Few would argue that the creative personality is unique, and it can be hard to nail down. Often misunderstood, creative types can be thought to be irresponsible or too unconventional. As is true with so many things in life, it's a little more complex than that. Lets have a look at the dichotomies one might find in the personality of a creative individual.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Mee-hy Cheek-sent-me-hi) has spent more than 30 years studying how creative people live and work. He has attempted to understand the often mysterious process of creativity. In his book Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People,Csikszentmihalyi notes how multifaceted the creative personality can be and points to a theme of contradictions in creative people. Here are descriptions of some of these paradoxes:
- Creative people can have a lot of energy but also may need quiet and rest. When necessary, they can have an intense focus on the project or problem at hand. This intensity is often followed, however, by a need for rest.
- Creative people may at once be smart and naive. Though a degree of intelligence is often required to make significant creative contributions, it seems that a beginner’s mind, one that allows a sense of awe and wonderment, are also needed to create.
- Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy and reality. While imagination was required to conceive of what was initially perceived as the fantasy of electricity or the telephone or the television, ultimately the technology had to be rooted in reality to have meaning.
- Creative people are both rebellious and conservative. Never taking chances is unlikely to lead to change. Always attempting to create change without an understanding of history and tradition is unlikely to create embraceable change.
- The heightened sensitivity of the creative individual opens them to experiencing deep pain and intense joy. It also leads them to a level of awareness needed to create.
What kinds of contradictions do you find in your own personality or that of someone close to you? How do you reconcile what seem to be very different ways of moving through the world?
Gosh! This is very interesting. I have never considered myself a creative individual, but I can relate to all of these traits. I'm stuck on the last question, though, because I don't think I've reconciled moving differently through the world. Do I spend too much time and energy trying to move through a world that is different from me?
ReplyDeleteI believe we all have contradictions in us--light and dark even. I can't say I know many humans who aren't complex. I also think that we often define creativity pretty narrowly. So I'd say at the very least you're human and more likely you're not giving yourself credit for your creativity!
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