Temperament
This ladder climbing and getting what I want requires some thought. I have many needs now. I want a fancy car, but I need to pay the rent. Some day, I want to buy a house. I think I want to be the boss, but that means I need to spend more time in school or at work. It means I have to perform at a higher and higher level. My own children have needs, and sometimes they need things at a time when I have other commitments, and I have to choose what to do. Some of the tasks I am given, or some of the paths I have taken have been less successful than others. My time is valuable. I have to choose carefully what I pursue and what I don’t and when to let something go and when to stick with it. Gosh, there are times I want to just throw my hands up, but I have control myself.
Social context
Society has needs and wants just like I do. I want society to like me, to support me, to reward me. If I make society happy, I will be rewarded. If I make society angry, I may get punished. If I bore society, or if society does not notice me, I will simply tread along my way but not advance very far. What does society want? Society is made up of people like me. In groups, there is a new identity that emerges. Some people are Christians, some are Muslims; some are Knicks fans, some are Lakers fans; some are Republicans, some Democrats; and some are foreigners from places like Mexico, Germany, Italy, Haiti, and China. Foreigners are different from Americans, and even from one another, depending on where they are from. It seems the groups define the identity of its members, at least to a degree. But they all have one thing in common. They all share that love-hate paradox of wanting to belong to the group while hating individuals within the group, competing with them, even sometimes killing them.
So what can I bring to the group? Something that soothes that inner love-hate conflict.
I hope you have enjoyed exploring creativity with me as much as I have enjoyed exploring it with you. Thanks for all the well wishes I have received for this column, they have meant a great deal to me. And thanks to Jeff Evans, the managing editor who indulged me this opportunity, and to IMNG Medical Media for publishing this work. And now ... back to my real job as a neurologist. See you all at the meetings!
Dr. Caselli is medical editor of Clinical Neurology News and a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz