| The Act of Creation | |
|---|---|
| Author | Arthur Koestler |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Psychology |
| Publication date | 1964 |
| Media type | |
The Act of Creation is a 1964 book by Arthur Koestler. It is a study of the processes of creativity and imagination in which Koestler explains that humans are most creative when rational thought is abandoned during dreams and trances.[1] Koestler affirms that all creatures have the capacity for creative activity, frequently suppressed by the automatic routines of thought and behavior that dominate their lives.
Koestler's basic idea is that the creative act is a "bisociation" (not mere association) which happens, if two (or more) apparently incompatible frames of thought ("matrices") are brought together by an ingenious mind.[2] In jokes and humour, these conceptual systems are reversed, in the arts and in ritual, they are juxtaposed, in science, they are fused into a new larger synthesis.[3] This corresponds to a "self-assertive" tendency in humour and a "self-transcending" tendency in art, while in science both tendencies are balanced.
Literature
- Reed Merrill: Arthur Koestler. In: Irene R. Makaryk (Ed.): Encyclopedia of contemporary literary theory. University of Toronto Press, 1993, ISBN 080206860X, pp. 390-392.
External links
References
- ^ The New York Times: The Genesis of Genius; The Act of Creation. October 18, 1964
- ^ Jason Comerford: Author profile: Arthur Koestler. August 26, 2005
- ^ Figure 2 in Terrence Deacon: The Aesthetic Faculty. In: Mark Turner (Ed.): The Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Riddle of Human Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006
 |
This article about a psychology book is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
