Creating Sanctuary Quotes

“Creative expression of the artistically elite is grossly overvalued and creative expression of the general population is grossly undervalued. This is dangerous. The part of our beings that has no voice, perhaps or other hemisphere, needs a vehicle for expression. Without such a vehicle, expression is likely to come through action that is often violent and destructive instead of creative.
Over the years, many questions have arisen about the connection between creativity and madness, the artist and the madman. Both the artist and the madman speak a tongue that has become foreign to the rest of us. The mad person is to his or her family what the artist is to the culture, containing what is hidden, secret, denied, and disassociated and trying with more or less desperation to reveal vital secrets to us all. The mad person—the person we would now call a victim of trauma—has always symbolically pointed out the discrepancies, inconsistencies, and lies in the family.”
― Sandra L. Bloom, Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies

“Our addiction to violence is perhaps, even more problematic than our other addictions. The place to start is recognizing it for what it is—an infectious disease. Violence begets violence and we minimize how important a contributor the all-pervasive social exposure to violence is in determining what kind of society we have. Our social norm, our tolerance for violence has become far too unbalanced and that change in norm does give permission to use violence as a way of solving problems, thus discouraging conflict resolution, impulse control, and tolerance. If we except violence at our sporting events and the encouragement of violence on talk radio, then we should not be surprised that children turn to violence to resolve their problems.”
― Sandra L. Bloom, Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies