Chapter 8 - Dyslexia, Attention-Deficit Disorder, and the Creative Trance

Summary

Whatever affects the brain structures the creative trance, and what we view as imperfections may instead be alternate pathways to achievement. None of us is perfect, but as Jung says, we have an inner dynamic wholeness that transcends perfection and fuels self-evolution. The creative people in this chapter use dyslexia and attention deficit disorder, now known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to access their wholeness, and this, in turn, drives and shapes their creative trance. Eminent writers with dyslexia include Agatha Christie, William Butler Yeats, Jules Verne, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Amadeus Mozart and Frank Lloyd Wright used the reveries of ADHD to create completed works in their minds, and Leonardo da Vinci who had both dyslexia and ADHD changed the course of Western art history. What makes life most difficult can also inspire strength, innovation, and genius. As the poet Emily Dickinson writes, “A wounded deer leaps the highest.”