All of us experience some kind of trauma in life; how does creative expression help us heal and recover? And how do people make use of traumatic experiences in their creative work?

1. CreativePeople
and Trauma

2. Creative People and Trauma
All of us experience some kinds of trauma in
life, to some degree. How does creative
expression help people heal and recover?
And how do can we make use of traumatic
experiences in creative work?

3. Presenter :
Douglas Eby
M.A. / Psychology
Creator of the
Talent Development Resources
series of sites :
talentdevelop.com

4. French sculptor,
painter, and
film maker
Niki de Saint Phalle
(1930-2002)

5. At age three, Pablo
Picasso and his family
escaped an earthquake
to live in a cave.

6. Halle Berry suffered abuse
as a child, from her father.
“I think I’ve spent my adult
life dealing with the sense
of low self-esteem that sort
of implanted in me."

7. SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow
Kennedy) is an artist and
bestselling author of fifteen books.
She notes, “I’m a survivor of
incest" and for a long time, lived a
"very self-destructive life."
She said she knows that art is
healing “because of how it heals
me and how I see it healing other
people every day."

8. Author Jonathan Safran Foer
was injured at age eight in a
classroom chemical accident
and suffered “something like
a nervous breakdown drawn
out over about three years.”

9. Psychologist Elaine Aron thinks “high
sensitivity increases the impact of all
emotionally tinged events.”
In her book "The Highly Sensitive Child"
she notes that some sensitive adolescents
may drink and use drugs to try to
overcome anxiety or depression (which
may have been started or increased by
trauma) through self-medication.
From my post Sensitive to anxiety.

10. "Lisbeth Salander survives traumas that
might lead to addiction or the suicide of
a less resilient character. Giftedness
contributes to her resiliency by aiding
her problem solving, which increases
her ability to cope."
From article by psychologist Lisa Erickson:
3 Things To Learn From The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo – A Gifted Trauma Survivor

11. See more examples of people and their
experiences, plus notes, links to books,
articles and other resources on the page :
CreativePeople and Trauma