Episode 46 - Creativity and Addiction

Today’s episode is part of a series called “Creative Recovery,” based on the book of the same name, published by Shambhala Press, that addictions’ special Susan Raeburn and I have written in which we describe a complete addiction recovery program for creative people. In it we take into account the risks, needs, and demands of the creative life and the creative personality. I hope that you will give Creative Recovery a peek if addiction issues are of concern to you or to somebody you know. Today’s show, the first in the series, is called “Creativity and Addiction.”

The episode begins this way:

“The short story ‘The Bound Man,’ by the German author Ilse Aichinger, is a beautiful piece in the existential tradition. It goes as follows. A man awakens one morning to find himself inexplicably bound by rope. Instead of removing the rope at his first opportunity, as we might expect him to do, he decides to remain bound and to become a circus attraction, turning his accidental bondage into his trademark work. How strange! Why would a person happily accept such bondage? It is similar to the question that Franz Kafka poses in ‘The Hunger Artist,’ where a man, who also chooses to become a circus attraction, starves himself to death because he can’t find food that interests him. These authors are asking variations of the following vital question: ‘Why do people carelessly, inexplicably, and even happily do things that harm them so much?’”

Tune in to hear more!