Creativity as a Spontaneous Interaction
with the World
with the World
Creativity must happen spontaneously. It cannot be forced. A
person cannot just sit down and decide "now, I'm going to be
creative." This is because novelty cannot exist in pure form and it
cannot exist in isolation. Everything exists in relationship to something
else. Sure, we can theorize that something could exist in isolation -
that there is something so novel we have never seen anything like it
before. Even with the use of our greatest skills however, it is likely
that we cannot draw such a thing to our imagination because, if it is
that novel, we have no way of understanding it and certainly no way
of "constructing" it.
Increasing our understanding of the world, however, can facilitate an
understanding of more things than we have been able to understand
in the past. This, in turn, allows us to understand, and therefore, to
"see" things we may not have been able to understand or see before.
If our understanding is unique, we maybe able to invent, discover,
and create "new" things. Even then however, our expanded
understanding of context will have to be one in which the new thing
fits. It needs to be relevant (related) in order to hold value and
purpose. Thought itself requires at least two things: It requires at
least the thinker and the thought. More often though, it requires the
thinker and two or more things which exist in relation to one another.
If one of the other "things" is another thinker, we will have to
articulate not only our "new" idea, but our view of the world in which
that idea fits. If we cannot do this, our idea will lose value, will not
be understood, and any phenomena we describe will not find its way
into "existence."
Creativity in isolation is a type of psychosis. It is also, often, born of
erroneous and "inbred" thought. Taking our cues spontaneously - not
when we are sitting down, but when we are in the middle of other
things - is when our inspiration is likely to be born into context,
relevance, value and meaning. When our inspiration comes in the
course of our interaction with the world we are blessed with an
opportunity to have the proverbial "best of both worlds." We have
an opportunity to have an important and involved relationship with a
world in which we have power - a world which we can change to
our liking.
person cannot just sit down and decide "now, I'm going to be
creative." This is because novelty cannot exist in pure form and it
cannot exist in isolation. Everything exists in relationship to something
else. Sure, we can theorize that something could exist in isolation -
that there is something so novel we have never seen anything like it
before. Even with the use of our greatest skills however, it is likely
that we cannot draw such a thing to our imagination because, if it is
that novel, we have no way of understanding it and certainly no way
of "constructing" it.
Increasing our understanding of the world, however, can facilitate an
understanding of more things than we have been able to understand
in the past. This, in turn, allows us to understand, and therefore, to
"see" things we may not have been able to understand or see before.
If our understanding is unique, we maybe able to invent, discover,
and create "new" things. Even then however, our expanded
understanding of context will have to be one in which the new thing
fits. It needs to be relevant (related) in order to hold value and
purpose. Thought itself requires at least two things: It requires at
least the thinker and the thought. More often though, it requires the
thinker and two or more things which exist in relation to one another.
If one of the other "things" is another thinker, we will have to
articulate not only our "new" idea, but our view of the world in which
that idea fits. If we cannot do this, our idea will lose value, will not
be understood, and any phenomena we describe will not find its way
into "existence."
Creativity in isolation is a type of psychosis. It is also, often, born of
erroneous and "inbred" thought. Taking our cues spontaneously - not
when we are sitting down, but when we are in the middle of other
things - is when our inspiration is likely to be born into context,
relevance, value and meaning. When our inspiration comes in the
course of our interaction with the world we are blessed with an
opportunity to have the proverbial "best of both worlds." We have
an opportunity to have an important and involved relationship with a
world in which we have power - a world which we can change to
our liking.
Christian Wolff, MA, Licensed Psychologist Associate
Copyright, 2003
Copyright, 2003
| CHRISTIAN WOLFF, MA Licensed Psychologist Associate/Consultant 820 NW 21st Avenue, Suite B . Portland. Oregon . 97209 . 503-284-4501 . christian@christianwolff.com |
| CHRISTIAN WOLFF, MA Licensed Psychologist Associate/Consultant 820 NW 21st Avenue, Suite B . Portland. Oregon . 97209 . 503-284-4501 . christian@christianwolff.com |
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