ABSTRACT
Although it is recognized that creative imagination can be nourished in a supportive, relatively conflict-free family environment, the focus in this chapter is the child’s experience as the family endures the stress caused by the death of an important family member. The anxiety and conflict experienced by the child in this stressful life event, in combination with an enduring lack of conscious resolution, results in chronic preoccupations and affective states. In these situations the event has immediate effects but can also have an enduring influence on the individual’s cognitive organization and future personal relationships. These psychological conditions may motivate the individual’s persistent creative attempts to reconstruct and understand the original trauma. This model may be useful in understanding the development of creativity in other modalities such as the visual arts or science, but is used here to examine literature. The life and fiction of the late author Jack Kerouac are examined in the context of his reaction, as a child, to the death of an idealized older brother.
