Violations of Expectations in Creativity and Perversion

Expectations and violations of expectations provide an entry into creativity and into perversions of aggression in the form of violence. Both creative works and perversions are co-created by a violator of expectations and one whose expectations are violated. The life of Kip Kinkel, a fifteen-year-old mass murderer illustrates the reciprocal violation of expectations between Kip and his parents leading to his increasingly perverse ways of asserting his presence in a world that was slipping from his grasp. Whereas the histories of some violent persons are replete with violations of expectations of living in a safe, predictable, affectively responsive world, a number of creative people (Stravinsky, Chagall, Wagner) began life as violators of the expectation of their families. They were stillborn or became so sick that they were not expected to survive, but they did. In their paintings and operas the theme of being violators of expectations then became dominant.