Creativity Assists Bereavement

In honor of Sidney J. Parnes 1922-2013.

I wonder what would happen if we all reacted to a tragedy with imagination instead of with habit or convention as is so typically the case. - Sidney J. Parnes

Over thirty years ago I enjoyed the opportunity to study with Dr. Sidney J. Parnes. Along wtih Alex Osborne, he developed the Creative Problem Solving Process (CPSP). Their method generated a variety of solutions to problems. They taught at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, the Creative Problem Solving Institute and the CREA Conference in Europe.


Sidney Parnes taught optimism regardless of circumstance. Parnes addressed ways to draw on resources to develop ideas to provide positive life changes. He also focused on how to take an optimistic stance when facing bereavement.  


I recall how he chuckled as he wrote on the chalkboard and encouraged students to ask, "In what ways . . . " He urged us to provide at least five ideas to solve a situation. He pushed for five more and onward until silliness teased our creativity into action. Sid helped us break boundaries in thinking.


When he discussed death and bereavement, he also used his technique. 


l.  In what ways might I take advantage of my unexpected or undesired freedom?

2. In what ways might I honor his or her death in a constructive way?

3. In what ways might I make his or her memory bring me happiness in future activities?

4. In what ways might I set up a new goals not possible before the person's death?

5. In what ways might I use the memory of peak experiences I had with the person to buoy me up in times of depression in my own life?

6.  In what ways might I turn this loss to advantage in my life?

7.  In what ways might I use travel or reading as a means of launching into the future?

8.  In what ways might I commemorate the person through pleasant experiences rather than the traditional "mourning" experiences.

9.   In what ways might I channel all of my grief into constructive energies?

10. In what ways might I use future thinking instead of past-oriented thinking to explore life?

In addition, here are a few of the questions he urged the bereaved to consider:




l. What might I like to do, have or accomplish in the next phase of my life?

2. What do I wish would happen (other than having the person come back to life)?

3. What would I like to do better?

4. What are my unfulfilled goals?

5. What changes might I like to introduce?


Sid Parnes urged students to use distress of high intensity or long duration as an impetus to the formation of strategies and opportunities. One can transferred these for use in future crises and broaden the problem solving capacity.


Parnes' programs in creative problem solving nurture personal creativity and opportunity to practice challenges of any type. Attitude development means everything.  Sid told us the story of several soldiers in a dugout with bullets flying above them in all directions.  The first soldier says to the other, "So what if we're surrounded; now we can shoot at them in any direction."

In gratitude to Sidney J. Parnes for the spark he flamed in my life, I salute him with a toss of green jello from the past! 

Creative Write: Write a tribute to someone who became an energizer in your life. In what ways did this individual focus on solving life's challenges?