In a discussion with Scientific American Mind executive editor Mariette DiChristina, three noted experts on creativity, each with a very different perspective and background, reveal powerful ways to unleash your creat­ive self.

John Houtz is a psychologist and professor at Fordham University. His most recent book is The Educational Psychology of Creativity (Hamptom Press, 2002).

19 Comments

1. 1. philipdonald 01:49 PM 5/29/08

   I think everyone has creativity, but our areas of creativity are guided by our strengths and weaknesses.

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2. 2. georgebhunt 04:01 PM 5/29/08

   Perhaps the connection between creativity and problem-solving should be more thoroughly investigated AND taught to youngsters as life coping skills.

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3. 3. rudysplif 06:08 PM 5/29/08

   Great article, but with one point, I think the experts or the editor are a little bit off. It's with how they address society's perception of creativity.
   
   Artist and creative are not equivalent. I don't believe western society has a negative perception of creativity. They have a negative perception of financial instability (and obviously destructive behavior). It happens that artists and musicians can fall into this category. I believe this is where the objection comes from. Not from an objection to creativity.
   
   So while a parent may (unfortunately) steer their child away from painting or writing as a profession. They most probably would encourage their child's creativity (and recognize such creativity) in science (buying those 101 science experiment kits!), computer programming, or marketing. All of which can be extremely creative fields. Just as much as writing or painting. I believe this shows that the bias is not against creativity.
   
   Also, I have never heard a person/parent rail against day dreaming in itself. It's not the day dreaming that's the problem. It's the incompletion of the task at hand that's the problem. If a child is not learning their alphabet or being disruptive because of their day dreaming, this is not a positive. There's a time and place for everything and even children need to be able to focus and have an attention span. That said they should also have plenty of time to day dream.
   
   I felt this article was about increasing creativity in general and even emphasizing that thinking creatively helps with more than just writing.
   
   I'm not denying the cultural bias towards artistic fields. I'm simply saying I don't believe the root cause of this bias is in an objection to creativety and does not manifest itself as an objection to creativety. And as such, it's a bit mis-placed in an article that is about creativity in life in general.
   
   Does anyone else agree with this assessment?
   
   --
   Edited by rudysplif at 05/29/2008 11:16 AM
   
   --
   Edited by rudysplif at 05/29/2008 11:25 AM

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4. 4. alexandermimran 02:31 AM 5/30/08

   Good article.
   If you want to have a place to record your ideas or "morning pages", check out Penzu.com.

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5. 5. Assegai 02:23 PM 5/30/08

   Quoting Houtz from the above article, "Its important not to become discouraged. You have to keep at it!" True, I swear.

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6. 6. H2O~XX 03:25 PM 5/30/08

   Writing morning pages and then walking them through the mind while actually walking outside with nature just brings it all together. Great article!

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7. 7. ReedSL 06:21 PM 5/30/08

   Amazing discussion, thank you so much.

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8. 8. SallyJ 04:46 PM 5/31/08

   "Epstein: When children are very young, they all express creativity, but by the end of the first grade, very few do so. This is because of socialization. They learn in school to stay on task and to stop daydreaming and asking silly questions. As a result, the expression of new ideas is largely shut down. We end up leaving creative expression to the misfitsthe people who cant be socialized. Its a tragedy."
   Epstein has confused socialization with institutionalization.

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9. 9. Deep Impact 01:19 PM 6/1/08

   Hello: Thank you so much for this article. It is timely in that I have three non-fiction books I hope to write.
   This give me a way to start.
   
   Ellen

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10. 10. gunondeer 05:16 AM 6/2/08

    Inventors ,like myself are the source of of creative genius. Take my for example: I think in color and and project in black and white. The end idea is usually novel as my genius is almost always the first of its kind- I never have any challenges as to my patents. I exercise my talents by thinking of a problem in reverse,just to toy with the idea. Than I go to the bazar and exaggerate as many points of the idea as I can remember. For example: If thsi idea was invented what would it look like,what type of machine would I need to make it?, how would it effect humanity and most importantly, what woould be the cost to make it. Thought games. Play with yoour mind ,exercise it and the damned mind will seemingly solve your problem. You almost get the feeling that someone is instructing from within on the how and why.
    gunondeer

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11. 11. gs_chandy 05:43 AM 6/3/08

    Fascinating article, [b]very[/b] useful 'elements' there (in the article [i]and[/i] in the readers' comments) on the important issue of [i][b]"how to unleash creativity".[/b][/i]. Thank you for running it.
    
    But SciAm, being SciAm, should really go much further: please consider the possibility of enabling your readers to use that article as a solid foundation, a source of useful ideas on how to unleash creativity so that they (individually or in groups) can actually create their own action plans [i][b]"to unleash their creativity".[/b][/i] That would really be valuable!
    
    I would love to attach some documentation on specifically how such action planning could quite easily developed. Alas, your [b][u]'Attach Files'[/u][/b] feature is entirely useless for this (so far as I am concerned), as it does not allow us to attach either PowerPoint or Word documents. (There is no point at all in attaching a text document, which is presumably permitted, as the action planning - and even the effective description of such action planning - would involve the display of graphical models that simply cannot be done in a text tile).
    
    (May I request SciAm editors to do something to remove this rather severe deficiency?)
    
    Thanks and regards,
    GSC

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12. 12. gallatea0791 07:22 PM 6/3/08

    I think creativity is linked with artists and regardless of income potential, there is certainly bias. I am finishing my MFA, already have jobs on the table and yet my family hasn't even acknowledged my achievment. What they do praise are 'practical' choices, regardless of the outcome. Such as my brothers not going to college and staying in the auto industry. One has already declared bankruptcy twice and the other had his hours cut and may be losing his house. But despite entering a shifty occupation in a weak economy, these are still traditionally accepted practical choices for professions where I come from. Everytime my mother raises the issue of me getting the MFA, there is the usual discussion that follows, "oh my god, what a waste of time and money - how will she survive?" It rarely turns into a positive discussion. Also, I find that people in practical professions abuse drugs more often than artists. This is just based on people I've met and my particular experience though.

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13. 13. theminimalist 05:42 PM 6/8/08

    Great article. I love the concept of the American stereotype of the artist as being somehow less than. Perhaps it's the competition and blurring of the line between commercialism and art that has everyone confused. If you design video games for example, you may call yourself a programmer or computer engineer to sound more respectful. Who's designing video games? Some flaky dreamer? I am of Irish descent and come from a hugely creative family comprised of musicians and artists and film makers. Some of the most important musicians are Irish because art and music have been valued throughout Irish history and still are. But just because you can play the pipes in the pub at night doesn't mean you don't carry your weight during the day!

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14. 14. Daniel35 06:08 PM 6/8/08

    As to how we develop creativity, I think it's about the inhibitions on what we're not supposed to talk about in polite conversation, such as politics and religion, not to leave out sex, so we have to learn to think for ourselves. But these inhibitions must result from strong personal opinions and secrets, which result from not talking about them and getting feedback. Is this the best way to help our kiids develop their minds and behaviors?

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15. 15. natikaal 08:51 AM 6/9/08

    Unfortunately, I think that when people are asked about 'creative people' they don't think of the organized, motivated people. They think more of the people that have tremendous talent, but then have their head in the clouds, with no thought to the rational world around them. Or, they think of the people who have talent, but just aren't given the chance to excel in their field. After all, how many artists do you think there can reasonably be and still make a decent living off of it? Especially these days. Everyone's cutting back.
    
    I personally hold the belief that 'the creative bunch' don't hold themselves back so much for fear of what people will think of their creations; but if they were being honest with themselves, it would be more the unusual behaviors that they would have to take on to be successfully creative. The amount of time and effort as well, because yes, if you are truly creative, it seeps into all parts of your life. You can't contain it. And [i]oh how productive you become[/i]. ;-)
    
    As far as children go, yes, socialization; as well as institutionalization smother the creativeness of children. We, as adults, take the wonder out of all the ordinary things and don't replace it with more mysteries to solve. We over analyze, over-explain everything, then wonder why the poor kids won't sit still. We literally kill their creativity. The only true way to keep it alive is to have time each day where you do creative activities, even if it is simply thinking. Then also, when we teach about (and tale the marvel out of) atoms and wind patterns and tidal pull and all of the marvelous things our children see about us each day, we need to replace it. Point out new things that need to be explained. Show them things they've never seen before, without analyzing and over-explaining. Replace that wonderful, amazing twinkling light in the heavens that has just become a ball of gas with something equally as wonderful and amazing. Black hole, anyone?
    
    I must state, though- I found the ideas on how to stimulate your creativity to be a bit sterile and short-sighted. And what do you do when you have so many ideas that you are paralyzed, which do you use, which do you dump? They're all good! Maybe start a journal of only ideas like DaVinci? But then the notebook alone would take a whole lifetime, and all your good ideas? Used by someone else. What to do!
    
    --
    Edited by natikaal at 06/12/2008 2:35 AM

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16. 16. Bern 09:30 AM 7/6/08

    " I don't believe western society has a negative perception of creativity. They have a negative perception of financial instability (and obviously destructive behavior). It happens that artists and musicians can fall into this category. I believe this is where the objection comes from. Not from an objection to creativity. " ~ I agree with this totally. The article was very good but my own problem is how to cope with *too many* ideas and never enough time or money to pursue them. Society isn't conducive to creativity - that's our problem.
    

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17. 17. speedlearner34 10:54 AM 9/8/08

    The ancient Romans agreed with the concept of taking a walk to solve
    challenging problems - they gave it a name: 'solvitur ambulando' , the
    solution in walking.
    
    It aint the quantity of your ideas, but the quality. Sure, curiosity is
    the indispensable tool, but so is Tolerance for Frustration. How many
    brilliant ideas never saw the light of consciousness because we quit
    before reaching the mountain top.
    
    Last major point to check out: our conscious mind (left-hemisphere,
    neo-cortex) has the broadband to process 15-60 bits of information per second. Compare to: our nonconscious (right-hemisphere, subconscious)
    mind has a processing ability of 11 million bits of information per second.
    
    Google: processing info of brain and discover a greater respect for our
    Brainstem and Basal Ganglia processing sensory and motor feedback.
    H. Bernard Wechsler,
    www.speedlearning.org
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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18. 18. speedlearner34 11:04 AM 9/8/08

    It aint all using our conscious mind (left-hemisphere, neocortex),
    because it has a narrow processing broadband of only 15-60
    bits of information per second. Compare to our nonconscious
    mind (right-hemisphere, subconscious) which had a broadband
    capacity to process 11 million bits of info per second. Google it.
    
    We need an integration of both for optimal creativity.
    The nonconscious needs the capacity to handle our sensory
    and motor feedback from the Brainstem and Basal Ganglia.
    
    Our society give 95% of its attention in school to our left-hemispheric
    skills of reading, reasoning and analysis, and ignores the right-hemisphere's powerful skills of pattern recognition, intuition, and
    imagination. One-more-once: nonconscious can process 11 million bits of
    information per second, not a lousy 15-60 bits of consciousness.
    H. Bernard Wechsler,
    www.Speedlearning.org

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19. 19. hellolkj in reply to georgebhunt 11:37 PM 7/15/10

    Hey, I just wanted to thank you so much for your comment. I never made that connection before and I think you're really on the something. What you said really helped me. :) Thanks!

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