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The act of creation Hardcover – 1964

by Arthur KOESTLER (Author)

14 customer reviews

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While the study of psychology has offered little in the way of explaining the creative process, Koestler examines the idea that we are at our most creative when rational thought is suspended--for example, in dreams and trancelike states. All who read The Act of Creation will find it a compelling and illuminating book.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 751 pages
Publisher: The Macmillan Company; 1st edition (1964)
Language: English
ASIN: B0000CM5EB
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #770 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Creativity & Genius

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Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars

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4 star		7%
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

It opened my mind to seeing things differently and more creatively linked

By JJR on July 15, 2015

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

This book is like an Owner's Manual for any thinking and creative human being. I've been reading it, pondering it, discussing it with my friends and colleagues. Koestler is a classic thinker who coined the word, biosiation. Once I groked the enormity of biosiation in the creative process, it seemed to activate a deeper quality of creativity in my own work.
I'm keeping this book as a go-to read when ever i'm in a creative cup-du-sac. A must read, a must resource, a must way of thinking for stimulating creative writing, art, invention, thinking, speaking . . . having been written in the 1960's, it seems archaically written and referenced, and that seems to be a great asset to think in this new way about the timeless classics.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Five Stars

By Amazon Customer on February 16, 2015

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

Best book ever

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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

The Rarest of Intellectual Treats

By Herbert L Calhoun on May 21, 2008

Format: Hardcover

Among the clearest books ever written in the English language on any subject, but especially on the subject of the creative process.

Koestler, a most serious, and one of the earliest Existentialist Freudian thinkers, although viewing creativity as a part of the broader process of human evolution, here parses the process down to its bare psychological essentials, rather than just down to its mere scientific essence, as say Edward de Bono has done.

Koestler believes that understanding creativity is fundamental to understanding the full meaning of man. In this incredible volume, he sets forth the theory that all creative activities -- that is, the conscious and unconscious processes underlying artistic originality, scientific discovery, humor, and even cosmic inspiration - have a basic pattern in common, which he calls bi-sociative thinking. Bi-sociative thinking is Koestler's way of distinguishing normal linear thinking from what de Bono would later call "lateral thinking:" That is to say, the kind of leaps of faith that connects previously seeming unrelated frames of thought together on a higher more integrated and novel plane. He sees a "trivalent" connection between discovery, humor and art; and incredibly, uses Rene Thom's Mathematics of Catastrophe Theory and their accompanying diagrams to demonstrate mathematically how these trivalent planes are connected in psychological space.

But there is a great deal more than just this. Koestler does not limit creative ability to man alone and among perhaps his most controversial claims in the book, he also attributes creative abilities to animals as un-evolved as worms.Read more ›

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

A favorite of mine for four decades plus

By Christine L. Helrigel on November 15, 2010

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

When I was in high school in Ann Arbor, MI, in the sixties, I carried a copy of Koestler's book The Act of Creation with me everywhere I went. I have bought several copies over the years when I lost my original through various moves, even when it was out of print and hard to find. Yes, it is that good.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Illusion is a complexity of tasteful brooding not forgotten

By David Chirko on March 12, 2007

Format: Paperback

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) was a Hungarian born polymath (whose many fields of expertise included penning novels, political commentary, parapsychology and anthropology), who studied science and psychology, without graduating, at the University of Vienna; spending his final years in England.

Koestler's 751 page masterwork from 1964, "The Act of Creation," is, as its subtitle proclaims, a study of the conscious and unconscious in science and art. It is divided into two books: the first, covering discovery in art, is comprised of three major sections, entailing discussions on humour, the pursuit of truth and its application to ideas, and the arts--further divided into segments on emotions, verbal acuity and visual creativity. The second book covers the originality of habits, i.e., skills, instinct, perception, memory, learning and thinking.

The foreword to this volume was written by the renowned British educational psychologist, Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt (the man that inspired the formation of Mensa), who says the results of a creative genius were traditionally viewed quantitatively: "...his...achievements...the...concurrence...partly innate and partly environmental...developed to an exceptional degree." Viewed more qualitatively, he says that such creative persons have a "...basic idea or conception...embodied in concrete and articulate form...the outcome...new...a useful novelty." Further, he speaks of Koestler's "actualization of surplus potentials," wherein original behaviour stems from an exceptional revelation. He extols Koestler's qualifications because of his rapprochement with physicists and neurologists.Read more ›

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64 of 66 people found the following review helpful

The intersection of lines of thought

By Rafe Champion on August 5, 2002

Format: Paperback

This is the first of Koestler's big three serious science books. The second is "The Sleepwalkes", on the contribution of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. The third is "The Ghost in the Machine", which contains a critique of behaviorist psychology and Koestler's theory to account for the apparent self-destructiveness of human nature.
"The Act of Creation" offers a theory to account for the "Ah Ha" reaction of scientific discovery, the "Ha Ha" reaction to jokes and the "Ah" reaction of mystical or religious insight. In each case the result is produced by a "bisociation of matrices" or the intersection of lines of thought which brings together hitherto unconnected ideas and fuses them into a creative synthesis. When the lines of thought are scientic the result is a scientific discovery, when they are concerned with devotional matters the result is mystical insight and when they are on a more homely plane the result can be a joke.
The model is fleshed out with a great deal of information ranging from the religions of the world to a theory about the nervous system to account for the build-up of tension and its discharge at the puchline of a joke. Peter Medawar's review was scathing in his comments on Koestler's science, which is a shame because the book can have the desirable effect of encouraging young scientists to read far beyond the usual range of their literature.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

New?

I believe this book was described as in new condition. The pages are very yellow which would not exactly be thought of as "in new condition. Read more

Published 21 months ago by FH Mark

The Best of All Creativity Books!

I first read Act of Creation in 1968. I've probably read it ten times in the succeeding four and a half decades. It has informed a lot of my thinking about the creative process. Read more

Published on June 14, 2012 by Roger von Oech

An old friend

Arthur Koestler was as influential an author as any in shaping the contours of my young mind. A fan had placed an entire library of his works in my high school library, and I read... Read more

Published on June 5, 2010 by Four Tusk Njoku

Indispensible

This is a remarkable book. Some years ago, I used it as the basis of a course I wrote on Thinking & Creativity. Read more

Published on January 7, 2007 by John Newton

A Masterpiece, sadly forgotten, worth reviving

Recently, I have read a lot of books on Creativity and Innovation. My big surprise is that virtually none of them mention Koestler's The Act of Creation. Read more

Published on April 29, 2006 by Umesh Vyas

A rare masterpiece connecting the dots of insightful thought

A fascinating read for the person who steps back and wonders - it gives glimpses and answers through an integrated body of research and a graceful and insightful fireside chat... Read more

Published on June 24, 1998

The most authoratative text on creative processes I know.

The book looks at creativity from a broader perspective than what is generally portrayed in society. Read more

Published on June 18, 1998