Mental Health - Live Creatively Maladjusted

Dr. Patch Adams, Chairperson of the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.

From earliest childhood, parents and other well-meaning adults instruct us on how to behave, what to do and say, how to avoid problems with others, cultivate good manners and relationships. As we become a little older, these early instructors are joined by fashion and makeup designers, the media and the advertising industry who tell us just how and who to be in order to gain the approval of others. All of this is supposed to help us navigate through life without emotional pain —“to assure your ego’s survival and protection from getting hurt.” In other words, all of these well-meant efforts are geared towards our ego, but what about our Spirit?

We must distinguish between living from personality (ego) and living from character (Spirit). The word “personality” comes from the Latin word “persona,” a word that denoted the mask worn by actors. When we live from our personality or ego, we move through life based on acceptance by our peers, following the latest trends, looking for happiness that can be extracted from our experiences; when things get emotionally challenging or don’t feel safe, the personality-driven person will panic. And living from personality is “an agreement with mediocrity.”

The word “character” on the other hand represents our innate strengths and virtues. It is related to the French word “caractère” and means “imprint on the soul”. While our personality is the façade that we tend to display to the world, “character is revealed when the mask is removed.” When we live from character, we move through life even-minded; happiness is an inherent quality of our life, regardless of the situations in which we may find ourselves. The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment is about developing and displaying character instead of ego 24/7/365.

Are your own core values determining your life or are you driven by fashion and trends, being accepted by others, being cool? Have you made a conscious decision about what is running you? Do you serve the world, or do you expect the world to serve you? Living from character means living in integrity with your true and divine nature. In Martin Luther King’s terminology, living from character means being a thermostat instead of a thermometer — while the thermometer merely reflects what is, the thermostat sets the status quo. Living from our true character means contributing to the improvement of our civilization, coming from compassion versus judgment.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his address to the American Psychological Association in 1967, urged "Creative Maladjustment" as the appropriate behavioral response to life in an unjust society.

Compliance with the norm of social injustice is problematic, Dr. King noted. But one can abide in a wholesome and justifiable position in the face of injustice through creative maladjustment, by which he meant a commitment to upholding the values of freedom and dignity for all.

Every great man in history dared to be different and put up with scorn and ridicule from people who were going through life based on personality. All these contributors to the betterment of civilization have been (or are) nonconformists and are “creatively maladjusted.

Living creatively maladjusted means two things. The first is the courage to defy society’s standards and step out of the stale conformist’s role and entertaining “new ways of being in the world” since it is our complete lack of creativity that keeps our world enmeshed in false fear, useless wars, greed and turmoil. Becoming creatively maladjusted opens the way towards a “genuinely civilized global society.

For more information on living creatively maladjusted or for information on how to join the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment, go to http://www.mindfreedom.org/go/alt

Live healthy people!