Using the PD for Creativity

A creative block.The creative process can get blocked, for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes it's a function of difficulty breaking out of habitual patterns of perception – we get too used to thinking of things in certain ways, and can't easily move to an alternate perspective.

Habitual ways of seeing things

 

 

Or it may be that the logical, analyzing left-brain processes take over and begin pronouncing judgments on our ideas as they arise, finding ways to discredit them before they've been fully explored.

The Projective Differential (PD) can help break through habitual thought patterns. It can also provide a way to engage the right-brain processing without the disruptive influence of the left-brain before its analysis and judgment are needed.

 

The use of abstract images in a forced-choice situation where there's no time for the left-brain to do any analysis before responding requires the right-brain processes to get involved directly in the PD image decisions. The intuitive response to the images provides fertile ground for exploring the associations between the working topics and the images, priming the creative pump to help you see things in new ways. Engaging the issues at a level involving symbolic perception, deep feeling, and associations with the abstract is a powerful way to break out of normal patterns of thinking about the issues.

New ideasMuch of how we perceive and know, and process information happens below the surface of awareness, and without tools to tap into those levels, we must wait until that information somehow gets triggered and brought into awareness on its own. The PD is just such a tool, providing a way into those levels, acting as a trigger to surface those unconscious perceptions and understanding that might otherwise remain hidden.

Under the PD Applications section of the site, you'll find specific ways in which the PD can be used as a part of the creative process.