Aaron Kramer

Poetry as a Means of Group Facilitation

in part-time private practice. Both his research and teaching have been directed toward the renovation of education in more humanistic directions. One of the results of his reassessment of education is the development ot an interdisciplinary course entitled &dquo;Poetry and Interpersonal Communication&dquo; which is oriented toward the facilitation of interpersonal relationships by means of poetry Other publications by Buck have dealt with the mtegration of psychoanalystic and humanistic conceptions for the understanding of the deaf and the sturdy of altered states of consciousness. He is now completing a volume dealing with states ot consciousness from a cognitive perspective

Creative Potential in Schizophrenia

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the presence of creative potential in a group of hospitalized persons who have been categorized as schizophrenic. Previous work (Buck and Kramer, 1973, 1974) has made it obvious that considerable poetic skill exists in this group of people. While creative potential was apparent in large numbers of those we have worked with, it is unnecessary to claim that our present data represent all (or even a majority) of the hospital population. However, we are concerned with providing a more balanced perspective on the ego strength and creativity which are retained in people who are labeled schizophrenic-even those considered to be regressed. In the following selections, we will attempt to demonstrate, first, an openness to fantasy and an access to primary-process thought which is molded by sufficient technical skill to warrant being labeled poetry, and second, an active, reconstructive capacity which includes a clear intention of communicating with an audience. The technical skill and the reconstructive capacity are critical in substantiating the retention of ego strength necessary for the mobilization of secondary-process cognition. We are interested, therefore, in exploring poetry written with clarity, intelligibility, and cohesiveness, where the visual can be translated into the verbal, where the effort is directed toward communication rather than sorcery, and where sponteneity replacesstereotypy. In the case of originality of style-that is, artistic license-these distinctions may not always be clear; but where questions arise, the artists ability to justify his own intentions becomes critical.

Poetry as a Key to the Unlocking of the Self.

In a series of brief narratives, the author demonstrates poetry’s self-explanatory and self-expressive powers. He includes experiences with emotionally disturbed preschoolers, hospitalized schizophrenic children, brain-injured and autistic preadolescents, adolescent victims of advanced cerebral palsy and dystonia muscularum deformans, adult schizophrenics both hospitalized and in halfway houses, withdrawn elderly, and a woman terminally ill. Examples of their creative work underscore the dramatic process of self-liberation that occurred in each instance.

Poetry and the Dying.

This essay demonstrates some of the roles poetry can play as people confront the death of loved ones and their own dying. The first half deals mainly with a creative outpouring sustained for eight years, by means of which the great German poet Heine transformed his agony into triumphant art. The second half chronicles a moment in the lives of college students completing a thanatology course. The poetry of two participants, both in advanced stages of neurological disease and totally speech-impaired, was read aloud by others. Whatever impulse to patronize and pity might have existed at the outset, it soon became clear that through poetry—the courageous instrument of their terrors and wishes and questionings—these young people spoke for us all, taught us all how to approach our mortality.

Learning to See

This essay chronicles a series of profound learning experiences. Thanks to the dynamism and confidence of the director of a prominent center for the blind, Kramer had the opportunity first to conduct weekly poetry sessions with a small group, then to present a full evening of Shakespeare before hundreds of unsighted people with virtually no literary background, and finally to direct blind actors in complete staged productions of Our Town and The Time of Your Life. Although he abhorred societys tendency to categorize and isolate blind people, Kramer discovered he had some preconceptions of his own about the blind that were proved wrong. Their zest for learning and doing was as limitless as was their capacity to achieve; all they required was to be seen and challenged as dimensional individuals rather than as disabled stereotypes. Despite personality clashes and formidable setbacks, their flowering was swift and beautiful, more surprising to their sighted family members, the centers staff, and Kramer than to themselves.

Poetry and Group Process: Restoring Heart and Mind.

The author provides a chronicle of a poetry session that he conducted as a poet in a state mental hospital.