Kinds
Creative personality: concept, types, classification. Creative personality Who are creative people

Creative personality: concept, types, classification. Creative personality Who are creative people

“Creative people have a harder time understanding themselves because they are more complex,” says New York University psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, who has spent many years researching creative thinking. From a psychological point of view, a creative personality hardly lends itself to clear characteristics. Such people think paradoxically, experience ambiguous feelings and avoid routine. It's impossible to create a portrait of a "typical" creative person, but there are some characteristics that distinguish creative people from the rest.

Mdreamteli

Creative individuals are always dreamers, although they have probably been told more than once that dreaming is a waste of time. Meanwhile, neuroscientists argue that imagination activates the same processes in the brain that are directly related to creativity.

Attention to detail

A creative person sees new opportunities everywhere and actively absorbs information, which becomes the basis for his self-expression. As the American writer Henry James said, a writer is a person from whom nothing escapes.

WITHyour opening hours

Many masters of the pen and musicians admitted that they created their best works either very early in the morning or late in the evening. For example, Vladimir Nabokov sat down to work from the very early morning, barely waking up. People with high creative potential do not follow a standard daily routine.

INtime for privacy

There is a stereotypical opinion that creative people are loners, but this is not entirely true. They just need solitude more than others - a necessary condition for creating new works. This is due to the function of imagination - you need to give yourself time to just dream.

Transforming pain into creativity

Many of the most famous and beloved songs, books, and films were created in conditions of heartbreaking pain experienced by their authors. Everyday problems often become a catalyst for creativity. In psychology, this is called post-traumatic growth: a person is able to use his experiences and mental trauma for significant creative growth.

Durability atfailuresOh

Persistence is an extremely necessary quality for a creative person. Failures very often await creative people, but they know how not to make a tragedy out of it. And even benefit.

Psearch for new experiences

Creative people love new experiences, they are constantly looking for new sensations and food for the mind, and this is an important factor for creative growth.

Ndishesactivity

Natural observation and interest in the lives of other people often helps to generate original ideas. For example, Marcel Proust spent many years observing people and writing down his observations, which was reflected in his wonderful books.

INimportant questions

Creative people are insatiable in learning. They love to explore life in all its manifestations and, even as they grow up, retain their childlike interest in new things. Through communication and deep reflection, they constantly ask themselves a lot of questions to which they seek their own answers.

Rlawsuit

Creative activity, as a rule, is associated with risk - in various aspects of life. Creativity is the act of creating something out of nothing, the realization of something that existed only in the imagination of the author. This activity is not for the timid.

INopportunity for self-expression

Nietzsche believed that life and the world should be viewed as a work of art. Creative individuals constantly seek opportunities for self-expression in everyday life - every moment they create life itself.

Intrinsic motivation

Creative individuals rely on their internal motivation. They act primarily based on their own inner desires, rather than on the desire for reward or external recognition.

Overcomingowns borders

The ability to dream, which is the hallmark of a creative mind, helps us look beyond our usual way of looking at the world and explore other ways of thinking, which is critical to creating something new.

LossfeelingsAtime

Creative individuals have probably noticed that when they write, dance, draw, etc., they are outside of real time, in a special “state of flow.” This is a mental state in which a person transcends consciousness, achieving a state of increased concentration and calm.

Aversion to routine

Diversity of experience is of great, perhaps decisive, importance for creativity. Creative individuals love emotional shocks, love learning new things and strive to avoid what makes life monotonous and routine.

Invisible opportunities

And finally, the most important point that distinguishes extremely creative people from everyone else: this is the ability to see opportunities where others do not notice them. Creativity is the ability to connect dots that others would never think of connecting.

You might also be interested in:

Interesting... Creative people are talented individuals who love to be useful and do good to others. They like freedom, so any restrictions will be perceived by them as an infringement of rights. Many people believe that creative people are lonely, unhappy and do not live long. Fortunately, this is not always the case. Talent is given to a person by God, you just need to seize the moment and start developing your abilities in time.

It is worth noting that among child prodigies there are indeed many unhappy people, since their creativity is not always understandable to others. As a rule, the average person's brain activity occurs within certain limits, and everything that goes beyond these limits is perceived as something unnatural and abnormal. For this reason, it is very difficult for creative people to survive in this cruel world, in which there are so many persistent stereotypes and unwillingness to evolve. Neuroscience confirms that talented individuals think and act differently.Creative people's minds are literally designed to think uniquely, differently than the majority. However, such a gift from nature can significantly complicate life and strain relationships with others. If you know a creative person, you have probably had the idea more than once that he lives in some completely different world. In most cases, trying to understand such a personality is as futile as trying to change it. In order to be able to adapt to such a person, you need to learn to look at the world through his eyes.

Liar's Talent

It should be noted that creative people are excellent liars. A number of experiments have shown that such individuals are inclined to more intricate and complex lies. In addition, they themselves can easily identify the deceiver. One of the manifestations of creativity is the unacceptability of existing patterns and the breaking of established stereotypes. Talented people easily perceive the unethical nature of their own behavior, and also calmly relate to the similar actions of others.

High degree of mistrust

A gifted person tends not to trust even close people. Although he is quick to recognize lies, being suspicious of others is also a hallmark of talent. And this is not surprising, because in order to make a new discovery, you need to learn to look at elementary things from a different angle. That is why a talented person questions everything, because it is much easier to create something new from scratch.

Impudence

In the course of various experiments, it was found that modesty is not the lot of talented people. Many of them, as a rule, are proud of their abilities and skillfully use them, which allows them to set an exorbitantly high price for themselves. In addition, a gifted person is very keen to show how impressionable he is and how much he knows how to worry.

Depression

Often talented people fall into depression. Many such geniuses have various phobias: some are afraid of getting sick with an incurable disease, others are afraid of dying young, others even faint at the sight of a spider or cockroach. Psychologists in many countries have tried to find out whether depression is really related to talent. After studying data obtained from psychiatric clinics, they found that creative individuals are more likely to develop severe forms of mental illness. In addition, it has been proven that not only talent, but also similar disorders can be inherited.

It's hard to believe in yourself

Even if a person is confident in his abilities, over time he begins to ask questions: “Am I good enough? Am I doing everything right? Creative people constantly compare their work with the creations of other masters and do not notice their own brilliance, which may be obvious to everyone else. In this regard, creative stagnation is often observed, when a person simply gives up, thinking that all his previous ideas were in vain and meaningless. At such a moment, it is very important to have a faithful friend nearby who would help the master survive this difficult period.

Time to dream

Creative people are dreamers, this helps them in their work. Many of us have noticed that the best ideas come to us when we are mentally transported far from reality. Neuroscientists have proven that imagination activates brain processes that are closely related to creativity and fantasy.

Time dependent

Most great masters admit that they created their best works either at night or at dawn. For example, V. Nabokov took up his pen at 6 am as soon as he woke up, and Frank Lloyd Wright had the habit of starting work at 3 am and going back to bed a few hours later. As a rule, people with great creative potential rarely stick to a standard daily routine.

Privacy

To be as open to creativity as possible, you need to learn how to use solitude constructively. To achieve this, many talented people overcome their fear of loneliness. People often perceive creatives and artists as loners, although in reality they are not. This desire for solitude can be an important part of creating your best work.

Overcoming life's obstacles

Many cult works were released as a result of their creator experiencing heartbreaking pain and strong emotions. Often, various problems become a catalyst that helps create unique and outstanding masterpieces. Psychology has given this phenomenon a scientific name - post-traumatic growth. Researchers have found that often a strong shock helps a person succeed in a particular activity, as well as discover new opportunities in himself.

Search for new experiences

Many creative people are constantly in search of new emotions and impressions. Unfortunately, some of them resort to alcohol and drugs to achieve this effect. It should be noted that a talented person is always open to new knowledge, she is quite intelligent and inquisitive. The transition from one emotional state to another is a kind of engine for exploring and understanding two worlds, internal and external.

Beauty will save the world!

Creative people, as a rule, have excellent taste, so they constantly try to surround themselves with beautiful things. These can be not only clothing items, but also interior elements, paintings, books, and jewelry. Some studies have found that singers and musicians demonstrate increased receptivity and sensitivity to artistic beauty.

Connecting the dots

Creative individuals are able to find opportunity where others simply do not notice it. Many famous writers and artists believe that creativity is the ability to connect dots that an ordinary person would not think of connecting in such a sequence. If you ask a genius how he put these things together, he will feel awkward because he will not have an answer to this question. What is difficult for others is not difficult for a creative person.

Creative personality and her life path

Many of the researchers reduce the problem of human abilities to the problem of a creative personality: there are no special creative abilities, but there is a person with certain motivation and traits. Indeed, if intellectual talent does not directly affect a person’s creative success, if during the development of creativity the formation of certain motivation and personality traits precedes creative manifestations, then we can conclude that there is a special type of personality - the “Creative Person.”

Psychologists owe their knowledge about the characteristics of a creative personality not so much to their own efforts as to the work of literary scholars, historians of science and culture, and art historians, who in one way or another touched upon the problem of a creative personality, for there is no creation without a creator.

Creativity is going beyond the given limits (Pasternak’s “above barriers”). This is only a negative definition of creativity, but the first thing that catches your eye is the similarity between the behavior of a creative person and a person with mental disorders. The behavior of both deviates from the stereotypical, generally accepted one.

There are two opposing points of view: talent is the maximum degree of health, talent is a disease.

Traditionally, the latter point of view is associated with the name of the brilliant Cesare Lombroso. True, Lombroso himself never argued that there is a direct relationship between genius and madness, although he selected empirical examples in favor of this hypothesis: “Grey hair and baldness, thinness of the body, as well as poor muscular and sexual activity, characteristic of all madmen, are very often found among the great thinkers (...). In addition, thinkers, along with crazy people, are characterized by: constant overflow of the brain with blood (hyperemia), intense heat in the head and cooling of the extremities, a tendency to acute diseases of the brain and poor sensitivity to hunger and cold.”

Lombroso characterizes geniuses as lonely, cold people, indifferent to family and social responsibilities. Among them there are many drug addicts and drunkards: Musset, Kleist, Socrates, Seneca, Handel, Poe. The twentieth century added many names to this list, from Faulkner and Yesenin to Hendrix and Morrison.

Brilliant people are always painfully sensitive. They experience sharp declines and rises in activity. They are hypersensitive to social reward and punishment, etc. Lombroso provides interesting data: in the population of Ashkenazi Jews living in Italy, there are more mentally ill people than Italians, but there are also more talented people (Lombroso himself was an Italian Jew). The conclusion he comes to is as follows: genius and madness can be combined in one person.

The list of geniuses with mental illness is endless. Petrarch, Moliere, Flaubert, Dostoevsky suffered from epilepsy, not to mention Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Julius Caesar. Rousseau and Chateaubriand suffered from melancholy. Psychopaths (according to Kretschmer) were George Sand, Michelangelo, Byron, Goethe and others. Byron, Goncharov and many others had hallucinations. The number of drunkards, drug addicts and suicides among the creative elite cannot be counted.

The “genius and madness” hypothesis is being revived today. D. Carlson believes that genius is a carrier of the recessive schizophrenia gene. In the homozygous state, the gene manifests itself in the disease. For example, the son of the brilliant Einstein suffered from schizophrenia. This list includes Descartes, Pascal, Newton, Faraday, Darwin, Plato, Kant, Emerson, Nietzsche, Spencer, James and others.

But isn’t there an illusion of perception underlying the idea of the connection between genius and mental disorders: talents are visible and so are all their personal qualities. Perhaps there are no fewer, and even more, mentally ill people among the “averages” than among the “geniuses”? T. Simonton conducted such an analysis and found that among geniuses the number of mentally ill people is no greater than among the general population (about 10%). The only problem is: who is considered a genius and who is not?

If we proceed from the above interpretation of creativity as a process, then a genius is a person who creates on the basis of unconscious activity, who is capable of experiencing the widest range of states due to the fact that the unconscious creative subject goes beyond the control of the rational principle and self-regulation.

Surprisingly, this is precisely the definition of genius that Lombroso gave, consistent with modern ideas about the nature of creativity: “The features of genius compared to talent are that it is something unconscious and manifests itself unexpectedly.”

Consequently, genius primarily creates unconsciously, or more precisely, through the activity of the unconscious creative subject. Talent creates rationally, based on a well-thought-out plan. Genius is primarily creative, talent is intellectual, although both have common abilities.

As for mood swings, William Hirsch noted their presence in geniuses, and numerous studies have revealed the relationship between creativity and neuroticism. Note that neuroticism is less determined by genotype than other temperament traits.

There are also other signs of genius that distinguish it from talent: originality, versatility, length of the creative period of life.

Hegel in “Aesthetics” also touched upon the issue of the nature of abilities: “They talk, it is true, about scientific talents, but science presupposes only the presence of a general ability to think, which, unlike fantasy, does not manifest itself as something natural, but is, as it were, abstracted from any natural activity, so it would be more legitimate to say that there is no specificity of scientific talent in the sense of a specific talent.”

The fact that differences in the level of intelligence are largely determined by the genotype (that is, a natural factor), Hegel, unlike us, might not have known.

Interest in the phenomenon of genius flared up during the Renaissance. It was then, in connection with interest in creativity, that the first biographies of artists and composers appeared. This interest was resurrected by the efforts of the romantics at the beginning of the 19th century and, like a “myth,” was buried in the 20th century.

However, there is no doubt: unlike “just creatives,” a “genius” has a very powerful activity of the unconscious and, as a result (or maybe this is the reason?), is prone to extreme emotional states.

The psychological “formula of genius” might look like this:

genius = (high intelligence + even higher creativity) x mental activity.

Since creativity prevails over intellect, the activity of the unconscious prevails over consciousness. It is possible that the action of different factors can lead to the same effect - hyperactivity of the brain, which, in combination with creativity and intelligence, gives the phenomenon of genius.

Finally, I will cite the conclusions of V. Boderman regarding the constitutional characteristics of outstanding scientists. Among them, the most common are: “The light, fragile, but amazingly symmetrical type, and the type of short giant. The first, in general, has everything except physical strength and health, all his energy is concentrated in the brain... Short giants have the good fortune of being strong in body and spirit. Such short bodies have a special tendency to produce large heads and consequently those large brains which are usually associated with exceptional intellectual power."

Much more productive is not a superficial, but a systematic natural science approach to the study of the mental characteristics of a creative personality.

Representatives of depth psychology and psychoanalysis (here their positions converge) see the main difference between a creative personality in specific motivation. Let us dwell only briefly on the positions of a number of authors, since these positions are reflected in numerous sources.

The only difference is what motivation underlies creative behavior. 3. Freud considered creative activity to be the result of sublimation (displacement) of sexual desire to another sphere of activity: sexual fantasy is objectified in a socially acceptable form in a creative product.

A. Adler considered creativity a way to compensate for the deficiency complex (incorrect translation - inferiority). The greatest attention was paid to the phenomenon of creativity by C. Jung, who saw in it a manifestation of the archetypes of the collective unconscious.

R. Assagioli (partly following A. Adler) considered creativity to be a process of the individual’s ascent to the “ideal self,” a way of self-discovery.

Psychologists of the humanistic school (G. Allport and A. Maslow) believed that the initial source of creativity is the motivation for personal growth, which is not subject to the homeostatic principle of pleasure; According to Maslow, this is the need for self-actualization, the full and free realization of one’s abilities and life opportunities. And so on .

A number of researchers believe that achievement motivation is necessary for creativity, while others believe that it blocks the creative process. A. M. Matyushkin, on the basis of empirical data, concludes that in our country the predominance among creative workers is not growth motivation (cognitive and self-actualization), but achievement motivation.

True, the question arises: are the “creative workers” of the former USSR really creative?

However, most authors are still convinced that the presence of any motivation and personal passion is the main sign of a creative personality. This is often accompanied by features such as independence and conviction. Independence, focus on personal values, and not on external assessments, can perhaps be considered the main personal quality of a creative person.

Creative people have the following personality traits:

1) independence – personal standards are more important than group standards, non-conformity of assessments and judgments;

2) openness of mind - willingness to believe one’s own and others’ fantasies, receptivity to the new and unusual;

3) high tolerance to uncertain and insoluble situations, constructive activity in these situations;

4) developed aesthetic sense, desire for beauty.

Often mentioned in this series are the features of the “I” concept, which is characterized by confidence in one’s abilities and strength of character, and mixed traits of femininity and masculinity in behavior (they are noted not only by psychoanalysts, but also by geneticists).

The most contradictory data are about mental and emotional balance. Although humanistic psychologists loudly claim that creative people are characterized by emotional and social maturity, high adaptability, balance, optimism, etc., most experimental results contradict this.

According to the above model of the creative process, creatives should be prone to psychophysiological exhaustion during creative activity, since creative motivation works through a positive feedback mechanism, and rational control of the emotional state during the creative process is weakened. Consequently, the only limiter to creativity is the depletion of psychophysiological resources (resources of the unconscious), which inevitably leads to extreme emotional states.

Research has shown that gifted children whose actual achievements are below their capabilities experience serious problems in the personal, emotional, and interpersonal spheres. The same applies to children with an IQ above 180 points.

Similar conclusions about high anxiety and poor adaptation of creative people to the social environment are presented in a number of other studies. A specialist like F. Barron argues that in order to be creative, you have to be a little neurotic; therefore, emotional disturbances that distort the “normal” vision of the world create the preconditions for a new approach to reality. In my opinion, cause and effect are confused here; neuroticism is a by-product of creative activity.

If the connection between neuroticism and creativity has been found in many studies, then in relation to such a basic characteristic of temperament (more dependent on the genotype) as extraversion, it is difficult to draw an unambiguous conclusion.

However, a study by A. M. Petraityte, conducted in 1981 on men and women aged 20-35, revealed positive correlations between creativity, social extraversion and introversion. Moreover, to test creativity, subtests of the E. P. Torrance test were used (“Use of objects,” “Unfinished drawings,” “Incredible event”), and perceptual introversion was revealed through the Rorschach test: the predominance of kinesthetic responses over color ones is typical for introverts.

Independence from the group, combined with one’s own vision of the world, original “uncontrolled” thinking and behavior, causes a negative reaction from the social microenvironment, which, as a rule, advocates adherence to traditions.

Creative activity itself, associated with a change in the state of consciousness, mental stress and exhaustion, causes disturbances in mental regulation and behavior.

Talent and creativity are not only a great gift, but also a great punishment.

Let us present the results of several more studies, the purpose of which was to identify the personal characteristics of creative people.

The most often mentioned in the scientific literature are such traits of creative individuals as independence in judgment, self-esteem, preference for complex tasks, a developed sense of beauty, a tendency to take risks, internal motivation, and the desire for order.

K. Taylor, as a result of many years of research on creatively gifted children, came to the conclusion that, in the opinion of others, they are overly independent in their judgments, they have no respect for conventions and authorities, they have an extremely developed sense of humor and the ability to find humor in unusual situations, they are less concerned order and organization of work, they have a more temperamental nature.

One of the most thorough studies on identifying the personality traits of creative people was conducted under the leadership of K. Taylor and R. B. Cattell. It was devoted to the study of the similarities and differences of creative behavior in science, art and practical activities.

As the main diagnostic technique, the authors used Cattell’s 16 PF questionnaire, well known to experts.

In one series of the study, the profiles of personality traits of famous scientists and engineers (36 people), musicians (21 people), artists and ordinary final-year university students (42 people) were compared. The authors did not find any significant differences between scientists and artists on their proposed combined creativity index. However, it was possible to identify significant differences between these groups on individual 16 PF scales.

The profiles of both groups of creative individuals were significantly different from the profile of the group of students.

What is the “creativity index” made up of? It was suggested that creative behavior is described by a two-factor structure (the result of secondary factorization of 16PF numbers on a sample of creatives). Creatives, compared to non-creatives, are more aloof or reserved (A-), they are more intellectual and capable of abstract thinking (B+), prone to leadership (Et), more serious (F-), and are more practical or open-minded rules (G-), more socially courageous (H+), more sensitive (J+), highly imaginative (M+), liberal and open to experience (Q1+) and self-sufficient (Q2).

Goetzeln's later studies revealed differences between artists and scientists on the 16PF scales: the former had higher imagination (M factor) and scored lower on G factor.

To study the personal component of creativity, a test questionnaire “What kind of person are you?” was developed. (WKPY - “What kind of person are you?”). The results of this test were correlated with the data obtained using the 16PF. In a study of 100 artistically gifted students, 5 significant factors were identified that correlated with the WKPY creativity index: Ql(+); E(+); Q2(+); J(+); G(-).

Almost all researchers note significant differences in the psychological portraits of scientists and artists. R. Snow notes the great pragmatism of scientists and the penchant for emotional forms of self-expression among writers. Scientists and engineers are more reserved, less socially courageous, more tactful and less sensitive than artists.

These data formed the basis for the assumption that creative behavior can be located in the space of two factors. The first factor includes fine arts, science, engineering, business, video and photography design. The second factor includes music, literature and fashion design.

The two-factor model of creative behavior has been tested in numerous studies. It was revealed that the factors are not orthogonal: r = 0.41.

In one of the studies, a model proposed by K. Taylor was tested on a sample of 590 people: he identified 8 areas of creativity. The ASAS (“Artistic and Scientific activities survey”) questionnaire was used. It is designed to identify the differences between beginners and professionals and is designed to cover a variety of areas of creative activity: 1) art, 2) music, 3) theater, 4) science and engineering, 5) literature, 6) business, 7) fashion design, 8 ) video and photo design. The results obtained using AS AS correlate with scores on Torrance creativity tests. The scales are considered consistent (Cronbach's α from 0.8 to 0.68), overall consistency is 0.69.

As a result of the empirical study, two factors of creative behavior were again identified. The first factor included fine arts, video and photo design, music, literature, clothing design, theater. The second factor combines science, engineering and business. Moreover, the correlation between factors is 0.32.

Consequently, there is a clear division between personal manifestations of creative behavior in art and science. In addition, the activity of a businessman is more similar to the activity of a scientist (in its creative manifestations), then to the activity of an artist, entertainer, writer, etc.

Another conclusion is no less important: personal manifestations of creativity extend to many areas of human activity. As a rule, creative productivity in one core area for an individual is accompanied by productivity in other areas.

The main thing is that scientists and businessmen, on average, have better control over their behavior and are less emotional and sensitive than artists.

Let's stop and draw some conclusions.

We can consider the above research results from the point of view of the relationship between the level of intelligence and creativity of a particular individual.

In the case when high intelligence is combined with a high level of creativity, a creative person is most often well adapted to the environment, active, emotionally balanced, independent, etc. On the contrary, when creativity is combined with low intelligence, a person is most often neurotic, anxious, poorly adapted to the requirements social environment. The combination of intelligence and creativity predisposes one to choose different areas of social activity.

At the very least, it is noticeable that various researchers, attributing completely opposite traits to creative individuals, deal with different types of people (according to the classification of Kogan and Wollach) and transfer the conclusions that are valid for one type to the entire set of creative people of the past, present and future.

Are creative people with high levels of intelligence as balanced, adaptive and self-actualizing as some researchers believe?

Perhaps the struggle of two equally strong principles: the conscious (intellectual, reflective) and the unconscious (creative) - is transferred from the exopsychic plane to the endopsychic (otherwise intrapsychic):

With whom did his struggles take place?

With yourself, with yourself...

Perhaps this struggle predetermines the characteristics of the creative path: the victory of the unconscious principle means the triumph of creativity and death.

Creativity is of course in time. The results of dozens of studies analyzing the biographies of scientists, composers, writers, and artists indicate that the peak of human creative activity occurs in the period from 30 to 42-45 years.

The great Russian writer M. Zoshchenko paid special attention to the problem of the life of a creative person in his book “Youth Restored”. We will use the results of his work in further presentation.

M. Zoshchenko divides all creators into two categories: 1) those who lived a short but emotionally rich life and died before the age of 45, and 2) “long-livers.”

He gives an extensive list of representatives of the first category of people who ended their lives at a prime age: Mozart (36), Schubert (31), Chopin (39), Mendelssohn (37), Bizet (37), Raphael (37), Watteau (37), Van Gogh (37), Correggio (39), Edgar Poe (40), Pushkin (37), Gogol (42), Belinsky (37), Dobrolyubov (27), Byron (37), Rimbaud (37), Lermontov (26 ), Nadson (24), Mayakovsky (37), Griboedov (34), Yesenin (30), Garshin (34), Jack London (40), Blok (40), Maupassant (43), Chekhov (43), Mussorgsky ( 42), Scriabin (43), Van Dyck (42), Baudelaire (45) and so on...

Truly: “Let’s stay at the number 37,” as V. Vysotsky sang, whose life stopped at the second fateful date - 42 years old, like the lives of A. Mironov, J. Dassin, A. Bogatyrev and others.

Almost all of the listed composers, writers, poets, and artists belong to the “emotional type,” perhaps with the exception of Russian critics Dobrolyubov and Belinsky. Zoshchenko makes an unequivocal diagnosis: their premature death was caused by inept self-handling. He writes: “Even death from an epidemic disease (Mozart, Raphael, etc.) does not prove its accident. A healthy, normal organism would have put up stable resistance in order to defeat the disease.”

Zoshchenko examines a number of cases of death and suicide of poets and comes to the conclusion that in each case there was a consequence of overwork from the creative process, neurasthenia and a hard life. In particular, he points out that A.S. Pushkin made 3 duel challenges in the last 1.5 years of his life: “the mood was looking for an object.” According to Zoshchenko, the poet’s health changed very dramatically since 1833, the poet was extremely tired and was looking for death himself. The tragedy of constant creative activity is the main cause of Mayakovsky’s death. In his own words, at the end of his life his head was constantly working, his weakness intensified, headaches appeared, etc.

Creativity is of course in time. The life of many creators continues even after the creative source dries up. And Zoshchenko gives another “martyrology”, a list of “dead people during life”, of course - creative dead. Glinka, Schumann, Fonvizin, Davy, Liebig, Boileau, Thomas Moore, Wordsworth, Coleridge, having lived for a long time, stopped creating in their youth. The creative period, as a rule, ends with a long loss of strength and depression. This applies to both poets and scientists. The great chemist Liebig experienced a complete loss of strength by the age of 30, and at the age of 40 he finished his work, like Davy (he lived until he was 53, and ended his creative activity at the age of 33). Similarly: the poets Coldridge left poetry at the age of 30 due to illness, Wordsworth finished his creative activity by the age of 40, and so on. Depression at the age of 37 struck Glinka, Fonvizin, and Leonid Andreev.

Cycles of creative activity have a deep psychophysiological reason. I. Ya. Perna, having analyzed the biographies of several hundred scientists, came to the conclusion that the peak of creative activity, determined by the dates of publication of the most important works, achievements, discoveries and inventions, occurs at 39 years. After this date, either a slow or a very rapid, “landslide” decline in creative activity follows.

Is it possible to combine long life and creative longevity? According to Zoshchenko, and it is difficult to disagree with him, those people whose creative activity is combined with a high level of intelligence, reflection and self-regulation live long and productively because their lives are subject to a strict routine they themselves created. The recipe for creative longevity is precision, order and organization. In order to prolong creative activity (which is unregulated by nature) as much as possible, it is necessary to regulate life activity as much as possible.

Another author, Polish literary critic J. Parandovsky, comes to a similar conclusion, analyzing the life of creative people. Although creativity is based on inspiration and leads to continuous (“excited”) work (Leibniz did not get up from his desk for several days, Newton and Landau forgot to have lunch, etc.), but with age comes regularity and discipline of study, and creativity turns into work. However, none of the creators starts with regular activities. Perhaps the paradox of the early death of many creators lies in the lack of psychological prerequisites for self-regulation. Over the years, creative and vital forces dry up and external (regulation) and internal (self-regulation) efforts are required to restore and preserve them.

Following Zoshchenko, we present a list of creative centenarians (the number of years lived in brackets): Kant (81), Tolstoy (82), Galileo (79), Hobbes (92), Schelling (80), Pythagoras (76), Seneca ( 70), Goethe (82), Newton (84), Faraday (77), Pasteur (74), Harvey (80), Darwin (73), Spencer (85), Smiles (90), Plato (81), Saint Simon (80), Edison (82). It is easy to notice that the list is dominated by great philosophers, theoretical scientists and creators of experimental scientific schools, as well as intellectual writers with a philosophical mindset.

Thought, or more precisely, high intelligence, prolongs life. If life is not interrupted by war or concentration camp.

Empirical psychology also did not remain aloof from this problem. The productivity of scientific creativity has become the subject of research not so long ago. According to many authors, the beginning of the scientometric approach to the problem of age-related dynamics of creativity is associated with the works of G. Lehmann.

In the monograph “Age and Achievements” (1953), he published the results of an analysis of hundreds of biographies of not only politicians, writers, poets and artists, but also mathematicians, chemists, philosophers and other scientists.

The dynamics of achievements of representatives of exact and natural sciences is as follows: 1) rise from 20 to 30 years; 2) peak productivity at 30-35 years; 3) decline by age 45 (50% of initial productivity); 4) by the age of 60, loss of creative abilities. A qualitative decline in productivity precedes a quantitative decline. And the more valuable the contribution of a creative person, the higher the likelihood that the creative peak occurred at a young age. Lehman's conclusions about the significance of an individual's contribution to culture were based on counting the number of lines devoted to them in encyclopedias and dictionaries. Later, E. Kleg analyzed the dictionary-reference book “Americans in Science” and came to the conclusion that the decline in creative productivity among the most outstanding scientists begins to be observed no earlier than 60 years.

Among Russian scientists, I. Ya. Perna was the first to address the problem of age-related dynamics of creativity (long before Lehman’s work). In 1925, he published the work “Rhythms of Life and Creativity.” According to Pern, the peak of creative development occurs at 35-40 years old, it is at this time that a major scientist usually publishes his first work (average age is 39 years). The earliest peak of creative achievements is observed among mathematicians (25-30 years old), followed by theoretical physicists and chemists (25-35 years old), then representatives of other natural sciences and experimental physicists (35-40 years old), and the latest peak of creativity observed among humanists and philosophers. The peak is followed by an inevitable decline, although there are alternate ups and downs in productivity.

One of the latest studies of the age dynamics of creative productivity of scientists was conducted by L. A. Rutkevich and E. F. Rybalko. They were based on an analysis of the biographies and creative achievements of scientists. Two groups were identified: group A included 372 of the most famous, according to the authors of the study, scientists and artists; Group B includes 419 well-known, but not so famous, representatives of “creative professions.”

In group A, a decline in creative activity was rarely observed, and in group B it was observed in all professional groups (especially in the group of representatives of the exact sciences). Representatives of group A study longer than representatives of group B, but their period of highest creative productivity is much longer. And at the same time, the most outstanding people begin creative activity earlier than the less outstanding.

Many authors believe that there are two types of creative productivity throughout life: the first occurs between 25 and 40 years of age (depending on the field of activity), and the second occurs at the end of the fourth decade of life, followed by a decline after 65 years.

The most prominent figures in science and art do not experience the typical decline in creative activity before death, which has been established in many studies.

Creative productivity is demonstrated into old age by people who have retained free-thinking and independent views, that is, qualities inherent in youth. In addition, creative individuals remain highly critical of their work. The structure of their abilities optimally combines the ability to create with reflective intelligence.

Let's summarize. Features of the interaction between consciousness and the unconscious, and in our terms – the subject of conscious activity and the unconscious creative subject – determine the typology of creative individuals and the features of their life path.

The dominance of creativity over reflective intelligence can lead to creative decline and a shortened life span. Time is more valuable than money, since it is given to a person in short supply.

From the book Personality Psychology in the works of domestic psychologists author Kulikov Lev

Personal development and life path. N. A. Loginova Human life, on the one hand, is a biological phenomenon, and on the other, a socio-historical fact. The socio-historical, human-specific quality of individual existence is fixed in the concept

From the book Basic Course of Analytical Psychology, or Jungian Breviary author Zelensky Valery Vsevolodovich

Life path as a subject of interdisciplinary research. I. S. Kon From whatever position we describe human development, this description silently presupposes three autonomous systems of reference. The first system is individual development, described in terms such as

From the book Crisis States author Yurieva Lyudmila Nikolaevna

From the book Scenarios of People's Lives [Eric Berne School] by Claude Steiner

Chapter 4. Man-made disasters and the life path of an individual We are accustomed to measuring the severity of the loss of those who walked and worked with us by the measure of what they achieved, did, completed. And that's true. But the opposite is also true: measure by what remains unfulfilled. Warsaw B.E.,

From the book Breakthrough! 11 best personal growth trainings author Parabellum Andrey Alekseevich

Life path What a person does, or the strategy of his life. Often the strategy can be formulated in a succinct phrase: “drink yourself to death,” “almost succeed,” “kill yourself,” “go crazy,” or “never rest.” Must be formulated in first person

From the book Psychology of Personality [Cultural and historical understanding of human development] author Asmolov Alexander Grigorievich

Day 14. Life path Let's talk about the formulation of life path, mission. Let's start with examples, although this will be a different phrase for each. “My mission is to create organizations in which people can develop,” “To energize the organization and the people I love.”

From the book Self-Teacher on Psychology author Obraztsova Lyudmila Nikolaevna

Chapter 14 Individuality of a person and her life path The life path of a person is the path of formation of her individuality (S.L. Rubinshtein, B.G. Ananyev). To understand the patterns of development of individual personality, the process of personogenesis, full of contradictions,

From the book Fundamentals of General Psychology author Rubinshtein Sergey Leonidovich

Chapter 8 Life Path The final chapter of this book is devoted to issues of human development. We have repeatedly returned to one of the main questions of psychology: what is genetically programmed in the human personality, and what is acquired through experience? As you remember,

From the book Rumsfeld's Rules [How to Win in Business, Politics, War and Life] author Rumsfeld Donald

Chapter XX SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF A PERSON AND HIS LIFE PATH

From the book Who's in Sheep's Clothing? [How to recognize a manipulator] by Simon George

The Life Path of a Personality 221 As we have seen, a person is not born with a personality; he becomes a person. This formation of personality is significantly different from the development of the organism, which occurs in the process of simple organic maturation. The essence of human personality is found

From the book Self-Teacher for Genius [How to discover your strengths] by Cooper Lex

Appendix 1: Rumsfeld's Life Path 1932 Born in Chicago, Illinois 1946–1950 New Trier High School student 1950–1954 Princeton University student (BA) 1954 Marries Marion Joyce Pearson 1954–1957 Serves in the U.S. Navy as a

From the book Creative Confidence. How to release and realize your creative powers by Kelly Tom

Neurotic personality and personality with character disorders There are two more important opposing types. A person who experiences too much uncertainty about his ability to cope with a situation and excessive anxiety when trying to provide for his basic needs.

From the book Psychological Workshop for Beginners author Barlas Tatyana Vladimirovna

Chapter first. Creative personality - who is it? Creativity is a creative activity, that is, the action of creating something new. Creativity is characterized by uniqueness on both sides. On the one hand, the creative process of one person is always different from

From the book Creative Problem Solving [How to Develop Creative Thinking] author Lemberg Boris

Creative Confidence In Chapter 4 we talked about the importance of taking action. And if you were at our training now, you would already be practicing, exploring human needs, creating samples of new ideas, collecting stories, or at least changing the design

From the author's book

Life path and crises Throughout life, we all face many turning points that change the course of events and our future lives. They are called “life lessons” (the term was introduced by B. M. Teplov). A similar lesson can be learned from a change that is obvious to others -

From the author's book

Part 1 Creative personality What kind of person do we call creative? There is a common belief that a creative person is one who is unable to live without creativity; this definition, however, does not include the creation itself: you never know, without which he cannot live - this does not mean that he

This article will help you understand creative people a little better and look into a world that only they can understand.

Creative people create problems. They are drug addicts. They are a little crazy and they usually dress very funny... or at least most of us think it is funny.

Creative people are very different. Of course, everyone is different, although many of us try to fit into a certain framework.

For many creative people, the very phrase “fitting into a box” contradicts the idea of what a creative person should be. Most creative people are not crazy. They are simply misunderstood.

Of course, some of them literally go crazy, but this is only a small part. The vast majority of creative people simply do not like to lie about what a person really is.

1. Creative people see the world differently than others

At the same time, creative people want to share their vision and interpretation with the rest of the world. For them, the world is full of many meanings, shades of meaning and complexity, and it is also filled with opportunities that an ordinary person does not have.

Creative people know that the impossible is possible, because they understand that nothing in the world can be sure.

Seeing that the world is filled with endless possibilities, they want to leave their mark here. They want to add their touch to the most beautiful of works of art - life itself.

When you see the world differently than others, you stand out. Many people don't like people who stand out. For some reason they are afraid of “white crows”.

Others simply prefer inertia and constancy. They are afraid of what they do not know, they do not like the unknown and the misunderstandings associated with it.

2. They are often introverted and tend to be alone

This is not to say that creative individuals do not love all the people around them. They simply spend more time alone because it allows them to focus on what interests them. They can think, dream, plan and create things.

Creative individuals must constantly be in the creative process. Otherwise, their creative itch will be simply unbearable. Yes, they can be sincerely devoted to their friends, but in the same way they rush around with their ideas and creative products - sometimes this even develops into obsession

Who can blame them, on the other hand? When you have a job, you have to do it, be productive and meet deadlines. There will always be time for socialization.

The reason creative people often do well in competition is not because they are smarter than their competitors. The thing is that they have a higher level of work ethics.

Creative individuals are used to being able to navigate a project perfectly, they are used to the fact that it literally absorbs them. It's hard to compete with this.

3. They don't measure their abilities the way others do.

They cannot always boast of success at school or at work (at work that most people consider normal). It would be better for them to create than to study and work. On the other hand, for whom not?

The whole difference is that creative people are literally obsessed with their creativity. Their passion cannot be hidden.

If you are a creative person, you almost certainly find it difficult to do monotonous work. When you are a creator by nature, you live in joyful anticipation, constantly trying to discover and create something new, trying yourself in different areas.

Creative people go to school and then to work just like everyone else, but only because they have to. They tend to settle for imperfect jobs until they find something more interesting for themselves in terms of self-development.

4. They are more emotional

For them, life is louder and brighter than for most people. But this is not because creative people receive more information about the world, they just pay more attention to it.

Creative people may be introverted, but they spend just as much time “wandering within” as they do in the outside world.

They pay great attention to detail and allow these small details to have a much stronger impact on them than on the average (not so creative) person.

For them, the world is filled with meaning. For many of us, the surrounding reality has blurry outlines. For creative people, peace is everything.

Of course, sometimes such individuals get lost in their “travels.” In general, being a creative person sometimes means having problems with the surrounding reality.

5. They are dreamers

People don't understand dreamers because they always dream of change. About a better world, about a better reality, about a better future. They can imagine the unimaginable and often believe that they can make the impossible possible.

If you like everything to be in its place, you will be scared by the chaos that always accompanies a creative person. The life of a creator is defined by change. Especially the changes that he himself creates.

People have always been and will always be afraid of dreamers. We prefer to stop there and be “average”. We do not like “white crows” and thinkers. We are a nation that is doing everything we can to build an established middle class.

It will be quite fun to fail this mission.

There are two opposing points of view: talent is the maximum degree of health, talent is a disease.

The problem of identifying early abilities interests many. We are talking, in principle, about singling out, identifying capable people, about their appropriate training, that is, about the best solution for selecting personnel.

A creator, like an intellectual, is not born. It all depends on what opportunities the environment will provide for the realization of the potential that is inherent in each of us to varying degrees and in one form or another.

As Ferguson (1974) notes, “creativity is not created, but released.” Therefore, in order to understand how creative activity developed, it is necessary to evaluate not only and not so much the basic level of intelligence necessary for this activity, but also the person’s personality and the ways of its formation.

The work of psychologists in recent years quite clearly distinguishes two types of gifted people. Here is the opinion of the Soviet psychiatrist V. Levi on this matter.

We can distinguish two poles of genius, between which lies a range of gradual transition. Representatives of one pole could be called, according to tradition, geniuses “from God”, representatives of the other - geniuses “from themselves”.

Geniuses “from God” - Mozarts, Raphaels, Pushkins - create as birds sing - passionately, selflessly and at the same time naturally, naturally, playfully. They tend to stand out for their abilities from childhood; fate favors them already at the beginning of their life’s journey, and their obligatory hard work merges with the spontaneous, involuntary creative impulse that forms the very basis of their mental life. A huge redundancy of “special” abilities is sometimes manifested in them against the background of relatively modest volitional qualities.

The volitional qualities of Mozart - a pure genius “from God” - were, apparently, mediocre. Already in his mature years, he was distinguished by such childish naivety of judgment, which, if it had come from another person, could only have evoked condescending laughter. But throughout Mozart’s entire biography runs the powerful strong-willed influence of his father, which encouraged him to tirelessly work and protected him from wrong steps. The father was the teacher, educator and impresario of the young Mozart; The son's enormous talent was brought to the heights of creative genius by the will of his father.

Geniuses develop slowly, sometimes belatedly, and fate treats them quite cruelly, sometimes even brutally. There is a fantastic overcoming of fate and overcoming oneself here. In the historical line of outstanding people of this type, we see the shy, tongue-tied Demosthenes, who became the greatest orator of Greece. In this row, perhaps, is our giant Lomonosov, who overcame his age-old illiteracy; here is Jack London, with his painfully heightened sense of self-esteem and a real cult of self-control and self-determination; here are Van Gogh and the furious Wagner, who mastered musical notation only at the age of twenty.

Many of these people in childhood and adolescence gave the impression of little ability and even stupidity. James Watt, Swift, Gauss were “stepchildren of the school” and were considered untalented. Newton was not good at school physics and mathematics. Carl Linnaeus was destined for a career as a shoemaker.

Teachers recognized Helmholtz as almost imbecilic. About Walter Scott, a university professor said: “He is stupid and will remain stupid.”

For geniuses, “on their own”, an indestructible will, an irrepressible desire for self-affirmation, prevails over everything. They have a colossal thirst for knowledge and activity, and a phenomenal capacity for work. As they work, they reach the heights of tension. They overcome their illnesses, their physical and mental disabilities, literally create themselves, and their very creativity, as a rule, bears the imprint of fierce effort.

Geniuses “on their own” sometimes lack that charming ease, that magnificent carelessness that is characteristic of geniuses “from God,” but gigantic inner strength and passion, combined with strict demands on themselves, elevate their works to the rank of genius.

One cannot, of course, discount the initial potential of geniuses’ talent “on their own”: there must have been something that fed a passionate attraction to the work and self-confidence - perhaps they were pushed forward by a vague sense of undisclosed possibilities.

A very striking example of the “reconciliation” of two principles “from God” and “from oneself” is the instructive life of Goethe. A man of rare balance, optimism and calm, nicknamed the great Olympian, from a young age he was distinguished by a weak, fickle character, was indecisive, and prone to bouts of melancholy. Through constant training and control over emotions, Goethe managed to change himself.

Modern science states that need, interest, passion, impulse, aspiration are very important in creativity, invention, discovery, and obtaining previously unknown information. But this alone is not enough. What is also needed is knowledge, skill, skill, and impeccable professionalism. All this cannot be made up for by any talent, no desires, no inspiration. Emotions without action are dead, just as business without emotions is dead.

What are the signs of a creative personality that, even at school (or even in kindergarten), help determine the giftedness of a child, in order to create an individual schedule for him, recommend that he enroll in a special school, and so on?

Numerous psychological studies make it possible to name a number of abilities that characterize a creative personality.

The main feature of a creative person is the need for creativity, which becomes a vital necessity.

Brilliant people are always painfully sensitive. They experience sharp declines and rises in activity. They are hypersensitive to social reward and punishment, etc.

The psychological “formula of genius” might look like this:

genius = (high intelligence + even higher creativity) x mental activity.

Creative people have the following personality traits:

1) independence - personal standards are more important than group standards, non-conformity of assessments and judgments;

2) openness of mind - willingness to believe one’s own and others’ fantasies, receptivity to the new and unusual;

3) high tolerance for uncertain and insoluble situations and constructive activity in these situations;

4) developed aesthetic sense, desire for beauty.

Often mentioned in this series features of “I” - concepts, which is characterized by confidence in one’s abilities and strength of character.

The most contradictory data are about the mental and emotional balance of creative people. Although humanistic psychologists argue that creative people are characterized by emotional and social maturity, high adaptability, balance, optimism etc., but most experimental results contradict this.

Creative activity itself, associated with a change in the state of consciousness, mental stress and exhaustion, causes disturbances in mental regulation and behavior. Talent and creativity are not only a great gift, but also a great punishment.

Almost all researchers note significant differences in the psychological portraits of scientists and artists. R. Snow notes the great pragmatism of scientists and the penchant for emotional forms of self-expression of writers. Scientists and engineers are more reserved, less socially courageous, more tactful and less sensitive than artists.

In terms of its creative manifestations, the activities of a businessman are more similar to the activities of a scientist. Scientists and businessmen, on average, have better control over their behavior and are less emotional and sensitive than artists.

In the creative process, the role of the unconscious and intuitive is great. Intuition, the formation of an “amazing mixture of experience and reason” (M. Bunge) is closely related to the ability for creative imagination and fantasy.

Imagination is the ability to evoke certain components from the wealth of memories and create new psychological formations from them.

Numerous psychological studies also make it possible to identify a whole range of abilities that characterize a creative personality, which means that when identified in a particular young person, they provide good reason to predict his creative professional opportunities in the future.

First of all, this is the desire for originality in solutions, the search for something new, and relaxed thinking.

Any education system created by society is based on conformism. This is the surest way to ensure the unity of all members of a social group, but at the same time the surest way to suppress the development of creative thinking.

Indeed, a creative personality is fundamentally alien to conformism. It is her independence of judgment that allows her to explore paths that other people do not dare to take for fear of seeming ridiculous. A creative person finds it difficult to integrate into the life of a social group, although he is open to others and enjoys a certain popularity. He accepts generally accepted values only if they coincide with his own. At the same time, he is not very dogmatic, and his ideas about life and society, as well as the meaning of his own actions, can be very ambiguous.

A non-standard approach to solving a problem, unusual, wildness of judgment is what distinguishes a creative person. A creative person must see like other people, but think in a completely original way.

It is the desire to find unstable, non-trivial solutions, the desire to independently, without outside help, achieve a result that was previously unknown - this is a very important ability associated with the entire structure of the personality.

But only due to this quality alone one cannot become a creative person. It must be combined with a number of other important qualities. Among them, resourcefulness, self-criticism and criticism, flexibility of thinking, independence of opinions, courage and courage, and energy stand out. Perseverance, perseverance in getting things done, focus - without this, creative achievements are inconceivable.

A creative person is eclectic, inquisitive, and constantly strives to integrate data from different fields.

A feature of a creative person is a willingness to take risks. Creative individuals do not care about prestige or the opinions of others; they do not share generally accepted points of view.

Creativity, undoubtedly, is also promoted by a sense of humor, wit, and the ability to wait or experience the comic. A penchant for gaming is another characteristic of a gifted person. Creative people love to have fun, and their heads are full of all kinds of wonderful ideas. They prefer new and complex things to familiar and simple ones. Their perception of the world is constantly updated.

Creative people often surprisingly combine maturity of thinking, deep knowledge, diverse abilities, skills and peculiar childish traits in their views on the surrounding reality, in behavior and actions.

More often than not, creative people retain a childlike capacity for wonder and admiration, and an ordinary flower can excite them just as much as a revolutionary discovery. These are usually dreamers who can sometimes pass for crazy because they put their “delusional ideas” into practice while simultaneously accepting and integrating the irrational aspects of their behavior.

A creatively thinking person is distinguished by his exacting nature and not only in the professional sphere. He is not content with approximate information, but strives to clarify, get to primary sources, and find out the opinion of specialists.

Other important qualities of a creative person are a deep love of work, agility of mind, the ability to synthesize and analyze ideas, courage and independence of judgment, the ability to doubt and compare.

Of course, need, interest, passion, impulse, aspiration are very important in creativity. But we also need knowledge, skills, craftsmanship, and impeccable professionalism.

The productivity of creative work is directly proportional to the amount of information received and processed.

Thus, in the system stages of creativity The following most important qualities can be listed:

Stage 1 - a sense of novelty, unusual, sensitivity to contradictions, information hunger (“thirst for knowledge”).

Stage 2 - intuition, creative imagination, inspiration.

Stage 3 - self-criticism, persistence in getting things done, etc.

Of course, all these qualities operate at all stages of the creative process, but not with predominance in one of the three. Depending on the type of creativity (scientific, artistic), some of them may appear brighter than others. Combining with the unique features of a particular person, as well as with the peculiarities of creative searches, the listed qualities often form an amazing alloy of creative individuality.