These thoughts or “ideations” are peremptory in that they can commandeer or at least subtly redirect other work we are doing on our mental backburners. It has even been suggested that fine works of art impact on us emotionally not because of what we focus on at the center of the painting (or in the major theme of the symphony), but because of what the artist has presented at the periphery of the painting or in the subthemes or harmonic structure of the musical composition. We are multi-tasking while appreciating the painting or symphony. Some of these tasks might involve the unconscious appreciation of these unattended sensory experiences. These experiences may, in turn, become the main ingredient or at least a taste-enhancing ingredient in the dish we are preparing on the backburner. Perhaps this is what occurs when I am in New Orleans: many sensory experiences that are interplaying with, contributing to and at times waylaying my own unconscious trains of thought and emotion.
As coaches, do we ever play a role in helping our client access some of the material that is incubating for them? At times, do we provide the safe environment in which our clients can relax in a manner that enables their unconscious work to emerge and be articulated? Without playing the role of therapist or psychoanalyst, do we at least assist our client in fully appreciating their own “hunches” regarding people with whom they work or vaguely formulated solutions to problems they are addressing—these hunches or solutions having been first generated in a dream or in a meandering thought that popped up while they were eating dinner or playing games with their young daughter? These processes are all part and parcel of the peremptory ideation described by Klein and exemplify our most productive multi-tasking.
The Numinous
I wish to probe even deeper into the phenomenon of multi-tasking, peremptory ideation and the dynamics of a New Orleans State of Mind. I propose that when there is confluence of peremptory ideations—when highly motivated trains of thought and multi-source sensations converge and magnify one another—then there is the experience of what Rudolph Otto and, a little later, Carl Jung, called the numinous. When he first introduced the idea of numinous, Otto was focusing on profound religious experiences. Jung, however, described the numinous in much broader terms. In what some scholars identify as the first “psychological” analysis of religious experiences, Rudolph Otto identified something that he called the “numinous” experience. In his now-classic book, The Idea of the Holy Otto creates a new word, “numinous” (from the Latin word “numen” and paralleling the derivation of “ominous” from the word “omen”). Otto (1923, p. 11) writes about a powerful, enthralling experience that is “felt as objective and outside the self.” Otto’s numinous experience is simultaneously awe-some and awe-full. We are enthralled and repelled. We feel powerless in the presence of the numinous, yet seem to gain power (“inspiration”) from participation in its wonderment.
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