Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature: Psychological, Social, and Spiritual Perspectives

by Ruth Richards (Editor)

What is everyday creativity? A capacity, a strategy, a process, all of these. It is an ability that is intimately woven into our daily lives and our personalities, one that we use from hour to hour; yet it remains, for most of us, underdeveloped and, unfortunately, underacknowledged. Writes editor and leading creativity researcher Ruth Richards, "Everyday creativity is about everyone, throughout our lives, and fundamental to our very survival. It is how we find our lost child, get enough to eat, make our way in a new place and culture…With our everyday creativity, we adapt flexibly, we improvise, we try different options, whether we are raising a child, counseling a friend, fixing our home, or planning a fundraising event." In this provocative collection of essays, an interdisciplinary group of eminent thinkers and writers offer their thoughts on how embracing creativity—tapping into the "originality of everyday life"—can lead to improved physical and mental health, to new ways of thinking, of experiencing the world and ourselves. They show how creativity can refine our views of human nature at an individual and societal level and, ultimately, change our paradigms for survival—and for flourishing—in a world fraught with urgent challenges. Neither a dry treatise nor a manual, this anthology draws upon the latest research in the area to present a lively examination of the phenomenon and process of everyday creativity and its far-reaching ramifications for self, culture, history, society, politics, and humankind's future. Part I looks at creativity and individuals—our well-being, potential for new and transformative understandings, and openings to richness, immediacy, and profundity of experience. Part II involves social creativity—including issues of complexity, collaboration, contextual relativity, inclusiveness, and creative systems evolving from the ground up (vs. more hierarchical models). Part III presents a detailed and multilayered discussion of 12 potential benefits of living more creatively.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published June 15, 2007

Reviews

[Linda Riebel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book is that creativity is not a secret talent allotted to a chosen few, but rather a human capacity that we can all use for problem-solving and for enjoyment.

I agree. I felt just as creative when I was improvising a tool to pull up wall-to-wall carpets during remodeling as I did when I was writing a poem. The most unexpected situations call for creativity. A costumer for the San Francisco Opera was explaining what his work is like. He described the occasional crisis in his business - a cleaning fluid ruins the tenor's waistcoat the day before opening, the soprano is ill today and the understudy is three sizes smaller -- and how they solve the problem on the spot.

This is not just a frivolous viewpoint held by liberal-arts types. A survey by IBM of 1500 CEOs in May, 2010, found that of all the qualities they look for in a prospective employee, the highest-ranked was creativity. I was reminded of the Apollo 13 explosion and the creativity of the engineers on the ground who had to design an entire new set of survival mechanisms to rescue lost astronauts - instantly! So developing and cultivating your own creativity can be rewarding in many ways.

This book is for people who are seriously interested in knowing what researchers have discovered about human creativity - what it is, what supports it, its role in our evolution, and how creativity can help us solve our most pressing problems. Thirteen essays by experts in creativity give solid scholarly information about the field. The last essay integrates the book and suggests specific benefits of setting aside the notion that "I'm not creative" and welcoming creativity into your life.

[Vic · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this book was logical, but the execution was...funky. I'm not sure how I felt about the intermixed psychological/experimental and philosophical chapters--I respect philosophy very much and I feel like the best essays pretty much change who I am as a person, but I think this book would have been better served if they at least put the philosophy before the psychology --introduce the concept, then narrow in on it. Also, a few of the essays definitely read like speculative fiction. Still, definitely one I'm going to reread to make sure I really got it all.