe, New Mexico<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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,\u00a0 doctors, caregivers, & neuro-scienitists focuses on the study of creative genius and madness.<\/p>\n

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, <\/em>offers an alternative methodology for treating grief and trauma as well as a creative\u00a0 tool for a deeper dialogue with the authentic Self.<\/p>\n

My first play, On the Edge<\/em>, 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<\/em> workshop. I was happy to see how open these professionals were to alternative self- healing. Many purchased the Heal Your Self with Writing<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

There were several stimulating and thought-provoking presentations. Among them were:<\/p>\n

Conversing with Patients about Hallucinations to Create a Work of Art <\/em>by Dr. Lewis Mehl Madronna<\/p>\n

The Mind and Music of Frederic Chopin\u00a0<\/em>by Dr. Richard Kogan<\/p>\n

Personality Traits of Biblical Figures\u00a0<\/em>by Rabbi Sam Kenner<\/p>\n

Rabbi Kenner told a memorable joke about the Gaza outburst of violence at this time:<\/p>\n

An Israeli asked God if our people will ever find peace with the Palestinians?<\/p>\n

God replies, “Yes, but not in my lifetime.”<\/p>\n

The Healing Paradox: A Revolutionary Approach to Curing Illness\u00a0<\/em>by Dr. Steven Goldsmith<\/p>\n

Here an M.D. declared that the reason western medicine fails is because its approach is to ‘fight’ the disease.\u00a0 So here is another example that ‘times they are a changing’.<\/p>\n

Other talks centered on Vincent Van Gogh,\u00a0 Ernest Hemingway, Debussy, Nureyev, and Shostakovich who suffered under Stalin and the Russian Revolution.<\/p>\n

The talks were recorded and video-taped. Copies can be found at www. creativityandmadness.com<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 conference is held every July in Santa Fe and well worth the time.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 rural Mail Boxes of those choosing to ‘get away from it all’ even if it is only 15 minutes from downtown Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

\"100_0053\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1569,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}