Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature: Psychological, Social and Spiritual Perspectives [Hardcover]

Ruth Richards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2007

What is everyday creativity? A capacity, a strategy, a process, all of these. It is an ability that is intimately woven into our daily lives and our personalities, one that we use from hour to hour; yet it remains, for most of us, underdeveloped and, unfortunately, underacknowledged. Writes editor and leading creativity researcher Ruth Richards, "Everyday creativity is about everyone, throughout our lives, and fundamental to our very survival. It is how we find our lost child, get enough to eat, make our way in a new place and culture.With our everyday creativity, we adapt flexibly, we improvise, we try different options, whether we are raising a child, counseling a friend, fixing our home, or planning a fundraising event." In this provocative collection of essays, an interdisciplinary group of eminent thinkers and writers offer their thoughts on how embracing creativity-tapping into the "originality of everyday life"-can lead to improved physical and mental health, to new ways of thinking, of experiencing the world and ourselves. They show how creativity can refine our views of human nature at an individual and societal level and, ultimately, change our paradigms for survival-and for flourishing-in a world fraught with urgent challenges. Neither a dry treatise nor a manual, this anthology draws upon the latest research in the area to present a lively examination of the phenomenon and process of everyday creativity and its far-reaching ramifications for self, culture, history, society, politics, and humankind's future. Part I looks at creativity and individuals-our wellbeing, potential for new and transformative understandings, and openings to richness, immediacy, and profundity of experience. Part II involves social creativity-including issues of complexity, collaboration, contextual relativity, inclusiveness, and creative systems evolving from the ground up (vs. more hierarchical models). Part III presents a detailed and multilay

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

What is everyday creativity? This book offers a great synthesis of the literature and a wealth of ideas and perspectives about everyday creativity from the leaders in the field. It is scholarly, interesting, and practical--an excellent combination. Ruth Richards continues to develop this important concept and tells us the practical benefits of everyday creativity.
--Sandra W. Russ, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH; author of Affect and Creativity: The Role of Affect and Play in the Creative Process; editor of Affect, Creative Experience, and Psychological Adjustment

This work is a tremendous leap forward in our understanding of human nature. It demonstrates that everyone is capable of discovering creativity in the immediate moment. Our senses come alive, our emotions are stirred, an inward door opens, and our consciousness is expanded. Everyday behaviors and cognitions are transformed into flashes of intuitive insight that feed the growth-oriented dimension of personality. With this volume, we cross the threshold into a new psychology.
--Eugene Taylor, PhD, Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco, CA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; author of William James on Exceptional Mental States

Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature presents us with a stunning array of models of everyday creativity. It demystifies and illuminates. Both academic and accessible, this volume offers students and teachers of philosophy, psychology, education, and social policy provocative and useful insights into the underrecognized power of creative energy in our daily lives. Furthermore, it takes us beyond the realm of personal change to the possibility of social transformation. It inspires us to reach, with creative courage, for openness to experience, flexibility, collaboration, and movement to new realms of human potential by simply supporting the creative energy in each of us.
--Judith V. Jordan, PhD, Director, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; editor of The Complexity of Connection; author of Women's Growth in Connection

Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature offers a treasure trove of new perspectives on the nature and functions of one of the least understood and most important human attributes.
--Arnold M. Ludwig, MD, author of The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy and King of the Mountain: The Nature of Political Leadership

Reading this book is like attending an enthralling exhibition: Contributing eminent artists grapple with the most important themes of our time. Their collection sparkles with urgency and intensity. Ruth Richards brings a subversive understanding that the secret of change lies in the apparent ordinariness of our own lives. The ingredients for transformation are here for everyone who wants humanity to evolve creatively and positively. It's a treasure.
--Jonathan Milne, founder and Managing Director, The Learning Connexion, Wellington, New Zealand, a university-level program offering Diploma of Art and Creativity, nominated for the Wellington Creative Gold Award; author of GO! The Art of Change

Ruth Richards, one of the world's leaders in the study of creativity, has assembled an enormously valuable compendium of leading-edge research on the nature of creativity and its relationship to learning, spirituality, art, social justice, and the search for meaning. The amazing insights brought forth by this broad array of distinguished writers and thinkers lead us to the inescapable conclusion that the study of creativity is the "high ground" for a new and deeper understanding of the cognitive process. This is an essential resource for anyone interested in new ways of thinking about how we transform ourselves and the world.
--Michael Grady, MFA, Chair, Department of Arts and Consciousness, John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley, CA

This collection assembled by Dr. Ruth Richards represents a remarkable range of ideas, characterized by sound scholarship, beautifully written prose, and surprise. The book, itself, embodies the essence of creativity in its presentation, and its breadth and thoroughness destine it to become a multidisciplinary classic.
--Jeanne Achterberg, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco, CA; Senior Editor of the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Therapy; author of Imagery in Healing: Shamanism and Modern Medicine and Woman as Healer

In this book, Ruth Richards has synthesized an important dialogue that invites a broad readership. By viewing everyday creativity in a multifaceted mirror, we are invited to more clearly see the complexity of who we are; how we image ourselves; what we may become; and how to open ourselves to life, spirit, and transformation. This book speaks to anyone who is interested in the human capacity for transformation. The core creativity it addresses applies to spiritual experience as well as to survival and adaptation. It is excellent to see a book tackle everyday creativity at this level.
--Nik Warren, PhD, President of AHIMSA (nonviolence in Sanskrit), an interfaith organization dedicated to encouraging dialogues and public forums that bridge spirituality, science, and society; editor of Dimensions of Unity: Dialogues of Spirituality, Science, and Society

Too often the term creativity is narrowly used to describe the individual gifted in the arts, the scientist who develops a new theory, or the inventor of cutting-edge technology. Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature illustrates the point that creativity is inherent in every person and is, in reality, an organic part of life itself. It drives home the message that the life well lived is a creative one--and the creativity inherent in life itself transforms the person in return. Creativity heals lives individually and has the potential to transform society as a whole.
--Marie A. DiCowden, PhD, founder and CEO, The Biscayne Institutes of Health & Living, Miami, FL; author/editor of Humanizing Health Care and The Colors of Prayer by Heart

This book offers a fresh approach to the significance of creativity in the lives of all of us at every age and stage of our development. Although the product of everyday creativity is a goal, readers will see that the process of being creative can have transforming psychological benefits. This volume includes the best contributing authors in the field and great editing by Ruth Richards.
--Delmont Morrison, PhD, University of California, San Francisco, and Shirley Linden Morrison, MA, Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA; coauthors of Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection

This impressive book brings together a variety of fascinating essays on both personal and social aspects of creativity. The essays are authored by distinguished scholars and draw on academic research yet are written in such a clear and engaging manner that they are accessible to a wide audience. The book will be of great interest not only to scholars and students but also to anyone who wants to learn more about creativity from some of the world's experts on the subject.
--Dennis Kinney, PhD, Research Psychologist, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA; Associate Professor in Psychology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

This fascinating volume presents important and unusual perspectives on creativity. Drawing extensively on systems perspectives, the authors provide us with a broader and richer approach to the phenomenon of creativity in all its permutations and manifestations.
--Alfonso Montuori, PhD, Professor, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA; coeditor of Social Creativity and Creators on Creating; coauthor of From Power to Partnership: Creating the Future of Love, Work, and Community

Product Details

• Hardcover: 349 pages
• Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA); 1 edition (January 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097921257X
• ISBN-13: 978-0979212574
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #584,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Want to Be Creative, August 8, 2007

By 

Ruth S.A. Hanham, Ph.D. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature: Psychological, Social and Spiritual Perspectives (Hardcover)

An outstanding book. It has given me new insights into creativity. Having read many books on the subject, I feel its consideration of Asian as well as Western ideas about creativity supplies a fresh perspective. It also taught me practical ways of improving my own work, an almost-finished historical novel about British India, the field of my Harvard Ph.D. in history.

Which brings me to another strength of the book: It is accessible to a non-psychologist like myself. It has a minimum of jargon, a fine bibliography, and lucid style.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The importance of creativity, October 7, 2007

By 

Ilene Ava Serlin "Author Whole Person Healthcare" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature: Psychological, Social and Spiritual Perspectives (Hardcover)

To solve our age-old problems we need new ways of thinking. Ruth Richard's very valuable collection of authors on everyday creativity show us that creativity is a force that is alive, fluid and interconnected with everything in the universe--it is truly revolutionary. It shows us new ways to think about the world and create a healthy future.
Ilene A. Serlin, psychologist, author of Whole Person Healthcare (2007, Praeger). Whole Person Healthcare [Three Volumes]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable book, June 16, 2009

By 

Alison Shapiro "Alison" (somewhere) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature: Psychological, Social and Spiritual Perspectives (Hardcover)

This is a remarkable book. Rarely do I come upon a book as useful and insightful as Everyday Creativity. Edited by Dr. Ruth Richards, Everyday Creativity once and for all frees us from the cultural myth that creativity is solely the province of a few rather than the fundamental craft of life it is meant to be. As Dr. Richards says: "Seen as a process, even a way of life, our everyday creativity offers whole new ways of thinking...." This book does exactly that - offers us new ways to think.

Richards, a national expert in the field of creativity, brilliantly collects and then weaves the work of colleagues from many disciplines into a tapestry of understanding. We see creativity from views as diverse as chaos theory and audience flow to spiritual balance and large scale learning patterns. Then, demonstrating what she is telling us, Richards uses her own creativity to summarize this diversity in her chapter "Twelve Potential Benefits of Living More Creatively". With the clarity and richness of her summary we are handed a powerful tool with which we can honor and grow our own creativity.

This book should be a must read for anyone interested in understanding our most essential human nature.