64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some core truths about creativity, November 19, 1999
By
dr. (Dr. Stephen Diamond, author of ANGER, MADNESS, AND THE DAIMONIC from Los Angeles, California) -
See all my reviews
This review is from: The Courage to Create (Paperback)
Rollo May was personally very familiar with the creative process: he was not only a pioneering psychotherapist, philosopher, prolific and poetic author, and sought after teacher and lecturer, but also a gifted watercolorist with great appreciation for art and music. So, in these hundred-or-so pithy and entertaining pages, he shares with readers some core truths about creativity and its psychology. Courage, as the book's apt title implies, is at the very heart of creativity, since to be creative requires us to risk seeing reality anew, and to try (typically not wholly successfully) to express our experiences in creative work, despite the anxiety such soul-searching and self-revealing endeavors inevitably engender. Creativity always requires taking a chance on one's self-- meeting one's unconscious, or shadow, or what May called the daimonic--and moving ahead despite self-doubts, discouragement and anxiety. Courage, as May makes clear, is not the absence of insecurity, fear, anxiety or despair, but resides in the decision to move through these feelings as constructively or creatively as possible. For anyone struggling with the creative process, this classic meditation on creativity can provide welcome encouragement.
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79 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Courage to Create", August 12, 2002
This review is from: The Courage to Create (Paperback)
I have taught a Psychology of Creativity course for over 13 years now and this has been the only book I have ordered for every single course. Not only does May describe the creative process (e.g., the encounter), blocks (fear of life/death), environment (history, mythology) but he DOES offer real-life practical solutions in terms of self-questioning. A Humanistic, Transpersonal, Existential psychologist, May expounds on the "life is a journey" worldview: it is what we make it, yes, but not the "it is what "I" make it. WE, not "I". Laid out like a recipe, May discusses at least two paradoxes of creativity that other psychological theories might refer to as indicative of error. First, his definition of courage is the willingness to take action DESPITE despair. I interpret this not that creativity derives from despair but that it is better measured within the context of despair, for example John Nash "A Brilliant Mind." Secondly he defines creativity as the willingness to be fully committed while keeping in mind we might be wrong (which brings to mind the cognitive concept of functional fixedness). Tolerance for ambiguity is a key characteristic of creative personalities. A willingness to move beyond the "ok" solution in preference for the "original idea".
Physical, Moral, Social and Creative courage are each discussed in practical terms. Unlike many books which incorporate "creativity" in the title, this book truly focuses one possible reason creativity continues to elude empirical measurement, not unlike Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle." We can know about the world/nature-at-large but it depends on what we ask. Perhaps there is another side to what it means "to know." If this question intrigues you then read, and re-read The Courage to Create. It is a guidebook for lifetime existential quest that doesn't kick aside practical application. Tolerance for ambiguity--that's the key.
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81 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Call to Engage, September 11, 2000
This review is from: The Courage to Create (Paperback)
Some books age like vintage wines, gathering a film of dust that
disuse protects until that happy "discovery" by an old
friend. Rollo May's "The Courage to Create" was written in
1975 - in a time when the presence of the atom bomb created an anxiety
that prevented people to create for a future that was unsure, at best.
Now in 2000, twenty five years of cosmic angst have intensified to a
fear of the limits of even a glimpse of a future and it is reaffirming
to return to Rollo May to regain the courage to "rage against the
dying of the light." In eloquent but inordinately accessible
language May surveys the entire concept of Creativity with terse, well
selected passages from Plato and the ancients to Cezanne to Tillich
and Kierkegard and Thomas Wolfe. This is not a "How To" book
or self-help rapid- read to solve superficial problems. This little
book, when read slowly and thoughtfully, guides us through concepts
that allow us to regain a state of positive thinking in a time when it
is far more popular to dwell on our day to day foibles and transient
misjudgements. The discovery of the self is his most important
driver, yet he doesn't stop there. Taking that newly discovered self
and building the courage to acknowledge encounters, engagements,
epiphanies, and a usable acceptance of limits - this sounds so simple
in a review, but when May has your complete attention, more happens to
us than just learning about creativity: we learn about really
living. ....
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