Creativity and the Mind

by Ward, Thomas B.; Finke, Ronald A.; Smith, Steven M.

• ISBN13: 9780306450860
• ISBN10: 0306450860
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-09-01
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

In this provocative book, acclaimed psychologists Thomas Ward, Ronald Finke, and Steven Smith eloquently portray the fascinating processes of the creative mind at work, and hand us the invaluable tools with which we can mine our most valued and important resource. Creativity - and the methods by which we can heighten it - has recently become the focus of a burgeoning and exciting new field in psychology. By skillfully blending this cutting-edge scientific research with the real-world experiences of humanity's most successful creative thinkers, this provocative book isolates the mechanisms by which our mind conceives innovative and creative ideas. Since all creative thoughts emerge from skillfully drawing upon the well of knowledge we already possess, this book tackles the very nature of this knowledge. As these astute authors convincingly argue, the same mental processes that help a chemist like Kary Mullis discover a revolutionary new scientific principle or inspire an artist like Beethoven to create a marvelous symphony underlie the host of creative endeavors we all undertake. This inspiring book applies these basic tenets to a rich variety of creative pursuits, including engineering, design, writing, business, science, art, and even the challenges of our everyday lives. We learn how best to combine and play with the images, words, and concepts that spark fertile new ideas and lead to ever more impressive creative leaps.

Author Biography

Steven M. Smith is Associate Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Probing the Creative Mind	p. 1
Notes	p. 23
Concepts and Creativity	p. 25
Notes	p. 56
Visualizing in a Creative Way	p. 59
Summary	p. 87
Notes	p. 88
Problem Solving and Reasoning	p. 89
Notes	p. 120
Notes	p. 121
Notes	p. 147
Business Applications	p. 149
Notes	p. 173
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing	p. 175
Notes	p. 201
Science and Art	p. 203
Summary	p. 228
Notes	p. 229
Just Having Fun	p. 231
Summary	p. 251
Note	p. 252
Looking Back and Looking Forward	p. 253
Summary	p. 267
Notes	p. 270
Index	p. 271
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.