Looking at Creativity
The main purpose of these chapters is to show what creativity is and how it can often be confused for other things—like backwardness, malevolence, or even stupidity. The author uses the example of Thomas Edison as a boy and the mischief he would get up to and thus makes the point that creativity sometimes comes out in different ways and one should not be quick to judge it negatively.

The key question the author is addressing is what constitutes the creative mind? The author looks at the various qualities of the creative person, creative personality traits and the theories used over time to explain them, such as Freud’s theory or Adler’s theory; the mental processes that go along with creative expression, and how the creative output is judged according to different theoretical models. Essentially the author is asking how should one understand the creative mind?

The most important information in the chapters is the theoretical concepts that the author highlights. The author examines how creativity is applied, where it comes from, and how it is interpreted within the larger context of psychology. So for example the author looks at what Jung had to say about it and compares it to Maslow and Hammer and Rogers. The psychoanalytical theories are discussed and the humanist theories are discussed and this for me was the key information among all the chapters as it helped to explain how creativity has been understood by the leading lights of psychology in the past. The author does not summarily draw a conclusion but does leave it open to discussion, though he himself does say that he finds the humanist interpretation of creativity to be more compelling than the psychoanalytical since the humanist interpretation provides more fruitful insights into the mystery of creativity insofar as he is concerned.

The key concepts we need to understand in the article are humanist theory and psychoanalytic theory. By these concepts, the author means that there are different perspectives that theorists take when it comes to creativity. Psychoanalysts look at creativity from the context of what was going on in the individuals’ early years because they believe that these early years are meaningful in terms of the development of the personality. Some of them see creativity as an early fixation that needs to be overcome and dealt with and that creativity is the effect of an emotional disturbance (the author notes that Jung was the exception to the rule in this regard). The humanists on the other hand take a more positive approach to creativity: they see it as conscious, constructive, cognitive, deliberate, and part of what it means to be human. The psychoanalysts view it mainly as something stemming from the unconscious, which is trying to deal with some repressed emotion. The humanists embrace it as a good thing and see it as flowing outward as part of the human spirit and the creative instinct that is intertwined with all things in the universe.

The main assumption underlying...…a major source of good and change for the better in this world if we just worked a little harder to understand and appreciate it. The problem that most people have is that they themselves are used to conforming to certain standards and ideas and when others step outside those boundaries they feel like they need to take action because they want everyone to do the same things they have done. That is not what creativity is about, however, and the author indicates as much.

Creativity is about looking at the world through fresh eyes and investigating, and trying out new ideas and seeing what else can work. It is refreshing and invigorating and it can offer a great deal of vitality when it is needed most. So it should be respected and appreciated and not looked down upon and creative people should never feel like they are less than others just because they look at things differently. That is the biggest overall impact and the big return on investment of course is that if people accept creativity into their lives they will probably enjoy some fairly innovative concepts that improve their lives in some way. Edison brought some innovative ideas into the world that made the world a better place and that is the story with every creative person. So the relevance of the subject is that the world could use a lot of creativity and letting it happen and accepting the mystery is the best way to approach it.