Product Description
Creativity is about capturing those moments that make life worth living. The author's objective is to offer an understanding of what leads to these moments, be it the excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab, so that knowledge can be used to enrich people's lives. Drawing on 100 interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists to politicians and business leaders, poets and artists, as well as his 30 years of research on the subject, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous theory to explore the creative process. He discusses such ideas as why creative individuals are often seen as selfish and arrogant, and why the tortured genius is largely a myth. Most important, he clearly explains why creativity needs to be cultivated and is necessary for the future of our country, if not the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Being Creative
Creativity is definitely a major driver in making yourself happy.After reading this book I started to think about different areas on my life I can be more creatve and express myself.I realized a passion of mine was learning to sing so I bought this awesome product Voice Lessons To Go Volume 1: Vocalize and Breath to help me to do.Now i feel like I have a creative outlet for myself that I never did before.

how different people create meaning in life with full intention and focus thus gaining satisfaction and fulfillment
Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

Mihaly's last name is pronounced chick-sent-mih-high, and the intent of his book is to describe how different people create meaning in life with full intention and focus and thereby achieve an ongoing state of satisfaction and sense of fulfillment. It is, thus, not a recipe book for self-improvement, but Csikszentmihalyi offers general concepts -- principles (a flexible framework) -- that can be applied to yourself and your life. Although he is a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, this is not a textbook, and it is not about psychology alone. With psychology, he interweaves philosophy, anthropology, and sociology as well. It is written for everyone, and it explains an important concept. The major components of the flow experience include: 1) There's clarity of goals, 2) Feedback is immediate. You know moment-by-moment how well you're doing, 3) The challenges of the activity are matched with the skills of the person, 4) There's a feeling of focus on what you're doing, 5) Everyday frustrations are removed from your attention, 6) You feel that you can be control of your life, 7) You also lose a sense of self-consciousness, 8) And, finally, a sense of time is transformed. His discussion of "the zone" or the state of "Flow" is thorough, comprehensive, and clear. This is an engaging, thought-provoking, eye-opening book by a knowledgeable, educated man who offers readers a popularized examination of the intellectual bases for the concept of flow. He doesn't use long lists of scholars, rather, he uses copious "real life" examples to illustrate the concepts he introduces -- how to achieve optimal experience. This is not a "fun" read unless you like critical analysis of psychological processes, but his approach is logical, linear, and well illustrated. Once you read it, you will want to save it and re-read it from time-to-time. As an author who has experienced flow many times in his life, I can tell you that it is wonderful having this book as a mental reference for understanding the entire process.

an odd definition of creativuty
This book narrowly defines Creative people as those who have made a name for themselves by "changing their domain".While it is interesting to read about some of the world's most Ambitious and Recognized creatives, it thereby instantly excludes all the people who are true artists in their craft, but simply have not been recognized publicly by society or become famous in their chosen fields.A frustrating and exclusionary take- much too narrow for me.

I now more fully understand how I think
I consider myself one who is inclined towards creative solutions when dealing with life. I enjoy representing my reality through various mental images that others often consider absurd, odd, etc.; often those mental images lead to a creative solution to a problem. Up until now I thought that this process was simply "my style" of representing and dealing with the world around me. I knew that others had similar tendencies (With differing fields of specialty, interests, hobbies, etc.), but I never thought that such a seemingly chaotic process (Creative thinking) could be broken down into such easy to understand terms (With a minimal amount of psycho-babble). This book does just that.
As a result of reading this book (And I'm just about finished with the other book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience"), I have learned more about how and why I think the way I do. It is a wonderful feeling.

Excellent book
The description posted here doesn't do the book justice - I own a copy and still made 8 pages of notes for myself. Typed pages! Dr. Csikszentmihalyi distills and highlights the creative moments in life and how to create more creative moments in your own. It is not dry reading - the interviews and comments from his pool of world-class 'creative' people was very enjoyable and I liked that portion the least! Here's one of my favorite quotes: 'Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives for several reasons.. First, most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity.

We share 98 percent of our genetic makeup with chimpanzees. What makes us different - our language, values, artistic expression, scientific understanding, and technology - is the result of individual ingenuity that was recognized, rewarded, and transmitted through learning. Without creativity, it would be difficult indeed to distinguish humans from apes.'





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Customer Reviews (5)

1
This book is so dry that I thought that I was reading soda crackers.If there is valuable information between these covers, it is buried in dust.

Great Use of What Good Research Can Do Which is Limited
The limitations of this book do not come from its author.She has covered a tremendous territory in a superbly orderly, clear, convincing, rigorous fashion. Rather the limitations come from what modern best-practice social psychology research methods are capable of--not all that much. We have known for about a 100 years (more if you are willing to take aristocratic idea play as pseudo-research) that creators operate more out of intrinsic than extrinsic motivation. We have known common folk opinions about what aspects of extrinsic motivation hinder creation. We have even had sources that suggested something like a distraction effect--any extrinsic motive that takes your eye off your process-of-creating contents and onto goals not yet reached or results not yet gathered reduce the quality and intensity of your process of creating.So this was known before Amabile came along with the first really competent application of social psychology research methods from the publish-or-perish generation of scholars raised up in universities by an older generation that did not abide by publish-or-perish norms themselves though they imposed such norms on a younger generation.

The result is paradoxic--Amabile is very thorough, systematic, comprehensive, rigorous in her research.Her virtues as a scholar and a person stand out so well in her work that the somewhat modest increments of overall new knowledge produced by that work suprises.It is not her fault.He is using imperfect tools masterfully. It literally is the fault of the tools.Modern social psychology has good enough tools to frame somewhat precisely research topics like "creativity". However as a sub-field of psychology and sociology it lacks tools adequate for a host of extremely important recent research questions about creativity.Wolfram in New Kind of Science (and his late 1980s papers) and Kauffman in Investigations along with a Santa Fe Institute host of others have put major conceptual underpinning under the old creativity conundrum--is it eras and fields that create creators and their creations or is it individual heroic Western style people who create fields and eras with their creations. Probably the single most important conceptual frame for such issues is Epstein and Axtel's Brookings/MIT Press book on Growing Artificial Societies.It reports simulated software hunter gatherer agents from which new social institution inventions arose without any individual agent, planning, intending, or inventing them. In other words it proved that new inventions can come into the world, the human civilized world, without any creator creating them. This result is percolating through the social sciences the way chaos theory percolated through the physical sciences years ago. Amabile is wonderful, make no doubt about it, buy everything that she writes if you are interested in creativity and well done research. However, in pursuing her own research frame on creativity she gets separated from major side frames invented by others, like the Wolfram, Kauffman, Epstein/Axtel 1996 one just mentioned. That makes her musings on "social" effects hindering/helping creativity less than complete, comprehensive, and unfortunately less than correct in a strict research sense.There are so many bright people in the world today that being wonderful yourself is not enough--you have to suffer daily the immense pain of importing into the core of your own barely formed work/ideation the wonders just discovered/invented by others.Amabile pursues one tool set and what it can show about social and motivation-in-particular effects on creation but in doing so she omits extremely powerful frameworks by others that undermine, enhance, contradict, and elaborate her own discoveries. THere is no blame here--she is only a human being and cannot simultaneously pursue even with a Harvard budget every creative avenue of social effect research on creativity--no one can. Only a super-human could. She is a good as human researchers get. Her books are never fast, sloppy, or commercial.She is wonderful, pure and simple.However, such wonderfulness has very severe limits, given the limited tools we have for social research these days and for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the other reviewers here who suggest her book is a final or complete source on social effects on creation are simply wrong--dangerously wrong. She is as good as it gets for her chosen tools, but there are other tools around that are extremely powerful in handling the same questions and that have produced immensely powerful results, some of which her tools cannot now handle as well. Read her and more, in sum.

Finally, and I hate to say this, when famous wonderful scholars develop really significant commercial consultancy operations from their work, businesses and others tend to apotheisize what they buy from such consulting scholars. These messages blend in academic and commercial markets making partial, tentative results, not representative of all that plural research approaches are now producing, into "the" knowledge on social effects on creativity. This chthonian exaggeration harms research and confuses markets, driving customers away from less famous emerging scholars and their alternative approaches. It unfortunately can turn into Harvard drawing so many funds for one research tool set and approach that a dozen less famous approaches emerging get nothing and are not heard or pursued.Society is the loser and history is hurt by these institutional forces. Again no individual is at fault--this is an institutional context flaw we all work in--but being aware of it in one's own work means inviting in for reader notice approaches not taken by oneself and recently emerging with potential for great contribution.She does a bit of this but only for well trodden famous other researchers, I am afraid.

Great Use of What Good Research Can Do Which is Limited
The limitations of this book do not come from its author.She has covered a tremendous territory in a superbly orderly, clear, convincing, rigorous fashion. Rather the limitations come from what modern best-practice social psychology research methods are capable of--not all that much. We have known for about a 100 years (more if you are willing to take aristocratic idea play as pseudo-research) that creators operate more out of intrinsic than extrinsic motivation. We have known common folk opinions about what aspects of extrinsic motivation hinder creation. We have even had sources that suggested something like a distraction effect--any extrinsic motive that takes your eye off your process-of-creating contents and onto goals not yet reached or results not yet gathered reduce the quality and intensity of your process of creating.So this was known before Amabile came along with the first really competent application of social psychology research methods from the publish-or-perish generation of scholars raised up in universities by an older generation that did not abide by publish-or-perish norms themselves though they imposed such norms on a younger generation.

The result is paradoxic--Amabile is very thorough, systematic, comprehensive, rigorous in her research.Her virtues as a scholar and a person stand out so well in her work that the somewhat modest increments of overall new knowledge produced by that work suprises.It is not her fault.He is using imperfect tools masterfully. It literally is the fault of the tools.Modern social psychology has good enough tools to frame somewhat precisely research topics like "creativity". However as a sub-field of psychology and sociology it lacks tools adequate for a host of extremely important recent research questions about creativity.Wolfram in New Kind of Science and Kauffman in Investigations along with a Santa Fe Institute host of others have put major conceptual underpinning under the old creativity conundrum--is it eras and fields that create creators and their creations or is it individual heroic Western style people who create fields and eras with their creations. Probably the single most important conceptual frame for such issues is Epstein and Axtel's Brookings/MIT Press book on Growing Artificial Societies.It reports simulated software hunter gatherer agents from which new social institution inventions arose without any individual agent, planning, intending, or inventing them. In other words it proved that new inventions can come into the world, the human civilized world, without any creator creating them. This result is percolating through the social sciences the way chaos theory percolated through the physical sciences years ago. Amabile is wonderful, make no doubt about it, buy everything that she writes if you are interested in creativity and well done research. However, in pursuing her own research frame on creativity she gets separated from major side frames invented by others, like the Wolfram, Kauffman, Epstein/Axtel 1996 one just mentioned. That makes her musings on "social" effects hindering/helping creativity less than complete, comprehensive, and unfortunately less than correct in a strict research sense.There are so many bright people in the world today that being wonderful yourself is not enough--you have to suffer daily the immense pain of importing into the core of your own barely formed work/ideation the wonders just discovered/invented by others.Amabile pursues one tool set and what it can show about social and motivation-in-particular effects on creation but in doing so she omits extremely powerful frameworks by others that undermine, enhance, contradict, and elaborate her own discoveries. THere is no blame here--she is only a human being and cannot simultaneously puruse even with a Harvard budget every creative avenue of social effect research on creativity--no one can. Only a super-human could. She is a good as human researchers get. Her books are never fast, sloppy, or commercial.She is wonderful, pure and simple.However, such wonderfulness has very severe limits, given the limited tools we have for social research these days and for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the other reviewers here who suggest her book is a final or complete source on social effects on creation are simply wrong--dangerously wrong. She is as good as it gets for her chosen tools, but there are other tools around that are extremely powerful in handling the same questions and that have produced immensely powerful results, some of which her tools cannot now handle as well. Read her and more, in sum.

Finally, and I hate to say this, when famous wonderful scholars develop really significant commercial consultancy operations from their work, businesses and others tend to apotheisize what they buy from such consulting scholars. These messages blend in academic and commercial markets making partial, tentative results, not representative of all that plural research approaches are now producing, into "the" knowledge on social effects on creativity. This chthonian exaggeration harms research and confuses markets, driving customers away from less famous emerging scholars and their alternative approaches. It unfortunately can turn into Harvard drawing so many funds for one research tool set and approach that a dozen less famous approaches emerging get nothing and are not heard or pursued.Society is the loser and history is hurt by these institutional forces. Again no individual is at fault--this is an institutional context flaw we all work in--but being aware of it in one's own work means inviting in for reader notice approaches not taken by oneself and recently emerging with potential for great contribution.She does a bit of this but only for well trodden famous other researchers, I am afraid.

Best Book for Understanding the Social Impact on Creativity
I am a management consultant for major corporations and also write business books.My clients frequently ask me to help them understand how to make their companies more creative.Almost all books on this subjectignore the influence of other people on the creative person.TeresaAmabile does just the opposite, and puts creativity into a context toexplain how to establish a creative environment for everyone.This book isan update of her earlier work, and the additions are very valuable.If youare a business person who wants to learn how to grow sales and profitsfaster, you need to understand the lessons in this book.She wrote asummary of this book recently in HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW that you may wantto read, also.CORPORATE CREATIVITY is another good book on this subject.

Required reading for students of creativity.
Outstanding analysis of psychological research on creativity andmotivation. Must reading for scholars and laypeople alike who areinterested in creativity. ... Read more

Product Description
In this exciting new contribution to the psychology of creativity, psychologist, artist, and writer Dr. Patricia D. Stokes explores and dissects the constrained pathways of famous creators such as Monet, Picasso, Stravinsky, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Coco Chanel.

Written for psychologists who study creativity and problem quisition and expertise, development and education, this book is also of practical use to researchers and clinicians, the success of whose designs—experimental and clinical—depends on the creative choice of constraints. ... Read more

Product Description
The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity is a comprehensive scholarly handbook on creativity from the most respected psychologists, researchers, and educators. This handbook serves both as a thorough introduction to the field of creativity and as an invaluable reference and current source of important information. It covers such diverse topics as the brain, education, business, and world cultures. The first section, "Basic Concepts," is designed to introduce readers to both the history of and key concepts in the field of creativity. The next section, "Diverse Perspectives of Creativity," contains chapters on the many ways of approaching creativity. Several of these approaches, such as the functional, evolutionary, and neuroscientific approaches, have been invented or greatly reconceptualized in the last decade. The third section, "Contemporary Debates," highlights ongoing topics that still inspire discussion. Finally, the editors summarize and discuss important concepts from the book and look to what lies ahead. ... Read more

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Q: What happens after a former engineer and music teacher explores the creative approaches found in art, science, technology, business, spirituality, and everyday living? A: He writes a humorously enlightening guidebook for anyone wanting to be creative - a book that will re-engineer your brain to think creatively. In "The Power of Thinking Differently," Javy W. Galindo takes us along on an adventurous tour of the creative process. Using fun language, the book looks at creative thinking through the rational lens of psychology, neuroscience, and popular creativity literature. At the same time, it exercises the imagination using allegory, myth, jokes, and puzzles. The book reveals the roots our thinking habits and illuminates an imaginative six-stage roadmap to discovering unique ideas and implementing creative change. We come to see that creativity isn't just for creative types. It turns out that we all have the inherent capacity to think creatively and attain flashes of creative insight.What else will you learn? -- The universal stages of the creative process. How your brain is built to be creative. The secrets to going beyond common sense to attain uncommon ideas. Why relaxation and a sense of play are crucial to being creative. How to overcome creative blocks and habitual thinking patterns. Ways of becoming more insight prone. The keys to cultivating creativity in groups. How to conquer common creativity pitfalls. And how thinking differently can be a soul enriching, meaning deepening activity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A solid and highly recommended read for those who want to best understand how to put their mind to work
Creative thinking is an ability that needs to be utilized in so many careers. "The Power of Thinking Differently: An Imaginative Guide to Creativity, Change, & The Discovery of New Ideas" discusses creative thinking and encourages readers to overcome the barriers to creative thinking and gain a better sense of humor, which Javy Galindo writes are keys to the creative thinking process. With chapters on brainstorming in groups, "The Power of Thinking Differently" is a solid and highly recommended read for those who want to best understand how to put their mind to work.

Great book.
Great book, both for content & entertainment value. A 'must read' for all employers & employees at all levels. As a small businessman in the food industry for 3 decades, creativity & fostering its atmosphere brings about multiple but channelled energies that bring about efficiencies in purchasing, production, quality control, marketing and most of all- new products. The President & his boys in congress ought to be reading this book amidst the health insurance issues that face our great country.
-Boycie Javier
Houston, Texas

Out Of The Ordinary Imaginativeness
Loved this book.
The author explores the psyche and tries to blow the doors open for creative inspirations.

The uniqueness of this book makes this a superior read for anyone exploring and producing on a regular basis out-of-the-box ideas and changes.

Interesting how the author's background in electrical engineering melds with the arts sciences.
Well worth the time and money.

GREAT BOOK
Coming out of undergrad with an accounting degree, I always saw things black and white. I recommend this book for those looking for an easy and entertaining read that will help your creative and innovative thinking.

A Brand New World!
Wow!

I had been stuck for so long thinking the world worked a certain way. I was in a job that I didn't love, trying to attain money and status, and was living a life that was devoid of any spark, or meaning. I just thought that's how life was supposed to be. Fortunately, somebody introduced me to this book. What I found out is that the world is always more than I think it is. There is more to life then the rat race or the accumulation of wealth. The Power of Thinking Differently showed me how I was programmed by conventional wisdom to experience the world a certain way, but that I biologically had the ability to see the world differently; beyond groupthink and common sensibilities.

I use to think creativity and creative thinking was only for artists or entrepreneurs. Instead, it turns out that the same creative faculties used for artistic expression, innovation, and insight are also the same faculties that will enable us to see new possibilities and meaning in life. The book goes into detail giving an explanation on how we get stuck in thought patterns and habitual behaviors, and provides some enlightening examples about how this works and the mental distress this causes. Then, the author describes the science and psychology of the creative process to show us the path to breaking free of these habits of thought and behavior. Every chapter blew me away with some insight into how the human brain operates. I never thought of myself as being a creative person, but this book convinced me that I was born as one.

At first, when I was given the book, I thought it would either be some self-help babble or some really dense, dry psychology book. Man was I wrong. It explains some complex, mind blowing concepts in an easy to understand way, and does it with lots of humor.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to live a more interesting, meaningful, and inspired life!

Here are some other similar books I've enjoyed recently:
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Outliers: The Story of Success
Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition)
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
The Artist's Way
The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (Perennial Library)
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

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(Kogan Page) Looks at creativity in education and learning, examining in detail the roles of thinking, personality, motivation and social factors in creativity. Provides readers at all levels guidelines for fostering creativity, with an international and historical sweep. Softcover. ... Read more

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The goal of this handbook is to provide the most comprehensive, definitive, and authoritative single-volume review available in the field of creativity. The book contains twenty-two chapters covering a wide range of issues and topics in the field of creativity, all written by distinguished leaders in the field. The volume is divided into six parts. The introduction sets out the major themes and reviews the history of thinking about creativity. Subsequent parts deal with methods, origins, self and environment, special topics and conclusions.All educated readers with an interest in creative thinking will find this volume to be accessible and engrossing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Comprehensive
The compilation of essays from leaders in the field of creativity provide a good picture of the current state of creativity research.

Thick and plentiful - worth it but not easy
Sternberg's Handbook has an almost mythical reputation amongst the Creative Studies Students at Buffalo State College.While there are shortcomings to the Handbook, areas where key authors or subjects are missing (it is written from the behavioral scientist point of view, and there are other, equally valid viewpoints in creative studies), each chapter will have plenty of food for thought.

And, guaranteed, you will have the time to digest this food for thought, as each and every chapter requires slow and careful reading.If the writing were to be any denser, it would tear free from the pages and sink to the very center of the Earth!Yet, there is so much information that, in the end, the knowledge derived is more than worth the work needed to get at it.

One last note: This is a handbook for those interested in the deep research on creativity.It is NOT suitable a "first book" for anyone starting out to learn about creativity!

Using The Left Brain Too Much To Understand Right Brain
Although all the contributors of the book wrote about creativity, their writing and presentation styles are stiff, dry, and boring--- totally uncreative!

They used too much of their left brain to discuss a fascinatingsubject like creativity, which is supposed to be fun,lively, and thoughts provoking.

The only merit of this book is that it is a well-researchedfacts book on creativity, very suitable for the academicpeople. It focuses more on the WHY side of creativity, rather than on theHOW TO side, which makes it less practical and appealing to thecreativity practitioners or end-users!

Still a good book to put on the bookshelf though.

Using The Left Brain Too Much To Understand Right Brain
Although all the contributors of the book wrote about creativity, their writing and presentation styles are stiff, dry, and boring--- totally uncreative!

They used too much of their left brain to discuss a fascinatingsubject like creativity, which is supposed to be fun,lively, and thoughts provoking.

The only merit of this book is that it is a well-researchedfacts book on creativity, very suitable for the academicpeople. It focuses more on the WHY side of creativity, rather than on theHOW TO side, which makes it less practical and appealing to thecreativity practitioners or end-users!

Still a good book to put on the bookshelf though.

Not for getting informed but to understand the subject!
Dr.Sternberg's book on the evolution process of creativity research is a splendit source for anybody who deals with social sciences, a must for organizational behaviorists and a very satisfactory piece of reading for general reader.

The book does not give mere descriptions on the scope of creativity but it provides great amount of knowledge on the evolutionary process of creativity research from ancient times up to today! Furthermore, the subject of creativity has been examined both from theoretical and methodological perspective in such a creative manner which gives a very good knowledge about the major approaches, the outcomes of the previous researchs, main obstacles in the course of investigation, and finally the probable studies for further research on the creativity.

Consequently, the reader finds a good chance not only to have a detailed theoretical and practical information on the subject but also to learn the main approaches of outstanding social scientists towards the subject and not mentioning about the meticoulisly prepared bibliography.

I am amazed with the intensity of Dr.Sternberg's study the language of which is clear enough those of us whose Mother tongue is not English (like me!). ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (49)

Interesting Premise But Not Very Pragmatic
I read the beginning of this book with eager excitement, the middle with subdued curiosity, and the end with deflated disappointment.The idea of applying flow or "being in the zone" in everyday life seemed appealing to me as I love when I'm in that state of mind.What I expected from the book was research-based suggestions for increasing flow experiences.While the book did provide a rough framework for when one can achieve flow (high skill and high challenge situations), most of the studies mentioned involved teenagers and seemed fairly dated.The advice offered also seemed to be more philosophical rather than practical and in the end the author trailed off into existential pontification.If you want to understand the basics on flow, I suggest doing some research on the internet.If you are looking for new age inspiration about improving quality of life, consider buying the book.

Don't read as an introduction to Csikszentmihalyi's ideas.
I didn't realize that this wasn't the first of the Flow books when I ordered it. Otherwise I would not have bothered. Csikszentmihalyi's work had been recommended to me by a friend.

I have a feeling I would have gotten much more out of this had I read Flow first. As it was, this felt to me like a patchwork of ideas, anecdotes and research fragments about an idea that the author assumed I already knew at least a little bit about. My fault, not his, probably. Some of it was interesting.

An academic's late-night musings, not a serious or useful work
I was excited to read this initially, and the author's observations in the first half of the book were intriguing, even amusing.I especially enjoyed his admonitions to Satre, Marx and Foucault that peoples' reports of their subjective experiences (ie, a factory worker saying he's happy) should not be interpreted at anything other than face value, and to do otherwise is just academic arrogance (unfortunately the author commits exactly that sin later in the book).I was a little concerned about the lack of footnotes and citations, but figured he'd get to the point soon--ie, how to find "Flow" as the title suggests.However, after several more chapters and growing impatience, I realized this book was primarily a compendium of poorly supported observations, assertions, and anecdotes, with very little practical advice or guidance on how to actually achieve this state he talks about.

A title such as, "Flow Experiences in Everyday Life" or, "Generalized Observations and Assertions Regarding Flow" would be far more accurate.The author's anecdotes seem very overgeneralized and based on personal opinion rather than actual research--personal opinion that seemed rooted in an extrovert's 1950's sort of mentality, I might add. (ie, several of his main tenets are that nearly all people absolutely hate to be alone, that being alone automatically means you have nothing to do and therefore makes you depressed, and that women generally view professional work as sort of play rather than an obligation--all of which are totally contrary to my experiences and those of most people I know and respect)(oh and he's convinced that if you're an atheist you're miserable, which is total b.s.)The author includes a lot of scholarly research references at the end of the book but no footnotes or citations in the text, so it's impossible to tell what he's basing his various statements on.Also, many of the studies he does talk about involve teenagers, and he rarely says what year a study was conducted or discusses the study design to give the reader some idea of its legitimacy.

The few sentences I found that actually dealt with "Finding Flow" were buried in text and not highlighted or expanded on in any way, and they were nothing you can't find in 10 dozen time management/focus on the present/live your best life type of books.To find flow, the author recommends you concentrate on whatever you're doing and try to do your best at it.To increase the number of incidences of flow in your life, he recommends prioritizing what's important to you, doing those, and delegating tasks you don't like to others.That's it--seriously.

The author is a professor at a prestigious university and I cannot help but wonder at the poor quality of this work.It seems like the product of lots of notes jotted down late at night and philosophical musings on the bus that eventually grew into a large enough body that he decided to turn it into a book.It should have been more aptly titled, "An academic's musings on: How the world works and why it works that way, What people think about their daily activities and How I think people could live better lives."A nice idea, but one that did not translate into a very useful product.

Attention!
Finding Flow was very different from what I expected, but interesting! The book reads more like a science-meets-religion treatise than a self-help book. In the end, I found myself thinking optimistically of the "new earth" that Eckhart Tolle talks about.

In Finding Flow, the author encourages us to engage mindfully, to take ownership of our actions, rather than spending our leisure in passive entertainment. This, he says, will create flow as well as increase happiness. I have certainly found this to be true in my experience. It's easier to work a crossword puzzle than to stare down a blank page and write a poem, less effort to watch TV than to call a friend, but I know which of these feeds me and leads to greater happiness.

And again the idea of loving what is pops up-what Nietzsche called amor fati-"the love of fate."Csikszentmihalyi warns us that people can also learn to love what is destructive, so we must choose our goals wisely. Science has helped us to understand what promotes and sustains growth, life, and order, and to understand the uniqueness of each of us. He says "each one of us is responsible for our particular point in space and time in which our body and mind forms a link within the total network of existence." Being virtuous (that is, acting to preserve order, taking into account the common good, the emotional well-being of others) is not the easy path, but the satisfying one, and connects one to the flow of all that was, is, and ever shall be.

achieving flow states
Csikszentmihalyi's concern in this book is centered around achieving states of human existence characterized by flow.The flow state is one in which the individual finds challenges to be high but is also able to bring to bear on these challenges a high level of skill.
As a scientist, he is able to bring to consideration of this state the objectivity of his discipline.He has studied human behavior empirically using an objective approach through a statistical procedure he calls ESM (Experience Sampling Modeling).Over years of serious consideration, he was led not only to identify the flow state as one that is achieved (quite surprisingly) in mundane activities like driving, but he was also led to regard such a state as one of "excellence". (However, he does make it abundantly clear that this state of human existence is not one that is necessarily going to be experienced as happy.)
He argues in his book that this state is desirable, that it is beneficial for our species (by reducing entropy), and that it fits into the evolutionary context of our species.He points out that humans in the course of time have learned to develop "myths" appropriate to the conditions of human life (and that in their day could certainly be regarded with respect and as part of the truth about the world).
This type of book is certainly valuable over reading his scholarly work, and it gives him an opportunity to view his scientific work in a large perspective that one cannot usually find in specialized research articles.On the other hand, he takes on so much in the span of his short book, that, while he does a rather splendid job and his book is definitely worth reading, he does not address some of the issues in the depth to which they merit. ... Read more

Product Description

"In this excellent, concise volume, Rothenberg reports his current views on this fascinating subject... Well argued and judicious... I cannot recommend this book too highly." -- Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This intriguing theory will no doubt provoke lively debate both in and outside professional circles. For lay readers, however, the book's real pleasure lies in the substantive analyses of Sylvia Plath, August Strindberg, Emily Dickenson, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, and William Faulkner." -- Wilson Library Bulletin

Intrigued by history's list of "troubled geniuses,"Albert Rothenberg investigates how two such opposite conditions -- outstanding creativity and psychosis -- could coexist in the same individual. Rothenberg concludes that high-level creativity transcends the usual modes of logical thought -- and may even superficially resemble psychosis. But he also discovers that all types of creative thinking generally occur in a rational and conscious frame of mind, not in a mystically altered or transformed state.

Far from being the source -- or the price -- of creativity, Rothenberg discovers, psychosis and other forms of mental illness are actually hindrances to creative work. Disturbed writers and absent-minded professors make great characters in fiction, but Rothenberg has uncovered an even better story -- the virtually infinite creative potential of healthy human beings.

Customer Reviews (3)

Interesting insights about creativity
I found Rothenberg's insights about the characteristics of creativity the most meaningful ideas in the book.He has learned several methods of those who are creative, and these are helpful anyone wanting to be creative or help someone else like a child become creative.

He does a good job debunking some of the myths that associate creativity with mental illness by showing several cases of mentally ill creators.He shows that their creative times did not coincide with the severe bouts of mental illness.

He profiles a few artists, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Eugene O'Neil, and JOhn Cheever among others.It is interesting to read how these successful people dealt effectively or ineffectively with mental illness.

The author offers his conclusions about creativity and its association with mental illness.Whether they are ultimately conclusive, the reader can decide.He is a thorough researcher and writer, so this is a book worth reading if you are interested in the subject matter.

Rothenberg's false prophecy
Rothenberg's 1994 book claims to have supposedly "debunked" the "myth" between creativity and madness based on his "new findings and old stereotypes" that many geniuses such as aristotle have proclaimed a link between the two for thousands of years.He states that previous studies linking bipolar disorder to creativity were biased and a link to schizophrenia is nonexistent.He bases this on sketchy evidence with nobel laureates where there responses to a creativity test called a word association test had a slightly different response style then psychotics.He then comes to the narrow conclusion that creativity is mostly based on juxtaposition and homospatial thinking which he contends is the part of the test that nobel laureates have scored high in and psychotics didn't based on the results of his word association test.

However, since then a rigourous longitudinal study has come out in a book called "The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy" found that Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia like psychosis, and other disorders are Much more prevalent among creatively eminent people then they are found in the general population.Studies by Hans Eysenck and others have also shown that psychopathology (or personality traits that predispose to psychosis) is much higher in creative people then in non-creative people in the general population.Also relatives of people with mental disorders are on average more creative then in the general population.To top it all off a study done by Peter Jordanson and colleagues has found one of the biological basis to creativity, which is that creative people score low on measures of latent inhibition which measure one's openness to novel stimuli or new possibilities.People with mental illness, particularly Schizophrenics, also score low on latent inhibition showing they have a trait that is essential for creativity, and that creative achievers also have.Of course Rothenberg obviously wasn't open to this possibility (which has now been scientifically proven), when he wrote this book.While at the same time other creativity researchers were (go figure).While Rothenberg's theory does have some truth in it such as obvious facts that creative achievement and insanity aren't the same thing and in fact that insanity in itself can be destructive to creative achievement; or that not all mentally ill people necessarily become eminent creative achievers.His main premise of the book that there is no link between creativity and madness has been proven false and it is clear that he was probably the one who was biased against any association between creativity and madness to begin with.

Then again psychiatrists, which are in the same profession as Rothenberg, often note that there is some truth in every delusion.Which I suppose means that even though "new findings and old stereotypes" has disproven Rothenberg's "delusion" (or false belief) of their not being any link between creativity and madness, his "delusional theory" should not be thought of as not being true at all.As he does make some (although mostly obvious) points about the subject in his book.

A Psychiatrist Looks at Creativity
Rothenberg looks at creativity from the perspective of a scientist.He examines psychological ideas- Freudian, depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia; linguistic trends- use of alliteration, metaphors, rhymes;personality characteristics- motivated, determined, and able to organizeone's ideas; and relates them all to his search for answers to why some cancreate such wonderful works of art. He dispells myths aboutcreativity being some mystical birth-right that only the chosen fewpossess, and implies the conclusion that creativity is more the product ofan aware mind and feeling human being than tormented genius.Good book,quick read. ... Read more

Product Description
In Psychology, Folklore, Creativity and the Human Dilemma, the author explores the meaning of folklore and its usefulness in education and psychotherapy. The author?s interesthas expanded into other fields that challenge and question the limits of our everyday horizons, namely, into operas, plays, and humor, as well as into new approaches to the meaning of human existence explored by modern thinkers. These various fields often interact, explain, and enrich each other. The book aims for deepening the awareness of our ultimate human concerns, the meaning of authenticity, and the urgent need for radical, long-term commitments. The present volumes focuses almost entirely on the role of folklore in expanding and enriching a person's horizons, on the challenges by modern writers in terms of the need to radically alter the paradigm of Western society that has brought the blessings of technology, led to a fragmentation of our psyche, and threatens the very essence of our subjectivity. Throughout the book there is both the hidden and the overt implication that simply liking, appreciating or agreeing with insightful ideas and suggestions presented by anyone are absolutely worthless, or may even be counterproductive if the readers do not translate into changes and actions the ideas that are most meaningful to them, and if they do not do so in their family, social, political and spiritual life. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides a new template for the second half of life, one that it is bursting with energy, health, power, creativity and new beginnings. Rather than settling for less than our dreams, it fills us with the expectation that this period is our second chance to do, and to be, all the things we've ever dreamed of-and more!This is the first book to apply the breakthrough insights of Energy Psychology to aging. Energy Psychology is an exciting new healing method that changes the body's electromagnetic energy fields to produce immediate psychological shifts and physical well-being. It involves a simple set of breathing and touching exercises, and can be learned quickly by anyone. After just a few minutes of applying these methods, you can amaze yourself with how much better you feel!Energy Psychology pioneer Dorothea Hover-Kramer explains its basic principles in ways that are easy to understand. She shows how energy methods can liberate us from many of the typical problems of aging, such as low energy and reduced motivation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Second Chance at Your Dream: Engaging Your Body's Energy Resources for Optimal Aging, Creativity and Health
Second Chance at Your Dream: Engaging Your Body's Energy Resources for Optimal Aging, Creativity and Health

Through the marvelous book, "Second Chance at Your Dream: Engaging Your Body's Energy Resources for Optimal Aging, Creativity and Health" Dr. Dorothea Kramer endorses energy work like EFT and other positive psychology modalities to accomplish a specific objective, which is my alternative take on her particular theme: "shifting collective consciousness to resolve the negative stigmatization of growing old by

(a). shifting that self-imposed stigma, from our older wiser generation; and (b) by shifting the mindset of younger culture and media, which project it.

Here is an opportunity for the baby boomer who wants a second chance at fulfilling all dreams by using energy to heal a human culture that has forgotten the metaphysical benefits of growing older.

A Must Read For Anyone Seeking To Live An Enriched, Fulfilling Life
The old saying "Life begins at 40" is, for many people, more fantasy than reality...

As we age, we typically undergo a plethora of different changes, including everything from decreased memory to slowing reflexes to diminished physical features. The reason? Quite naturally, our minds and bodies "tire" with age, and with them the concomitant pep and drive that keep us going every day.

Until now, the phenomenon of diminished capacity/abilities with age has been an accepted - and expected - practice; however, in Second Chance At Your Dream, Dr. Dorothea Hover-Kramer writes a brand new chapter regarding the scope and quality of later life. A helpful guide for those who want to be active participants - and not mere observers - in the second halves of their lives, Second Chance is an expertly crafted volume that teaches readers how to use their body's natural energy in order to manifest optimal creativity and health. Furthermore, Dr. Hover-Kramer cites her vast array of personal and professional experiences as a means of providing readers with first-hand examples of how to equip themselves with the tools necessary to overcome unforeseen challenges, as well as thrive in the face of continued adversity.

Bolstered by illustrative photos and practical, easy to follow tools and exercises, Second Chance encourages readers to embrace - rather than flee from - the omnipresent yearning for a meaningful life that lingers within us all. Reminding us that dispelling negative energy is the key to achieving true self acceptance - and ultimately realizing our dreams - Dr. Hover-Kramer reassures readers that miracles are not distant, unattainable phenomena, but rather ever-present, readily accessible gifts just waiting to be discovered every day.

A must read for anyone seeking to live an enriched, fulfilling life, Second Chance At Your Dream is a highly recommended literary treat.


Kenya Dow
Apex Reviews

Charming, Fun, Informative - Enliven your Life and Enjoy Doing It!
If you have ever meet Dorothea, you will immediately know that not only did she write this book - she read it! SheIS living and practicing what she teaches in this book! And, as the reader you feel that genuine aliveness oozing throughout the book. So, not only do you get information and super-easy yet life-enhancing exercises, but you get lead on the journey by a woman you will have fun with on the way! I highly recommend this book - and what a great title!

Wendy Anne McCarty, PhD, RN, DCEP, bringing energy psychology + primary psychology to LIFE!
Author, Welcoming Consciousness: Supporting Babies' Wholeness from the Beginning of Life.

A new lease on life is possible!
I found this book extremely interesting. While I have had several energy therapies done, I had never read up on it a lot. That has now changed, and I expect to keep using this book as a manual to feeling better and getting more control over my thinking and emotions. This is definitely not one of those books that you read once and never pick up again. This book is full of exercises and information to help you live a more fulfilling, healthy and positive life. Don't let the idea of it being for the second half of your life keep you from reading this, these techniques can be applied at any stage of life. The included pictures are a definite plus in understanding the material.

Quite honestly, it's almost impossible to contain in a short review all of the positive aspects of this book. For anyone who has ever contemplated alternative therapies, this is an excellent place to start learning what it's all about. I think this is a great resource for anyone who'd like to learn alternative techniques to handling the daily stressors of life. This book gets a 5 star rating from me!

Helpful Guide for Optimal Aging
Dr. Dorothea Hover-Kramer's book is a helpful guide for readers who want to be engaged in the second half of life. Her application of energy psychology to aging is a welcome addendum to other methods of staying emotionally and physically fit in the later years. The practical tools and exercises - complete with photographs - are well demonstrated, clearly explained and easy to follow.

This is a welcome invitation not only to participate actively but also to connect to inner wisdom. By freeing our minds of negative scripts, we are increasing the positive flow of energy. Hover-Kramer encourages the reader to nurture our yearning for a meaningful life. Her own positive attitude and enthusiasm almost jump off the page.

In order to live our dreams, she often reminds us that self-discovery is at the heart of change. Letting go of more dysfunctional belief patterns will lead to greater self acceptance. Hover-Kramer then gives specific examples of what to do - access a beautiful memory, express gratitude, give affirmation, acknowledge positive intention, focus breathing. Staying curious increases hope for facing life's challenges. According to Hover-Kramer, miracles await us wherever we're willing to see them.
... Read more

Product Description
There are over 40 million people who work in creative careers. You may be one of them. Or, perhaps, you would like to join their ranks. If either of these statements is true, this book is for you.

Maziarz offers a concrete program for helping you tap into and develop your creative potential. In fact, if your incorporate these teachings into your life, you can be not only creative, but kick-ass creative.

Maziarz provides a framework full of fun and practical tips for kick-starting the creative process. Included are:


* An examination of energy and what it has to do with art.

* How to deep with your deepest motivations, desires, and feelings.

* Concrete tips about time management.

* How to develop a support group.

* How to get rid of those flimsy excuse that block your creative output. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Figure out how to lay the best groundwork for your creative life with this book.
Everyone interested in a creative endeavor needs to read this book.The subtitle, "An Energy Makeover for Artists, Explorers, and Creative Professionals" couldn't be more straight on.

Maziarz looks at energy with a zoom lens, and invites readers to be ready for their energy close-up, as well.So, what does kick-ass creativity look like in action and how do you define it?Mazriaz answers all this and more.She offers resources, action paths, and a Q&A for kick-ass specifics.

For example, the chapter on resources isn't just about where to go and who to see.It's about you.It's about your resources: time, money, age, and experience.How do we capitalize on all of these things?The tidbits that are offered here will make you think.Do you want more time to create?From Maziarz "If you really want more time for yourself and your creative work, start by figuring out exactly what more time means for you.What kind of time do you want?"Whether it's an hour or two that you are aiming for or an 8-hour stretch, you need to think about what it is you need.I am a big believer that if you can name, you can have it.To say you want more time is too vague, and Maziarz helps you to define what it is you want.If other commitments are an issue, Maziarz addresses that, too.

With action paths, Maziarz asks you to be ready.Let's consider the practical aspect: if you were discovered tomorrow, would you be ready to feed the public?Do you have items in stock?Do you have marketing materials?Do you have a website and a mailing list?Essentially, are you ready to seize the deeper fullness of the moment?

The Q&A section offers exactly that, questions and answers, but it is also peppered throughout with advice in the margins and things to think about.

Some questions and concerns include:

"I think I'm ready to begin selling my work, but I don't know where to start."
"I think it would help if I had someone to represent my work.When is it time to get an agent?How do I get a good one?"and

BONUS

Maziarz offers a fill-in-the-blank Creative Soul Search to help you focus on what it is you want to do and helps you figure out the how.There's nothing like putting your thoughts on paper to make them real or to help you figure out what it is you want.

The tools to create the best groundwork for your art, your creativity, and your life are laid out in this book.Pick up a copy today!

Brilliant and Big fun! Very helpful and inspiring!

Mary Beth Maziarz's "Kick-Ass Creativity" is a breath of fresh air.
It kept my attention, it got me excited, and it reminded me that I am worthy of my desires.

I am a singer/songwriter, and until recently performing was my least favorite part of my "job". It always created
severe anxiety for me and was a major set back. Her Chapter on Finale Thinking not only gave me a clear view of
what I was really trying to achieve, but by visualizing a positive outcome of a performance I was able to overcome my fear.

I know some of the people who reviewed this book say that they have heard all this, "You are what you vibrate",kind of
stuff before and so have I- The problem wasn't that I wasn't aware of these things, it was that I wasn't DOING it, which I think is more the author's point. I know I am a creature of energy- but when was the last time I really took advantage of that? I had never stared at a stranger's elbow in line at Starbucks and chuckled when they touched or moved it in
response. I was familiar with the idea of "flipping" negative thoughts into something positive but I had never written them on paper or said them out loud.

The activities at the end of each chapter are really helpful. They made me feel vulnerable and I was inspired.
I find myself going back and doing some of the exercises over again, which turns out to be an excellent remedy for
writer's block. Mary Beth Maziarz has encouraged me to lighten up. Tapping into my creativity more shouldn't add stress to my life, it should be fun! I've had the privilege of meeting her after attending one of her workshops at the Durango Songwirter's Expo. She is the same brilliant and funny guide I had gotten to know so well while reading the book.

I would recommend "Kick-Ass Creativity" to anyone, no matter how big or small your creative aspirations may be.
In fact, it is going to make for a fabulous Christmas gift for many of my friends and
family.

Not much meat here
I'm an author and I read this book because it promised so much.Instead what I got was a book that was basically fluff and new age stuff about vibrating and energy.Not enough good advice and lots of feel-good crap.Your money is better spent with The Artist's Way, Get That Novel Started! (And Keep It Going 'til You Finish), I'd Rather Be Writing, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life or even Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (Shambhala Library).Don't waste your money with this book.

Misleading
I felt really torn about choosing the rating for this book. It really isn't what they describe it as, but it's still the sort of book that a lot of people out there are going to love. The disappointing part is that they, for some reason, gave it such a misleading description.

This isn't a book for everybody out there about how to enhance your energy and be creative. It's more of a mixture of telling you that you'll get whatever you believe you will, and frequent gushing about how wonderful you are. In the midst of it, there's a lot of throwing around words and references to scientific concepts that the author clearly doesn't fully understand.

The general problem, I guess, is that the author is trying much too hard and it's obvious. The exercises at the end of the chapters might spark some interesting thoughts for you, but they're not worth the price of the book. For people who really love a gushy pep talk and promises that all you have to do is focus on wanting something to get it, this is definitely something you'll love. For me, I got this as a review copy, and it's definitely not something I would buy again.

Jump Start Your Creative Battery!
Recently I was on a weeklong cruise - when I came back, my parked car wouldn't start.My father tried to jump start it from his car...the lights came on a little, but my engine still didn't turn over.It took the powerful electricity from a tow truck engine to get my engine revving again.

Creativity can be like that -- sometimes, we get stalled and we need a jumpstart.I've been working on a novel for three years now, and sometimes become mired in self-doubt.Kick-Ass Creativity" is full of insights into the nature of inspiration.It contains practical tips for overcoming fear and procrastination... and reassuring optimism that the "Big Creative" is there just waiting for us to connect to it and let it flow through us.It puts into written word thoughts which I have had many times during the creative process -- that feeling we are channeling something bigger than ourselves, and that "buzz" that comes when it's working.

The writing style, as others have commented, IS like having a great peptalk from a cool, positive friend - and that's exactly what I found so delightful about it. This book is definitely on my list to give as gifts to all my creative friends! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A classic!
Joseph Rossman was a patent officer charged with assessing patent applications. Rossman surveyed over 700 highly innovative inventors (holding an average of 33 patents each) with regard to their creative process. This resulted in a substantial body of testimonial material regarding their creative process, on the basis of which Rossman developed his model of the creative process.

Research into the creative process ( a subset of psychology of creativity research) has a long history. It started over 100 years ago with comments from the scientists Helmholtz and Poincare about their work processes and reached a 'golden age' in the first half of the 20th century with a string of stage models due to Wallas, Rossman, and Hutchinson and an alternative approach ('productive thinking') from the gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer. The models developed in this era have not been significantly questioned subsequently: instead, psychology since the 1950's has gone in a different direction, emphasising quanitative (psychometric) tests to measure creativity defined in operational terms rather than focusing on the creative process aspect of creativity. The Wallas stage model containing 'stages' of Preparation, Incubation, Illumination and Verification when working on a task or problem remains the most widely cited and accepted model for explaining illumination phenomena. Hutchinson's and Rossman's models remain significant contributions to the literature.

Rossman's book is a classic in creative process research. It is well written, contains a significant body of testimonial material, and remains current - it is not invalidated by later developments. ... Read more

Product Description

Creativity, Psychology, and the History of Science offers for the first time a comprehensive overview of the oeuvre of Howard E. Gruber, who is noted for his contributions both to the psychology of creativity and to the history of science.

The present book includes papers from a wide range of topics. In the contributions to creativity research, Gruber proposes his key ideas for studying creative work. Gruber focuses on how the thinking, motivation and affect of extraordinarily creative individuals evolve and how they interact over long periods of time. Gruber’s approach bridges many disciplines and subdisciplines in psychology and beyond, several of which are represented in the present volume: cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, history of science, aesthetics, and politics. The volume thus presents a unique and comprehensive contribution to our understanding of the creative process. Many of Gruber's papers have not previously been easily accessible; they are presented here in thoroughly revised form.

Product Description
In the first edition of "Creativity", Robert Weisberg offered an approach for organizing a broad range of phenomena, unified and fragmented psychological literature on creativity, and linked it with recent research on cognitive processes. Now, in "Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius" Weisberg has thoroughly revised and expanded this work into a wide-ranging investigation of the nature and development of creative thought. The new book offers an analysis of the relation of "ordinary" thinking to "creative" thinking, including computer modeling of thought, and an examination of the creative proccsses that led to important mechanical inventions, scientific discoveries and works of art. From the author's perspective, the creativity of the "genius" has its roots in the same thought processes that underlie everyday actions and ideas. An inquiry on the topic, "Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius" should be useful to students interested in creativity, critical reasoning, problem solving or cognition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Evolution of a creative work
I would wholeheartedly give this book 5 stars for the fact that it contains something I haven't seen in other books on creativity -- a way of understanding creativity as something we All have in our capabilities and creative works as coming about through an evolution of thought. The evolutionary concept is a Very Valuable one to have -- even Mozart didn't have completed music bestowed upon him by God. Mozart's pieces evolved (maybe more inside his head than on paper compared to many others) and so the myth of magical bestowal of creative genius is slain. The thing is despite the fact that ideas need to evolve in the thoughts of their thinker before they become novels, poems, songs, scientific theories, paintings, sculptures -- and are not given in a lightning bolt from God -- doesn't detract from the fact that there is still something mystical in the practice of creating -- and the poets, writers, artists, and scientists who have found this are the ones who become great, because they can't let go of the process...maybe it could be said are even addicted (at any rate obsessed) Ultimately this book is valuable to understanding the evolutionary process of creative work...but it deflates the power of creative thought into something mundane -- and NEW ideas, new combinations, and creative thought itself is not mundane. Yes, there are years of work -- but the payoff is so attracting and powerful that most writers and artists feel it to be mystical-- and perhaps that is how the myth of the lightning bolt of inspiration has taken hold. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Creativity is still a gift. But it also needs tending. The tone of this book is a too deflating for my taste -- although it gave me good stuff to chew on and another way of looking at creative work.

Genius is a 3-part recipe
Recipe for genius:
1) One part: intellect, i.e., high IQ.
2) One part: motivation/determination, i.e., staying focused
3) One part: immersion in field, i.e., being very well-read on the topic and working in it for at least a decade.

Are geniuses smart?Yes, but, as outlined above, that's only one part of being a genius.Without the other two, one isn't going to have a chance at achieving this level of achievement.

The above is the contention of the author and he makes a very compelling case for it.There are a lot of myths and folklore about what a genius is and he expertly tears down them one after another.There are also a lot of mislabeling of who qualifies as a genius.Being intellectually or artistically gifted doesn't necessarily mean one is a genius ... no matter how gifted a person might be.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone that is a scientist, artist, has a high IQ score, or is a teacher, parent or spouse of any of those three.

How to be a genius in six easy steps
Looking at titles that cover 'how to' be creative this book stands out as a sane title amongst the glib 'problem solver' titles that are based on the most 'creative geniuses' of all time. The myth of genius, within this publication, tends to be dispelled.
Genius - that value of creative thought - tends to be more mundane than we expect and perhaps hoped for. Giving up cigarettes isn't easy and there's little reasono that I can see why generating ideas that are creative should be any easier.

This book moves beyond the 'einstein' thinking to show how solid understanding formed the basis of ideas. How a random word (potatoe) didn't lead to the formulation of the theory of relativity.
A book that anyone who wants to consider the importance of balanced thinking (research, review, etc) has in the place of great ideas.

Debunking the Myth of Genius
This book expertly and methodically shows that the creative thought process is not distinct from ordinary thinking. ... Read more

Product Description
his Second Edition offers an analysis of the relation of 'ordinary' thinking to 'creative' thinking, including computer modelling of thought, and an examination of the creative processes that led to mechanical inventions, scientific discoveries and works of art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fast Service
I received this book in the time that I was told it would arrive.Great Service ... Read more

Product Description
Dr. Linda Hamilton's ground breaking book, The Person Behind the Mask: A Guide to Performing Arts Psychology, takes the reader on a vivid journey of the performer's private world, where personal insecurity often wages an unsuccessful battle against the stresses of the profession-whether these are unrealistic weight requirements, debilitating injuries, or stage fright. Intended for performers, teachers, and health-care workers, this is a book that describes the psychological problems of the stage, with a focus on education and prevention. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very informative psychology
Linda Hamilton is an expert on the artistic experience, having been an artist herself.Very informative text. ... Read more

Product Description
What is the nature of knowledge and moral commitment in a postmodern age of relativism? What drives the creativity and dedication of leaders of a profession? How do professional lives reflect moral identity and development?

To answer these questions, the author of this volume examines seven psychologists' personal accounts of their moral and professional development. In doing so she develops and applies a conceptual framework that links knowledge interests and creativity in professional life to identify development and existential choices. ... Read more