{ Wednesday, July 26, 2006 }
William James on Creativity
William James, on the nature of the creative process:
Instead of thoughts of concrete things patiently following one another in a beaten track of habitual suggestion, we have the most abrupt cross-cuts and transitions from one idea to another, the most rarefied abstractions and discriminations, the most unheard of combination of elements, the subtlest associations of analogy; in a word, we seem suddenly introduced into a seething caldron of ideas, where everything is fizzling and bobbling about in a state of bewildering activity, where partnerships can be joined or loosened in an instant, treadmill routine is unkonwn, and the unexpected seems the only law.
LINK | 5:57 PM | TB
Interesting that the Csikszentmihalyi quote seems to take cognitive functioning as the basis
of the creative process (a problem to be solved, a puzzle to be assembled) whereas the James
quote describes the process as a place of wild Flow, which seems more aligned with the
work that brought Csikszentmihalyi into our awareness in the first place.
{ Post a comment }
Hey, now I want to read that, too. And look, the whole thing is online.
Jim Greer | July 26, 2006 10:07 PM