Harper Perennial Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention

Deep interesting read about the origins of creativity.The only thing is that the paperback version (the one with red and blue and yellow titles) is with a suuuuper fragile paper. The pages are super thin (I like to underline some paragraphs, and the pen always goes to the other side of the page.Apart from that, Mihaly shows a great respect from creativity and the creative process.

Having just finished reading Creativity by Csikszentmihalyi I have become fascinated by the topic. His book is detailed and highly analytical. This is not a fantastical book of spurious claims nor a self-help book. Having said that, he sets out concisely at the end how one might apply certain principles and approaches to life based on those of successful creative people (such as those he refers to in previous chapters). The most contentious argument put forward is that one is only creative if that creativity is recognised by others of sufficient standing in a field and/or domain. However, in the 'Notes' section at the end he goes on to explain the importance of adopting this position in order to apply the scientific metheod to the study of creativity. Clearly if everyone could self-validate their creativity in terms of quantity and quality the subject would be completely subjective. I appreciate this difficulty but it is nonetheless hard to divorce oneself from the conviction that one has, on occasion, been genuinely creative even if it has not been validated by anyone else.I was unsure as to whether to rate this book as four stars or five on the basis that, although Csikszentmihalyi has approached the matter rigourously and makes few assumptions about the nature of creativity, it would have been valuable, i think, to evaluate the experiences and lives of those who are supposedly not creative. In a similar vein the question of how intelligence should be defined is often studied and disputed, although it seems equally challenging to precisely define its opposite, whatever that is - perhaps 'stupidity'?However, Csikszentmihalyi has published widely and thoroughly on the matter and as such I would not expect any book, brilliant as it may be, to address every aspect of such a complex notion as 'creativity', with all its far reaching implications for mankind. As such I rate this book five stars as it is a well-written and stimulating foray into this area of psychology. I would reccommend this book to people of all levels of knowledge of the field of psychology, although it is not a 'quick-flick' read by any means. I have already started reading another of his books.

I used this book as the basis for a thesis on creative writing and it received a first, that's a win in my book! Mainly, Csikszentmihalyi's presentation of ideas and the way he juxtaposes what defines an incredibly intangible subject in a not too dryly academic way helped guide me in making the same concepts and ideas accessible and meaningful in my chosen field. However, the book itself does not limit itself to any given creative discipline, rather opens up the concept of creativity as a broad church and bolsters this with many testaments from successful people in creative endeavours both ordinary and spectacular.This is what makes it an intriguing read, I think. Its very breadth of scope paradoxically narrowing down what it means to be creative and how we ourselves define it through our own eyes. The differences and the similarities of creative process and the removal of stigma and mystique surrounding our various perceptions gives a fresh perspective on what is essentially a very innate force, present in all of us and only waiting to be tapped into.

Cover is really thin, as is the paper, which makes this feel really cheap. The content is good, but the structure seemed a little odd to me - I ended up reading the chapters in a different order, because they made more sense that way. Nothing really groundbreaking I don't think, but to be fair to the author, they do say that themselves. A good overview of the subject - would have liked a bit more neurology in it, but I do understand that the book didn't promise that.

Used it for my uni studies. Very interesting read. Good theory. It is a hungarian work. Very very good.