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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention Paperback – International Edition, May 9, 1997

by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Author)

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Creativity is about capturing those moments that make life worth living. The author's objective is to offer an understanding of what leads to these moments, be it the excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab, so that knowledge can be used to enrich people's lives. Drawing on 100 interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists to politicians and business leaders, poets and artists, as well as his 30 years of research on the subject, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous theory to explore the creative process. He discusses such ideas as why creative individuals are often seen as selfish and arrogant, and why the tortured genius is largely a myth. Most important, he clearly explains why creativity needs to be cultivated and is necessary for the future of our country, if not the world.

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“Although the benefits of this study to scholars are obvious, this thought-provoking mixture of scholarly and colloquial will enlighten inquisitive general readers, too.” (Library Journal (starred review))

“Accessible and enjoyable reading.” (Washington Times)

About the Author

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a professor at Claremont Graduate University and former chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. His previous books include The Evolving Self and the national bestseller Flow.

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Translation edition (May 9, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060928204
ISBN-13: 978-0060928209
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 118 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,047,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3154 in Creativity (Books)
- #987 in Popular Psychology Creativity & Genius
- #2786 in Medical Cognitive Psychology

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Lynne M Hinkey

A good rough draft, but not ready for publication

June 18, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I was truly hoping to not only like this book, but to learn from it. Neither happened. It isn't that there's anything bad about it, but neither is there anything new or even any convincing or compelling argument or thesis regarding creativity. The info, derived from numerous interviews and correspondence with many "creative" people (which really turns out to be those who are in vogue in their discipline at the moment, but debatable on how creative they are--some are clearly more than others), could and should be interesting, and more importantly, could and should lend itself to some sort of rigorous analysis to identify trends. Apparently, the only analysis was averages and percentages, with no clear trends emerging anywhere (generally, each chapter on some factor was broken down into something along the lines of "X% responded this way, Y% said some other thing, Z% said yet something else, and the rest were scattered all over the place") followed by examples or quotes. The writing itself is neither academic (it's far too redundant, verbose, and imprecise), nor colloquial (too dense for that) so doesn't seem to have a target audience. For me, this felt like the first draft, where the author got everything down into some semblance of order. The next step would be to hire a good editor to help focus the message and a good data analyst to better find trends and identify some concrete suggestions or recommendations. There's probably some good information in here, but it's buried too deep in the poor, unfocused descriptions to be of any use to creative people or to those hoping to tap into their creativity.

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Michael Tapp

No staggering geniuses in these pages

June 18, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow really blew my mind and I have been eager to read Creativity for a long time. This is not a “How to be Creative” book. This book examines the psychology of creativity and reads almost like a textbook. It’s not an easy read but there are some valuable takeaways for people from any background who want to think more creatively. I was also surprised that he focused more on creative people in the sciences than the arts. If you are going to read one of Csikszentmihalyi’s books I recommend reading Flow; Creativity is bonus material.

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Girl Loving Life

NOT a guide on how to be more creative, NOTHING like Flow

July 3, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Flow (by this author) has been one of my favorite books for many years. I was eager to see what this author had to say about the mental process of creativity.

However, this book has a far different style and focus than Flow. It's so different, I am not even sure if it's written by the same person!

This book is essentially meandering musings in sociology and has little to do with what we normally call "creativity." It should have had the more accurate tagline of something like "how different cultures support and absorb new ideas."

The first error the author makes near the beginning is a flawed definition of creativity: ideas that *successfully result in being absorbed in to or changing a field of study*. This definition mixes incompatible concepts, and is therefore impossible to work with; this definition mixes personal mental processes, whether a culture invites creativity, quality of the new idea, luck, etc. Imagine how disastrous a book would be that tried to combine the color red, depression, cylinders, inflation, and sneezing all in to one unified concept.

Perhaps as a result of this bizarre definition, the author's musings meander hopelessly and painfully for hundreds of pages without working toward any new or useful idea. In fact, it really seems like the author goes out of his way to avoid making any conclusions about anything at all. I found myself thinking repeatedly "Will you please say something definite about anything? Will you please make a point?!" Perhaps this is the result of the "soft" science of sociology and/or the destructive definition that the author begins with. (Ironically, he laments why sociology doesn't get the love and support that the more tangible sciences do---this book certainly doesn't help his case.)

Another disagreement I have with his musings (to the extent that he says anything definite), is that he all but drains any credit to any of the individuals that have greatly improved the world we live in--instead, he says they're mostly a product of the culture they live in. I can choose to watch Oprah, baseball, reality shows, drink beer all day, or I can choose to work my ass off studying, thinking and integrating. In every moment of every day, we all choose to think or not to think (and what is important to think about). If I knew that my choices made little difference in how my life's work would be, and that it was mostly a result of the society I happen to be born in to, I would have simply played video games all day and ate lots of pie.

But again, this proclamation is somewhat understandable given his horrible definition up front. If Issac Newton and Jackson Pollock are treated as equals (creatives that changed their fields), then there's all sorts of crazy conclusions that one can spew out--all unrelated to reality.

Unlike Flow, I found nothing useful in this book save the inspiration to read about some of the great works of art and architecture in Florence from the beginning of the Renaissance. You have been warned.

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