Product Description

"In this excellent, concise volume, Rothenberg reports his current views on this fascinating subject... Well argued and judicious... I cannot recommend this book too highly." -- Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This intriguing theory will no doubt provoke lively debate both in and outside professional circles. For lay readers, however, the book's real pleasure lies in the substantive analyses of Sylvia Plath, August Strindberg, Emily Dickenson, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, and William Faulkner." -- Wilson Library Bulletin

Intrigued by history's list of "troubled geniuses,"Albert Rothenberg investigates how two such opposite conditions -- outstanding creativity and psychosis -- could coexist in the same individual. Rothenberg concludes that high-level creativity transcends the usual modes of logical thought -- and may even superficially resemble psychosis. But he also discovers that all types of creative thinking generally occur in a rational and conscious frame of mind, not in a mystically altered or transformed state.

Far from being the source -- or the price -- of creativity, Rothenberg discovers, psychosis and other forms of mental illness are actually hindrances to creative work. Disturbed writers and absent-minded professors make great characters in fiction, but Rothenberg has uncovered an even better story -- the virtually infinite creative potential of healthy human beings.

Customer Reviews (3)

Interesting insights about creativity
I found Rothenberg's insights about the characteristics of creativity the most meaningful ideas in the book.He has learned several methods of those who are creative, and these are helpful anyone wanting to be creative or help someone else like a child become creative.

He does a good job debunking some of the myths that associate creativity with mental illness by showing several cases of mentally ill creators.He shows that their creative times did not coincide with the severe bouts of mental illness.

He profiles a few artists, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Eugene O'Neil, and JOhn Cheever among others.It is interesting to read how these successful people dealt effectively or ineffectively with mental illness.

The author offers his conclusions about creativity and its association with mental illness.Whether they are ultimately conclusive, the reader can decide.He is a thorough researcher and writer, so this is a book worth reading if you are interested in the subject matter.

Rothenberg's false prophecy
Rothenberg's 1994 book claims to have supposedly "debunked" the "myth" between creativity and madness based on his "new findings and old stereotypes" that many geniuses such as aristotle have proclaimed a link between the two for thousands of years.He states that previous studies linking bipolar disorder to creativity were biased and a link to schizophrenia is nonexistent.He bases this on sketchy evidence with nobel laureates where there responses to a creativity test called a word association test had a slightly different response style then psychotics.He then comes to the narrow conclusion that creativity is mostly based on juxtaposition and homospatial thinking which he contends is the part of the test that nobel laureates have scored high in and psychotics didn't based on the results of his word association test.

However, since then a rigourous longitudinal study has come out in a book called "The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy" found that Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia like psychosis, and other disorders are Much more prevalent among creatively eminent people then they are found in the general population.Studies by Hans Eysenck and others have also shown that psychopathology (or personality traits that predispose to psychosis) is much higher in creative people then in non-creative people in the general population.Also relatives of people with mental disorders are on average more creative then in the general population.To top it all off a study done by Peter Jordanson and colleagues has found one of the biological basis to creativity, which is that creative people score low on measures of latent inhibition which measure one's openness to novel stimuli or new possibilities.People with mental illness, particularly Schizophrenics, also score low on latent inhibition showing they have a trait that is essential for creativity, and that creative achievers also have.Of course Rothenberg obviously wasn't open to this possibility (which has now been scientifically proven), when he wrote this book.While at the same time other creativity researchers were (go figure).While Rothenberg's theory does have some truth in it such as obvious facts that creative achievement and insanity aren't the same thing and in fact that insanity in itself can be destructive to creative achievement; or that not all mentally ill people necessarily become eminent creative achievers.His main premise of the book that there is no link between creativity and madness has been proven false and it is clear that he was probably the one who was biased against any association between creativity and madness to begin with.

Then again psychiatrists, which are in the same profession as Rothenberg, often note that there is some truth in every delusion.Which I suppose means that even though "new findings and old stereotypes" has disproven Rothenberg's "delusion" (or false belief) of their not being any link between creativity and madness, his "delusional theory" should not be thought of as not being true at all.As he does make some (although mostly obvious) points about the subject in his book.

A Psychiatrist Looks at Creativity
Rothenberg looks at creativity from the perspective of a scientist.He examines psychological ideas- Freudian, depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia; linguistic trends- use of alliteration, metaphors, rhymes;personality characteristics- motivated, determined, and able to organizeone's ideas; and relates them all to his search for answers to why some cancreate such wonderful works of art. He dispells myths aboutcreativity being some mystical birth-right that only the chosen fewpossess, and implies the conclusion that creativity is more the product ofan aware mind and feeling human being than tormented genius.Good book,quick read. ... Read more

Product Description
Cutting edge scientific research has shown that exposure to the right kind of environment during the first years of life actually affects the physical structure of a child's brain, vastly increasing the number of neuron branches--the "magic trees of the mind"--that help us to learn, think, and remember. At each stage of development, the brain's ability to gain new skills and process information is refined.As a leading researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, Marion Diamond has been a pioneer in this field of research. Now, Diamond and award-winning science writer Janet Hopson present a comprehensive enrichment program designed to help parents prepare their children for a lifetime of learning. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Excellent food for thought and reference guide
The book is really tough going for the first +- 80 pages with the discussion centering around the anatomical structure of the brain and its development and was a little over my head.However, having said that, if you perservere, it is an excellent read and I found it hard to put down once it moved on.A tremendous amount of food for thought and a superb reference guide, full of recommendations and ideas on how to enrich your childs life.The author is an inspiration and I will definately refer back to this book for years to come.It really challenges parents to 'up their game' and understand the vital role they play in enriching and shaping the future of their child.

review on purchase
i purchased a second-hand book which was delivered at my post office in South Africa on the date specified in good order.i am pleased with the service and my product.

Good, but very technical.
So far I've only read as far as I need to (i.e. about the first third of the book covering up to my daughter's age at this point). While the book is very informative, it is also fairly technical. Definitely not a simple read, not something I'd try to read a couple pages of here & there. I would recommend it for anyone who is looking for some pretty in depth and clinical information regarding child development. I will finish reading it over time, but there are other child development books that I can get through more quickly which I'm reading first.

Long on science, short on practical application
"How to Nurture Your Child's Intelligence..." is a title that made me think this book would be a guide to fostering creativity and intelligence in children. Unfortunately, the book seems to spend a lot less time on HOW to nurture intelligence, than it does WHY. I didn't need to be convinced, I was hoping for a roadmap of what to do when. This book discusses intelligence studies done with rats, and had detailed discussions of brain development, but I found relatively little information on HOW to translate these discussions to interaction with children. Disappointing.

Great for Parents
I was assigned to read this book for a class on Child Development.It went along with many of the main ideas in the text book about the brain development and growth of a child's brain from infancy through adulthood.I work at a daycare and would pay for the parents to read this material.It really help you appreciate how fragile children are, and scientific explinations for the wonders that they achieve every day. The writer does talk a lot about herself and her personal journey making about 1/4 of the book an autobiography, and she seems to brag a bit which is a little annoying to be honest.But if you can get past that then I think it is worth reading for the information that she provides. ... Read more

Product Description
In this highly readable yet comprehensive book, parents and teachers will find many suggestions for enhancing a child's creativity.

"Understanding Creativity" offers advice on how to plan adventures, value work without "evaluation", set a creative tone, and incorporate creativity values into one's own family or classroom culture.

Readers will learn how to spot talent through a child's behaviors and how to encourage practice. Real-life examples of artists, musicians, dancers, entrepreneurs, architects, and authors are included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Full of cliche anecdotal generalizations
In my opinion the author uses anecdotal information to support sweeping, and oten stunningly cliche, generalizations.Too poorly supported to be considered a scientific text, and two scattered to be a good overview of creativity, this book is largely a stew of factoids.If I had not read a few texts on creativity prior to this one, I would have had a hard time picking out the germain points in the book.A much better overview of creativity can be found in R. Keith Sawyer's 'Explaining Creativity.'

enhancing your own creativity
With extensive scholarship, Dr. Piirto relates a fascinating overview of approaches to creativity, from the mystical to the pragmatic, the psychodynamic and psychometric to the cognitive. She notes that psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi makes a distinction of "Big C" creativity (eminent people making significant contributions to a domain), and "little c" creativity "by which human beings lead their everyday lives."

She cites the work of social psychologist Dean Keith Simonton showing that "creativity is the work of a life... from birth to grave" and "a form of leadership... the creator is a persuader."

For anyone wanting to enhance their creative lives and talents, the book provides a wealth of concrete and practical ideas from experts, such as divergent thinking exercises of the Odyssey of the Mind program, and strategies used by Dr. Piirto in her own classes.

How parents and teachers can enhance creativity
Understanding Creativity is an examination of the psychological impulses that drive the quality in human beings broadly labeled as "creativity," which also covers how parents and teachers can enhance creativity, as well as the cognitive aspect of creative writers, scientists, musicians, and physical performers, as well as ways to assess and train creativity. Author Jane Piirto, a teacher of the College of Education and the Director of Talent Development Education in Ashland University, offers a wealth of research, theory, and a guideline around the Seven I's - Inspiration, Imagery, Imagination, Intuition, Insight, Incubation and Improvisation - to form the foundation of a solid creative process. Understanding Creativity needs to be carefully read by anyone charged with the responsibility of recognizing talent in children, setting a creative tone with children, and encouraging children to utilize their creativity in their personal lives.

Become more creative!
Dr. Jane Piirto has put together one of the best resources for anyone interested in creativity. The biographic examples of highly creative people are fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed this comprehenvie text. ... Read more

Product Description

This book explores the contribution of and art and creativity to early education, and examines the role of the atelier (an arts workshop in a school) and atelierista (an educator with an arts background) in the pioneering pre-schools of Reggio Emilia. It does so through the unique experience of Vea Vecchi, one of the first atelieristas to be appointed in Reggio Emilia in 1970.

Part memoir, part conversation and part reflection, the book provides a unique insider perspective on the pedagogical work of this extraordinary local project, which continues to be a source of inspiration to early childhood practitioners and policy makers worldwide.

Vea’s writing, full of beautiful examples, draws the reader in as she explains the history of the atelier and the evolving role of the atelierista. Key themes of the book include:

• processes of learning and knowledge construction

• the theory of the hundred languages of childhood and the role of poetic languages

• the importance of organisation, ways of working and tools, in particular pedagogical documentation

• the vital contribution of the physical environment

• the relationship between the atelier, the atelierista, the school and its teachers

This enlightening book is essential reading for students, practitioners, policy makers and researchers in early childhood education, and also for all those in other fields of education interested in the relationship between the arts and learning.

Product Description
Written by the author of Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults, this book is the only one available that addresses the relationship between A.D.D. and creativity. With real-life stories and inspirational affirmations woven throughout, A.D.D. and Creavity will motivate those with the disorder to find the courage to apply their creative assets and become happier, more confident people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A.D.D. and Creativity in 60 Seconds
A rambling autobiographical swamp of crystal-power feel-good-isms mixed with the author's unresolved issues with "the man."

Highlights include: a 10-year search for a cliff glimpsed in a dream, how "they" should take drugs to be like us, and an unintentionally amusing section where the editor chides her for writing a whole book without actually giving any practical suggestions for living with ADD.

* * *

I recommend Driven to Distraction instead.

A must for ADDers
This book is Great.It explains a lot about ADD and Creativity. It may help you understand yourself or ADD child. You make look differently at ADD when you are done with this book..

I Can't Read It All
There are many good thoughts and observations in this book, and I had high hopes for it initially. However, it reads like the publisher asked for 200 + pages and Dr. Weiss expanded her thoughts to fill the space allotted.Although I hate abridged books generally, this one would be a great candidate for aggressive editing.I'd love to see it boiled down to its essentials, but I'm not interested enough in the author's personal experiences to read the whole thing.

One step after environmental and dietary solutions
This book takes a different stance and gives us lots of food for thought. I also liked ADD, The Natural Approach, which gave me some reasons for my attention deficit. The creativity part was really beneficial and made me feel good about myself.

Excellent!
I have read many books on ADD. In "ADD and Creativity," Dr. Weiss manages to present familiar and new information with an interesting twist!Dr. Weiss reveales in her book that she has ADD.You canDEFINATELY tell the difference! Although she explains the basics ofADD, her book is not clinical.She relates to me and advises me in a waythat most other ADD books haven't.

I highly recommend this one! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (13)

Really gets you started!!
I have only had this book for a few days and already used it quite a bit. It is nicely written with great ideas. The cover caught my eye and I am so glad it did. I look forward to all the ideas shared in the book.

Source of inspiration for writers
Written by a skilled author of more than 30 books, this book is a valuable addition to my bookshelf. Every writer can benefit from prompts and new ways of approaching problems in their work, whether fiction or non-fiction. This book provides creative suggestions, encouragement and more.

An outstanding resource for any writer
Writing is known to be a solitary effort, and in general those who strive to succeed at it must rely on their own inspiration and discipline as they sit in front of the keyboard every day. But with Write Starts on your desk, you won't feel like you're completely on your own. That's because author Hal Zina Bennett is uniquely gifted at showing up at a writer's elbow, like an old friend dropping by for a cup of coffee. He has the warm, wise, and familiar voice of someone who knows you well--and in a way, he does. With his decades of experience as an author himself (he's published more than thirty books), and also as a writing coach and editor (he's been behind the scenes on hundreds of books, many by authors you know well), he knows what it's like when inspiration and discipline waver. He also has plenty of techniques, tools, and tricks that get the words flowing once again, and renew your confidence in your ability to put something of value on the page.

Write Starts is an invaluable aid for any writer who cares about producing good work, even on those days when it's tough to get started. The short chapters--most are only a few pages long--are just enough to help you shift gears and spark your creativity, without providing yet another opportunity to procrastinate. They cover a broad range of subjects, such as "the importance of good opening lines," "seven ways to steal from real life," and "hooking up with the power that drives your writing," as well as a variety of intriguing writing prompts. The Table of Contents includes a description of each chapter, so you can browse for the subject that suits your purpose of the moment or just open the book to any page and let chance be your guide.

Whether you write nonfiction, fiction, or poetry, Write Starts will itself become a friend you'll keep on your desk and turn to again and again and again. It's packed with solid information that will make you a better writer--and certainly a more productive one. As Dr. Bennett says, "It's all part of awakening the best inyourself."

A very worthwhile tool for inspiration and creativity.
Write Starts: Prompts, Quotes, and Exercises to Jumpstart Your Creativity [Paperback] By: Hal Zina Bennett (Author) -- At one time, writing was slow and awkward for me. My assignments at work forced me to write, but each article and paper was a tedious torment. Hal Zina Bennett's book, recommended by an author friend of mine, turned my writing life completely around.

Write Starts: Prompts, Quotes, and Exercises to Jumpstart Your Creativity brings the great craft of writing directly to your desktop.The book explains how the writing process works (and why it sometimes can not work). With those insights at my fingertips, and using Hal Zina Bennett's simple exercises and techniques, I began to write faster, more often, with more creativity, flooded with inspiration and less fear. I was set free from the shackles of writer's block.And now, I can truly enjoy professional writing, full-time -- something that would have been unimaginable before I read Write Starts.Reviewed by: C.J. Good, Author "Little Gifts of Sustainable Contentment"

Write Starts
Author, editor, and mentor, Hal Zina Bennett shares his years of writing expertise through this wonderfully inspiring and motivating book, "Write Starts." Using "Prompts, Quotes, and Exercises," Hal gently guides you through--and then past--the most common afflictions writers face, including writer's block and self-doubt. These fifty short vignettes, accompanied by insightful and thought-provoking quotes, are capable of jumpstarting any writer's imagination. Reading just the first two sparked my creativity and set previously untapped ideas into motion--I couldn't wait to start writing! This is the perfect book to share with your writers' group or guild. And as Hal intended, I have cleared a prominent space on my desk for "Write Starts," where his encouragement and wisdom is always right there, at my fingertips. Thank you, Hal! ... Read more

Product Description
A biography of one of history's most prolific inventors, stressing his ingenuity and creativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Tom Edison Creates a Better Future
In this installment of the ValueTales series, Ann Donegan Johnson describes creative work in the life of inventor Tom Edison (1847-1931).

The book tells of Tom's childhood tendency to take things apart to learn how they worked.He is encouraged in his curiosity by an imaginary talking dog named Sparky Watts.Tom's imagination and his love of reading and conducting experiments helped him learn in school and on his own.And occasionally got him in trouble for daydreaming--and accidentally blowing things up.His imagination served him well as an adult when he invented improved versions of the telegraph, telephone, and electric light.

Like other books in the ValueTales series, this book uses a real-life person to exemplify an important value.It is suitable for reading by children in the later elementary school grades.A "Historical Facts" section at the book's end summarizes Edison's life in a single-page bio form suitable for adults.

Closing quote:"Of course there isn't anything wrong with doing things the old way--the sure way that always works--but when you try new ways, there is always a chance that they will turn out to be better ways.And if you try them, you may have more fun and you may create wonderful things, too.Just like our good friend, Thomas Edison." (p. 62)

I'm a teacher who LOVES Valuetales!
I teach K-8 grade children who have behavioral and emotional problems/disorders.This series is wonderful.My mother read them to me when I was growing up and now I read them to my students.I use these books for all grade levels.They are entertaining for kids but they stress important character traits like honesty, determination, and responsbility.I'm trying to collect all of them for use in my classes.These are books I'm sure I'll be reading to my own children someday and I would recomend them for anyone who wants to raise children with character and good, solid values. ... Read more

Product Description
Focusing on artist and writer couples who have shared both sexual and creative bonds, 13 of today's leading critics and historians challenge and redefine conventional assumptions about creativity in this series of highly original essays. Among those examined are Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, and Anais Nin and Henry Miller. 76 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I said it was great, so print this!
Lots of people are famous, but much fewer people are famous and have famous partners.How do two famous people get together?How does the relationship affect their craft?This book examines some of the most important creative couples of the last 125 years or so.This book is an underappreciated gem.If people haven't read about it or heard about it, then they should.The fact that many movies have been made about these couples makes me wonder if screenwriters used this book as a referral.

The book is very diverse.It includes straight, gay male, and lesbian couplings.It includes writers, painters, and sculptors.It speaks of cross-generational couples and interracial couples.Most importantly, it doesn't imply that all these couples lasted forever.Sometimes, it emphasizes divorce and break-ups in its analyses.The book has few male authors; so in terms of subject and writers, it's in many ways a women's studies text.

The book is thick but that is because of the huge endnotes and reprint permissions.The work is rigorous, but it doesn't take long to read individual chapters.I just can't believe I never heard of this text before.It's simply precious, and almost priceless. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on an extensive research, this practical teaching resource provides instructional and assessment guidelines for strengthening students’ higher-order thinking and reasoning skills. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Information the average person may not come upon, about the mind.
The basis of the book is that creativity is a process, an internal process that may go astray, can result in schizophrenia, or creativity can arise from schizophrenia.... or what seems to be schizophrenic thinking. That's a double bind, but to quote Mr. Arieti on the dedication page, he thanks a friend who 'conceived broad systems of things' and a grammar school teacher:"The two nourishments of the mind that these teachers represent find their place...one in the intellect the other close to the heart and at times mingle, fuse and bring forth innovation."

It's been extremely helpful to me, it's led to a better relationship with my own thought world and a better understanding of what psychiatry is all about, since I've a relative that has been schizophrenic for several years. Although most mental conditions are understood differently now than they were 35 years ago when this book was published, there's not a lot of outdated information in it.

For instance: I was astonished to find out what 'paleologic' is and I quote him: "Because of it's archaic nature I have called the main form of immature thinking "paleologic" from the Greek paleo, meaning old) This form of thinking is not illogical or alogical, but it does follow a logic different from that used by the human being who is awake and is healthy. The normal human being as a rule uses the ordinary logic of the secondary process, the kind of thinking that in Western civilization is generally called Aristotlean logic because Aristotle was the first to formulate it's laws. But whereas imagery and 'endocepts' (which he explains very well when he introduces the word) constitute a considerable amount of the mental life of every human being, paleologic thinking is present in normal or average people only to a minimal degree. In order to study it in it's almost pure form we have to observe it in schizophrenic patients."

It's an important book because the typical individual (especially someone that's in therapy) usually doesn't read books about psychiatric terms or conditions. The information in this book may never come to the attention of people who could benefit from knowing it. Individuals would be on more equal footing in therapies, whatever kind they're involved in, if they had access to the information that Mr. Arieti has written so well in this book.

There are products of the mind that conceal a symbolic kind of information (paleologic cognition) but many individuals ignore or misunderstand that kind of content if they don't suspect there is meaning to it. That's the basis of psychiatry to some degree. Dreams are not the only content that contains meaning, a fact that Mr. Arieti is maki I found it by chance, and became interested in his other books also, and as a result found that Western thinking is at this time very much in question. To think and understand in the Western process,(cognition) is somewhat like being able to see forests, but not be able to see and consciously relate to trees, shrubs, greenery, animals, etc.

I highly recommend it as a book to acquire, read and re-read, to think about, especially if you've felt you have a lack of creative imagination.

It's a great beginning to self knowledge.





... Read more

Product Description
Since ancient times, people have believed that breakthrough ideas come from the brains of geniuses with awesome rational powers. In recent years, however, the paradigm has begun to shift toward the notion that the source of creativity lies "out there," in the network of connections between people and ideas. In this provocative book, Richard Ogle crystallizes the nature of this shift, and boldly outlines "a new science of ideas." The key resides in what he calls "idea-spaces," a set of nodes in a network of people (and their ideas) that cohere and take on a distinctive set of characteristics leading to the generation of breakthrough ideas. These spaces are governed by nine laws - illuminated in individual chapters with fascinating stories of dramatic breakthroughs in science, business, and art. "Smart World" will change forever the way we think about creativity and innovation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Phenomenal!!!
Probably one of the most important books that most folks will never get around to reading.Don't make that mistake. I almost did.

You have to think when you read this book. It's an exercise. One that produces a vastly better intellectual fitness than when you began.

The theme of this book is that the space of ideas think for us. This is an essential book for business people, creative types and anyone who desires a refreshing boost to one's imaginative faculties. Take the following for instance:

"Great artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs have always had deeper faith than most businesspeople, economists, and sociologists in the power of the mind's imaginative faculties to create radically new worlds of possibility." P. 250.

"Corporate leaders, long accustomed to relying on the lens of rational analysis to peer into the future, are going to have to develop their imaginative faculties far beyond what was required for the infamous 1990's "vision thing." P.250.

So much of the effort expended to imagine the possibilities, goes on in the wrong spaces. Listen to Ogle:

"From now on, successful business models intended to address future development will need to include, in addition to reality based analysis, a component mapping out the relevant spaces of the extended mind. Indeed, this is where the highest priority lies, since it is imagination, intuition, and insight that create the space within which rational analysis goes to work. Great failures and successes stem from this fact - failures of imagination resulting from doing intense analysis in the `wrong space.' (emphasis is mine) P.251.

This book truly makes the case for harnessing the power of neural networks -- the idea spaces that inhabit our existence today. The veracity of the term "self-sufficiency" has just been impugned by this work. As Ogle declares: "In an open, dynamic, scale-free network with positive feedback loops between hubs, the fit get fitter." P.116

Yet it is so much more than that. It's about the development of what Ogle refers to as "adaptive intelligence:"

"What these abstract but rigorous formulations reveal is the central fact that breakthrough creativity is inherently an emergent process governed by laws of network dynamics. Analytical reason, because by definition it looks back to established facts and premises, is blind in such situations. On the other hand, the intelligent imagination - that is, imagination intuitively attuned to sensing emerging fitness - is capable of producing adaptive intelligence, new thinking that grasps the direction in which the future is unfolding." P. 116 (emphasis is mine).

As Ogle says, "Belief in the necessity of centralized control dies hard." P. 112. Well,this work is certainly a profound contribution to the alternative that has emerged, and is among us. How to harness this new transcendent ability is the true, practical contribution of this book.

"Smart World claims that the right place to look for laws governing creative leaps is in network science, whose newly discovered principles drive the dynamics of the extended mind's component idea-spaces."

Welcome to the world of what Ogle refers to as the "extended mind, " or"the mind out there." P.23.

It was either David Brooks or David Sanger on Carlie Rose one night who mentioned this particular book as one of the most overlooked books in the past several years. I am SO glad I took the recommendation. You will be too. Buy it!

The Secrets of Creative Breakthroughs Unveiled...sort of
This book was a bit of a challenge.First, I am not totally convinced that Ogle has discovered anything new but makes it appear to be so by inventing creative terminology.He borrows his ideas from the emerging field of network science and it is somewhat difficult to follow his explanations.What makes it particularly difficult is his introduction of his laws with their new-fangled terminology.Anyway, it seems to me that he could have made it easier for his readers had he come up with less convoluted jargon.A lot of authors today oversimplify language to make their books accessible to the largest market; this one errs in the opposite direction.

A lot of what he does say makes sense but is expressed differenty than in the past.For example, the notion that there is an "expanded" mind in the sense that the environment does the thinking for you.An example is the alphabet, which is set up so that you can easily choose any one of 26 letters and come up with a word.You don't have to start from scratch.Also the notion of idea-spaces; that is, fields or areas or conceptual schema that have imbedded in them certain ways of seeing or thinking about the world. There is, for example, the idea space of classical science, where science is practiced in a partucular way, or the idea space of modernist architecture, where architects abide by certain rules and applications.When different idea-spaces come together; e.g. when Frank Gerhy linked architecture with modern art, something new emerges.This happens, according to Ogle, when "weak ties" are connected.This is not new.Many creativity gurus speak about connecting completely different things together to come up with something new.I believe in the past others referred to ideas as coming from the "ether" or just being out there wainting to be discovered.So there has been some sense of these concepts; Ogle is putting more flesh on them.

The really fascinating portions of the book are when Ogle goes into the specific history of a breakthrough - the discovery of the structure of DNA or the invention of the printing press, for example - especially the personal, cultural and social histories involved .

I am also not sure that I agree with some of his criteria for what is a breakthrough.For example, he includes the classification of perimenopause, or premenopausal syndrome, as a breakthrough.How is this so?How is this different then from the discovery of "repressed memories" a decade or so ago, when all of a sudden lots of people seemed to have them and therapists galore popped up to coax them out?

Finally, any book that talks about the discovery of ideas and does not mention Edward de Bono has missed a big contributor to the field.A lot of what Ogle says has been summarized in much simpler fashion by de Bono.Ogle's creative arc is de Bono's lateral thinking, for example.De Bono also popularized the use of techniques to move away from linear thinking and into the type of thinking that Ogle advocates.

In sum, there is a lot of good and interesting stuff here but it presented in a difficult to follow way.Supplement this book with De Bono's books on lateral thinking.

Good examples but somewhat esoteric
On the positive side the examples of major innovative concepts are very interesting and worth reading.Some of these examples are:
- Discovery of DNA
- Microcomputer revolution
- Barbie doll and
- Gutenberg's printing press.

On the negative side, the attempt to bring these different concepts into a overall creativity framework, although an heroic effort, results in a very difficult book to read and understand.And, when you are done with it, you wonder if you really can apply these ideas that he brings forth.Consequently, the last chapter and the last pages especially, left me somewhat disappointed.

However, I would recommend reading the book for the innovation examples, and see if you can obtain a perspective on how to use this.

Good book...a little long
The book is much longer than it needs to be. BUT it's got some good stuff. It does a nice job of sharing it's perspective on how good ideas are formed and the importance of the connectivity and networks for having those ideas actually breakthrough. It really makes you think.

Applying the science of networks to creativity
This is a strange, wonderful and not always easy book. Richard Ogle tackles a slippery question about the mind: Where do truly creative leaps originate? Studies of creativity and innovation are multiplying, but Ogle's book does something rare. It demonstrates how networking creates something new by navigating shared spaces. Its style and content will make it challenging to many readers. Though Ogle has a knack for original, striking phrases, a simpler style would have served the innate complexity of the subject matter. That aside, we recommend this book to everyone who is interested in innovation, creativity and the propagation of ideas through culture. The parallels Ogle draws among plastic dolls, Romantic paintings, the discovery of DNA and the development of the personal computer are striking and entertaining, and his concepts about how creativity uses "idea-spaces" and networks are wildly intriguing. ... Read more

Product Description
The author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout an organization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity.

The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation.

Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience managing IDEO, Kelley identifies ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation.

Filled with engaging stories of how companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill and Samsung have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (48)

A Useful and Real Guide to Innovation
Tom Kelley has produced a wonderful guide to fostering innovation and overcoming naysayers in "The Ten Faces of Innovation."Kelley balances ideas and theories evenly with results-oriented thinking in a manner that should appeal to a wide range of readers.

If you are searching for a book that covers both the day-to-day realities and the concepts underlying innovation, look no further -- and read this book.Rarely does a book address such a big and amorphous topic as "innovation" in such a precise and actionable manner.

Using a wide array of real-world and relevant case studies, Kelley offers a framework for both fostering innovation and addressing devil's advocates.The writing is crisp, engaging, and clear.

I particularly appreciated Kelley's ever-present thought stimulating questions at the end of each section of the book.Not only did these questions help generate thoughts, but Kelley puts his own ideas into practice -- the questions provide tangible examples of how to "think" about innovation and innovating.

I highly recommend this book.

Ten faces of innovation
This book is a must learn and share this information with colleagues inside the organization to build a new organization that will change the meaning of working and fun!

Good advice
IDEO, of course, is very well known for its consulting on all types of innovation, mostly within corporations.This book provides insights into the IDEO methodology in the form of descriptions of 10 working styles that contribute to innovation.The descriptions are well done, and many examples are included that bring the descriptions to life.I recommend the book to anyone looking to improve innovation in large organizations (those with more traditional management patterns).The only thing that is somewhat lacking for the typical manager is a more comprehensive description of the organizational culture and management systems that are necessary for these working styles to be effective. Yes, they can have some impact in any organization.However, organizations must create a climate that supports their practice in order to reap the true value.The author implies this, but really does not discuss it.That limitation does not detract from the value of the book as long as one understands that, while the people are the primary driver of innovation, they will not be very effective (and may not even stay) unless the environment in which they work supports innovation (e.g., a company organizes around real people not an idealized model of a corporate citizen.)

Excellent book on innovation
A must read for anyone looking to create differentiated products and services for their enterprise. The book has lots of practical advice on the what and how of innovation, coming straight from the author's experiences at IDEO.

Innovation in your business
I found this book to be a great source of information regarding innovation and the different "faces" that should be used in your business to ensure that you are looking at your clients' needs from as many angles as possible. These 10 faces are summarized below:

1. The Anthropologist - observes human behavior and develops a deep understanding of how people interact physically and emotionally with their surroundings.
2. The Experimenter - prototypes new ideas continuously
3. The Cross-Pollinator - explores other industries and cultures and connects seemingly unrelated ideas to form new ideas
4. The Hurdler - develops a knack for overcoming hurdles and roadblocks
5. The Collaborator - helps bring eclectic groups together and leads from the middle of the pack
6. The Director - gathers a talented group of people and ignites their creative talents.
7. The Experience Architect - designs compelling experiences that go beyond mere functionality to connect at a deeper level with customer's latent of expressed needs.
8. The Set Designer - creates a stage on which innovation team members can do their best work, transforming physical environments into powerful tools to influence behavior and attitude.
9. The Caregiver - delivers customer care in a manner that goes beyond mere service
10. The Storyteller - builds internal morale and external awareness through compelling narratives that communicate a fundamental human value or reinforce a specific cultural trait.

This has changed how I view and address workplace challenges.

David M. Taylor
www.strength-zone.com
... Read more

Product Description

Creativity: Theory, History, Practice offers important new perspectives on creativity in the light of contemporary critical theory and cultural history. Innovative in approach as well as argument, the book crosses disciplinary boundaries and builds new bridges between the critical and the creative. It is organised in four parts:

• Why creativity now? offers much-needed alternatives to both the Romantic stereotype of the creator as individual genius and the tendency of the modern creative industries to treat everything as a commodity
• defining creativity, creating definitions traces the changing meaning of 'create' from religious ideas of divine creation from nothing to advertising notions of concept creation. It also examines the complex history and extraordinary versatility of terms such as imagination, invention, inspiration and originality
• dreation as myth, story, metaphor begins with modern re-tellings of early African, American and Australian creation myths and – picking up Biblical and evolutionary accounts along the way – works round to scientific visions of the Big Bang, bubble universes and cosmic soup
• creative practices, cultural processes is a critical anthology of materials, chosen to promote fresh thinking about everything from changing constructions of 'literature' and 'design' to artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.

Rob Pope takes significant steps forward in the process of rethinking a vexed yet vital concept, all the while encouraging and equipping readers to continue the process in their own creative or 're-creative' ways. Creativity: Theory, History, Practice is invaluable for anyone with a live interest in exploring what creativity has been, is currently, and yet may be.

Customer Reviews (1)

Smart, but needs explanation
Pope's discussion of creativity is good. He covers a lot of ground here, including much of the relevant psychological literature and related issues in literature and cultural studies. His discussion of creation myths is particularly insightful. He provides some wonderful alternatives to stagnant models of creativity as well.But his prose is sometimes so dense and demands so much knowledge on the part of readers that it can be difficult to follow his arguments unless you are already familar with the people and ideas under discussion.In short, this book is for experts who already know a great deal in the field of cultural studies and critical theory. ... Read more

Product Description
Creativity is fundamental to human experience. In On Creativity David Bohm, the world-renowned scientist, investigates the phenomenon from all sides: not only the creativity of invention and of imagination but also that of perception and of discovery. This is a remarkable and life-affirming book by one of the most far-sighted thinkers of modern times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fun, and for fun only
It is a interesting book to read. But only for fun, can not be treated as "real science" book, since he did not present any real evidence (either exoperimental or statistical)to support his conclusion. But, it is always fun to understand such a great scientist's opinion on Creativity.

Science and Art
Consisting of four essays and an interview with Louwrien Wijers, On Creativity provides a clear window into the ruminations of physicist David Bohm. Author of a textbook on quantum mechanics, Bohm is best known for his speculations on "the implicate order," a world view which draws on quantum mechanics in an attempt to go behind colleague Niels Bohr's "Copenhagen Interpretation"-to wit, that the mathematics of quantum theory, which lead to paradoxes in the macroscopic realm, should not be construed as anything more than mathematical treatments that work.This view, or rather non-view, was not acceptable to Einstein.The basic solution of Bohm is to suggest that our entire three-dimensional reality, which shows evidence of nonlocality-the instantaneous measurable correlation of attributes of distant particles-is a projection of a deeper "enfolded" realm.These essays, however, with titles such as "On creativity," "On the relationships of science and art," "The range of imagination," and "The art of perceiving movement" are not overly recondite, abstruse, or abstract-let alone mathematical.In On Creativity, for example, Bohr analyzes what makes not just a great, but a truly original scientist, such as Newton and Einstein (with whom Bohm corresponded).Perhaps surprisingly, he includes Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan in their company. The reason has to do with Bohm's emphasis on an open-minded attitude, free of worldly obsessions such as career advancement or "kicks," that allows the truly creative mind to bust through societal blinders and see the world as a whole in a new way.In the case of Sullivan she exposed Keller, deaf and blind from birth, to water in a variety of settings, writing the word on her hand. At a given point, Keller, who was animalistic before, put the different stimuli together, seeing their underlying unity. This is the kind of unity that Bohr argues Newton discovered in his realization that planets, like apples, fall-only much more slowly-a view that dispensed with the prevailing notions of the Greeks, who distinguished between the perfection of the celestial, and the imperfection of the earthly realm. Einstein went further, showing that seemingly equidistant and simultaneous times and places really depended upon the relationship of observers to observed.What is wonderful about Bohm is that he is deeply immersed in and respectful of, art and philosophy and religion. A close friend of Krishnamurti, he relates the work of Hegelian philosophy and Coleridgian poetics to scientific inquiry; he says he personally was inspired by artists. For example, in the essay, "The Range of Imagination," he attempts to link art to science by starting with Owen Barfield's analysis of Coleridge's distinction between two kinds of imagination-primary imagination and fancy.Although they are linked-mutually implicated is as everything else in Bohm's implicate universe-the primary imagination is much more than just putting things together in pleasing shapes.Perhaps the single biggest insight in this book, which everywhere battles what Bohm considers to be the deleterious effects of fragmentation (and mediocrity, conformity, and "the mechanical") in thinking, is his emphasis that, in great art, no less than great science, the truth is not necessarily what is liked. The truth is what we find *whether we like it or not*--and this scientific spirit needs to apply to art as well. In a way, however, this brilliant exposition creates a contradiction for Bohm, as he elsewhere identifies the true with the beautiful (in large part due to the aesthetic criterion of elegance for choosing among competing world views and mathematical theories).The book might also be criticized for being stylistically bland even as it sings the praises of art, as well as perhaps politically naive in tracing human malaise to an abstraction so great as "the fragmentary."Nonetheless, this work is highly recommended for its analysis of the fascinating, still woefully underexplored terrain connecting art and science.

He was a remarkable man.
Once again David Bohm, one of the most original of thinkers, has demonstrated his ability to make original and fascinating discoveries in regard to, let us say, life in general. This is a combination of physics, biology, philosophy etc etc or as it used to be called natural philosophy. Bohm was one of this century's last remaining natural philospohers in a time of specialisation, in some ways akin to Robert Rosen, Darcy Thomson or Einstein all of whom were willing to expand their frontiers beyond their areas of specialisation. What singles Bohm out is his deep investigation of all aspects of thought especially the study of thought itself, its origin and dissolution and is human life possible without it, in other words is thought all there is or does being human mean a great deal more and other ?

In this short text Bohm looks at creativity, what it is, what it means in human life, how it works and various other aspects. Bohm, like in his other works, shys away from any form of solid definition, this is done on purpose, rather than because of a lack of understanding, Bohm insists that any form of thought, concept, idea which becomes crystalised as the "whole truth and nothing but the truth" interferes with the natural flow of reality which is ever changing and never static, this includes ideas as well which are insights about this flow (expanded on earlier in eg "Wholeness and the Implicate Order"). In this book he considers something he calls artamovement or "the art of fitting in the flow", here the word fit is in fact the meaning of art, in fact all forms of human endeavour are a form of art. This fitting in is the way people find out whether something is true or right in a context.

This, as usual, is highly original and especially true to itself, Bohm always writes what is true to itself and himself, he never, right until his dying day, failed to expound the truth whether he liked it or not. He epitomises the true seaker of knowledge which today is often smothered by individual desires, political expediency, domination from others or downright egotism. He was a remarkable man. ... Read more

Product Description
For the past decade, creativity has been extolled as a virtue in education, business, and the media. Creativity and Beyond offers a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary tour of cultures past and present to examine the different ways people have conceived of "creativity" and how the common understanding of creativity is changing in the current flux of global culture. The book demonstrates linkages among disciplines and cultures through the use of many illuminating examples-Egyptian pyramids, Chinese philosophy, Michelangelo, jazz, the United Nations, genetic engineering. Weiner analyzes the ways in which understanding creativity is tied to broader contemporary patterns, including intellectual concerns with postmodernism; trends in the arts; the changing status of women; the power of the electronic media; multiculturalism; developments in psychology, science, and technology; and the dramatic political, economic, and social transformations of our age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Who invented creativity?
Not a self-help manual, Weiner's book is for people who get intrigued by the notion that creativity is a fairly recent invention and wasn't even inthe dictionary until this century. So weren't the Greeks creative? Howabout the Chinese?In other words, it's more about the notion ofcreativity than about how you can be creative.Perhaps the easiest way tosummarize the book is to ask you to look at the cover, with its manyDavids. I think (by using this photo) Weiner is asking us to think aboutwhat it could possibly mean to be "creative" in a world of cheapreproductions. Is each of these Davids "real"? So the book is forpeople who enjoy ideas, but I don't want to give the impression that it'sjust for eggheads. It's clearly and interestingly written, and each of itschapters can be read independently.In fact, I would recommend reading itin pieces rather than all at once.I enjoyed it very much, and I thinkthat people who enjoy conversation with bright people who know what they'retalking about will enjoy this book; no special background is required. ... Read more

Product Description
Flow is the sense of inspired freedom that comes when you lose yourself completely in an activity, allowing time, duty and worry to melt away. For writer's, words pour out in a continuous, creative stream. In Writing In Flow, Dr. Susan Perry shows writers how to achieve and maintain a sense of flow in their own work, everything from defining what it is to making it happen--even when facing writer's block. Throughout, more than 75 best-selling and award-winning writers reveal their techniques for enhancing their writing creativity and productivity. * National bestseller* Foreword by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the New York Times best-selling book Flow* Addresses every writer's core need: to be more creative and prolific* Features insights from dozens of big-name writers, including Jane Smiley, Sue Grafton and moreAmazon.com Review
In Writing in Flow, Susan K. Perry applies the theoriesof Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow) about theconcept of "flow" to the writing process. A writer's being in flow iscomparable to an athlete's being in a "zone." "You know you've been inflow," Perry says, "when time seems to have disappeared.... You becomeso deeply immersed ... that you forget yourself and yoursurroundings." For this book, Perry interviewed 76 authors--includingT. Coraghessan Boyle, Sue Grafton, Donald Hall, and Jane Smiley--abouttheir experiences with flow. How often do they experience it? Whatdoes it feel like? How does one encourage it? How does the writingthat occurs during a flow state differ from that which is achieved ina more belabored manner? While the book often reads a little too muchlike the doctoral thesis it once was, Perry has culled somefascinating insights into the creative process from a terrificcollection of writers.

Flow happens, Perry suggests, "when our mind or body is voluntarilystretched to its limit." How you experience flow depends on who youare. If you're a deep sleeper, for instance, you may also be morelikely able to enter a deep flow state. For some writers, flow occursduring every writing session; for others, it is more elusive. Thereare those few who neither experience nor court it. "Nothing flows inmy writing process," says John Irving. "My job is to make it flow forthe reader, and that is a very deliberate, very slow, very unflowingprocess." But Irving is plainly in the minority. Most of the writersinterviewed here cherish the flow state above all else. "It is thepossibility of re-creating these moments," says Faye Moskowitz, "thatkeeps me going as a writer." Flow "seems to me the way life shouldalways be," adds Lynne Sharon Schwartz, "freed from time and pettydaily concerns and all forms of self-consciousness except the verydeepest." --Jane Steinberg ... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

Just Do It
Most writers agree that their best writing takes place when they lose themselves in their work. In this unself-conscious and highly creative state, the words flow effortlessly and the writing seems to shape itself. In this new book, psychologist Susan Perry reports on the process of "flow" and suggests ways in which you can open yourself to this process as well. If you occasionally (or often!) suffer from writer's block, she suggests five keys to becoming a more fluent and creative writer: 1) have a compelling reason to write; 2) open yourself to all possibilities; 3) loosen up and allow yourself to play with words; 4) focus on your writing, rather than on you-as-writer; 5) let the writing take you where it wants to go.

What Perry says rang generally true for me; I know that my most productive writing occurs when my story takes over and tells itself. I also enjoyed (and learned from) the testimony of other writers, who speak freely in her book about the writing process. But I found the best advice of all in three words on page 168: "Just do it." To my way of thinking, the only way to become engrossed in your writing is to write...and write...and write. As you write, you'll discover your own techniques for getting lost, opening up, loosening up, focussing, and going with the flow--wherever it takes you!

by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
[...]
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Infomercial.
This book fails my simple test for utility: The writer never gets around to describing, detailing, or otherwise explaining how you can get the results she gets. The book comes without user instructions.

No clear schematic and instructions is a common problem with self-help books. Most people are oblivious to exactly what it is they do well because the behavior is habituated. Consequently they cannot transfer the process to others because the process is outside of conscious awareness.

The book reminds me of an infomercial. It's almost entirely testimonials about how wonderful life can be if youre "In the Flow." But it never maps how you get from HERE to the FLOW.

Good but not Great
This book is optimal for writers who have experienced this thing called "flow", the state of hyper-focusing, enjoyed it, but can't seem to induce it on a regular basis.If you are such a writer and think you write best in this state, perhaps Writing in Flow is for you.
Otherwise, if you have never experienced flow or do often, there is little in this book to find useful.
Perry circles around many different theories about what causes a writer to be more or less likely to experience "flow" drawing on the research of Csikszentmihalyi and her correspondence with writers from several different fields.The thoughts of the writers are interesting; they explain how they get into flow, what it's like for them and how they think the state enhances the experience of writing.

I had several problems with this book:
One major issue was that Perry's field of interest is psychology but I found very little psychological data in this book that would explain Flow.
I feel as though Perry's book boils down to: just sit down in front of your computer/typewriter and write; the rest of the book is simply encouragement to do that very thing.
Another issue not really addressed was the quality of "flow" writing vs. other types.Yes it may be more enjoyable to write in a state of flow, but is it better?Is the writing better, do the writers improve as writers?These questions were never fully answered.

The key points were great. Had Perry focused on a few key points, like the importance of intrinsic motivation, the book would have had a more cohesive structure and would have been easier to digest.I get the feeling that when Perry approached the writers who contributed to her book, she didn't quite know what to ask them.What we get out of that is very broad statements by the writers and Perry trying to use these broad statements about specific principals she learned during the project.

If you enjoy writing in flow, but can't figure out how to make it happen, then you may want to read.For everyone else, just get out of the book store, sit down at your computer and write.

An intriguing mix of psychology and writing theory
"You know you've been in flow when time seems to have disappeared. When you're in flow, you become so deeply immersed in your writing, or whatever activity you're doing, that you forget yourself and your surroundings."

Susan Perry, a social psychologist and writer, decided to do her doctoral dissertation on the subject of flow. She conducted interviews, sent out questionnaires, and collected previously existing information. She wanted to know how writers experienced flow, how they got into flow, and whether their experiences could be generalized to help other writers find their way into flow. The author believes that writers can and do have at least a certain amount of control over whether or not they enter flow, and she presents five "master keys" for achieving flow, along with supporting anecdotes and details.

Even if the author had stopped with those five master keys, this book would be very useful. But she goes on to present much more information. You'll find more material on flow within the context of a writer's life. Frequently asked questions are answered in sidebars throughout the text. Specific techniques for luring the flow state are discussed (ritual and routine, clutter and lack thereof, timing, music, silence, meditation, tools, and more). The author also discusses the concept of writer's block, and, more specifically, what that means, how it affects flow, and what you can do about it.

On the one hand, the wild mix of perspectives is fantastic and extremely educational. There's also the amusement value of seeing several writers self-importantly declare that writing must be done a certain way, only to see several others contradict them. This really is a good lesson in the fact that almost no writing advice is entirely universal. On the other hand, I felt that the author allowed the quotes and interview excerpts to take too much control of the book. Because of this, I sometimes had trouble telling which chapter I was in and which topic the author was discussing. This led to some confusion, and kept some of the author's points from coming through as clearly as they should have.

If you have any interest whatsoever in "writing in flow," I strongly suggest that you read this book. While flow is not necessary in order to write well, and the author does mention authors who told her that they never enter flow, flow is certainly a more fun and pleasurable way in which to write (for most people, anyway). Also, if you're one of those people whose parents or teachers berated them for daydreaming, you might enjoy finding out that such a state can be a job skill. I know I certainly did!

good resource for creative people and those interested in the creative process
I found much to admire in this book. It is scholarly and thoughtful, but also practical and accessible. As such, it is a book that appeals to writers who would like to see how other writers manage the creative process; it also a book that appeals to psychologists and those who study the creative process. The author surveyed and interviewed many writers and found out how often they get into "flow" with their writing, strategies they have for getting into flow, etc. Interestingly, the author also provided information about different writers who decided not to participate in the study and their reasons for declining, some of which had to do with their reluctance or fear about analyzing their creative processes.
The author is clear that everyone's process is different and individualized, so she does not try to provide an overgeneralized how-to. Rather, she brings home the point that everyone's creative process is valid and suggests that the reader try different strategies in order to enhance his or her own creative process. These strategies are provided at the end of each chapter and provide an avenue for self-reflection of one's own creative process. I found this to be an eye-opening book.

... Read more

Product Description
Univ. of Texas, Arlington. Text focuses on how group creativity is affected by factors such as cognitive fixation and flexibility, group diversity, minority dissent, decision-making, brainstorming, and support systems. Also focuses on how various contextual and environmental factors affect the creative processes of groups. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Bruno-Faria reviews
It is a very important book because the theme "creativity in groups" is essential in the organizational context and there is a single in the area. Moreover, the book brings differents approaches about the subject.

Outlines the next 20 years of research in creativity
This will become a fundamental book for every researcher and practitioner who wishes to understand what creativity is about. It certainly does not contain all the answers (mostly still unknown), but it does present most of the relevant questions that will shape our understanding of this topic in the next two decades. Make a good investment and buy this book and/or look for these researchers' work online. ... Read more

Product Description
For centuries, the Zinacantec Maya women of Mexico have woven and embroidered textiles that express their social and aesthetic values and embody their role as mothers and daughters. Boasting more than two hundred striking and detailed photographs of Zinacantec textiles and their makers, this innovative study provides a rare long-term examination of the cognitive and socialization processes involved in transmitting weaving knowledge across two generations. Author Patricia Marks Greenfield first visited the village of Nabenchauk in 1969 and 1970. Her return in 1991 and regular visits through 2003 enable her to combine a scholarly study of the impact of commercialization and globalization on textile production and sales, acculturation, and female socialization with poignant personal reflections on mother-daughter relationships, creativity, and collaboration. Her collection of data and range of approaches make this book a major contribution to studies of cognition and socialization, the life cycles of material culture, and the anthropology of the Maya. Weaving Generations Together will appeal to both the academic specialist and anyone who admires Maya weaving and culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Maya weaving and education
If you visit the wholesale markets around Mexico City--quite a voyage--you will notice that some of the burliest and proudest truckers, hauling some of the biggest rigs, are wearing flaming-red ponchos that clearly say--or shout--"trucker elite here, as fine as it gets."These men are from Mayas from Zinacantan, a county in Chiapas, and their wives and daughters produce some of the finest and most blazingly eye-dazzling fabrics on earth.
For over 3 decades now, Patricia "Meg" Greenfield has been studying the women, their weaving methods, and above all how they teach their children to weave.Children learn by intensely involved watching and by practice (at first on toy looms).Mothers provide minimal verbal instruction; older peers provide more. The teacher/pupil ratio is 1:1 or better.Greenfield contrasts this learning-by-doing with schoolroom teaching, a rather new thing for Maya girls.Linear thinking and classroom drills can be hard to deal with after learning textile arts.
Until recently, the Zinacantan trademark was a red-and-white-striped fabric that goes back to pre-Spanish times.A very similar item around 700 years old turned up in a dry cave in the mountains near Zinacantan.Today, with some modest (and unevenly distributed) local affluence, and with tourists on the Pan-American Highway to buy pieces, creativity has blossomed, and far more red dye and fine embroidery are used. The results often make it to first-rank museums in Mexico, Europe, and the USA.
Meg Greenfield's work is part of a larger universe of studies of Maya education (Jean Lave, Barbara Rogoff-who also studies weaving--Becky Zarger, Rick Stepp...), and these in turn are part of one of the most successful projects in anthropology:the Chiapas Project begun and managed by the late Evon Vogt of Harvard University.A tireless organizer, Vogt sent hundreds of researchers to Zinacantan and nearby communities, at first to find ancient Maya traditions, later to find out absolutely everything.The research on education is thus thoroughly contexted in wider knowledge.
The implications for education are not spelled out in detail here; Rogoff has done more, in several books.Teachers and education planners ignore the findings at their peril.The benefits of traditional watch-and-do learning are profound, especially for nonverbal skills.We of the "modern" world are losing a very great deal by shifting increasingly to mindless drills tested by mindless multiple-choice machine-graded tests.We are losing all the brilliance and creativity and producing mechanized students.
Thus, I hope this book will not languish on the anthropology or (worse) the "traditional art" shelf.It should be required reading for educators.
It should also have an even wider appeal among anyone who loves photographs.The book illustrations are incredible. Theyare wonderfully printed; the trademark flame-red color shows up in its full subtlety, complexity, and artistic sophistication, rather than looking garish.Most of the shots are by Meg's daughter Lauren, with several by the legendary photographer and Maya scholar Frank Cancian.
My favorite photo, though, is one of Meg's: on p. xvi, Lauren poses next to a Maya girl (already, at nine years old, a good weaver).Lauren has a graceful smile for the camera, but Paxku has already perfected the grave, dignified, serious look that grown Maya think proper for public space.She is looking straight through the camera into the eyes of the viewer, with the calm self-confidence that has carried the Maya through five thousand eventful years.
... Read more

Product Description

In the tradition of Madeline L'Engle's Walking on Water and Dorothy Sayer's The Mind of the Maker, here is a rich and thought-provoking exploration of art, creativity, and faith.
In this rich collection of thoughts on creativity and faith, Luci Shaw explores the intersection of the life of faith with the life of art. By helping the reader understand spiritual principles from looking at God's own creative life throughout Scripture and by providing the necessary tools for thinking Christianly about the arts, she challenges the artist in us all to ask how faith informs art, and how art can animate faith. Here is a fresh breath of encouragement to the imaginative mind…a clear guide to understanding both the theological framework of creativity and the call to be active participants in God's own creative life.

Customer Reviews (2)

BREATH FOR THE BONES
[...]


Breath for the Bones is a red hardcover with a yellow book jacket that evokes marbled paper.At the beginning, the "Note to Readers" states: "This book is the compilation of many poignant words found in Luci Shaw's writings, lecture notes, workshops, journals, interviews, essays, and poems.Any gaps and spaces throughout the text reflect the quilting together of these materials to form a meaningful sequence of concepts with a thought-provoking readability" (p. vii).As a 20 year reader of Shaw's poetry and prose, I am grateful to have so many of her reflections on faith and art in one place.

The Introduction begins with Ecclesiastes 11:5 (NRSV):"Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother's womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything" (p. ix).As Shaw explains, faith and art are "breath for the bones to each other" (p. x).This is the book's major theme, and it is developed in many ways.Intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects of being a writer who is a Christian are all addressed.Some days I read this book and find an encouraging conversation with a trusted author; other days it brings me into a writer's workshop and challenges me to work harder on craft.I have also been blessed with new insights into the construction of poems that have helped me through difficult times--one of the rewards of rereading.

This book has two major parts.Part One is "The Basics of Creativity: Foundations of the Creative Process."Examples of its titles include "Entering into Beauty" and "Meeting the God of Metaphor."Part Two is "The Details of Creativity: Exploring the Creative Process."There are also six chapters in this section, with titles including "Understanding the Shadow Side of Creativity" and "Tracing the Creative Process of Poets and Poems."Appendix A then offers writing assignments and discussion questions.Appendix B is a recommended reading list for further study and enjoyment.

Breath for the Bones concludes with a long list of Acknowledgments and Notes.Among others, Luci Shaw honors Lil Copan "...for her gift--many weeks of her own time unraveling into a coherent whole the tangled mess of essays, lectures, poems, and journal notes that I had thrust upon her.With skill and efficiency she sorted and reordered materials of mine in a task that had seemed impossible to me, too close as I was to my own writing" (p. 202).This expression of gratitude pictures perfectly the rich and generous nature of the entire book.It is indeed a beautiful quilt. (Reprinted with permission from Time of Singing; Fall, 2008.[...])

A book to read and contemplate
"I am a poet, not a scholar," says Luci Shaw in the last chapter of BREATH FOR THE BONES. And as a poet, she has provided a book for people interested in the mysteries of muse and the process of creating. The book jacket features type (words) only, no distinctive graphics other than a few swirls of color. To clarify the picture, the publisher has printed lots of words, even a subtitle to the subtitle: Art, Imagination, and Spirit: Reflections on Creativity and Faith."

An upfront "note to readers" acknowledges that this book is "the compilation of many poignant words found in Luci Shaw's writings, lecture notes, workshops, journals, interviews, essays, and poems." It is the retrospective that might be expected of --- and hoped for --- from a writer who has aged into a respected "seasoned" category.

Shaw may not be a theologian, but it's hard for her to conceal her training, as a child schooled in a parsonage and as a one-time college student who minored in New Testament Greek (with a major in English). There's theological reflection here, evidenced in chapters titled "Discovering the Creative Heart of God" and "Meeting the God of Metaphor," both placed in part 1, again, comprehensively titled ("The Basics of Creativity: Foundations of the Creative Process"). And a subsequent chapter starts off by proposing that the Holy Spirit is the muse of the Christian poet. Like the biblical writers themselves, Shaw turns to similitudes to explain the workings of the Spirit --- or breath --- of God. "I cannot turn on the writing art or transcendence like a faucet. My job is to wait and see --- literally to wait for the Spirit, with the Spirit, and to see."

Though it is far from a how-to manual, part 2 includes content that is a bit more "hands-on," summarized as "The Details of Creativity: Exploring the Creative Process." I especially enjoyed chapters on journal writing and risk taking. Young writers or artists can learn so much from Shaw --- that creating is a process: "As a keeper of a daily reflective journal, I find that as soon as I put words and ideas onto paper [or computer]...they begin to gather to themselves more images, more words and ideas." And that a creative life calls for risk. Shaw's writing is most engaging when it's personal and anecdotal; her risk chapter includes an extended account of a sailing expedition with metaphorical overtones. And a final chapter summary? "Perhaps the role of those involved in the arts, then, is to awaken ourselves and others to beauty --- in all its risk and in all its richness."

An appendix gives chapter-by-chapter "writing exercises and questions for discussion." It's a shame that these don't appear throughout the book, so as to be more "in your face" when the material is fresh in your mind. Be sure to read and contemplate the questions as you take a breath and exercise your bones at the end of a particular chapter.

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence ... Read more

Product Description
In this "unexpected delight,"* filmmaker David Lynch describes his personal methods of capturing and working with ideas, and the immense creative benefits he has experienced from the practice of meditation.

Now in a beautiful paperback edition, David Lynch'sCatching the Big Fish provides a rare window into the internationally acclaimed filmmaker's methods as an artist, his personal working style, and the immense creative benefits he has experienced from the practice of meditation.

Catching the Big Fish comes as a revelation to the legion of fans who have longed to better understand Lynch's personal vision. And it is equally compelling to those who wonder how they can nurture their own creativity.

Catching Ideas

Ideas are like fish.

If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper.

Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.

I look for a certain kind of fish that is important to me, one that can translate to cinema. But there are all kinds of fish swimming down there. There are fish for business, fish for sports. There are fish for everything.

Everything, anything that is a thing, comes up from the deepest level. Modern physics calls that level the Unified Field. The more your consciousness-your awareness-is expanded, the deeper you go toward this source, and the bigger the fish you can catch.

-from Catching the Big Fish ... Read more

Customer Reviews (81)

Pearl After Pearl After Pearl of Wisdom
You will quickly find that the author is a big believer in transcendental meditation.To him it is the fix all for the world's problems.I really enjoyed engaging a conversation with the Mr. Lynch throughout the book.As he quotes,the world is as you are.If you read this book with a limited view you will get very little out of it. That is okay.Read it once and put it away. Then pick it up again and see ifyou can't find another pearl of wisdom in it.Better yet, go to the library and get the audiobook version.Having Mr. Lynch converse with you is wonderful.

If you are looking for a book about how to use TM - this isn't it.
If you are looking for a book about how TM can help you in your creative process this is it.

Si tienes curiosidad en Meditacion...
Como digo en el título, si tienes algúna curiosidad en Meditación te va a parecer interesante.Y si además estas metido en el mundo del arte (cine, video, música etc), te va a parecer aún más interesante.Pero ten presente que este no es un manual ni un libro didáctico.Es simplemente un libro que explica cómo, a traves de la meditación, las cosas pueden fluir con mayor facilidad.Y tambien habla un poco sobre algunas anecdotas de algunas sus películas.Pero recuerda, no es un libro sobre cine, ni te dice QUÉ HACER para tener buenas ideas, ni como ser creativo al escribir o lo que sea.Simplemente (y muy resumidamente)te dice que cuando meditas, puedes tener control sobre tus problemas, llegar a un nivel de tranquilidad, y ahi (en comleta paz) uno puede pensar mejor, cierto?

You won't even catch a small fish with this book
This book should really have been an article in a film magazine, its that short.I was hoping that there would be a lot of information regarding TM, but there wasn't any.As others have noted the book is really just ramblings about how great LA is, and how he gets ideas for his films, seemingly by just shooting from the hip and trial and error.Actually I'm shocked at how uncreative the thought process in this book is.If TM is really the key then why can't he share it with everyone.The whole [...] and David Lynch seem to be keeping it a secret so you can go to their website and pay $1,500 to learn how to do it.

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
This book is not about Meditation, it's about David Lynch. If Lynch Meditated for 30 years, why is he still a chain smoker???

Fun and Interesting
Lynch is a cutting edge artist whose films have become increasingly interesting overtime. This little text is a collection of fragments and reflections regarding his life as a creative artist and his relationship to transcendental meditation. Lynch finds an ocean of abstract ideas in the 'unified consciousness' provided through the technique of TM. There are plenty of useful anecdotes here-both on meditating and the creative life in general. Lynch is clearly a somewhat solipsistic man, but his work continues to expand in beauty and creative depth so he must be doing something right. As he points out, 'he's not very good with words,' so this little book is not exactly a robustly analytic exegesis of his process, but it still provides some fascinating insights all the same. ... Read more