ABSTRACT
II The word exceptional implies deviations from the average or the normal, and these can take place in two directions: either above the normal or below it. Hence the difference between the super-normal and the abnormal, although in both processes a man’s unconscious self plays a highly important part. The stronger this self, the more likely will it periodically irrupt into the waking consciousness, at the risk of unsettling the balance of personality. We know that many of our ‘primitive’ tendencies, impulses and caprices must be suppressed if we desire to maintain a civilized pattern of existence, not to mention all sorts of inevitable frustrations relegated to the unconscious where they may exercise such pressure upon the conscious personality as to cause a break-out of ‘nerves’, of hysteria, and-in extreme cases-of insanity. But energy flowing from the unconscious to the conscious self can be canalized into creative channels as well. It all depends on the quality of those currents, and also on the character-texture of the individual. A highly sensitive organism may experience creative ecstasy where coarser natures would be subject to nervous fits, epilepsy and perhaps madness.
