Are You Creative When In The Loo?

Creative In The Toilet? An Indication Of Improper Personality Formation — Baguma
By Denis Ocwich and Ayeta Wangusa
WHEN I was little, around P4, my classroom teacher forbade anyone to go to the toilet with a pencil in hand. The crime was, a number of us were guilty of dirtying walls with vulgar drawings. And imagine this was not the boy's room, for boys were known then to be made of all the bad things in the world. Snakes and snails — yak! It was the girl's room. The chocolate and ice-cream-made girls!
I remember how small the seats were to accommodate our young bums, but too filthy to keep anyone there longer than five minutes. The floor was spattered with urine and excreta.
Therefore, the kids who wrote on the walls just went there to do just that. We went in and out of the loo trying to keep our eyes off the walls, because we knew if the class teacher looked into our eyes, she would know we had been doing dirty-reading. I was guilty — not of writing but of reading dirty words about pubic hair (we were not supposed to have any then) or sketches of a boy and a girl facing each other and arrows pointing at their ‘sinful’ parts.
Now that I have grown, I don't rush out of my own loo in fear of the talking words on the wall, for there are none. I sit there longer than usual, because my loo is clean and has nice white tiles. The air is fresh, and I can regurgitate the day’s proceedings. There are times when good poetry, has come from a clean toilet seat.
There are other people who have found the toilet as the only place where they have been creative. One newspaper editor who finds her desk crowded during the day, her children all around her when home (not to mention her husband), finds creative space in the toilet when she is alone. Another female editor takes it upon to clean her toilet herself, because it is her most creative space.
We have all experienced it: As you sit, squat or suspend over a toilet, our minds are tuned to a particular direction — it's either at its most idle state or most creative.
In short, creativity is that process that involves conscious thoughts, subconscious feelings, and the skill to put ideas together. Now, where do you belong? Where is your creative moment and place - in the toilet, bathroom or bedroom?
A majority of 107 people interviewed at random said they are never creative in the toilet. Are they being defensive or what?
“When I am in the toilet, I only think of what has taken me there. I have never thought of something else,” Ronnie Kizza, a third year Mass Communication student at Makerere University said. “My creative moment is usually at night when I am lying on my bed.” Very possible indeed.
Another student, John Etin of Mitchell Hall agreed: “Whenever I go to the toilet, I only aim at what has taken me there, nothing else. Neither am I creative in the bedroom nor in the bathroom.” Really? Is this the truth?
But Denis Otine said when he goes there, his stream of consciousness blends with the last thought he had on his mind before entering the toilet. Most probable.
According to the Dr. Peter Baguma, the director of Makerere University's Institute of Psychology, human beings are creative everytime, whether in a toilet, bathroom or bedroom. He said, “Thinking doesn't stop, it continues all the time.”
According to Closer To Truth, a US-based association of scientists, scholars and artists, creativity can erupt suddenly or emerge slowly. “Creativity can be found anywhere, at home or work as easily as in art or science...creativity comes in many favours and it is well represented in diverse groups...,” they say to their website: http://www.closertotruth.com.
Almost all local psychologists interviewed concurred; most of the people who are creative in the toilets are fixated. There are various developmental stages in life whose challenges one must resolve in order to grow in a healthy manner. If these conflicts remain unresolved, the person becomes fixated or stuck in that stage.
“But I think its not a matter of being creative in the toilet, rather an indication of improper personality formation,” Baguma said. He added: “Because they are fixated, it will influence the way they behave, react to situations and cope with problems.”
To Baguma, the best places conducive for creative thinking include the library, office and bedroom. “But not in a toilet...,” he said. But to some sub-editors, this is point of departure. Great headlines have been made, not at the keyboard, but while having a shower/toilet, (politely called bathroom).
Grace Kibanja, another social psychology lecturer said: “I would imagine someone would be more creative in the bedroom and maybe bathroom. But when it comes to the toilet...its mostly related to dirty things.”
Which is why, psychologists argued, most of the graffiti in the toilets are not on productive social issues, but about sex, love and hatred.
Three years ago, a UK school, East Brighton College of Media Arts installed closed circuit TV cameras in the toilets to check bad manners by pupils. The aim, according to Principal, Tony Garwood, was to prevent pupils from smoking and drawing on the walls of the toilets.
“Even in South Africa, you find all kinds of writing in the toilets. Most of the times they are writing about sex,” Julius Kikooma, a Makerere University psychology lecturer who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree at Cape Town University said. “There is a lot of creativity in the toilets. Sometimes people write about fundamental issues.”
But Hamina Namusisi, a businesswoman on William Street, Kampala said staying longer in a toilet has nothing to do with writing. “As long as the toilet is disinfected and clean, like the one at my home, I don't mind spending several minutes there,” she said.
Some people said they prefer reading novels, newspapers or magazines while easing themselves in the toilet. But, certainly, not in the ramshackle village pit latrines or the filthy public toilets in schools, hospitals and other public places.
Away from the toilets, Anne Johnson Amazone-based scholar, thinks rooms with enough light - sunlight, candles and bulbs - enhance creativity. These include rooms in the basement, with good light and a table.
“Perhaps it will be a bay window, or a skylight or even simply making it a habit to open the curtains every morning,” reads in part a presentation by “Home As Our Haven” a website of women scholars. It adds: “There are times when creativity comes from quietude and soft darkness...we also need a place where we can pursue our individual interests.” The website goes on to say that to be creative, human beings need quiet places away from interruptions by other people. “We all need a place where we are free to wander.” Ends