Status
Collection
Genres
Publication
Description
The Act of Creation begins where this view ceases to be true. Koestler affirms that all creatures have the capacity for creative activity, frequently suppressed by the automatic routines of thought and behavior that dominate their lives. The study of psychology has offered little in the way of an explanation of the creative process, and Koestler suggests that we are at our most creative when rational thought is suspended - for example in dreams and trance-like states. Then the mind is capable of receiving inspiration and insight. Taking humor as his starting point, Koestler examines what he terms 'bisociative' thinking - the creative leap made by the mind that gives rise to new and startling perceptions and glimpses of reality. From here he assesses the workings of the mind of the scientific or artistic genius. The general reader as well as the reader with a deeper knowledge of the topics covered will find this richly documented study of creativity both illuminating and compelling.… (more)
User reviews
He wrote this book at a time when it was still possible to refer to Freud objectively, neither dismissively nor uncritically. His essential thesis is that the spark of artistic creation arises in the friction between "previously unconnected frames of reference." It is this "bisociative thinking" which allows us to experience reality on several planes at once, providing the essential spark that leads to all things creative, from humor to religious insight. A classic.
Despite the fact that these associations often spring from the subconscious, they only tend to be made by the most intelligent minds – those which possess the capacity to understand ideas and their connections to other ideas, and the relevance of these connections to the solution of problems.
The artistic and scientific revolutionary are often viewed in quite different ways, but Koestler makes a case that the nature of their general intelligence has a lot in common, despite them being gifted in different specific areas.
This is a very accessible and readable work, and should be of interest to the general academic, the artist, the psychologist, or the scientist. It isn't deeply technical or precise, so I would not class it as a completely serious work of philosophy, but it excels as an inspiring popular work for the non-specialist reader.