EHE Book Reviews

Peak EEs/EHEs Record Type: Review ID: 217
Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi has described the relations of flow to creativity in other writings, but this is the first book-length treatment. It is based on systematic research "of living creative individuals over a lifetime" (p. vii). The bulk of the book is based on interviews with 91 respondents. The book covers what creativity is, the life- and workstyles of creative people, and how interested persons can live their lives more like these creators. But primarily it is about creativity with a capital C: "a process by which a symbolic domain in the culture has changed." Thus, a creative person has to have access to a domain of knowledge in order to function creatively. Part I has five chapters on the Creative Process. Part II reports on the study of creative people across the lifespan: early years, later years, and creative aging. The last sections is on Domains of Creativity. Appendix A provides brief biographical sketches of the respondents and a second presents the interview protocol used.
Publisher Information:	New York: HarperCollins, 1996. 456p. Bibl: 429-442; Chap. notes: 399-428; Ind: 443-456

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Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention