He called this state “ flow” and wrote a national bestseller about it while founding the discipline of positive psychology and co-directing the Quality of Life Research Center at Claremont Graduate University. Like Carl Jung, Csikszentmihalyi believed that creation proceeds, in a sense, from falling in love with an activity and losing ourselves in a state beyond our preoccupations with self, others, or the past and future. He wrote, Austin Kleon notes, “about the joys of being an amateur” - which, in its literal sense, means being a devoted lover. It is taken as downright shameful for a man past twenty to indulge in versification unless he receives a check to show for it.Ĭsikszentmihalyi, who passed away this month, deplored the instrumentalization of creativity. Nowadays if one does not make some money (however pitifully little) out of writing, it’s considered to be a waste of time. Not so long ago, it was acceptable to be an amateur poet…. As psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi put it: The word suggests that those who don’t work as “Creatives” have no business in the area of creativity. The term lumps all working artists together, as though their work were interchangeable deliverables measured in billable hours. Anyone who does creative work may be labeled a “Creative” ( used as a noun) at some point in their career. The current focus on creativity isn’t always a net positive. There may be as many best-selling books on creativity as there are on dieting or relationships. Or, at least, we continue to be fascinated by creativity now more than ever, it seems. Nonetheless, humans continue to create things. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-2021) was a Hungarian-born professor of American psychology at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA and is the former head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago.Despite decades of research, scientists still know little about the source of creativity. '.That kind of creativity is what makes life really full and worth living.' (hosted by Michael Toms) Bio 'Each one of us can experience the feeling of discovery,' says Czikszentmihalyi. He describes how creative expression improves with age, how to avoid discouraging it in children, how art fits into its social context, and other insights to help you understand and express your own creativity in new ways. He shares how outstandingly creative people differ from ordinary people, and how those of us who consider ourselves more ordinary can cultivate the spark of creativity within. What does it mean to be a creative person? Here, Czikszentmihalyi tells of the results of extensive research on the subject.

Csikszentmihalyi creativity