F. R. Duke University of own Iowa City, 52240
Creativity
Creativity can currently be defined or described in an operational but not in an fundamental way. A creative person is one who originates inobvious, ingenious, and significant ideas. The creative act is a mysterious one. From the beginning of recorded history until comparatively recently, the birth of an idea wan generally attributed to divine revelation. For example, Galileo, (1) in describing his observations of the skies through his telescope says, "all these facts were discovered and observed by me not many days ago with the aid of a spy glass which I devised, after first being illuminated by divine grace." This general theme is often found in ancient and medieval writing. The same feeling of mystery bordering in the occult can be found in modern descriptions of the creative process. Henri Poincarb (2) states The incidents of the journey made me forget my mathematical work. When we arrived at Coutances, we got into a hreak to go for a dl.ive, and, just ZLF I put my foot on the step, the idea came to me, though nothing in my former t.houghts seem to have orenared me for it,. . . . I made no verifications. and had no time to do so, since I took up a conversation again as soon as I sat downin the break, hut I felt absolute certainty a t once. .
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Further on, Poincarb writes in reference to another problem (5) One day, as I was oroksing t,he street, the solution af the difliculty which had hrought me to a. standstill came to me all a t once.
Leo Silard, renowned physicist, says in an interview (4) concerning his ideas on antibodies and antigens, "In a plane flying from Stockholm to London in the fall of '59, I suddenly had an idea. Everything fell into place.. . ." Bernard Mathias ( 5 ) , when asked how hin rules on valence electrons in superconductivity came to him said I t was a t night, but I war awake at that time. Some super conductors I found when I was asleep, but this time I wasn't. I was reading a hook, something quite different, and suddenly I knew that it was the number of valence electrons that was the common feature.
Robert R. Wilson (67, in talking of his studies in nuclear physics states But the real kicks come when you've had the more typical creative experience. . .. You go through this long, hard period of filling yourself up with as much information as you can. You just sort of feel it all rumbling around inaide of yon, not part,iculady a t the conscious level. Then-it can happen a t any timevou beein to feel a solution. a resohttion. huhhline uu to your
Peter Debye (7) puts it in a more matter-of-fact way. When you have something that you cannot understand, even though yon try, you get angry with yonrself. Then you forget
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all about i t because other things come up, and all a t once you know it.
Albert Szent Gyorgyi got his ideas, answered
(a), when asked where he
In my bed, when waking between 3 and 4 a.M., or when sleeping. The brain does agreat deal of unconscious work without our knowing it, and that is how most of our great problems aresolved. We must think very hard, hut that is just "priming". I t will mostly get you nowhere, hecause we are misled by so many false statements and pictures. You most leave the brain done-go fishing, or to sleep-and the brain will clean all that up, and in the end out come results. That's my experience. The brain is like a laxative which is advertised hack in Hungary with the slogan "It works while you sleep".
Many scientists of my acquaintance have had similar experiences, generally expressing the termination of the creative act in terms such as "suddenly the idea hit me." On the basis on testimony like the above as well as on personal experience, I tentatively conclude that much of the creative process occurs in the recesses of our subconscious minds. I t is clear that Carl Jung proposed the same sort of unconscious thought as is referred to above. For example, he says (9) ... new contents, which have never yet been conscious, can arise from i t [the unconsciousl. . . .The discovery that the unconscious is no mere depository of the past, hut is also full of germs of future psychic situations and ideas, led me to my own new approach to psychology. A great deal of controversial discussion ha-, arisen around this paint. But i t is a fact that, in addition to memories from the long-distant conscious past, completely new thoughts and creative ideas can present themselvess from the unconscious-thoughk and ideas that have never been consciow before. They grow up from the dark depths of the mind like a lotus and form a most important part of the subliminal psyche.
Jung was convinced that the window to the unconscious processes was through dreams, in which the unconscious completely free from conscious influence could reveal itself. He therefore had a tendency to concentrate on dream interpretation rather than on the unconscious a s s source of creative ideas. What kind of language is used in creative thought? The lack of ready communication between the subcooseious and conscious parts of the brain suggests that creative thought is nonlingual in the ordinary sense of language. One need only consider that words which denote abstractions must have been devised after the abstract thought to realize that words are unnecessary for thought. Einstein (lo), when asked his opinion of this, said, "The words of the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in the mechanism of thought'". Von Neumann ( l i ) , in comparing the mind to the computer, concludes quite logically that there is a mathematical symbolism used by the mind which is much more complicated than
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computer language and which hasn't yet been discovered. My feeling in this matter is that much of conscious thought is lingual, but little or none of the subconscious thought is done in words. It seems likely that a fundamental understanding of creativity depends upon discovering the mathematical language of subconsciousthought. Following directly upon this idea, we can now aslc whether the (probably) much greater store of knowledge in the subconscious as compared with that in the conscious mind is available for use in creative thinking. Almost certainly it is; if one is to account for the sudden emergence of ideas, the general immediate lack of logical path between premises and the idea and the fact that one can be very mucb preoccupied without being able to give an account of his thoughts, one is led to the conclusion that everything one has heard, read, or observed is potentially available for creativity. I can testify from personal experience that I have been "hit" with ideas which subsequently led me to recollect having heard or read things which I almost certainly would never have remembered in the absence of the idea. One may draw the corollary t o this notion that results on examinations as they are typically given in academic circles may have little correlation with useful knowledge. Michael Polanyi (12) has written extensively on what we know that we do not know that we know and presents convincing arguments that such knowledge is extensive. If one now pictures the myriad ebb and flow of facts, notions, and principles through the subliminal mind, ever looking for a juxtaposition of these which constitutes a worthy idea, one is faced with the question of what sort of screen keeps the bad ideas from our conscious mind and lets the good ones through. In all likelihood, a good scientist has an organization of this knowledge which is analogous to an edifice; it is esthetically pleasing, except for incomplete parts and an occasional area where t,he bricks do not mesh, or where an unsightly protuberance may be encountered. A good idea serves to complete an unfinished area or to reorganize unpleasing constructs while a poor idea either does nothing or is esthetically negative. Thus a creative person rejects bad ideas and accepts good ones subliminally. Poinear6 (IS) puts it very well The useful combinations are precisely the most beautiful, I mean thase that can most charm that special sensibility t,hat all mathematicians know.. .. Of the very large number of combinations which the subliminal ego blindly forms, almost all are without interest and without utility. But for that very reason, they are without action on the esthetic sensibility; the consciousness will never know them. A few only are harmonious, and consequently a t once useful and beautiful, and they will be capable of affecting the geometrician's special sensibility--which once mowed, will direct our attention upon them, and will thuq give them the opportunity of becoming conscious.
The subconscious mind is thus found capable of quality judgement, rejecting "purple cows" but calling the attention of the conscious mind to those nice combinations and permutations which constitute a good idea. Let us now consider the characteristics of a creative person, since i t is quite obvious that great variations in capability exist between individuals. First, there seems to be no wrrelation between personality type and creativity, although attempts have been made to as-
sociate creativity with a high degree of extrovertive tendencies. My own observations in relation to both colleagues and students would indicate no such correlation. An extreme example is that of Hans Berger (lk), the discoverer of electroencephalography, who was considered to be dull, unimaginative, introverted and totally incapable of an original idea by his colleagues. Yet his discovery, at the time (early 1900's) and with the equipment available, stands as one of the more creative human endeavors. How about intelligence, as measured by standard tests? Experience u-ould have us believe that high intelligence is very often, but not always, associated with creativity. People with high intelligence find their way easily through our academic programs and thus tend toward positions in which the creative process has an excellent chance to flourish, but there appears to be no close correlation between creativity and intelligence. My own experience with students allows me to recall "straight A" students who seemed totally devoid of ideas, as well as the converse, poor academic students who were creative. Let us now consider what roles knowledge and experience play in creativity. First, i t is clear that a vast knowledge or experience is not sufficient-ure have all known people with encyclopedic knowledge who were not creative. It also is clear that a certain minimal knowledge is necessary and this knowledge may be very specific and specialized, a fact which becomes clear when we consider the ages of some of our most creative people. For example, Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibnitz devised his system of mathematical analysis and symbolic logic when he u7as twenty; Sir Isaac Newton invented calculus and conceived the law of gravitation between the ages of twenty-three and twenty-five; and Werner Heisenberg, Johann von Keumann, and Erwin Schroedinger were all ,young when they made their monumental contributions to quantum mechanics. If experience in particular were an important ingredient of creativity, one would find many more creative ideas originating from our elders. It is worth emphasizing, then, that the kind of knowledge nhich allows one to do well on an examination (conscious knowledge) is not closely related to creativity. The first and most important characteristic of a creative person is interest. For the subconscious to concentrate its efforts in one area, the consciou~mind must convince the subconscious that the new idea is desperately needed and this in turn requires an overwhelming interest in the problem at hand. Possession of this interest leads to a very rapid assimilation of what knowledge is available which bears upon the problem-through reading, listening, observing, and communicating with colleagues. Under these couditions of urgency, the unconscious mind goes t,o work, sifting, matching, placing in various juxtaposes, various facts, principles, and ideas until a n e r creation arises. It would seem impossible to devise a 1- or 2-hr test for creativity since it takes longer tban this to generate the requisite int,erest and background knowledge; and the unconscious will apparently reject puzzles as unworthy of its attention. Another important characteristic of a creative person is confidence. Just as the unconscious mind will Volume 49, Number 6, June 1972
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