From Kirkus Reviews
A mostly fascinating look at what makes creative people who they are, gleaned largely from interviews with 91 individuals from a wide variety of fields. Despite the subtitle, social psychologist Csikszentmihalyi, who invented the idea of ``flow'' and authored a book with that title, writes relatively little about the enjoyable, ego- and time- transcending absorption in a task that is conducive to creativity and high achievement. Rather, he focuses on the interplay between culture, the creative person, and the ``domain'' (sociologese for ``field''), including the receptivity of experts to new ideas and inventions. He quotes extensively--too much so--from the subjects he and his research team interviewed, but there are some gems among these passages, such as writer Madeleine L'Engle's observation that to produce good literature, ``your intuition and your intellect should be working together . . . making love.'' Csikszentmihalyi's weakest section consists of detailing ten personality polarities that supposedly distinguish creative individuals, but that are also applicable to ``balanced'' or ``fulfilled'' individuals. His best sections consist of longer profiles of individuals as varied as poet Anthony Hecht, ecologist Barry Commoner, and astronomer Vera Rubin. Also valuable is a concluding prescriptive section with some helpful advice to the average person on how to make his or her thinking and way of living more creative, particularly a passage on how to rethink and use a disappointing experiences, such as being passed over for a promotion. Unfortunately, redundancies make the work too long by at least a third, and some meaningless or fatuous generalizations also mar the presentation (e.g., ``Recent studies suggest that the amount of dalliance, marital infidelity and sexual experimentation [among creative people studied] is much less than earlier estimates had suggested''). Still, the rich anecdotal material Csikszentmihalyi has mined and analyzed make this an important study of a vital topic. ($40,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
''This thought-provoking mixture of scholarly and colloquial will enlighten inquisitive…readers.'' --Library Journal (starred review)
''The rich anecdotal material Csíkszentmihályi has mined and analyzed make this an important study of a vital topic.'' --Kirkus Reviews
From the Publisher
This book is about what makes life worth living. The creative excitement of the artist at her easel or the scientist in the lab. It comes as close to the ideal fulfillment as we all hope to accomplish, and so rarely do. Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi interviewed more than ninety of possibly the most interesting people in the world -- people like actor Ed Asner, authors Robertson Davies and Nadine Gordimer, scientists Jonas Salk and Linus Pauling, and Senator Eugene McCarthy -- who have changed the way people in their fields think and work to find out how creativity has been a force in their lives. In his bestselling bookFlow, Professor Csikszentmihalyi explored states of "optimal experience" -- those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment -- and showed that what makes experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called "flow." Here Professor Csikszentmihalyi builds on his flow theory, profiling individuals who have found ways to make flow a permanent feature of their lives and at the same time have contributed to society and culture.
Professor Csikszentmihalyi explores why creative people are often seen as selfish and arrogant (even though they are not) and reveals that the idea of the tortured genius is largely a myth. He argues that creativity needs to be cultivated not only in traditionally creative fields like sciences and arts, but also in business, government and education.
This book is not so much about the everyday "creativity" that we all experience but the kind of creativity of artists, scientists and others that can transform our culture and the way we look at the world. By studying the creative lives of exceptional people, Professor Csikszentmihalyi shows us how we can all enhance our everyday lives. His goal is to help us better understand a way of being that is more satisfying and more fulfilling.
From the Back Cover
The classic study of the creative process from the national bestselling author of Flow
creativity is about capturing those moments that make life worth living. Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi reveals what leads to these moments—be it the excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab—so that this knowledge can be used to enrich people's lives. Drawing on nearly one hundred interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists, to politicians and business leaders, to poets and artists, as well as his thirty years of research on the subject, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous flow 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 explains why creativity needs to be cultivated and is necessary for the future of our country, if not the world.
About the Author
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is distinguished professor of psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University. He is a former professor and chairman of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago. He is also the founder and codirector of the Quality of Life Research Center, a nonprofit research institute that studies positive psychology. His books include Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and The Evolving Self, as well as numerous articles and contributions to other works.
