Some additional personal nuggets I gleaned from this book include the following:ġ. Also on the issue of faith, I found the author's grouping on page 371 of studying the bible with addictive behaviors such as cruising the internet and betting on horse races to be rather laughable!). But I still enjoyed reading the stories and thoughts of selected individuals whom the author deemed as “creative” according to the definition above (However, I disagreed with the selection of a few of these and would have chosen at least one more person of faith in addition to the Quaker who was briefly highlighted. Having established this in the first 30 pages, if you didn’t read the remaining 350 you wouldn’t miss much. studying quantum physics at the beginning of the 20th century or women seeking academic opportunities when WWII broke out). This is no easy task, especially since he or she needs to learn the existing domain or domains first, and almost always necessitates being in the right place at the right time (e.g. In this systems view, the definition of a creative person is someone whose thoughts or actions change a domain or establish a new domain (pp. the gatekeepers to the domain), and be included within the cultural domain (the set of symbolic rules or procedures) to which it belongs.

To have any effect, a creative idea must be couched in terms that are understandable to others, pass muster with the experts in the field (i.e. Its greatest strength lies in the thesis introduced early on and supported throughout that the kind of creativity that leaves a trace in the cultural matrix rests not in the personal creativity of the individual, but in what Csikszentmihalyi tags the “systems approach “ to creativity. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason.' His works are influential and are widely cited. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology.Ĭsikszentmihalyi once said 'Repression is not the way to virtue. He is the author of many books and over 120 articles or book chapters. He is noted for both his work in the study of happiness and creativity and also for his notoriously difficult name, in terms of pronunciation for non-native speakers of the Hungarian language, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic. Now at Claremont Graduate University, he is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College. A Hungarian psychology professor, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22.

Creativity and flow csikszentmihalyi