Creative Process Incubation Is One

Creative Process Incubation is one of the key components of Graham Wallas' theory of the creative process. Divided into five stages, the process can readily be applied to the working habits of John Forbes Nash, Jr. The mathematician whose life inspired the book and film a Beautiful Mind. Nash incubated most of his ideas about mathematical conundrums. The conundrums and the ideas they inspired were forged during a long preparation stage that included Nash's work as a graduate student and his long-time tenure as a professor of mathematics.

In his autobiography Nash notes that "exposure to economic ideas and problems" and to game theory prepared him for a lifelong study of mathematics (Nash 1994). Therefore, Nash's discoveries and breakthroughs occurred because they were rooted in the first two stages of the Wallas theory of creativity: preparation and incubation. The third stage of the creative process, according to Wallas, is intimation: the feeling that the solution or some new idea is about to emerge. Nash's schizophrenia enhanced his emotional state and his intimations.

For example, he was well-known for haunting Princeton's Fine Hall of Mathematics late at night scribbling equations on the chalkboard as if he was compelled to bring what lie beneath conscious awareness out into the open. The intimation stage immediately precedes the illumination or insight stage: when Nash's ideas coalesced and became meaningful, testable, and later verifiable mathematical equations. In fact, the final stage in the Wallas stage model of the creative process is verification.

Nash earned a Nobel Prize in mathematics because his discoveries not only proved verifiable but tremendously useful for the scientific community. Part Two 1. Sublimation, a term used in psychoanalysis, refers to the redirection of energy away from uncomfortable, subconscious, or unacceptable impulses toward a constructive endeavor. The constructive endeavor often becomes a creative outlet such as art or music. In fact, many artists and musicians imbue their work with powerful emotions in a process of sublimation.

Sublimation refers to this channeling of emotional intensity into creative work: to transform basic psychological or sexual urges into sublime revelations. 2. The collective unconscious is a term most commonly associated with the work of Carl Jung, a student of Freud's. Jung posited the existence of a grand database of human thought to which all persons have access. The idea that there is "nothing new under the sun" reflects the widespread belief in a collective unconscious. Common dreams, shared imagery, and similarity among world religions are extensions of the collective unconscious.

The collective unconscious also serves as a wellspring of images, thoughts, sounds, and ideas that artists, musicians, and creative thinkers draw from during the creative process. 3. Archetypes are in fact part of the collective unconscious. Universal symbols or proto-ideas like "mother" or "father" are archetypal. Archetypes are what Plato referred to as the Forms. Jung deepened the theory of archetypes by illustrating how cultures around the world and throughout time exhibit the same core elements in their literatures and sacred texts including the classic male hero.

Archetypes help ground the creative process in universal ideas, making the fruits of the creative.