Paul Hood

Article

Our Greatest Fear

In 1975 I graduated cum laude from San Francisco State University with a BA in anthropology, specializing in archaeology with a minor in sociology. I was accepted into graduate school. My first semester I found myself driving to school, maybe going to a class or two, but, more often, sitting in the parking lot drinking and doing crossword puzzles! I wrote a sob story to withdraw from my classes and was put on academic probation. The next semester I continued my irrational behavior, did not bother to withdraw, and was “disqualified from the University,” i.e. kicked out.

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Creativity and Madness

Much has been written and discussed about the relationship between creativity, particularly creative genius, and insanity, mental illness. Shakespeare wrote, in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”: “The lunatic, the love and the poet are of imagination all compact.” Still, there is to this day no consensus on this linkage. In Creativity and Madness: New Findings and Old Stereotypes, Albert Rothenberg, M.D.

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What Is Abundance?

Maybe we need to rethink abundance. I lived my first nine years in England, from 1944 to 1953. In all those years we were under rationing. Food was doled out frugally, to the point that my sister and I suffered from malnutrition. Automobiles were scarce, we never got a television or a refrigerator, yet we had all we needed for life, and it felt just fine. When we came to the United States we entered a world of an abundance of goods, services, infinite landscapes, a seeming inexhaustible supply of wonderful things.

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Children of Insanity

I have been looking at a book by Claudia Black, “My Dad Loves Me, My Dad Has A Disease” (A Child’s View: Living With Addiction, full of pictures and writing by children), and remembering the children of addiction, and the mentally ill. I have seen five-year-olds acting like little adults, some even saving their parents from death by overdose and other calamities. I have seen children acting out to be the cry for help for the family. I have worked with children who have learned to dissociate, check out of their bodies and minds to escape the pain.

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Rethinking Abundance

What is Abundance? Maybe we need to rethink abundance. I lived my first nine years in England, from 1944 to 1953. In all those years we were under rationing. Food was doled out frugally, to the point that my sister and I suffered from malnutrition. Automobiles were scarce, we never got a television or a refrigerator, yet we had all we needed for life, and it felt just fine. When we came to the United States we entered a world of an abundance of goods, services, infinite landscapes, a seeming inexhaustible supply of wonderful things.

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Declare Peace on Drugs

I have been reading a lot of things about the drug gang violence in Mexico and along our border. I am also seeing the most unlikely people coming out against the “war on drugs,” such as police chiefs and, most recently, Tom Tancredo. I have been counseling people with addictions for over 26 ...

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Creativity and Madness, Redux, 2012

In May, 2008 I wrote an article focusing on the down side of creativity tied to mental illness. Since then I have worked with many more creative people both as a therapist/counselor and in my volunteer involvement with the Cultural Council of Park County, CO and (helping start) the River Canyon Gallery in Bailey, CO. Also, I have discovered newer writers who take a very different view of what we call “mental disorders,” a view I have been sharing more and more as I continually gain knowledge and experience.r

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The Gift of Giving

I have been reading The Healer’s Way, by Earnie Larsen. Larsen has the gift of story, as do I. I did not know I had this gift until I was given the greatest gift of my life other than life itself, sobriety, freedom from addiction through a spiritual path. The best stories come from my recovery journey anyway. We are coming up on the Christmas season, which has traditionally been a time of giving. Somehow it seems to have become more about getting, or at least giving with an expectation of return.

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Peace, Love and Transformation, two bucks!

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