Dr. Albert Rothenberg, a noted researcher on the creative process, has identified a process he terms “Janusian thinking,” named for the Roman god Janus, who had two faces that looked in opposite directions. In Janusian thinking, two or more opposites or antitheses are conceived simultaneously, either as existing side by side or as equally operative, valid, or true. Dr. Rothenberg has identified traces of Janusian thinking in the works of Einstein, Mozart, Picasso, and Conrad. The way to use Janusian thinking is to ask, “What is the opposite of this?” and then try to imagine both opposites
...more
Like the yin/yang creating balance.
