Youthful Views
Jagiellonian University
The Role of Creativity During Adolescence and Young Adulthood View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Krystyna Laycraft
The study of creativity of young people and its role as a component of their psychological development is presented. Specifically, the research investigates the role of creativity as a possible natural protective and prophylactic outlet for addressing mental “disorders” of adolescents, like anxiety or depression. Hermeneutic phenomenology /ontology linked with the narrative/biography methodology was chosen for this qualitative research. As a process of interpretation of the data, we create conceptual models called pattern models of the process of creativity of young people by applying the concepts of complexity science, especially self-organization with Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration. The Theory of Positive Disintegration is especially useful for understanding the tumultuous psychological development of gifted and creative adolescents. Dabrowski stresses the importance of “emotional turbulence” in the process of human growth, which corresponds to Prigogine’s idea that “non-equilibrium is a source of order.” In general, the creativity of young people could be modeled as “self-organizing dissipative structures” that originate spontaneously in far-from-equilibrium created and maintained by their complex emotions/dynamisms like love, curiosity, enthusiasm, delight, resourcefulness, “subject-object” in oneself, and a third factor. These emotions are the driving forces generating order and complexity not only in their creativity but above all in their psychological development, which is characterized by lesser tension, and greater ability to integrate their experiences, take the development into their own hands, and find direction to their future.
The Kids are All Right: A Jungian Analysis of College Artwork During the COVID-19 Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lynette Vought
This paper applies a Jungian analysis to drawings by university students in a cultural enrichment humanities art class over a period of four semesters during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through this review, it is possible to gain insight about the emotional and developmental health of students under individual and societal stress, which can benefit both the teacher and the student in their individual roles. Sharing these images in the context of a Jungian interpretation with other teachers may aid in their understanding of their students’ mindset and inform their approach to teaching during a pandemic. The analysis presented here is a combination of art pedagogy and psychological interpretation of the resulting images. Given a general prompt that included one specific element, students from all areas of campus created drawings which were intended to measure their technical competency in drawing but also to engage their creative abilities. The work was then analyzed by identifying common and repeated archetypes throughout the work. Individual students reacted to this collective event in similar ways since their shared experience is informed by archetypes in the collective unconscious that are activated by the event. The drawings illustrate archetypal images that demonstrate the psychic process of individuation and can be interpreted as normal coping mechanisms that illustrate the challenges of coming of age during a time of individual and societal stress. A Jungian analysis of the artwork of college students can aid teachers in understanding the emotional and mental state of students during a stressful collective event.
Free Arts : The 2020 Anti-Coup Movement of Thai Artists
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Pasakorn Intoo-Marn
After the 2014 Thai coup d'état, resistance movements have been continuous. Young people have played a significant role in these movements; in 2020, they established the People's Party 2020, named after the People's Party of 1932 that changed the national government system from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. Before the 2020 election, activists of all ages, among them artists, were harassed and arrested. This paper considers how young visual and performing artists jointly established a Free Arts group in 2020 to encourage artistic colleagues to join the anti-coup movement and use art as an expressive instrument in tandem with the extant youth movement.
