Many imag­i­na­tive peo­ple, espe­cially those who make a liv­ing in the arts, expe­ri­ence anx­i­ety asso­ci­ated with com­pet­ing in a pro­fes­sion that demands near per­fec­tion. Hor­rific scenes from the recent movie Black Swan serve as a pow­er­ful warn­ing. Though fear of fail­ure is per­haps the most com­mon angst, the artis­tic mind does not always accu­rately define what is wrong when unable to cre­ate on com­mand. This unnamed con­di­tion may sab­o­tage a thriv­ing career, as well as limit the capac­ity of a dri­ven indi­vid­ual who can­not pro­ceed beyond a stag­nat­ing level of achievement.

“For those truly seri­ous about liv­ing up to one’s full poten­tial, plung­ing into the realm of medi­oc­rity is a frus­trat­ing expe­ri­ence to avoid. Mas­ter­ing Cre­ative Anx­i­ety exam­ines every type of psy­cho­log­i­cal bar­rier that could pre­vent a per­son from suc­ceed­ing. Dr. Eric Maisel explores both the deep­est and the most super­fi­cial prob­lems that could make an unwel­come appear­ance at any stage in life, inhibit­ing inno­va­tion and dis­rupt­ing per­for­mance. Blam­ing par­ents, fam­ily, reli­gion, or edu­ca­tion may be the least effec­tive way of deal­ing with pro­fes­sional dif­fi­cul­ties, but even these trite sce­nar­ios are cov­ered in this encom­pass­ing book for those who believe their child­hood really has inca­pac­i­tated them. Tar­get­ing pro­duc­tive artists of all types, Maisel also addresses com­plex issues such as fear of ruin­ing work in devel­op­ment and reluc­tance to com­plete a project, as well as var­i­ous states of pro­cras­ti­na­tion and pro­mo­tion, both of which involve that excru­ci­at­ing act of wait­ing, the for­mer self-induced, the lat­ter often con­trolled by others.

“This valu­able text is divided into twenty-four chap­ters with self-help exer­cises at the end of each. The author includes short teach­ing tales, para­bles with fic­tional char­ac­ters demon­strat­ing a key point in a unique sit­u­a­tion, with titles such as “The Painter with the Painfully Blank Can­vas,” or “The Arrival by Camel of the Best-Selling Author.” Arranged like an instruc­tion man­ual, this work advises read­ers in the impor­tance of not suc­cumb­ing to a vari­ety of men­tal traps when plan­ning to enter high-risk artis­tic occupations.

“A res­i­dent of San Fran­cisco, Maisel is a famil­iar name among inno­va­tors and the author of thirty books, includ­ing the pop­u­lar titles Coach­ing the Artist Within and Fear­less Cre­at­ing. His work involves exis­ten­tial cognitive-behavioral ther­apy, deliv­ered here with a per­cep­tive sense of humor. No reader will fail to appre­ci­ate this orig­i­nal approach toward train­ing and coun­sel­ing.” — Julia Ann Char­p­en­tier, Fore­word Reviews

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