Journal of Humanistic Psychology

http://jhp.sagepub.com Love, Open Awareness, and Authenticity: A Conversation with William Blake and D. W. Winnicott
Will W. Adams Journal of Humanistic Psychology 2006; 46; 9 DOI: 10.1177/0022167805281189 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jhp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/46/1/9

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Conversation 10.1177/0022167805281189 Will W. Adams with Blake and Winnicott

Art and Science at the Crossroads

LOVE, OPEN AWARENESS, AND AUTHENTICITY: A CONVERSATION WITH WILLIAM BLAKE AND D. W. WINNICOTT
WILL W. ADAMS holds an M.A. in psychology from West Georgia College and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Duquesne University. He previously served as a clinical fellow in psychology at McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School. He works as an associate professor of psychology at Duquesne University and as a psychotherapist in independent practice. Dr. Adams is concerned with fostering collaborative dialogue across scholarly disciplines (especially philosophy, ecology, religion, and the arts) and theoretical traditions (especially existential, phenomenological, humanistic, transpersonal, Buddhist, and psychoanalytic psychology). Special interests include ecopsychology, spirituality, meditation, art and literature, and psychotherapy. In being loved, we become more open. In being open, we become more authentic. In being authentic, we become more loving and creative. Love, open awareness, and authentic existence are intimately interrelated. They co-arise interdependently and together comprise a coherent structure of well-being, allowing one to be most fully human and most fully and uniquely oneself. Psychology and literature are complementary approaches to understanding the meaning of human existence in our shared life-world. In this spirit, a hermeneutical conversation with William Blake and D. W. Winnicott is presented. Blakes work and life are read in light of Winnicotts theory of development and psychotherapy, and Winnicotts theory is read in light of Blake, thereby illuminating the significant interpermeation of love, openness, and authenticity. Keywords: love; awareness; authenticity; Blake, Winnicott

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 46 No. 1, January 2006 9-35 DOI: 10.1177/0022167805281189 2006 Sage Publications

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In being loved, we become more open. In being open, we become more authentic. In being authentic, we become more loving and creative. Love, open awareness, and authentic existence are intimately interrelated. In the present study, I explore the way in which these key qualities of psychospiritual health co-arise interdependently and cohere in a mutually supportive manner. To illuminate this exploration, I will develop a hermeneutical conversation with William Blake and D. W. Winnicott. Each man created a brilliant body of work and, considered together, they complement one other beautifully. By reading Blakes work and life in light of Winnicott, and explicating Winnicotts theory of development and psychotherapy in light of Blake, I hope to inspire a fruitful inquiry into the interpermeation of love, openness, and authenticity. For a parent, intimate partner, or dear friend, it is obvious that love fosters well-being. Yet, because it is often useful to reconsider what is generally taken for granted, I would like us to explore further by inquiring: How does love contribute to our health and development? This question is immensely complex. Thus, I regret that many significant issuessuch as the potential for authenticity following loves absencecan appear only as allusions in the present study. For example, how does someone like Kafka work through haunting relationships with both parents while becoming a creative genius in the process? Or much more commonly, how does an abused child grow up to be a loving friend, spouse, and parent? What mysterious interactionsof alternative loving support, resiliency, courage, hard work, temperament, genetics, and other influencesgive rise to such intriguing affirmations of the human spirit? Here, more modestly, my aspiration is to illuminate one specific gift of love, namely, the way that being loved facilitates openness to direct experience, and to explore how such open awareness fosters authentic existence. Although love, openness, and authenticity are distinct phenomena, each one is also an aspect of the others. Together, they comprise a coherent structure of well-being, allowing one to be most fully human and most fully and uniquely oneself. Buddhist psychology demonstrates that all phenomena co-arise interdependently (Rahula, 1974), and such interpermeation is especially clear
Authors Note: Please address correspondence and reprint requests to Will W. Adams, Ph.D., Duquesne University, Department of Psychology, 544 College Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15282; e-mail: adamsw@duq.edu.

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with these three. Thus, when focusing on only one or two of the phenomena, let us stay mindful of the implicit presence of the other(s).

LOVE IN WINNICOTTS FACILITATING ENVIRONMENT There is no such thing as an infant, declares Winnicott (1960b, p. 39). This view may seem strange for an expert in infant development. Yet, he goes on to clarify, meaning, of course, that whenever one finds an infant one finds maternal care, and without maternal care there would be no infant (p. 39). In this evocative way, Winnicott emphasizes that we become human and develop our full potential in and through loving relationships. He explores the significance of love in child development through his concept of the holding or facilitating environment. This special environmentor more precisely this special relationshipincludes holding and feeding an infant but goes much further to involve all of the parents love, attention, affection, support, guidance, encouragement, and responsiveness. With loving devotion, a good-enough parent (Winnicott, 1960a) is exquisitely sensitive to the spontaneous expression of a childs distinctive way of being: the coming into being of this unique child in this unique time and place. (Following Winnicott, we see a similar process transpiring in the relationship between a psychotherapist and patient.) To be attuned in this way, parents must temporarily set aside their egocentric wishes. Thus, as we shall understand more clearly as we proceed, with good-enough parenting, the baby can first be open to and aware of his or her present experience and then be guided (in feeling, thought, and action) by this unfolding awareness. As these interactions recur reliably, they foster the development of an authentic way of being, the true self in Winnicotts language. In discussing authentic existence, I do not mean to connote some objectified entity as suggested, contrary to his intention, by Winnicotts term, the true self. Also, the true self/false self, authentic/inauthentic distinction should not be taken as an absolute separation or as unambiguous or unvarying. Life is never that simple. In the complex, ambiguous, multifarious venture of human existence, at times we are more authentic and at others less. Without reifying or romanticizing the concept, let us take authenticity as a metaphor for various modes of beingoften an orienting aspi-

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ration, at times more or less a realitywherein we bring forth our best in this shared life and world: Beyond habitual, egocentric existence, we are alive, aware, loving, wise, creative, and living in accordance with our distinctive capabilities and our present circumstances. When existing in this way, one is most fully human and most uniquely oneself. In contrast, not good-enough parenting occurs when parents out of their own sufferinggive priority to their unfulfilled, egocentric wishes, unfulfilled in the past (especially in childhood) and/ or the present. Thus, such parents relate anxiously with their child based on an experienced narcissistic lack (such as insecurity, pain, fear, or craving). Not good-enough parenting can involve severe neglect, abandonment, or abuse but more commonly it takes a subtler form: pressures (expressed consciously or unconsciously) for the child to conform to the parents egocentric wishes. Anxious, insecure, depressed, addicted, or narcissistic parents are often so preoccupied with themselves (and their sense of lack) that they are unable to recognize what is going on with their child. Thus, the child is forced to compensate for whatever is going on with the parents. Here, the parents neediness impinges on the childs ability to open and relax into ongoing experience. In practice, parents motivations usually arise from some mixture of their own needs and those of the child. However, when parents react to their child primarily out of their own wishes, the child will begin to set aside (and may never develop) his or her own way of being. Rather than being true to (nascently authentic) experience, the child will likely devise a habitually defensive mode of living, conforming to perceptions of what the parents need him or her to be. For both Winnicott and Blake, this is the genesis of the compliant, conformist false self. Herein, we are alienated from our direct experience, from our own self, from others, and from the world. As Winnicott (1960a) says,
The good-enough mother meets the omnipotence of the infant [i.e., the infants authentic spontaneous gesture] and to some extent makes sense of it. She does this repeatedly. A True Self begins to have life. . . . The mother who is not good-enough is not able to implement the infants omnipotence, and so she substitutes her own gesture which is to be given sense by the compliance of the infant. This compliance on the part of the infant is the earliest stage of the False Self, and belongs to the mothers inability to sense her infants needs. (p. 145)

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Love or its lack, and the good or ill that follows: Winnicott made this the central focus of his lifes work, so crucial it is in human existence.

LOVE IN BLAKES CHILDHOOD William Blake was born in 1757 and died in 1827. He lived most of his life in London, working as a hired engraver when he could find employment while devoting his genius to visionary poetry, painting, and printing. Blake will be a major voice in our present conversation because his life and art vividly demonstrate the interrelationship of love, openness, and authenticity. Blake (1789c) wrote reverently of Love, the human form divine (p. 13), and a few loving relationships certainly played a crucial role in his life, providing a facilitating environment within which his authentic creativity could flourish. I will first explore the foundational love he received from his parents and later turn to his special relationship with his wife. Because Blakes astonishing art emerged from a deep visionary ability, his account of one of his first visions is especially significant. Walking along as a boy of 8 or 10 he sees a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 7). He returns home and, undoubtedly with great enthusiasm, tells his parents what he saw. Initially, his father accuses him of lyingpeople do not see angels in trees, we can imagine him thinkingand intends to give his son a thrashing. Instead, Blakes mother steps in on his behalf and he receives no punishment. Blake told this story as an adult, long after the original experience. Therefore, this event (and surely many more like it, although perhaps not so dramatic) must have held great formative significance for him early in life. When his mother intervened, she not only protected him from a spanking but, much more crucially, she validated his extraordinary experience and especially his distinctive way of experiencing. Her sensitive, loving response gave young William the vital message that his direct experience was valuable, that he should attend to and honor his own perceptions even when they transgress the commonly accepted conventions of society. She thus created a supportive space for further experiences of this kind.

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott

Importantly, Winnicott reassures parents that they need not be perfectly attentive, not that this is even possible. Instead, they should aspire to be good-enough parents. Although Blakes father threatened to spank him in the incident above and Blake claimed that on one occasion his mother did beat him for running in & saying that he saw the Prophet Ezekial under a Tree in the Fields (Tatham, c1832, p. 519), by all accounts his parents were genuinely affectionate and supportive. Blakes mother appreciated his joy in making art and lovingly reflected his enthusiasm back to him. Thus, young William was privately encouraged by his mother (Cunningham, 1830, p. 477) and it was his chief delight to retire to the solitude of his room, and there make drawings, and illustrate these with verses, to be hung up together in his mothers chamber (pp. 480-481). Blakes father owned a haberdashery shop (above which the family lived) and he hoped William would follow him in his business. Nonetheless, recognizing Williams passion and talent for art, he joined his wife in encouraging the artistic endeavors of his son. When Blake was 10, his parents sent him to Londons most respected school for young artists, and at age 14, his father arranged an apprenticeship with an esteemed engraver. Clearly, love from both parents created an important facilitating environment within which he could be himself. For Blake, being himself meant being open to visionary experience and eventually creating the art we admire two centuries later.

BEING ALONE IN THE PRESENCE OF AN OTHER: LOVE GIVES RISE TO OPEN AWARENESS Blakes inspired and inspiring art, like all authentic existence, emerged from his open awareness of self and world. Although few of us are gifted with genius such as his, Blake emphasized that an authentic lifespringing forth from open experienceis available to everyone. Winnicott, a creative genius in his own right, would strongly concur. The openness celebrated by Blake and Winnicott is a meditative-like awareness of everything arising in our experience, moment by moment. All sights, sounds, feelings, thoughts, images, and so forth are welcomed and allowed to present themselves to us. Herein, we consent to the present moment and confide ourselves into the present moment, as the Zen teacher Bruce

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Harris (2002, personal conversation) puts it so beautifully. Understanding the way love fosters such open awareness is a primary task of this study. Winnicott (1958) emphasized the importance, in parenting (and psychotherapy), of helping the child (or patient) have experiences of being alone in the presence of an other, thereby fostering the open awareness necessary for growth and authenticity. This requires the loving choice as a parent to set aside ones egocentric wishes, to fade into the background yet still be there attentively with ones child. This frees the child from the need to search for and react to shifts in the parents mood or behavior. It allows the child to let go of the need to guard against impingement or abandonment. With the child subtly feeling and trusting the parents silent loving presence, the parent implicitly encourages the child to relax and open: first simply to be, then to be aware of his or her own direct experience, and eventually to be guided by this experience as it emerges spontaneously in the present moment. Patiently attentive, neither neglectful nor intrusive, the parent intervenes only when aware of danger or when sensing that the childs nascently authentic expressions need recognition, mirroring, and support. Notice that the childs being alone with his or her direct experience means being intimately engaged with the surrounding world and with feelings, thoughts, desires, and so forth, as they are arising. Of course, this way of relating with ones child is only one of many appropriate modes of parenting, modes that vary according to the requirements and opportunities of the present circumstances. There are plenty of other times when good-enough parents must attend to their own needs, actively guide or challenge their child, or set clear and firm boundaries, and the child must learn to respond accordingly. Thus, to cite another classic series of developmental studies, Baumrinds (1967, 1995) authoritative parenting style is consistent with Winnicotts good-enough parenting, whereas her permissive and authoritarian styles are variations of not-good-enough parenting. As Winnicott (1958) shows, being alone in the presence of another encourages a profoundly open mode of awareness:
The infant is able to become unintegrated, to flounder, to be in a state in which there is no orientation, to be able to exist for a time without being either a reactor to an external impingement or an active person with a direction of interest or movement. (p. 34)

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott

This description of nonintegration may initially sound disturbing. For the infant, however, sensing the parents loving presence, this is a pleasurable, vital, liberating mode of awareness. Thus, Winnicott celebrates such openness as the source of authentic experience and behavior:
In the course of time there arrives a sensation or an impulse. In this setting the sensation or impulse will feel real and be truly a personal experience. It will now be seen why it is important that there is someone available, someone present, although present without making demands. . . . It is only under these conditions that the infant can have an experience which feels real. (p. 34)

Similarly, praising loves power to open and free us, Blake (1988b) proclaims, Love . . . breaks all chains from every mind (p. 472). When graced with love, the infant can simply confide him or herself into whatever is arising in present experience: the cat with its soft fur, a vibrant surge of bodily energy, the red ball, the sound and smell of the wind. In such interactions, the infants spontaneous, curious, playful openness to the world arises in resonant communion with the worlds spontaneous natural presentation of itself. These experiences prepare the way for increasingly authentic selfworld engagement as development progresses.

CATHERINE BLAKES LOVE Loving relationships continue to foster our ability to be open throughout our lives, from infancy and childhood to adolescence and adulthood. Our growing autonomy and independence are always relative, and we never outgrow our relational nature. Thus, let us consider the special relationship between Blake and his wife Catherine. Although his attention was devoted to his art, Blake was certainly a loving husband for Catherine. He would get up early before she awoke, start a fire, and put a kettle on for her breakfast (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 358). He also taught Catherine to develop her own creative visionary and artistic abilities. My focus here, however, will be on the way Catherines love provided Blake with a crucial facilitating environment for his creative work. An early biographer describes the relationship between the couple:

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Will W. Adams Mrs. Blake, the artists companion at almost every hour of the twenty four . . . cheerfully accepted the lot of a poor mans wife as few gifted mens wives are prepared to do. . . . She shared his destiny and softened it, ministering to his daily wants. (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 358)

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The following is the same writers report of a conversation with a good friend of the Blakes:
And his Kate was capable of sharing, to some extent at all events, the inner life too, and of yielding true sympathy. Having never been a mother, says the same cordially appreciative friend, who saw much of her in later years, to this devoted wife Blake was at once lover, husband, child. She would get up in the night, when he was under his very fierce inspirations, which were as if they would tear him asunder, while he was yielding himself to the Muse, or whatever else it could be called, sketching and writing. And so terrible a task did this seem to be, that she had to sit motionless and silent; only to stay him mentally, without moving hand or foot: this for hours, and night after night. (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 359)

The Blakes never had children (for reasons unknown) and Catherine chose to give her full attention to the husband she adored. From the time of their marriage when Blake was 25 until the moment he died at age 69, her loving presence allowed him to give himself over to his intense visionary experience. Confronted with economic and psychological challenges through much of adulthood, it is disturbing to imagine what Blakes life and art would have been without Catherines love.

HOLDING OUR OWN EXPERIENCE WITH LOVING ATTENTION Although those close to Blake appreciated the greatness of his art, his genius was never widely recognized during his life. He often lived in poverty, struggling to earn enough money merely to survive. Furthermore, some of his contemporaries deemed him mad. (These seem to be people who had heard about him but never met him. Although it appears that Blake did undergo phases of mania and depression, those who knew him well did not consider him insane.) Worse yet, most simply ignored his work. Blake knew his gifts were real and profound and this lack of regard troubled him.

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott

Nonetheless, even with adversity impinging, Blake always trusted his authentic and creative experience. This is a testimony to his own courage and integrity coupled with the loving support he received from his parents and wife. In the course of his development, Blake surely internalized the love provided by his parents and later by Catherine, incorporating and building on it as an aspect of his very self. Thus, in opening himself for visions and creating his art, Blake was able to do with himself what his mother had done for him when she protected him after his vision of angels: to establish a reliable, open, receptive space of consciousness within which his extraordinary experience could emerge and be held with loving appreciation. As Winnicott (1958) says, In the course of time the individual becomes able to forgo the actual presence of a mother or mother-figure. This has been referred to in such terms as the establishment of an internal environment (p. 34). And still we continue to be nourished by our connections with others. Thus, Blakes ability to hold himself, so to speak, was enhanced by Catherines devoted presence. As Blake knew well, life is painful at times. Even when we are infants (much less as adults), our needs and hopes are not always fulfilled. No parent (even when good-enough) is perfectly attentive to their child or perfectly understanding in interpreting expressions of need. In these moments, the child must find a way to bear (for some time) the pain or anxiety of unmet needs. Furthermore, good-enough parents are sensitive to their childs evolving autonomy and therefore learn to give over to the child (ever so gradually) increasing responsibility for caring for him or herself and responding to difficult situations. Both of these circumstancesone accidental and one intentionally created by conscious parentingcan be distressing for the child. However, not only are these challenges not traumatizing for the child (as long as the parents are reliably loving) but they actually encourage the development of self-structure. The child learns to serve him or herself in the way the parents previously served him or her. And the childs self deepens each time he or she does this successfully. This prepares the child to manage those inevitable times when the world impinges painfully, both in trauma and in the ordinary trials of daily life. Later, in adulthood, most of us are not given such total loving attention as Blake received from Catherine. Nonetheless, thankfully, there are occasions when others do consciously create opportunities for us to give ourselves fully to open experiencing: a hus-

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band and father plays with the children while his wife makes pottery; she answers the phone while he meditates; and in an intimate conversation, their shared love is so evident that both feel invited to bring forth their deepest being. Much more commonly, however, our ability (now relatively stable and mature) to hold ourselvesto open our heart and mind for the emergence of authentic experienceis more subtly or implicitly supported by the lovingkindness of family and friends. Agency and communion are always interdependent. Thus, our evolving autonomy, including the ability to welcome our experience with a tender embrace, is complemented by our involvement in loving relationships.

BEING OPEN IN THE PRESENT MOMENT Winnicott often presents cryptic insights for readers to contemplate. Thus, he asserts, After beingdoing and being done to. But first, being (Winnicott, 1971a, p. 85). According to Winnicott, in optimal infant development, being precedes doing and being facilitates doing. In this context, being means being free from the need to react defensively to external impingement and being free for open awareness of ones evolving experience in the present moment. Winnicott (1963) calls this open mode of existence, simply, going-on-being (p. 86). Being (in this sense) is fostered by love. Confidently trusting the parents devoted loving attention, an infant can let go of the need to focus on the parents behavior, can be alone in their presence, thereby allowing his or her awareness to drift openly and purposely, attuned to the surrounding world and to private experience. The parents love, says Winnicott (1962), frees the infant from striving to integrate prematurely or defensively, thereby letting a more authentic self emerge:
The opposite of integration would seem to be disintegration. This is only partly true. The opposite, initially, requires a word like unintegration. Relaxation for an infant means not feeling a need to integrate, the mothers ego-supportive function being taken for granted. (p. 61)

This open, unintegrated mode of consciousness is a condition for the evolution of childs sense of being real and of being him or herself, and for the further evolution of authenticity as life progresses.

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott

Not only in infancy but throughout life, open being precedes authentic doing. At best, open awareness is facilitated initially by parents in the holding relationship, gradually internalized and integrated as an aspect of the childs self, and then supported in adulthood by ones family and friends. However, even when not developed originally due to the all-too-common absence of good-enough parentingand a more defensive, reactive existence is formed insteadlater involvement in loving relationships can still foster openness and authenticity. Feeling cared for by someone we trust, say a spouse, close friend, or psychotherapist, we are invited to open to our experience, just as it is, and to bring forth our very being, just as we are. Thus, Winnicott (1971c) describes his approach to psychotherapy:
The person we are trying to help needs a new experience in a specialized setting [viz., being alone in the attentive presence of a trusted other]. The experience is one of a non-purposive state, as one might say a sort of ticking over of the unintegrated personality. I refer to this as formlessness. (p. 55)

Extending this line of thought, Winnicott connects openness with creativity: This gives us our indication for therapeutic procedure to afford opportunity for formless experience, and for creative impulses, motor and sensory (p. 64). Winnicott speaks of being, going-on-being, formless experience, being unintegrated or non-purposive, and all of these are versions of what I am calling openness. Such open, attentive awareness has been honored across cultures and eras by the great disciplines of human development and transformation, from the worlds spiritual traditions to psychoanalysis, existential phenomenology, humanistic psychology, and transpersonal psychology. Elsewhere, I explored this important affinity, showing how evenly suspended attention, the phenomenological attitude, and meditative awareness are kindred practices of openness discovered independently within these respective traditions (Adams, 1995).

BLAKES OPEN AWARENESS Blake spoke with great enthusiasm about being open to the depths of self and world. The quintessential formulation of this

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view is his celebrated testimony: If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro narrow chinks of his cavern (Blake, 1793, p. 39). According to Blake, we close our doors of perception by relying rigidly on preconceived knowledge about our self and the world; by depending exclusively on rational (versus imaginative) thinking; and by complying uncritically with the conventional, normalizing demands that others, society, and we ourselves place on us. Also, we often close down when faced with external demands, and once in force, these defenses tend to become consolidated into consistent (and self-limiting) ways of being. We keep ourselves closed down, but it need not be so. One of Blakes great teachings is that much of our suffering is unnecessary, that we can become liberated from the tyranny imposed on us by others and from our self-imposed tyranny. The shackles binding us are not absolute givens of our existence but instead are, in Blakes (1789a) powerful phrase, mind-forgd manacles (p. 27). Regarding our overattachment to what we think we already know, Blake (c1788a) asserts, As none by traveling over known lands can find out the unknown. So from already acquired knowledge Man could not acquire more (p. 1). When dominated by our preconceptions and expectations, in every potentially new experience we merely see what we expect to see. It is not that Blake wanted to abandon the quest for knowledge but he did want it to be an inspired quest, one guided by openness to direct experience. In contrast, excessive reliance on habits, conventions, and defenses tends to imprison us. Thus, Blake (1793) says, The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind (p. 42). Although one cannot manufacture deep creative experiences by force of will, Blake could choose to open himself for revelatory visions. With conscious attention (and with Catherine at his side to stay him mentally [Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 359]), he would become receptive for experiences emerging from the depths of self and world, knowing that what might come was far beyond his willful ego-centered control. Speaking in a letter about a long mythic work, he states, I have written this Poem from immediate Dictation . . . without Premeditation & even against my Will (Ackroyd, 1995, p. 238). Similarly, he says, I dare not pretend to be any other than the Secretary; the Authors are in Eternity

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(Ackroyd, 1995, p. 238). Such open receptivity served as the medium for his great art. As described above, Blakes creative experiences were so intense he sometimes felt they would tear him asunder (Gilchrist, 1880/ 1969, p. 359). A passage from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell demonstrates Blakes unwavering openness to direct experience, no matter how chaotic or terrifying. He describes a visionary encounter with an angel who (in this case) represents the oppressive limitations of conventional religion and conformist, materialistic society. The angel accuses Blake of being evil, saying, O pitiable foolish young man! . . . Consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing for thyself to all eternity (Blake, 1793, p. 41). Blake boldly confronts the angel, saying shew me my eternal lot (p. 41). Then they embark on a shamanic-like journey:
down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way till a void boundless as a nether sky appeared beneath us & we held by the roots of trees and hung over this immensity; but I said, if you please we will commit ourselves to this void, and see whether providence is here also, if you will not I will. (Blake, 1793, p. 41)

Blake does open himself to the infinite Abyss, dwelling unknowingly with the unknown. Soon they encounter a series of dreadful things: a black sun, vast spiders attacking their prey, a cascade of blood mixed with fire, and the scaly fold of a monstrous serpent with beams of blood, advancing toward us with all the fury (Blake, 1793, p. 41). At this sight, the angel rushes away in fear, but Blake perseveres alone, at which point the terrors disappear and he finds himself beside a river enjoying the song of a harpist. Afterward, the angel asks how he managed to survive, and Blake (1793) replies, All that we saw was owing to your metaphysics (p. 42). Blake realizes, long before Freud and Jungs insights into projection, that many of our fears are actually disowned aspects of our own being, aspects made terrifying by the beliefs or metaphysics of our own alienated mind. In defending against these fears we unnecessarily inhibit ourselves. Blakes courageous willingness to commit himself to the boundless voidconfiding himself into whatever his experience might offer, intuiting the implicit presence of divine providenceis a defining characteristic of his life and art. Here we can see that Blakes relationship with God provided another facilitating environment. That is, as in the example above, God provides love (or

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providence), which fosters Blakes openness and allows his creativity to emerge. Yet, to understand the nature of this facilitating relationship we must appreciate Blakes experience of God. For Blake, providence does not mean the guiding intervention of a purely transcendent deity separate from himself. When asked about the Divinity of Jesus Christ, Blake (1825/1946) responded, He is the only Godbut then he addedAnd so am I and so are you. (p. 680). In the same conversation, Blake declared, We are all coexistent with God; members of the Divine body, and partakers of the Divine nature (p. 680). God is a facilitating environment in this sense: Blake entrusts himself to the loving presence of his deepest being, which is God, and is thereby free to be open for creative visionary experience. As Blakes encounter with the void attests, it can be terrifying to allow ourselves to become unintegrated, unknowing, nonpurposive, receptive to everything that presents itself in our experience. Therefore, although being open (or formless or unintegrated) is vital for authenticity, love better prepares the way for openness. As Winnicott (1971c) emphasizes,
The searching [for and eventually as ones true self] can come only from desultory formless functioning, or perhaps from rudimentary playing, as if in a neutral zone. It is only here, in this unintegrated state of the personality, that that which we describe as creative can appear. This if reflected back, but only if reflected back, becomes part of the organized individual personality. (p. 64)

Alone in the loving presence of a trusted other, the child (or patient or artist) can give him or herself over to unfolding experience, attuned to whatever the world (including ones body, feelings, thoughts, images, etc.) is naturally presenting. In this resonant communion of open self and open world, there may arise a spontaneous revelatory experience and a spontaneous action in response, an awareness and response that feel vital, alive, fresh, real, true. This experience, integrated with countless others like it, has the potential to evolve into a more stable, authentic way of being. For this developmental possibility to become actualized, the childs spontaneous gesture (coming forth from open awareness) should be recognized by another person and affirmatively reflected back, thereby enabling the child to more fully appropriate his or her own experience. As Winnicott (1971c) says, the sense of self comes on the basis of an unintegrated state which . . . is lost unless

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott

observed and mirrored back by someone who is trusted and who justifies the trust and meets the dependence (p. 61). Therefore, in one of his most profound formulations of this process, Winnicott (1967) remarks,
What does the baby see when he or she looks at the mothers face? I am suggesting that, ordinarily, what the baby sees is himself or herself. In other words the mother is looking at the baby and what she looks like is related to what she sees there. (p. 112)

Appreciating the babys nascently authentic presence, the parents loving expression holds the babys beingactually is the babys very being, as the conventional self-other separation disappears and offers this authentic being back for the baby to realize more fully. Thus, Winnicott celebrates the mothers role of giving back to the baby the babys own self (Winnicott, 1967, p. 118). We can imagine Blakes mother joyfully receiving her sons drawings (and thus Williams authentic self) and enthusiastically displaying them on her bedroom wall. Likewise, today, loving parents create an art gallery on their refrigerator door, a representation most deeply of their childs very being. And here we can recall Catherine Blake sitting attentively with her husband while he was immersed in intense visionary experience. As one biographer put it, prefiguring Winnicott, always his glowing enthusiasm was mirrored in the still depths of his wifes nature (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 113). Through such mirroring, an interpersonal resonance is created in the relationship between parent and child (or therapist and patient or lover and beloved), a resonance that affirms and deepens the direct experiential resonance of the open relationship between child/patient/lover and world.

LOVE DISSOLVES NARCISSISM A vast folklore exists about parenting and child development, and mixed with great wisdom are equally great misconceptions. For example, we commonly hear that too much attention will spoil children and make them selfish. If such critics spoke in psychological jargon they might worry about making a child narcissistic. Although this belief is misguided, it does raise an apparent paradox. Without being overly permissive, good-enough parents do (for a time and place) set aside their own needs and devote

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themselves fully to their infant. They create a secure, loving environment wherein the infant can focus on direct experience and spontaneous actions. This kind of parenting does encourage the infant to be self-centered in one sense, but one that is far from selfish or greedy. A developmental perspective may help clarify the situation. What we commonly understand as a sense of self is almost completely absent in early infancy. In fact, the infant needs to be self-centered to develop a stable, coherent, differentiated selfsense in the first place. In this context, being self-centered means centering ones awareness on whatever feels alive, real, and meaningful in ones present experience (just as weve been exploring). Parents are surely wise to help their infant do this. The same issue may be approached from a different perspective. Human existence is two-sided (so to speak), always involving a unified self-world or self-other relationship. (At times, as in the non-dual awareness of mystical or spiritual experience, it becomes clear that the two sides are ultimately one.) However, the selfside of this relationship emerges fully into being only in the course of development. The love parents give their infant strengthens the nascent self of the self-world unity. This is a key component in the process of differentiation and individuation in infant development. When the self-side of the self-world relationship is emphasized early in life via loving care, it grows into a relatively consistent and reliable way of being. This is what we mean by a self. (Significantly, by this process, the infant and later the child progressively develop the ability to manage impinging events without being traumatized.) When parents protect their infant from threats and encourage him or her to be centered on direct, evolving experience, a crucial opportunity is provided. The infant becomes free to explore with ever-greater awareness; to see the world with increasing openness, intimacy, and clarity; to receive and process whatever the world presents; and to respond with growing authenticity. Herein, the infants self is created from love and open experiencing. One important aspect of this developmental progression is that over time the young child begins to realize that mother and father are individualsdistinct from but like oneselfwith their own feelings, thoughts, needs, and motivations. Such empathic understanding of the real otherness of the other, and the related ability to take the others perspective, is evidence of a decline in primitive narcissism and an increase in healthy self-esteem, autonomy, and agency. This developmental transformation is a necessary precur-

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott

sor to mature mutual love. Thus, love dissolves narcissism: Being loved fosters our ability to love. However, if the nascent self-sense is not supported, the infant remains at the mercy of whatever is imposed by the world and others. Here, the world-side of the self-world unity dominates and impinges traumatically on the infant. In this case, the infants self is created from defensive reactions to perceived dangers. For Winnicott, this is the genesis of the false self. With parental intrusion or neglect, the world-side takes priority and the infant becomes excessively shaped by the world before having the opportunity to become an authentic individual. In Winnicotts (1960b) words, If maternal care is not good enough then the infant does not really come into existence, since there is no continuity of being; instead the personality becomes built on the basis of reactions to environmental impingement (p. 54). Thus, far from spoiling a child with devoted attention, It is only when alone (that is to say, in the presence of someone) that the infant can discover his own personal life. The pathological alternative is a false life built on reactions to external stimuli (Winnicott, 1958, p. 34).

BEING VERSUS ANNIHILATION In contrast to the open awareness facilitated by loving care, when the child is not protected from impingements, he or she is forced to erect protective defenses. Although these reactions may help one survive temporarily, they tend to become consolidated into ongoing ways of being that narrow down both self and world. Sadly, this diminished existence often continues throughout adult life. Winnicott (1960b) puts it powerfully:
The alternative to being is reacting, and reacting interrupts being and annihilates. Being and annihilation are the two alternatives. The holding environment therefore has as its main function the reduction to a minimum of impingements to which the infant must react with resultant annihilation of personal being. (p. 47)

Blake was deeply troubled by the way we lose trust in our spontaneous experience, desires, and creativity (or never develop this trust to begin with) and instead substitute a defensive or compliant false self. Indeed, he considered this one of the great disasters of human existence. Abdicating our real abilities, doubting our

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true powers, bowing to conventional expectations, we subsist in a state of fear, weakness, and deadness. Blake believed this had become the unquestioned norm of his society. Thus, what was normal was not healthy but merely a state of suboptimal functioning. Attacking the oppressive forces of conventional authority, Blake declared, there are probably men shut up as mad in Bedlam, who are not so: that possibly the madmen outside have shut up the sane people (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 369). Long before the field of developmental psychology was created, Blake understood that our early relationships can open us up or close us down, facilitate trust in our spontaneous experience or push us toward a reactive, defended existence. With these concerns, he sounded a vehement warning: He who shall teach the Child to Doubt The rotting Grave shall neer get out . . . If the Sun & Moon should Doubt Theyd immediately Go out. (Blake, 1988a, p. 492) And writing about his own childhood, Blake says, Thank God I never was sent To School To be Flogged into following the Style of a Fool. (Bentley, 2001, p. 16) Blake would surely lament (with Winnicott) the suffering of one of Winnicotts patients, a woman whose childhood environment seemed unable to allow her to be formless but must, as she felt it, pattern her and cut her out into shapes conceived by other people (Winnicott, 1971b, p. 34). Indeed, we suffer terribly when we turn away from our open experience or never find access to it in the first place.

AUTHENTICITY AND CREATIVITY Like parents worried about spoiling their child, some may argue that this emphasis on being open to experience may support narcissistic styles of existence. However, quite the contrary is true, as Blake and Winnicott help us see. Having explored how open awareness fosters authenticity, consider that two of the deepest manifes-

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott

tations of authentic existence are love and creativity, and that both take us beyond our narrow egocentric concerns. Urging us to break free from the mind-forgd manacles of our fears and defenses, Blake (like Winnicott) held that openness was a key to authentic creativity. He believed we each have great creative potential, but most of us never actualize it because we lose touch with our own experience. We let ourselves be oppressed by others, or we oppress ourselves. You have the same faculty as I (the visionary), only you do not trust or cultivate it, Blake would tell his friends (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 364). Calling for trust in our own direct experience (especially when lured by the apparent comforts of convention), Blake (1793) asks, Is he honest who resists his genius or conscience, only for the sake of present ease or gratification? (p. 39). Although his creative experiences were absolutely real to him, Blake certainly did not confuse his visions with physical reality. He would candidly confess they were not literal matters of fact; but phenomena seen by his imagination: realities none the less for that, but transacted within the realm of mind (Gilchrist, 1880/ 1969, p. 363). Talking with people at a party, Blake recounted a recent vision:
The other evening, said Blake, in his usual quiet way, taking a walk, I came to a meadow and, at the farther corner of it, I saw a fold of lambs. Coming nearer, the ground blushed with flowers; and the wattled cote and its wooly tenants were of an exquisite pastoral beauty. But I looked again, and it proved to be no living flock, but beautiful sculpture. (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, pp. 362-363)

A woman overheard Blakes comment and, thinking this would be a wonderful sight for her children, inquired, I beg your pardon, Mr. Blake, but may I ask where you saw this? Here, madam, answered Blake, touching his forehead (Gilchrist, 1880/1969, p. 363). For Blake, the reality of open imaginationthis mental or spiritual reality, as he called itwas more real than the purely material world. Yet he did not devalue the reality of human existence in this life and this world. Quite the contrary, he venerated the spiritual nature of everyday life. Thus, he proclaims, Eternity is in love with the productions of time (Blake, 1793, p. 36) and He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God (1788b, p. 3). In fact, Blake privileges open perception and creative imagination because he cher-

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ishes our ability to be authentic agents in shaping the meaning of our daily lives. Criticized by those with exclusively materialistic views, Blake counters with an experience that might initially seem strange:
What it will be Questioned When the Sun rises do you not see a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea [as the materialists would have it]. O no no I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty. I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight. I look thro it & not with it. (Blake, 1810, pp. 565-566)

Blake is able, according to convention, to see the sun as a disk of fire that looks something like a gold Guinea coin. But, looking through the physiological organ of his eye, he sees more deeply and discovers a multitude of angelsthe heavenly hostcelebrating the holiness of creation. Thus, does Blake revere the creative, life-changing, world-transforming abilities of authentic human consciousness. He knows that what we see is not ready-made unilaterally by the natural world, existing objectively apart from us, but is always co-constructed by our awareness. A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees, says Blake (1793, p. 35). The meaning of our perception, just as the meaning of our life, is discovered/created in the inseparable relationship between our self and the world. Winnicott (1960a) likewise affirms the centrality of such creative experience: Health here is closely bound up with the capacity of the individual to live in the area that is intermediate between the dream and reality (p. 150). This comment is certainly apt for Blakes blending of personal dream and the worlds selfpresentation in his perception of the sun as a heavenly host of angels. While appreciating such artistic genius, Winnicott gives primary value to the ordinary creativity of spontaneous engagement in daily life. This everyday creativity is a mature analogy to the infant being openly aware in the present moment. For the infant, the artist, or the ordinary healthy person (each according their own level of development), authentic existence involves the open intimate communion of ones unique self with the unique manifestation of the world. In Winnicotts (1971c) words,
We experience life in the area of transitional phenomena, in the exciting interweave of subjectivity and objective observation, and in

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott an area that is intermediate between the inner reality of the individual and the shared reality of the world that is external to individuals. (p. 64)

This beautifully describes the optimal authentic (and creative) relationship, wherein self and world participate together in a relatively balanced way, each offering their distinctive contribution to the discovery/creation of experience. Stated differently, authentic existence is truly revelatory, and what is revealed is partly self and partly world: through open awareness a new manifestation of our being emerges in resonant communion with a new manifestation of our world. More precisely, the self-world unity itself is discovered/ created anew. In contrast, suffering arises when this mutual relationship is unbalanced. For example, the world-side of the selfworld relationship dominates when an infant is forced to react to traumatic impingement or when adults anxiously lose themselves in uncritical, compliant conformity. On the other hand, the selfside dominates in psychosis (at the extreme) and narcissism (in its various manifestations). This is why, for Winnicott, creativity (as the mutual interweaving of self and world) is a key expression of ones true self. He states it strongly: It is creative apperception more than anything else that makes the individual feel that life is worth living (Winnicott, 1971a, p. 65). For people to see the world creatively, this is the characteristic that makes them human (Winnicott, 1971a, p. 68). A vignette from Blake supports Winnicotts high praise of the creative life.
The spirit said to him Blake be an artist & nothing else. In this there is felicity. His eye glistened while he spoke of the joy of devoting himself solely to divine art . . . I wish to live for artI want nothing whatever. I am quite happy. (Bentley, 1969, pp. 311-312)

AUTHENTICITY AND LOVE Along with being creative, being loving is one of the supreme manifestations of authentic existence. Indeed, there is a deep affinity between love and authenticity, one that I can only suggest here. Mature love consists of being exquisitely sensitive to the unique being of our partner while simultaneously being true to our authentic self (far beyond our ego) and acting in accordance with this

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sensitivity. In other words, authentic love involves the kind of balanced, resonant, self-world communion we explored above. Such love is a mature version of what is prefigured in the childs growing awareness of the real otherness of the other. The most sublime act is to set another before you (Blake, 1793, p. 36), proclaims the poet-artist. Blake was a profoundly spiritual man whose experience resonates with the great mystics, saints, and sages across the ages. It is all the more significant, therefore, that he presents love as the highest expression of the sublime or spiritual life. Authenticity and love are intertwined in another significant way as well. When (in living authentically) we transcend our egocentric habits, conventions, and defenses and open ourselves to our present experience, two things become clear: immense suffering and immense beauty pervade the world, and both suffering and beauty evoke a loving response. One of lifes most profound challenges is finding a way to honor these two great existential givens of the human condition. Thus, Blake (1988a) attests, It is right it should be so Man was made for Joy & Woe And when this we rightly know Thro the world we safely go Joy & Woe are woven fine A Clothing for the soul divine. (p. 491) Dwelling with open awareness, the world presents itself to us in all its wonder and horror, beauty and suffering. Through our authentic presence, whether joyful or woeful, we are called to offer our very being with love, needing no inducement from external authorities or doctrine. Thus, having cleansed his doors of perception, Blake (1789b) saw life with deep empathy and compassion: Can I see anothers woe, And not be in sorrow too. Can I see anothers grief, And not seek for kind relief . . . Can a mother sit and hear, An infant groan an infant fear No no never can it be. Never never can it be. (p. 17)

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Conversation with Blake and Winnicott

This is a poem of tragic irony because Blake was painfully aware that countless infants are left to groan on and on, unheard by their parents. Yet, nonetheless, Blake still reveres the awe-inspiring beauty of the world: When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius. lift up thy head! (Blake, 1793, p. 37). Readyopenly, gratefullyto embrace life just as it is, and to let go lightly, Blake sings: He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternitys sun rise. (Blake, 1793, p. 470) Ultimately, with great love for our beautiful and terrible world, he celebrates the glory of life, proclaiming, For every thing that lives is Holy (Blake, 1793, p. 45).

LOVE FOSTERS LOVE At the beginning of this study, I acknowledged that love, open awareness, and authenticity are obviously keys to health and wellbeing. Taking the obvious as a point of departure, we engaged in a more in-depth inquiry. Now, from this new point in the hermeneutic spiral, we see more clearly: Love fosters openness; openness fosters authenticity; authenticity is being loving and creative. And the process of their interdependent co-arising evolves on and on. Stated even more concisely: Love fosters love. Is there anything more important than this?

TO SING AS WE DIE William Blake died singing. And as countless wise ones have attested, the culminating manifestation of an authentic life is the ability to embrace our own death with awareness, acceptance, and integrity. The way we live is usually the way we die, and this was definitely the case with Blake. Indeed, Blake lived an extraordinarily authentic life and died an extraordinarily authentic

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death. The intimate interrelationship of love, openness, and authenticityso characteristic of this great mans life and artis evident in his final days and minutes. Approaching death with deep peace, gratitude, and joy, Blake remained centered on art and love, just as he had been throughout his life. Speaking intimately with his beloved wife, he confided, I glory . . . in dying, and have no grief but in leaving you, Katherine; we have lived happy, and we have lived long; we have been ever together, but we shall be divided soon (Cunningham, 1830, pp. 501-502). Just before dying he saw her crying and said, Stay Kate! . . . keep just as you areI will draw your portraitfor you have ever been an angel to me (Cunningham, 1830, p. 502). Upon completing the drawing, he began singing beautiful verses and hymns, ecstatic songs of joy and Triumph as Catherine called them (Tatham, c1832, p. 528). Turning to her, he vowed they would never really be parted, and then he died like the sighing of a gentle breeze (Tatham, c1832, p. 528). Aware that the end of his glorious life was imminent, Blake felt profound gratitude for the grace of his wifes great love, and through open heart and mind, he brought forth one last loving gift to his wife and to the world, a gift we are still sharing today.

References
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Blake, W. (1789a). London. From Songs of innocence and of experience. In D. V. Erdman (Ed.), The complete poetry and prose of William Blake (Newly Rev. Ed.). New York: Anchor Doubleday. Blake, W. (1789b). On anothers sorrow. From Songs of innocence and of experience. In D. V. Erdman (Ed.), The complete poetry and prose of William Blake (Newly Rev. Ed.). New York: Anchor Doubleday. Blake, W. (1789c). The divine image. From Songs of innocence and of experience. In D. V. Erdman (Ed.), The complete poetry and prose of William Blake (Newly Rev. Ed.). New York: Anchor Doubleday. Blake, W. (1793). The marriage of heaven and hell. In D. V. Erdman (Ed.), The complete poetry and prose of William Blake (Newly Rev. Ed.). New York: Anchor Doubleday. Blake, W. (1810). A vision of the last judgement. In D. V. Erdman (Ed.), The complete poetry and prose of William Blake (Newly Rev. Ed.). New York: Anchor Doubleday. Blake, W. (1946). From Crabb Robinsons reminiscences, 1869. In A. Kazin (Ed.), The portable Blake (pp. 675-694). New York: Viking. (Original conversation between Blake and Robinson, 1825) Blake, W. (1988a). Auguries of innocence. In D. V. Erdman (Ed.), The complete poetry and prose of William Blake (Newly Rev. Ed.). New York: Anchor Doubleday. Blake, W. (1988b). How to know love from deceit. In D. V. Erdman (Ed.), The complete poetry and prose of William Blake (Newly Rev. Ed.). New York: Anchor Doubleday. Cunningham, A. (1830). From Lives of the most eminent British painters, sculptors, and architects. In G. E. Bentley (Ed.), Blake records. London: Oxford University Press. Gilchrist, A. (1969). Life of William Blake (Vol. I). New York: Phaeton Press. (Original work published 1880) Rahula, W. (1974). What the Buddha taught . New York: Grove Press. Tatham, F. (c1832). Life of Blake. In G. E. Bentley (Ed.), Blake records. London: Oxford University Press. Winnicott, D. W. (1958). The capacity to be alone. In The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. Madison, CT: International Universities Press. Winnicott, D. W. (1960a). Ego distortion in terms of true and false self. In The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. Madison, CT: International Universities Press. Winnicott, D. W. (1960b). The theory of the parent-infant relationship. In The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. Madison, CT: International Universities Press. Winnicott, D. W. (1962). Ego integration in child development. In The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. Madison, CT: International Universities Press. Winnicott, D. W. (1963). From dependence towards independence in the development of the individual. In The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.

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Winnicott, D. W. (1967). Mirror-role of mother and family in child development. In Playing and reality. New York: Tavistock. Winnicott, D. W. (1971a). Creativity and its origins. In Playing and reality. New York: Tavistock. Winnicott, D. W. (1971b). Dreaming, fantasying, and living: A case-history describing a primary dissociation. In Playing and reality. New York: Tavistock. Winnicott, D. W. (1971c). Playing: Creative activity and the search for the self. In Playing and reality. New York: Tavistock.

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