intellectual striving – Thomas Cotterill

Given the realities inherent in the human psyche, there are three ways of approaching life in this world. No one exists entirely within a single stream, but each mode has its own distinct set of characteristics. For the first approach, I have used love as a substitute for emotion since people who choose the feeling life emphasize love above all other emotions.

The Three Ways of Life: Love, Will, and Reason

Your authentic self will determine which approach to life you favour. (Image: Thomas Cotterill)

The way of love is a life dominated by instinct with its accompanying emotions. Rewards in this mode of existence arise almost exclusively from emotional gratification and the experience of sensual pleasure, which prompts a sense of eagerly desired physical happiness. It is a crudely conceptualized, non-intellectual, irrational, bodily approach to life, with little manifestation of will, a sort of corporeal drifting from one source of satisfaction to the next. Life lived in this way is often haphazard or even chaotic. People in love with falling in love epitomize the type.

What makes some people become extraordinary? There have always been child prodigies, but the majority of exceptional human beings are not born with a noticeable gift. Instead, they develop into outstanding achievers as they mature. The explanation for why they reach the creative heights seems to lie with self-alienation and psychological distress, a fact that for centuries has surrounded creativity with myths of wild inspiration and “divine” madness. Research has shown that exceptional individuals come more often from homes where there has been a lot of bickering and conflict.

Painting of the Muses Bringing Inspiration

Formerly, the Muses were thought to make people extraordinary. Nowadays we see inner bickering as the cause. (Image: public domain.)

Yet being troubled is not enough. The extraordinary person also possesses the ability to use that suffering to propel themselves down the long hard road of self-discovery and self-realization. It would seem that inner bickering and conflict are a necessary part of the creative process, leading one to speculate that creative people internalize the chaotic home life when they are children, and then exploit it as a resource when they become adults. When they are young, they raise their eyes from their embattled immediate surroundings. They look up to role models who seem to offer better ideas, better ways of looking at life, better and more interesting ways of living; they hero worship.

Tag: intellectual striving

Love, Will, or Reason: What Is Your Approach to Life?

What Makes Some People Become Extraordinary?