Note 5: Translogical Modes of Thinking

The creative person will engage in unusual and special types of thinking during the creative thought process. These types of thinking are different from our everyday logical thought processes. They have been labeled translogical modes of thinking by Dr. Albert Rothenberg. They occur during a rational and conscious frame of mind. The creative person is neither undergoing some transformed state of being where the muse inputs the completely formed idea, nor is the person undergoing a form of psychosis. The person must be rational and completely in his/her mind or what results will be of no value - in short, a mess. These processes are special but it would seem that we are all capable of them. The degree to which we successfully use the processes is certainly individualized.

The Janusian Process:
One process that seems to commonly occur for most successful creative people occurs early in the development of the idea. It is called the Janusian Process. It is named for the Roman god of doorways, Janus, who appears as looking in opposite directions at the same time. The Janusian process involves an intellectual examination of opposites. Antithetical elements or factors are then developed into a creative product. The Janusian process is usually not evident in the final product, but is a springboard for the mind to begin working and continues to occur at crucial points. Here are some examples of the Janusian process - a process of examining opposites.

* The writer, Richard Wilbur, said he had been walking on a beach and noticed some stones. As he touched them he noticed they were soft and felt like human skin, yet they were hard and heavy. They were certainly weapons if used in that way, but also soft and sensual at the same time. Pondering this idea led to the idea of sex and violence in the world, which he ultimately utilized separately in a poem.
* The musician, Leonard Bernstein, demonstrated the simultaneous use of the opposites (or antithetical factors) of diatonicism (tonal relationships between notes within traditional scales) and chromaticism (relationships between various keys) in the construction of all types of music.
* The artist, Cezanne, made great strides in the field of color theory when he used opposite color palettes juxtaposed against each other in the same paintings to create vibrating tensions between warm and cool colors.
* The scientist, Albert Einstein, realized that if a man fell off a roof of a house, there would be no gravitational field in his vicinity. That man could be considered as being at rest even though he was falling. The understanding that two completely opposite things could coexist at the same time led to Einstein's development of the general theory of relativity.

The Homospatial Process:
The homospatial process derives its name from it's prefix - homo, meaning same. What happens during the homospatial process is that the idea that has been forming takes shape mentally for the creative person. Many times this involves what we call the mind's eye. The person literally sees an image, or perhaps hears the tune, or feels the solution in some other way involving the senses. This is not an answer from outside the body, it is a result of hard work in the creative process. This usually happens after the Janusian process has occurred. Perhaps producing a mental image is where the idea of a muse importing an idea into our heads comes from, but rest assured this is a result of hard creative work. We produce the image; we don't receive it.

As a visual artist I have sometimes gotten what I call visual images inside my head. I am talking about what Dr. Rothenberg has described here. They are nice, rational experiences and people are always in their right minds when they experience them. Dr. Rothenberg states that these experiences are always occur as fleeting moments. I have tried to hold onto the visual image for a bit when I get one and alas, he is correct. They indeed are fleeting and there is no way to make them stay that I know of. That is when one must pick up one's tools and work it out. Here are the words of the famous sculptor, Henry Moore:

This is what the sculptor must do. He must strive continually to think of, and use, form in
its full spatial completeness. He gets the solid shape, as it were, inside his head - he thinks
of it, whatever its size, as if he were holding it completely enclosed in the hollow of his
hand. He mentally visualizes a complex form from all around itself; he knows while he
looks at one side what the other side is like. (Henry Moore, quoted in Rothenberg, 1990:
28)

Here are some words from Ludwig van Beethoven: "the underlying idea [of a musical work] ...rises...grows, I hear and see the image in front of me from every angle, as if it had been cast." (Ludwig van Beethoven quoted in Rothenberg, 1990: 28)

And so it is for us - off to work we go!



These comments and findings are a result of reading:
Dr. Albert Rothenberg, M.D. Creativity and Madness: New Findings and Old Stereotypes. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1990)