A journey of a thousand surrenders: Creative works from a midlife transit

Creativity is a natural process in response to conflicts inherent in human experience and is considered central to the engagement of consciousness with the unconscious. The creative process is also an experiential journey for those engaged in the creative work and the work product can become a symbol concurrently representing both their origin in the artist and a detached uniqueness. As such, creative work takes on both specific and transcending aspects of the human experience including the striving for wholeness.;This production thesis employs a creative/artistic and heuristic methodology, presenting an exploration of both theoretical perspectives and a set of the author's creative productions that arose during a period of significant upheaval at midlife. In an attempt to characterize the nature and role of creative activity in the process of adjusting to change, the creative process is reviewed both from a psychoanalytical perspective in published literature and from personal experience.