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Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. New York: HarperCollins Publishers,1996, 456 pp., $15.00.
In Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi brings together thirty years of research on the subject of creativity and nearly one hundred interviews with creative people in various fields in order to explain why creativity is the central source of meaning in our lives. He uses his famous “flow” theory to show how creative people live and work and how creativity can augment us all. According to Csikszentmihalyi, creativity is vital in our lives first because most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity. Secondly, we are involved in creativity and the excitement that comes from creativity comes close to the ideal fulfillment we all hope to get from life. In other words, it helps us as individuals and groups, to live everyday to the fullest.
The book is divided up into three sections with chapters within each of the sections. The first section starts with a description of what creativity is; including where creativity is in the environment, what makes a person creative, and how to bring creativity to your everyday life. The second section reviews the way creative people live and work. In this section, the author incorporates various interviews as real-life examples of how creative people grow, succeed, struggle, and live. The third section discusses ideas of how to make your life more like that of the creative exemplars that were studied in the hope of helping people make their lives more interesting and productive.
In my opinion this book is appropriate for any high school level student or beyond. The nature of the book is advanced, but easy to follow and understand. The author repeatedly mentions that creativity is not about making a public discovery and that even without success a creative person can find pleasure in simply learning something new or working toward a goal. He believes strongly that the creative process can help those who are struggling to look within and challenge ourselves in order to feel and function better in our everyday lives. Not only could this book be helpful for those who are in psychotherapy but it also could be helpful for anyone who is not in psychotherapy and simply wants to make their life more fulfilling. This book would be helpful for anyone who is concerned with protecting his or her self. This means that all of their attention is invested in monitoring threats to the ego and none of their attention is left over for being creative. For example, a person who has been abused or who has experienced chronic discrimination is less likely to be interested in novelty for its own sake, because they need all the psychic energy that they have simply to survive. In addition, anyone who is physically and emotionally overwhelmed with responsibilities such as a man who works three jobs or a single mother with five children could also benefit from this book. Again, it can help those who have little mental energy left over at the end of the day to take steps toward a more creative life in order to increase optimism, hope, joy, and satisfaction.
In terms of reading this book in conjunction with ongoing psychotherapy, it would be most useful to a client who is in cognitive-behavioral or client-centered psychotherapy. This is because of the ideas and techniques that are described by the author. Much of the author’s ideas and advice are cognitive-behavioral in nature, including tips such as “when something strikes a spark of interest, follow it,” “find out what you like and what you hate about life,” and “write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others.” On the other hand, a lot of the author’s advice is client-centered in nature, including tips such as “make time for reflection and relaxation” and “start doing more of what you love, and less of what you hate.” This book could help change the way people think about their life and work as well as the way people act, in order to bring about positive change. Not only could this book help to change a client’s maladaptive thoughts or behavioral patterns but it can also help a client to realize what they truly value in life and how to live life for themselves and not for others. With many examples of how real people go through the creative process, the author gives clear recommendations of how to make one’s like more creative that are easy to understand. This type of counsel could help the client to be successful during psychotherapy as well as outside of treatment.
This book could also be beneficial to any person who is struggling with self-esteem issues or who is constantly put down for their individuality. The author discusses a major paradox of creativity which is very hard to avoid. He describes how creative individuals are often considered odd or even arrogant, selfish, and ruthless. These of course are not traits of creative people but traits that our culture gives them based on its perceptions. The paradox that is described by the author is that in reality creative people are not single-minded, specialized, odd, or selfish. They are actually the opposite. They seem to love to make connections between different domains of knowledge and tend to be caring and sensitive. Explanations such as this could help people realize that their creativity should not be discouraged or ridiculed, and in fact is one of the valuable attributes you can have.
There are also weaknesses to using this book for bibliotherapy. One weakness is that although it is helpful to read about various creative people from all different fields, we do not learn much about their background, family, or personality. It might have been more effective if the author had mentioned fewer interviews but added more detail so that the reader could find it easier to relate to each creative individual. This is especially true for clients in psychotherapy who are suffering from psychological disorders, so that they can relate to the creative people they are reading about and have hope that they can also be creative like them.
Another weakness is that the book does not go into teaching the reader how to be more creative in their everyday life until the third section of the book. Although it is helpful to read about the history and meaning of creativity, as well as to read about the people that the author interviewed, readers would benefit most from the actual advice given by the author in the last chapter on how to enhance one’s creativity. In this chapter there are clear recommendations that are laid out for the reader. The reader may become bored during the first two sections and stop reading the book before they actually get to the most applicable section.
This book could be a great resource for a psychotherapist to use with their clients in psychotherapy. Whether they have a client who is struggling to find joy or satisfaction in their life, or they have a client with low self-esteem, or are too busy to take time for themselves, this could be a wonderful book to recommend that a client read as part of their treatment. Their reactions to what they read can then be discussed during each session. Also, the psychotherapist could assign one of the author’s flow techniques for homework. This also could help the client to grow on their own outside of treatment. This book may be particularly useful for a psychotherapist that chooses to incorporate positive psychology into the treatment, thus, focusing more on the positive aspects of human experience rather than what might be seen as wrong with the client. However, the psychotherapist must assess how well the client will benefit from this bibliotherapy resource before making the suggestion.