Creative Types, Traits and “The Creative Personality” (Part 1)
(This is
an excerpt
from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course
at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
In keeping with
the preceding statement on labels and myth, this section provides some assembled
thoughts and research into the personality of “creative types.”
The purpose here is emphatically not to adhere to further labeling, or to
categorize a particular “type” as creative (and conversely condemn
others to the role of being non-creative). Rather, the opposite. By looking
at certain choices, tendencies, and outlooks, and characteristics that tend
to be viewed as what is often assumed to be s a “naturally”
creative personality, it is hoped that these can be viewed as patterns of
thinking and patterns of behavior that one may choose to cultivate within
oneself in order to facilitate the emergence of creativity. If one wanted
to achieve better physical conditioning, it would begin by steps of training.
If one specifically wanted to be a better golfer, studying and copying the
swing of Woods or Nicklaus might be undertaken. Here are these illustrations
and opinions presented. The goal is not artifice nor to adopt another’s
personality. The goal might conceivably be to change one’s personal
habits in order to facilitate growth in creativity, just as setting aside
the time to jog or practicing another’s golf swing would facilitate
those goal oriented endeavors.
An unhappy environment is not necessary to produce a creative individual.
Think of ancient Athens or Florence during the Renaissance. For the most
part it was a boom of wealth and prosperity in relative peace. Certainly
there was Greek tragedy and Florentine intrigue, However, as long as the
environment is lively, complex and provides varied opportunity for self-expression
and personal involvement, then it seems to stimulate flexibility and spontaneity
in people.
Children are naturally creative in a spontaneous way, but usually without
the thought or discipline of style and intentional discovery. While that
doesn’t mean that there isn’t style or discipline, one should
recognize that a considerable amount of self-sought discipline and training
is often necessary for one’s creative work, whether it is musical
composition, painting, dancing, problem solving, physics, architecture,
etc. A complex, highly creative act is usually only the product of well-disciplined,
well-trained adult creatives.
Creative potential can sometimes seem to “go to waste” in a
society that puts too much emphasis on an established “right”
way to live, a “right” way to do things, a “right”
way to succeed. These can cause a “creatopathic” situation of
routine where we are bound by too many worries and obligations, become self-absorbed
in the pressures of daily living itself within the proscribed obligations
of surviving, to have any energy left for doing something new.
Despite the romantic notion of “creative madness,” this is mostly
a wealth of anecdotes and can be largely discounted when dealing with creativity
as a whole. Extremes are always more vivid and more noticeable and more
memorable than the average, or norms of sensibilities and behavior, and
without a doubt, extremely creative people would stand out in many ways.
While there are some studies that would suggest creatives are more prone
to such things, it is probably more accurate to look at Plato’s comment
that a person must have something of “the divine madness” in
their soul to create poetry. (Note the qualifier, “divine”).
As creatives can be said to see more of the “possible” in their
creative perspective, this would be accompanied by a sense of loss, apathy
or despair if the creative perspective and/or energy were stifled or lost
for a momentary time. Certainly the wards of mental hospitals are riddled
with the truly “mad” who are at a serious loss of contact with
consensual reality. What creatives experience is more of a momentary loss
of their enhanced, creative reality. The mundane world is that which they
strive to overcome and see beyond, and have fallen from the mundane reality
into one of near total disconnectedness.
One of the primary traits of creative people is an interest in knowledge,
in learning new things and having new experiences. Even when stymied by
lack of job or circumstances, they are motivated to try to find a way to
create in the future. It is a primary, intrinsic and motivating force. Creative
people also are driven to find order. They often create their own insular,
private cosmos into which they are reluctant to invite people. Their haven
is the order of their own cosmos from which they are centered and able to
look out and venture into the world.
Also, creative people tend to exhibit several other traits; independence
of judgment, the insistence of thinking for oneself, which often shows itself
in resistance to conformity or even rebelliousness against authority or
status quo. Yet another trait is intuition. Creatives seem to have the ability
to see to the heart of things, even when they are at a loss as to how to
articulate or explain how they arrived there. It is not logical at first
glance, but can be seen to be logical from hindsight or a distance. They
also have the ability to take large risks, to be wrong and subject to ridicule,
punishment and even loss.
Columbus is such a symbol. Defying conventional wisdom and logic, he set
forth for the New World based on an intuitive sense that he examined in
light of the knowledge of the day. Though such knowledge did not necessarily
support his theory, to his sense this very absence of support, and the holes
in the knowledge itself, lent a kind of “backward justification”
for his intuitive feelings. Herman Melville stated, “Who is willing
to be the Columbus of the mind.” It was only with his success (on
the third try and at the end of his options in gathering a sponsor to support
what other’s were describing as his mad beliefs) that his intuition,
and more importantly the basis of his intuition, were proven correct, and
in fact, seemed obvious. Columbus succeeded.
Columbus had filled in a missing piece of the puzzle and changed a picture
he intuitively felt to be incomplete. Only when others saw the more complete
picture did the maps then seem to have been the incomplete puzzle that Columbus
felt them to be. Herman Melville queried, “Who is willing to be the
Columbus of the mind?”
There are also the traits of originality and the ability to make connections
that are not apparent to others. It’s interesting to note that two
creative people can occasionally be at odds over the most mundane matters.
The fact is that their creativity (that is, intuition, associative connections
and such) may operate differently or in different spectrums. Imagine Einstein
and Picasso engaging in a problem solving exercise. Undoubtedly there would
be points of connection, but invariably these two thinkers would be operating
through their own highly developed creative methods of reasoning and encounter
some turbulent times in the practicality of working it out. One might be
assured however, that even if they did not arrive at exactly the same place,
that both would probably solve the problem in a highly creative way.
Finally, introversion is invariably an aspect of creatives. Though they
may be extroverted in a particular area, or have an extroverted creativity,
they are predominantly introverted in that they are introspective, applying
and searching for meaning as they create a mental and physical order of
perspective.
Again, and it cannot be stressed enough that this matrix is not in order
to define, type or limit oneself, but rather as an identification tool to
assist in targeting behaviors and modes of thinking that will achieve the
breakthrough creativity. Rollo May insists in The Courage to Create that
many of the processes and characteristics that foster inspiration and creativity
are merely that. When assembled together, we see them as “talents”
and “abilities,” when in fact they are very recognizable as
perhaps merely virtues of a certain character.
In The Grace of Great Things, (1990) Robert Grudin builds upon many of May’s
assertions and creates his own profile of many of the shared traits among
the creative types.
Continued
in Part 2. Click Here