During the 1940s, Ernst Kris (1953) formalized the concept of RITSE, describing it as the means by which preconscious and unconscious material appears in the creator’s consciousness. Kris’ formulation helped shift ego psychology toward a more positive view of regression, linking it to creativity and innovation. In art and music, RITSE can manifest as a return to a childlike perspective. It is simple, fresh, and unencumbered by adult logic yet skillfully integrated into the final product.
To gain a full appreciation of RITSE’s scope, it is important to note that regression occurs in at least three ways. We regress in time, revisiting our childhood and the collective history of our society and culture, possibly through our social unconscious (Hopper and Weinberg, 2019) or our collective unconscious (Jung, 1978). We also regress in our use of form and structure. This is where Ernst Kris’s perspective on RITSE in art comes into play.
Third, there is regression in defensive structure. We deploy increasingly primitive defenses, such as repression and displacement (A. Freud, 1992/2018), once again, not on behalf of coping with stress, but rather on behalf of some adaptive purpose. The regression can occur individually—the work of an artist. Or the regression can occur collectively—the drama of a crowd. Individual regression can lead to creativity. The collective regression usually reinforces the existing reality or turns the “crowd” back to a more primitive (and often violence-based) reality (Aronson, 2018).
Achieving
It is wonderful to imagine a fulfilling life and to anticipate that good things await us. There is something very appealing about “wishing on a star” for the creation or gifting of what we desire from nothingness. However, there is a lingering need among most of us to work hard and achieve that for which we dream (McClelland and Others, 1953). There is a strong push to move from nothing to something. The gap between nothing and something must be closed.
Will Power
We must take action as a way to address the emotions associated with a gap between the current state and a desired state. We are anxious about the gap. We are frustrated that barriers exist that prevent us from easily eliminating the gap. We envy other people for whom this gap doesn’t exist. The need to achieve is complemented by this powerful need to eliminate pain associated with the gap.
Mind and body intertwine to produce a strong desire (even need) to move from the internal states of imaging, anticipating and creating to the state of activation and potential achievement. As my colleague, John Preston, has noted, the capacity to move from thought and desire to action requires the engagement of many functions in the human head and heart. What used to be called “will power” is a very real thing, describing the major effort needed to from both the inside and the outside.
Given the need for mind and body to operate together in our efforts to mobilize and ultimately achieve something (from out of nothingness), I wish to close this discussion of the six steps needed to address the challenge of nothingness by turning to a deeper probe into the interplay of mind and body
Mind and Body
The interplay of intrapsychic (Shadow) and environmental factors (Persona), and of accommodation and assimilation as contributors to the creative process is complemented by another interplay when it comes to achievement of some goal or the full realization of some idea. This is the interplay between mind and body. Just as Polystasis produces an alteration in not only baselines and anticipations but also biological states (Polystasis complementing Allostasis), so a new reality and the creation of something out of nothing requires the coordinated efforts of mind and body. Activation leading to achievement always requires physical as well as psychological engagement.
