Letter to Sister -- 1992

Dear Stell,

I may be wrong, but I vaguely recall that Dr. Brenman-Gibson mentioned in her biography of Clifford Odets that creative individuals have a special need for mentoring.  I have two questions about that:

1.  Is the special need for mentoring among the creative related to the healer's "peculiar sense of having been 'chosen' for a special relationship with the sacred, as if his being-in-the-world were for the sole purpose of establishing a 'cosmic emotional relationship' with an omnipotent protector."  And how is this personality characteristic related to the creative person/healer's relationship with the "audience?"

2.  How would a psychiatrist distinguish between a creative person's need for mentoring and a weak person's need to have someone "hold his hand?"

GF

6/16/92