Power of the Creative Self

A Salesian sister in her 'Hello Again Today' column of the Catholic Peace Weekly reflects on the creative self-reward of addiction and finding oneself. We all have the power of a creative self. Parents, in particular, should help their children develop their inherent creative control over their immediate needs. 

The child approaches the mother with a big lollipop, smiling. The mother, however, said, "I don't want you to eat now." The child's face changes quickly; the way she looks at the candy seems to contain the worries of the whole universe. The child places the candy in the mother's hand. The mother hugs the child and says, "Thank you! You're the best!" The child's face is filled with joy as if he has won the entire world.

In place of giving up immediate external physical pleasure, the child recovered his self-esteem by earning a positive reward from his mother's recognition. This is the power of the creative self.

Psychiatrist Alfred Adler said, "With the creative power of the self, we can also solve the need for compensation." Humans are not just passive beings, but active beings who create meaning on their own. However, modern society subordinates us to a quick reward system, forcing us to pack up and flee even before we can exert creative power. The addictive reward you seek while trying to overcome your inferiority complex is, in the end, a dangerous temptation to cover it up. As I am driven by temporary compensation, I am gradually moving away from my true self.

We are now living in an era of reward addiction. From the moment I wake up to my smartphone alarm in the morning to a cup of coffee, music, YouTube, and online shopping, I respond to the constant 'external reward'. But I don't even realize whether it's my choice or being dragged by the reward system.

Not long ago, when I asked young people, "What is the biggest temptation that hinders my growth?" no one picked up a smartphone. For them, smartphones are not a temptation but an indispensable tool. We know how to use tools, but are we actually being used by them? The means to an end have become the end itself, and hours are wasted without knowing it.

There is nothing more dangerous than not being aware of a need. The automated reward moves us without the awareness of 'reward'. The more you do, the more life becomes subordinate to the design of others, and the power of self-interpretation and meaning becomes paralyzed. 

Rewards are always aimed at our deficiencies. He needs the external compensation to soothe his inferiority complex, but the reward leaves only a fake feeling of satiety instead of real satisfaction. Inferiority in the unconscious stimulates the desire for compensation, and we are drawn to that need and live a life consumed by a reward system rather than creating a life for ourselves.

As Adler said, do we humans inherently have the creative power within ourselves? If so, does it clearly have the ability not to be subordinated to immediate compensation, swayed by the external environment?

The child gave up the immediate and sensuous reward of candy, but chose the more profound and lasting satisfaction of the mother's love, recognition, and belonging. It did not suppress the desire, but changed its direction. This is a reward for self-growth, and it is an active choice, not passive suppression. Through that choice, the child sublimates his needs to a higher value. It is a fantastic moment to experience one's inherent creative power.

It's like the experience that a more meaningful path opens only when you give up a comfortable path, and a journey back to the essence of existence, like a salmon going back against a strong current.

We all have the power of a creative self. The question is the will to use it. Every moment, the key is whether you can make a choice that sees the whole instead of a part. In an age of reward, "living life as a struggler" may be an uncomfortable choice. But it's a choice that makes me who I am. 

Being the subject who actively chooses instead of recklessly jumping into a quick reward system. This would be the way to build the muscles of the creative self.

How can we build the power of our creative selves? The first step is to recognize the 'reward system'. Before going to sleep, when casually picking up a smartphone, I quietly ask myself, "Why am I doing this now?" This question awakens my inner spirit.

Change direction toward positive rewards through small choices such as reading a page of a book, contemplating, and praying. It is the way for salmon to move toward the essence of existence, going against a strong current. There, the breath of creation and the gaze of God who created me await.

Without wrapping ourselves up or fleeing with external rewards, we accept the preciousness and love we have already received. In that love, the inferiority complex heals, and the ego breathes. You don't push the real me away with fake rewards, but you accept the true me with positive rewards.

He asks whenever the unconscious inferiority complex brings the temptation of external rewards. "Where are you?" (Genesis 3, 9) The creative self wakes up in the step toward Eden.

Anonymous childbirth

 

An article in the Catholic Peace Weekly reports on the number of children abandoned in South Korea and the implementation of the anonymous childbirth program for pregnant women in crisis.

The number of abandoned children exceeded 1,000 per year until 2000,  and then fell below 100 in 2022, to 88 in 2023, and then to 30 the following year.

This sharp decline in the number of abandoned children last year, which fell to one-third of the previous year's level, is believed to be influenced by the implementation of the Protected Childbirth System, which guarantees anonymous childbirth for women in crisis pregnancies. 

The Crisis Pregnancy Protected Childbirth System is a system that supports women facing difficulties in childbirth and childcare for various reasons to give birth anonymously. The system was established to prevent a series of tragic situations, such as births outside of hospitals, child abandonment, and abortions.

On May 30 last year, just before the system was implemented, a woman in her 20s was arrested for abandoning a newborn baby in a toilet in an apartment building, causing the baby's death. On June 7 of the same year, a woman in her 30s was arrested and sent to the prosecutor's office on suspicion of abandoning her baby in a garbage sorting facility after giving birth.  Both women reportedly stated during police investigations that they were “worried about raising the baby alone” and “worried that others would find out about the birth.”

It has been one year since the Protective Childbirth System was implemented to protect the lives of women and babies in crisis. Although the system was launched with the noble intention of preventing child abandonment and ensuring safe childbirth with the support of the state, there are concerns that babies born through anonymous childbirth may have their right to know their parents violated if the parents refuse to acknowledge them, leaving the children unable to learn about their parents for life.

Above all, the reflection period for choosing the Protected Childbirth System, a critical decision for both the woman and the baby, is only seven days after childbirth, leading to on-site voices stating, “It is extremely difficult to persuade crisis pregnant women to raise their babies.” From the baby’s perspective, the time they can hold their mother’s hand is limited to just ‘seven nights.’

Professor Seong Jung-hyun of the Department of Social Welfare at Hyeonseong University emphasized, “Compared to the necessity of implementing the system, the discussion and preparation period was too short, and it is true that the measures taken after deciding on protective childbirth are insufficient. However, since we have already started with the attitude of ‘implement first, prepare later,’ it is necessary to revisit the areas of concern.”

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 299 children were safely born during the first year of the protective childbirth system, which was implemented on July 19 last year. As of June this year, 160 mothers have received counseling from relevant agencies and decided to raise their children themselves. Of these, 107 chose protected childbirth (anonymous childbirth), while 32 opted to register the birth to allow the child to find their parents in the future, even if they did not raise the child themselves, and subsequently placed the child for adoption. Among the mothers who decided to raise their children themselves, 19 initially applied for protected childbirth but later changed their minds. The fact that pregnant women in crisis chose to raise their children themselves more often despite the option of anonymous birth available under the Protected Birth System is significant in itself.

This process is supported by 16 regional counseling centers for pregnant women in crisis nationwide, which help them choose life and find ways to live with their children. Half of these regional counseling centers are operated by the Catholic Church as unmarried parent support institutions.

The Protected Childbirth System is a “last resort”. Voices are saying that helping mothers and children live happily “together” is the true meaning of ‘protection’ and a “national duty.” As the Protected Childbirth System marks its first anniversary, we explored ways to achieve this. It is a “miracle of seven nights” that can hold onto mothers. 

The Earth Is Sick!

The Catholic Peace Weekly's Science and Faith column gives us another look at the serious problem with the climate crisis that is experienced in the world.

South Korea and other countries are experiencing difficult times due to extreme heat and heavy rainfall. In July, South Korea had 22 tropical nights, surpassing the previous record of 21 set in 1994. Additionally, from the night of July 30 to the early morning of July 31, the lowest temperature in Seoul was 29.3 degrees Celsius, marking the hottest night temperature in 117 years since weather observations began.

In Europe, deaths from heatstroke have been on the rise since late June, and Greece, which recorded a high temperature of 42 degrees Celsius, has banned tourism to the Acropolis. In France, excessive heat caused abnormalities in underground power lines, leading to power outages and wildfires. The heat dome phenomenon that formed over the eastern United States caused a deadly heatwave, raising the perceived temperature in Washington, D.C., to 49 degrees Celsius—the highest in 150 years—while heavy rains in Texas resulted in over 100 deaths.

What on earth is happening to our planet Earth? In 2024, average global temperatures exceeded the 1.5°C limit agreed upon in the 2015 Paris Agreement, rising 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels. As global warming accelerates, the number of days with average temperatures exceeding 32°C is increasing, and more than half of the year is now considered summer worldwide. Glaciers are melting faster, sea levels are rising, and seawater is becoming warmer.

In 1979, James Lovelock of the United Kingdom presented a new theory on the Earth's environment in his book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. With a background in chemistry, biophysics, and medicine, and having participated in the Mars life exploration project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he argued that the planet Earth, where we live, has the ability to self-regulate, much like a living organism. In other words, Earth is akin to a living organism that maintains an appropriate environmental state. 

His theory, named Gaia after the goddess of the earth in Greek mythology, presented a new paradigm for global environmental issues. He argued that humanity's reckless destruction of nature and excessive use of fossil fuels act like cancer cells on the living Earth, causing it to lose its self-regulating ability.

In 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that if global warming continues, natural disasters such as heat waves, wildfires, floods, and droughts will become more frequent, and 14% of land-dwelling animals and plants could become extinct. 

Efforts to raise awareness and address the Earth's environmental and climate crises to prevent such a tragic outcome are not the sole responsibility of ecological activists. It is the responsibility of everyone involved in politics, economics, science, and technology, as well as all members of society. Because for humanity, the climate crisis is now a matter of survival.

If we view the Earth as a living organism, as in the Gaia theory, the Earth is now a seriously ill patient. The situation is so dire that immediate major surgery is necessary. The Earth is sick.

Life Is More than Work

What modern society, exhausted by workaholism, needs is more attention towards the self.

 

The Philosophical Counseling priest columnist of the Catholic Peace Weekly explains this in his column.

The Old Testament describes labor as follows: "From the dust you were taken, and to the dust you return; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread" (Genesis 3:19). In the context of the biblical passage, labor is described as the result of sin resulting from humans breaking God's prohibition, but here lies a more fundamental insight that humans are by nature 'laboring beings'. Humans must constantly labor to survive, but labor has a meaning beyond mere survival for humans.

In “The Human Condition,” philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) presents an insightful perspective on labor. She argues that through the ancient slave system, humans were liberated from labor in the natural environment and were able to devote themselves to work in a producing environment. 

Suppose labor is an activity corresponding to the biological process by which the human body adapts to its natural environment. In that case, work refers to a unique human activity that relates to objects in the external world through an environment that is producing, rather than only relating to the natural environment. In other words, labor can be an activity in the realm of production that creates products. In this sense, humans in modern society are no longer “laboring humans” (homo labor), but are more deeply related to “humans who make” (homo faber).

However, this separation of labor and 'humans who make' becomes the impetus for the creation of the capital-intensive social structure of modern times. As humans mass-produce goods through work and enjoy the surplus value derived through exchange, modern labor has become unthinkable without the ‘surplus value’ and ‘surplus enjoyment’ that are the results of work. 

In relation to this, Zizek criticizes modern capitalist society for blindly pursuing surplus value and thus encouraging the desire for ‘surplus enjoyment.’ The problem is that this desire causes humans to exhaust themselves. The phenomenon of ‘burnout’ in modern society is not unrelated to this endless human desire.

Today’s working people live ‘performance-centered’ lives, seeking to maximize performance through excessive work and excessive activity. Their lives are full of ‘impatience’ and no ‘leisure’. As seen in the vocabulary of ancient Greek and Latin, ‘work’ (ἀσχολία/negotium) and ‘leisure’ (σχολή/otium) correspond to each other, and fatigue refers to a state of physical and mental exhaustion resulting from not having enough leisure time due to excessive work.

Therefore, to be healthy and happy, it is necessary to change labor from ‘performance-centered’ to ‘fruit-centered’. Fruit-centered labor seeks meaning from labor itself rather than pursuing performance, and also aims for the fruits that are naturally obtained through labor. This is not a ‘performance subject’ who has no leisure at all and pursues excessive self-affirmation and performance, but a ‘fruit subject’ that matches one’s talents and abilities.

German philosopher Plasfoller warns of the ‘depressing labor’ of modern people, arguing that modern people are addicted to work, and that this is due to an obsessive love for recognition from others. Rather than realizing themselves through work, workaholics willingly sacrifice themselves to their work. I think what modern people who are too busy with work to even take care of themselves really need is self-care.

Seeing Shame Positively—

In the Philosophic Chat column of the Catholic Peace Weekly, the Jesuit professor gives us a meditation on shame.

Shame is an essential “self-conscious emotion” that humans possess. Like what  Mencius said many centuries before (孟子, c. 372–289 BCE), it can serve as a healthy and constructive force for self-reflection and self-cultivation, reminding us of our inadequacies. When the “fear of others' negative judgments” becomes excessive, it can lead to severe pathological symptoms, such as extreme social anxiety or depression, thereby harming mental health.

Regarding the origin of shame, Plato (c. 428/7–348/7 BCE) describes it in 'The Symposium' through Aristophanes as “a painful emotion arising from imperfection.” The original emotion felt by humans, who were once complete and spherical beings but were forcibly divided into two by the omnipotent god, is shame. Humans have an innate desire to be complete, and whenever they recognize their own inadequacies, they reveal this fundamental shame.

The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis associates shame with sexuality. Adam and Eve, who were naked in the Garden of Eden but felt no shame, felt shame after they were tempted by the serpent and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

However, this shame goes beyond the simple feeling of embarrassment caused by the exposure of private parts. It fundamentally implies the recognition of the boundaries between oneself and the world, and above all, it is the beginning of the awareness of the gaze of God, or others, on our actions. It is a relationship to a prohibition, an initial emotion that emerges from it.

The gaze of the other is the direct and concrete presence of the other toward me, and it acts as a powerful force that objectifies everything that comes into view, so we have no choice but to live constantly conscious of the gaze of the other. In this regard, Jean-Paul Sartre ( 1905-1980) views shame as a fundamental emotion that arises when I, as a self-conscious “being-for-itself,” am perceived as a fixed and dependent “being” that is, when I am not a free subject but am defined and objectified by others through their gaze.

In contrast, Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) speaks of “existential shame” in a more profound sense with positive connotations. Existential shame is fundamentally different from “psychological shame,” which is a negative emotion that consumes the self. Psychological shame is an emotion we feel when we fail to meet social norms or expectations. Existential shame is a primal emotion felt when we recognize the limitations or imperfections of our own existence. This can be described as a kind of “absolute consciousness” that arises from the attitude of protecting one's authentic self, out of concern for falsehood and misunderstanding in the presence of others. Such shame arises when we recognize our limitations and seek to become our true selves.

Controlling Emotions

 

A philosophy professor in the Catholic Times gives us the thoughts of St. Thomas Aquinas on the Way of Happiness. If you really want to be happy, you need to control your emotions.

An essential role in the realization of happiness is our powers of reason.

Enlightenment thinker Rousseau once argued that human emotions are sacred and outperform everything else in terms of power and value. Modern psychology often defines happiness as 'subjective well-being', a positive emotional state one feels. According to this, most of the problems experienced by individuals or society are due to the suppression of emotions. In contrast, the Stoics treat passion or emotion as an intense sensory impulse that must be fought against and abandoned in order not to violate reason and law. Then, should we follow or abandon our emotions in order to be happy? A theory that can shed new light on this question is found in St. Thomas Aquinas.

Exploring the inner principles of human behavior necessary for happiness, Thomas is the first to deal with the thesis on 'spirit' and dedicates considerable effort in its explanation. (I-II, qq.22-48). However, Thomas rarely uses the word 'emotion'.  He sometimes uses the word (Affectus) to express feelings, but he mainly uses the word 'passio'. 

In the broadest sense, the word passio means receiving something, receiving an action, or being subordinated to it. Thomas defines this word, which is commonly translated as passion, as "in relation to sensory needs, the internal change that occurs when the soul is moved by an external object" (I-II,22,1). Like all sensory activities, passion involves physical change. 

A person's face turns red when he is angry, pale when he is afraid, and his heart beats faster when he has a craving. However, the subject that directly causes the physical change related to passion is not the ability to recognize, but the ability to desire. Furthermore, since passion is a phenomenon that follows sensory perception, not intellectual perception, it belongs to the ability to desire sensibly, not the will. (I-II,22,3), that is, passion, occurs when something perceived sensibly is evaluated as beneficial (good) or harmful (bad) (I,78,4)

Based on this explanation, Thomas does not unconditionally view passion negatively. "The passion itself is neither morally good nor evil. However, when it is guided according to reason, it becomes good, and when it is against reason, it becomes evil." (I-II,24,1)

Thomas believes that it is not an ethical fault for humans to feel passionate in itself, but that responsibility comes when they act under the influence of passion. In other words, it is natural to feel anger, but if you act aggressively in response, you must take moral responsibility for the absence of rational judgment. In this way, Thomas does not ask to abandon emotions, but sees them as the driving force of human behavior. Rather, being well-trained and using reason is essential to creating moral virtue. 

For example, even if you feel a craving or pleasure in sweet food, if you can control it, you will maintain your health. In this way, human ethical legitimacy can be increased by a passion that "comes out" following the judgment of reason. (I-II,24,3,ad1)

Thomas thus criticizes the Stoic view of 'spirit', pointing out that suffering can only be called confusion or disease if it is not under the control of reason. (I-II,24,2) 

The distinction between 'greedy passion' and 'angry passion'

Thomas further divides passion into two main categories according to Aristotle's tradition. First, 'Concupiscibilis passion' is itself attracted to an object recognized as good, and is an inner movement of 'wanting or longing for something'. (I-II, 22, 2) For example, the desire that arises toward clear water when thirsty, good grades, and expectations for friendship with friends. These include love, longing, joy, and sadness, which are reactions to sensory evil contrary to them. 

Second, 'irascibilis passion' is a movement of the mind to resist and overcome any painful difficulties, injustice, or interference for good or evil that is difficult to reach. This includes hope and boldness, which are attitudes toward good that are difficult to pursue; despair and fear, which are reactions to evil that are difficult to overcome; and anger that arises from evil that has already been experienced. (I-II, 23,4) Thomas summarizes passion into 11 categories, each of which has a structure that is paired with its opposite, such as 'love-hate', 'joy-sadness', and 'hope-desperation'.

Proper control of passion is a strong foundation for happiness. Thomas was concerned that excessive passion overwhelms reason, hinders moral decisions, and leads to inappropriate behavioral choices. It can even be crazy because of anger or love. (I-II,77,1) Even if passion does not determine happiness alone, it plays an essential role in realizing happiness when it is well tamed by reason and combined with moral virtue (I-II,59,5). For example, there is a passion for 'anger', but if you judge it rationally and channel it into the practice and realization of justice to help the weak, it can be sublimated into a virtue of 'courage'. In this way, happiness is linked to 'true and complete joy' resulting from the positive embodiment and control of passion.

Wisdom Vs Knowledge

In her Catholic Peace Weekly column 'Did You Have a Good Morning?', a religious sister wants the readers to reflect on the difference between wisdom and knowledge.

It has been two years since GPT appeared. We are amazed by the incredible capabilities of artificial intelligence, yet we feel uneasy about its endless evolution. “Will AI take our jobs?” “Can it really replace humans?” These questions brought to mind a scene from a camp long ago.

It was a summer camp in the United States. Teenagers from South Korea entered the swimming pool. Since most of them were skilled swimmers, the instructor guided them to the deepest part of the pool. However, as soon as they jumped in, they began to struggle. “My feet can’t touch the bottom.” They had learned swimming techniques, but they had no experience in deep water. The instructor called over the 6-7-year-old American children who had been playing in the shallow end. He placed a pole in the water and had each child jump in one by one. The children hesitated for a moment, but all jumped in, grabbed the pole, and emerged safely. The Korean children watching this seemed shocked.

This was not simply a matter of swimming technique. Even with sufficient knowledge and skill, one can struggle in an unfamiliar environment, and this scene resembles our current situation in the AI era.

Knowledge is the acquisition of information, and skill is the ability to perform something using that knowledge. Artificial intelligence has already demonstrated remarkable performance capabilities that surpass those of humans. However, wisdom is different. Wisdom is a living mental ability to act wisely from direct experience and internalization. Knowledge and skill are useful in similar situations, but they reach their limits in unfamiliar environments. On the other hand, wisdom shines in precisely those unfamiliar environments. It is the power to respond wisely to danger based on experience and reflection.

Psychologist Robert Sternberg defines wisdom not as simple intelligence but as “the ability to discern what the real problem is.” Therefore, he says that a lack of wisdom leads to frequent errors in judgment and ethical failures. Philosopher Valery Tiberius describes wisdom as “the judgment necessary for a good life.” Wisdom is the power to understand and embrace deep ethical insights, the unpredictable flow of life, wounds, and silence.

Ironically, as technology advances, the relative importance of human knowledge decreases, while the value of wisdom increases. The ability to ask questions rather than seek answers, to seek meaning rather than efficiency, and to seek direction rather than speed is a unique human domain that artificial intelligence cannot imitate.

Can artificial intelligence replace us? Jobs may change, but it will be difficult to completely replace humans. No matter how advanced AI becomes in mimicking emotions and empathy through knowledge and statistical predictions, it remains merely an imitation. The strength to endure ambiguity through real experience, the intuition to read context, the empathy to understand emotions, the imagination to create new meaning, and above all, the wisdom that comes from ethical reflection and spiritual insight are mental powers that only humans can cultivate and practice.

Of course, AI and humans can create greater value when they collaborate rather than oppose each other. While AI processes vast amounts of information and performs complex calculations, humans can interpret the results, make ethical judgments, and creatively utilize them. The key is not to become dependent on AI as a tool.