I believe it was Carpeaux who noted that the great genius most often lives hindered by circumstances. And even if he does not want to, even if he resists, a force seems to set him in motion, prohibiting unproductive inertia. Thus we have the most common profile: an individual neither poor, nor rich; neither totally deprived of means, nor blessed with too many facilities. He takes action; he does it because he needs to, because he feels pulsating a desire and a need to surpass himself, to elevate himself, which is nothing more than a flat refusal of his actual conditions. From this, he acquires an unbreakable motivation, ready to go to the ultimate consequences to achieve what he has set out to do. He adapts as best he can to the momentary hindrances and goes forward, always forward. Then, all this complex set of circumstances that Pessoa talks about, especially those of the environment, makes his spirit exceptionally vigorous, so that he is finally benefited by the necessary—as Pessoa also notes—”minimal episodes of luck”. It is a very interesting phenomenon, and one that makes one think…
Category: Notes
Just as Machado’s Irony…
Just as Machado’s irony, badly imitated—and so imitated—is irritating, so is this simulated lightness in poetry, this simplicity that pretends to be profound, this delicacy that, when it is not the authentic expression of a temperament, is annoying. In short: Drummond and Bandeira. Perhaps the greatest curse of success is its offspring, that is, the imitators. How embarrassing is the technique when exposed without the original varnish! And to see all these cheap copies proliferating, making ridiculous the very creativity that engendered it… Directly, it is true, the originals are not tarnished; however, it is difficult to say that any artist would rejoice in forgeries. There remain antidotes, and none seems more potent than inserting absurd, repulsive eccentricities into one’s own art, which no imitator will have the courage to appropriate.
The Development of Personality, by Carl Jung
Jung is truly admirable! The effort he undertook in trying to integrate the irrational elements of the human psyche into his analytical psychology, aware of the criticism he would receive from the scientific community, is worthy of the highest appreciation. Jung not only refused to deny or hide what he saw, but he sincerely sought explanations for extremely intricate problems, exposing them even if groping in the dark. The vision of “personality” that he expounds in this paper, translated as The development of personality, shows an acuity very rare in children of academia, and affronts the notion that man is limited to a biological-social construction. Personality cannot be taught or generalized, does not manifest spontaneously, and consists of an act of courage against herd behavior. It is a badge, a destiny and a curse. It is a conscious and individual deliberation, which requires a commitment to oneself and is never given out of necessity. It is, therefore, a choice, with unbearable consequences for the majority, and which completely changes the behavioral paradigm of the one who makes it. Jung, perhaps the greatest of modern psychiatrists, was especially great for not settling into the comfort of psychology textbooks and not giving in to the delusional postulate that the human mind obeys a universal functioning.
It Is Indeed a Pleasure to Find in Authors…
It is indeed a pleasure to find in authors conclusions that we have reached previously and on our own. But nothing compares to finding them contrary to ours when, if they do not refute us completely, they prove to be equally reasonable. In the first case, we only rejoice out of vanity; in the second, we actually grow. It must be admitted, however, that this is a rare pleasure, hardly innate, and more often the result of a continuous effort, of an education of the mind to accept contradictions and understand reality as ambiguous and multifaceted—something that very few spirits are willing to do.