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The present book is based on the author'sextensive investigation in the area of creativity. It stidies the concept of creativity and its related problems. The findings have been analysed and brilliantly interpreted. ... Read more

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This collection of papers has been developed by an interdisciplinary group of contributors. They present a variety of new perspectives on creativity, spirituality, and transcendence as experienced in adulthood. The discussions in this volume address the interplay of variables from theoretical, experimental, and clinical vantage points. This book is written for academic and clinical audiences, as well as for those who are interested in—and wrestle with—unexpressed aspects of their own creativity and spiritual yearnings. Unlike the current cognitive trend in creativity research that seeks rational and biological explanations for human phenomena, these essays give consideration to the power of extraordinary sources of inspiration. The research and theoretically based articles presented make a captivating collection that challenges our thinking about what it means to be a creative adult striving toward personal integrity and wisdom at the dawn of the 21^st century.
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Providing a critical overview of our understanding of creativity, this text addresses fundamental issues in the field. The contributors address questions such as: How is the creative person socially constructed? And what are the economic and social factors in the production of art? ... Read more

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“All it takes to become an artist is to start doing art.”
–from On Becoming an Artist

On Becoming an Artist is loaded with good news. Backed by her landmark scientific work on mindfulness and artistic nature, bestselling author and Harvard psychologist Ellen J. Langer shows us that creativity is not a rare gift that only some special few are born with, but rather an integral part of everyone’s makeup. All of us can express our creative impulses– authentically and uniquely–and, in the process, enrich our lives.

Why then do so many of us merely dream of someday painting, someday writing, someday making music? Why do we think the same old thoughts, harbor the same old prejudices, stay stuck in the same old mud? Who taught us to think “inside the box”?

No one is more qualified to answer these questions than Dr. Langer, who has explored their every facet for years. She describes dozens of fascinating experiments–her own and those of her colleagues–that are designed to study mindfulness and its relation to human creativity, and she shares the profound implications of the results–for our well-being, health, and happiness.

Langer reveals myriad insights, among them: We think we should already know what only firsthand experience can teach us. . . . In learning the ways that all roses are alike, we risk becoming blind to their differences. . . . If we are mindfully creative, the circumstances of the moment will tell us what to do. . . . Those of us who are less evaluatively inclined experience less guilt, less regret, less blame, and tend to like ourselves more. . . . Uncertainty gives us the freedom to discover meaning. . . . Finally, what we think we’re sure of may not even exist.

With the skill of a gifted logician, Langer demonstrates exactly how we undervalue ourselves and undermine our creativity. By example, she persuades us to have faith in our creative works, not because someone else approves of them but because they’re a true expression of ourselves. Her high-spirited, challenging book sparkles with wit and intelligence and inspires in us an infectious enthusiasm for our creations, our world, and ourselves. It can be of lifelong value to everyone who reads it.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Too scientific
While the book is inspirational, there are too many experiments that take away from the real creativity - I mean real psychological and scientific experiments with control groups. Creativity is not about mice and control groups. It's so much more, and I'm afraid that the sheer number of experiments in the book made it a little less than engaging. But when it was good, it was very good - I'm studying pottery at the moment and the book has really freed me from the usual self-criticism. I now look at my "dodgy" pieces as works-in-progress and they now just make me laugh. I've also stopped judging my "talent". Still, I think that so much more could have been achieved with the subject.

Pointless and disappointing
The book is not helpful in anyway. She makes statements throughout the book like "You need to be mindful when painting..." but she never explains how one becomes mindful or what being mindful truly is. Despite that annoyance, what really got to me is when she would state things such as "I and this other painter painted the same subject and my painting was clearly superior." A statement like this is enough for me to put the book down for good, but what makes it worse is that her paintings (she proudly publishes many in the book) are awful. I mean AWFUL!! This look like they were painted by a four-year-old.

Inspiring and helpful
There is so much fear and mindlessness embedded in The Arts from the institutions of modern artistic training to the culture of artistic observation and criticism. It cannot be ignored any longer. This book elucidates many of the issues facing artists today, offers new perspectives and does it in a way that is applicable to any artist in any discipline at any level. If you're looking for a 'how to' guide, this isn't it, but then again could there be one for making art?!? We each have to discover our own 'how to' as artists and I trust that the ideas presented here will definitely be useful for you along the way!

Free Your Thoughts
Ellen J. Langer's books have a central theme: mindfulness, or in today's parlance, thinking outside the box.

Langer points out how we often follow rules and traditions, somewhat subconsciously, without realizing that they often do us absolutely no good.

Ellen is your mentor if you want to question everything and trust your instincts as you develop your aristic talents. In this book, she talks about her painting forays, but it's easy to draw parallels to other creative pursuits.

Becoming free to enjoy the creative process
I bought this book because I wanted to learn how to be free from self criticism so I could enjoy the creative process.
Langer shows howerroneous are thoughts can be.She uses many examples that show how people compare themselves to "standards" that
are meaningless. Reading this books has helped me to become less self limiting or mindless and to become more free or mindful. ... Read more

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"Why has the United States struggle to keep up with the rest of the world been so difficult and why have so many financial calamities originated in the U.S.?Trumping the Red Queen answers these questions as it unravels the mysteries behind creativity and learning.The reader is taken on a journey down into the Rabbit Hole of innovation.The journey reveals, in layman’s terms, why so many of the ideals behind mass production and consumption perform so poorly today and why most people in the U.S. are working at a disadvantage.


The book’s adventure into the Wonderland of creativity explains why small, highly-focused groups can routinely succeed in places where larger organizations flounder.It also explains why so many overseas graduates outperform the U.S. in math and science.

The trump card, a unique form of learning called Hyperstruction, is explained in ways that parents, educators and those in business can use it to regain the vitality that once was a unique trademark of the United States.Trumping the Red Queen looks at creativity from within the Rabbit Hole to shed new light on an old subject, cast a fresh perspective, and expose a unique way to survive in today’s colossal economy without running everyone into the ground.
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Insightful and Motivating!
Trumping the Red Queen offers a vision and rationale for an integrated approach to learning and innovation that has broad application across subjects and audiences.The author provides an insightful analysis of how structures and systems that previously served society well need to evolve to meet today's life conditions.His framework of instruction, construction, and hyperstruction comprises the template from which individuals and institutions can successfully engage with an increasingly complex world.A motivating work on creativity calling for us all to participate in the full flourishing of ourselves and the world.

Nortel Networks could avoid crashing

This book exposes the common fate of all large scale enterprises - all giants could fall if not knowing cause and antidote.

... I was with Nortel Networks during her downsizing phase and observed the fallen of a giant. The principle exposed in this book matches my observation in Nortel very well. Of course, the book also gives good idea how to avoid driving a company into dead zone ...

A great book for executives, managers, and engineers.

Superb!
This is a superb book that holds relevance for just about any reader; educators, students, parents, economists, business moguls, sociologists...even environmentalists.And given the current state of our economy and what has transpired over the past several years, the concepts within this book are ones that America really needs to hear.While the research and ideas are groundbreaking, you shouldn't expect a text book that talks over your head.It is colorful and full of wonderful examples from history and biology as well as allusions from popular literature that make for an enjoyable read and the concepts easy to understand for just about any reader.Check it out.I highly recommend it. ... Read more

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This special issue introduces the concept of interdisciplinarity within its larger intellectual context--that of the relationship between science and the humanities, as well as its relation to psychology, and in particular, to the psychology of art and creativity. Empirical research on the arts and creativity is in a good position to further interdisciplinarity, but it is argued that such studies are insufficiently reciprocal. Psychology takes more from the arts than it gives back.

This special issue argues that if scientific psychology of art were to become fully interdisciplinary, it has to take greater account of artistic sensibilities and expertise. Suggestions for achieving greater reciprocity are also offered. Examples from the author's research on old age, art, and creativity are used to illustrate an interdisciplinary model which proves to be potentially beneficial to other areas of psychology, as well as advancing interdisciplinarity in general. These aspects of interdisciplinarity, among others, are discussed in the articles of this issue, along with empirical and pedagogical illustrations and conceptual extensions.
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Customer Reviews (4)

About the book
Great ideas are not easy to cultivate. They need rich soil, attention, and encouragement to take root and grow. Jim Adam's classic, CONCEPTUAL BLOCKBUSTING, was a handbook to weeding your garden, to clearing your mind of rubbish that stifles creative thought. THE CARE & FEEDING OF IDEAS is its long-awaited sequel, a guide to creating a greenhouse environment in which ideas can thrive.

"If you're serious about encouraging creativity, you need to understand the entire creative process-from concept to reality"-Adams. You need to understand thinking-the mystery and mechanics of creative thought. You need to understand doing-the actions you can take to increase your creativity. Only by becoming aware of how you conceptualize, and of those techniques which lead to better problem solving, can you begin to bring forth you very best ideas.

Adams leads a tour through the unconscious mind, the brain and nervous system, and the storehouse of memory, and points out how they work (and conspire against us) when we tackle problems. He shows that bad problem-solving habits can be broken, that money and time are your muse's best friends, that creativity involves risk but the risk is worth it, and that the stereo you bought with your last bonus was not a luxury, but a necessary reward. He illustrates his arguments with ingenious games and exercises that will surprise you with what they reveal about your patterns of thought. Whether you're a midnight novelist or management consultant, a Sunday painter or city planner, this book can forever change the way you approach creative challenges.--- From the inside flap of the dust jacket.

About the Book--------
Explains the creative process, looking at such areas as brain chemistry, memory, the senses, and personality and shows readers how to create the proper environment to nurture creativity.

Excellent resource!
A great resource for blocked screenwriters!I recommend it to all my seminar students!

Fascinating, now I want to do research
This book is amazing in that it offers a great balance between practical techniques, whilst satisfying my curiousity for the underlying functioning of the mind. Well structured - you can read any of the chapters on their own and still get real value. ... Read more

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Creativity is an asset in any profession (except perhapsaccounting). For some it comes naturally, making it seem like anunattainable skill to others. How to be a Better Creative Thinkerproves that creativity can be learned. By working through thequestionnaires provided here anyone can improve their creativethinking skills. The author outlines a simple, easy-to-apply six stepprocess- 1. Inspirationthe spontaneous generation of ideas;2. Clarificationthe rational focus on what the ideas are meant toachieve; 3. Distillationdeciding which ideas are worth pursuing;4. Perspirationdeterminedly pushing the best ideas through tocompletion; 5. Editingthe self-critical phase of amendment, deletionand adaptation.

This is a clear and easy to use guide for anyone interested in generating and developing new ideas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

UNLEASH YOUR HIDDEN POTENTIALS-
THE BOOK HAS HELPED ME A LOT.ITS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.ALL I CAN SAY IS 'YOU ARE ONLY LIMITED BY YOUR IMAGINATION'.READ AND ULEASH YOUR HIDDEN POTENTIIAL AND CREATIVE ABILITIES WHICH AREESSENTIAL TOOLS IN THIS COMPETETIVE ERA.ITS SO FAR THE BEST BOOK THAT I HAVE READ ON THE SUBJECT.

Great "How to" Book
Like many people whose daytime activities do not depend on creativity I gravitate to a hobby that requires creativity. But how do you unleash latent creativity? Most of us don't have a clue, and we suppose thatwhatever creative talent we have will just naturally come out. Dr. Gamez'slittle book is the best "How to" book I've seen on this subject.I highly recommend it! ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Institute for Evolutionary Psychology on March 1, 2003. The length of the article is 7824 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: "Coming into being": mourning, adolescence and creativity in Duras's The Lover.(Marguerite Duras)
Author: Laurie Vickroy
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2003
Publisher: Institute for Evolutionary Psychology
Page: 92(16)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Institute for Evolutionary Psychology on August 1, 2004. The length of the article is 3720 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The psychology of creativity and genius: reflections on Shakespeare and the Oxfordian challenge.
Author: Kevin Simpson
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2004
Publisher: Institute for Evolutionary Psychology
Volume: 25Issue: 3-4Page: 146(8)

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