“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”— Carl Jung
In a world increasingly obsessed with definitions, diagnostic categories and narrow frameworks of normality, the artist – especially the one who thrives in multiplicity – stands as a living contradiction to societal templates. From the perspective of Jungian archetypes, Nietzsche’s Dionysian fervor, Jodorowsky’s psychomagic theater, and the deeply intuitive expressions of artists like Anaïs Nin, Salvador Dalí, Beethoven and Mozart, we can uncover a profound philosophical and spiritual truth: the artistic soul is not fractured …it is expansive.
The so-called “normal” person, who aligns neatly with external expectations, may seem psychologically grounded, but often this grounding is more akin to compliance than inner integration. It is important to distinguish between authentic integration – a deep, soulful coherence of mind, body, and spirit – and psychological conformity, which often serves as a defense against the discomforts of existential uncertainty.
Let me expand on Jungian’s Psychology of Multiplicity: Archetypes and the Inner Pantheon…
Carl Jung wrote that “within each person is a multiplicity of selves.” His model of the psyche was not monolithic, but archetypal – a shifting constellation of inner figures, forces and symbols. In Jung’s individuation process, the goal is not to eliminate parts of the self in favor of one “true” identity, but to integrate the many voices within.
For the artist, this multiplicity is not only acknowledged…it is exalted. The artistic spirit does not flatten itself to fit the Superego’s demands, nor the rational ego’s linear logic. Instead, the artist navigates between the Persona, the Shadow, the Anima/Animus and the Self – not as static roles, but as dynamic presences in the theatre of the soul.
This is where Jodorowsky’s psychomagic meets Jung… Jodorowsky’s films and overall work honor the irrational, the symbolic, the surreal – as necessary expressions of the soul’s true landscape. To him, “the artist is not a normal person. The artist is a mirror, a lunatic, a prophet, a healer, a master and because of it, he or she is grounded “provocateur” – meaning, the artist does goal when provoking is not to seduce but to confront. In this sense, the multiplicity of the artist is a spiritual technology, a mystic circuitry, not a psychological disorder.
Nietzsche and the Dance of Becoming…
Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher of becoming, reminds us that “one must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star” – To him, the artist is Dionysian…ecstatic, embodied, liberated from the rigid Apollonian world of order and reason.
But Nietzsche did not promote chaos as nihilism. Rather, he saw the artist as one who could transmute suffering into strength, fragmentation into creation. Artists like Beethoven, who composed his greatest works while deaf, and Mozart, who poured complex symphonies from a young age, were not merely skilled technicians – they were oracles of the ineffable. Their minds were wired not for normalcy, but for resonance with forces beyond understanding.
Now let’s expand on what others call “tangible” evidence, and what I call the Artist’s Neuro-Mythical Landscape…
What many view as instability, inconsistency or eccentricity in the artist is, in fact, the manifestation of a more complex neural architecture – a psychospiritual multiplicity that allows for liminal vision. Recent neuroscience supports that creativity often emerges from enhanced integration between distinct brain networks, such as the Default Mode Network (responsible for imagination, memory and self-reflection), the Salience Network (which detects novelty and emotional relevance) and the Executive Control Network (which governs focus, planning, and regulation). In highly creative individuals, these networks exhibit more fluid and frequent interaction, allowing for what researchers call “cognitive flexibility” – a key trait in divergent thinking.
Neuropsychologists who have made this their primary focus, would emphasize that this configuration of brain activity does not reflect chaos, but a deep neurobiological foundation for imaginative insight, emotional depth and symbolic fluency. Functional MRI studies have shown that artistically inclined brains tend to be hyper-connected across regions associated with abstract reasoning, emotional nuance, sensorial processing and embodied cognition.
For the artist, this convergence allows for what Jung might call active imagination – the opposite of passive imagination. Active Imagination, commonly known as creativity, is the ability to converse with symbols, energies and memories in a visionary way. Anaïs Nin wrote, “I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason.” She did not seek logic as the ultimate form of knowing…she surrendered to the poetics of simply being.
This neuro-symbolic dance is not mere indulgence, but a higher form of cognitive empathy. The artist embodies polyphony: many voices, many selves and many visions. What seems like contradiction from the outside is, in truth, a sophisticated inner ecosystem. Their depth of internal complexity matches, and is mirrored by, the richness of their outward expression.
And within this complexity lies an extraordinary capacity – the ability to transform pain and chaos into beauty. But not a sanitized or superficial beauty…rather, a visceral, sometimes uncomfortable form that challenges the observer. When a true artist reveals their wounds, they do not seek pity – they provoke recognition. They act as mirrors to our own hidden dissonance. And in that reflection, we are not diminished – we are humanized.
In a society often anesthetized by routine and social performance, the artist reminds us of what it is to feel deeply, to confront contradiction, and to bear witness to both the glory and the grit of being alive. This is not simply expression – it is alchemical labor. They turn the lead of suffering into the gold of meaning.
Salvador Dalí and the Divine Absurd…
Dalí’s surrealism shows us that art born of multiplicity is not madness, but metaphysics. He once declared, “I am not strange. I am just not normal” – For Dalí, the normal was the true delusion – a denial of the vast unconscious and irrational currents that shape human life.
His melting clocks, anthropomorphic landscapes and impossible physics were not meant to be “understood” in a rational sense. They are invitations into the dream – the liminal space where transformation happens. This dream space is not escapism… it is in the words of Jung, the “real world, the world within”.
Anaïs Nin and the Alchemy of Emotion…
To live and create as Anaïs Nin did – fiercely, sensually, subjectively – is to embody an aesthetic ethics. Not the moral rigidity of societal norms, but a morality of depth and feeling. Nin wrote, “Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it”.
The so-called “normal” mind often seeks permanence – a fixed identity, a steady job, an unchanging belief system. But the artist is not interested in stillness as stasis. They crave movement, metamorphosis, the ability to feel fully. It is not a lack of discipline, but a different form of grounding ….emotional truth as a compass, not external validation.
And this sensitivity is not weakness – it is the very bridge between inner and outer worlds. It takes a unique kind of mind to not only endure chaos and pain, but to mine it, refine it, and reshape it into something that, even if painful to look at, commands presence. The artist becomes a spiritual provocateur, not to instruct, but simply to be. As Jung might say, “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart”.
And now, why not go further…. Multiplicity & Chaos: The Spinozan Unity in Diversity…
Benedict de Spinoza, though often seen as a rationalist, believed in God as immanent, the divine substance expressing itself in infinite modes. For him, everything that exists is an expression of the one substance – Deus sive Natura – and every mind, every form, every thought is part of that whole.
The multiplicity of the artist then, is not fragmentation but a fractal: self-similar, beautiful in its variety, yet arising from a deeper oneness. The artist’s many selves are like different facets of a gem, catching different lights, but made of the same substance. Spinoza’s ethics teach that joy is found in understanding one’s place in the infinite. The artist, in surrendering to their multiformity, embodies this understanding viscerally.
Beyond Free-Spiritedness: Towards Sacred Integration…
Are you beginning to understand the beauty of artistic multiplicity. Although different than the traditional mind, it encourages people to transcend the superficial interpretation of the world, and to start understanding the artist as a rich world, rather than as “just free-spirited” or whimsical. The truth is more profound. Artistic multiplicity is not an avoidance of structure, but a transmutation of it. Artists can be deeply disciplined… not in the way of bureaucracy, but like monks of inner landscapes, devout to their inner rhythms.
To walk through the world with such sensitivity, to feel everything and still have the strength to shape it into form, is a rare kind of power. Integration, in this light, is not simplification but symphony of creation.
Eiros 