Creativity is connected to our experiences. But how are these represented in language? The concept of paradoxical representation is introduced here as a 'solution' to this problem. Two other solutions are focusing on the non-representational and creating a 'private' language. Psychoanalysis and children's literature use these solutions in order to deal with representation of the 'inner world'. However, when using paradoxical representation, the way in which this world is represented is unique. This is so because the relationship between language and experience is truly paradoxical in nature. It presents two different and contradictory manners of representationone in which the word symbolizesand does not symbolizethe experience; one that is separateand not separatefrom it; and one that serves as subjective expression and public communication. This representation is one in which successful representation, which symbolizes the thing, is a representation that fails, and therefore does not symbolize it. Although creativity can also stem from non-verbal realms or from 'private' languages, using words as paradoxical representationswhich in Winnicottian terms means using words as transitional objectsmaximizes the creative process and is thus the 'royal road' to creativity.Creativity stems from our inner world, from our experiences and feelings, which are the nursery of our psychological self. For us, experiences and feelings symbolize who we are, our status in the world, and the attitude of the world to us. For others, our experiences and feelings signal our mental state, and thus how we want others to relate to us. Feelings and experiences therefore have a unique and confusing 'Paradoxical representation: The royal road to creativity' was Commended in the 2018 Rozsika Parker Prize (Post-Qualification Path).
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