Psychology Today featured an excerpt of an article written by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (who popularized the term "Flow" in is books which include Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention among others). To build on Flow Theory, Csikszentmihalyi interviewed 91 people, eminent in their respective fields, each of whom engaged in "flow" in an ongoing basis while contributing to the betterment of society. He found certain traits common to all that he called the Creative Personality. The following article summarizes his finding. I have copied only parts of it below - for the complete article, click here.
The Creative Personality
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living...Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity...When we're creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life...what makes their personalities different from others...complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."
Here are the 10 antithetical traits often present in creative people that are integrated with each other in a dialectical tension.
1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest. They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm...This does not mean that creative people are always "on"...When necessary, they can focus it like a laser beam; when not, creative types immediately recharge their batteries. They consider the rhythm of activity followed by idleness or reflection very important for the success of their work.
2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time...Another way of expressing this dialectic is the contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness...a certain immaturity, both emotional and mental, can go hand in hand with deepest insights...Furthermore, people who bring about an acceptable novelty in a domain seem able to use well two opposite ways of thinking: the convergent and the divergent.
3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. There is no question that a playfully light attitude is typical of creative individuals. But this playfulness doesn't go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, perseverance...Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not.
4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality. Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that is different from the present...the whole point of art and science is to go beyond what we now consider real and create a new reality...this "escape" is not into a never-never land. What makes a novel idea creative is that once we see it, sooner or later we recognize that, strange as it is, it is true.
5. Creative people tend to be both extroverted and introverted...in the thick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines and observing the passing show. In fact, in psychological research, extroversion and introversion are considered the most stable personality traits that differentiate people from each other and that can be reliably measured. Creative individuals, on the other hand, seem to exhibit both traits simultaneously.
6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time...Their respect for the area in which they work makes them aware of the long line of previous contributions to it, putting their own in perspective. They're also aware of the role that luck played in their own achievements. And they're usually so focused on future projects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding, are no longer very interesting to them. At the same time, they know they have accomplished a great deal. And this knowledge provides a sense of security, even pride.
7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping...ability to be at the same time aggressive and nurturant, sensitive and rigid, dominant and submissive, regardless of gender. A psychologically androgynous person in effect doubles his or her repertoire of responses. Creative individuals are more likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other one, too.
8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative. It is impossible to be creative without having first internalized an area of culture...But the willingness to take risks, to break with the safety of tradition, is also necessary. The economist George Stigler is very emphatic: "In innovation, you have to play a less safe game, if it's going to be interesting. It's not predictable that it'll go well."
9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lacks credibility. Here is how the historian Natalie Davis puts it: "...you can't be so identified with your work that you can't accept criticism and response."
10. Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment...Being alone at the forefront of a discipline also leaves you exposed and vulnerable...invites criticism and often vicious attacks...Divergent thinking is often perceived as deviant by the majority, and so the creative person may feel isolated and misunderstood...Yet when a person is working in the area of his of her expertise, worries and cares fall away, replaced by a sense of bliss.
Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake.
That was from Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
My two cents: the Creative Personality can hold paradox without feeling conflicted - both paradoxical traits
within oneself, as well as the ability to hold the world (and world view) as containing
seemingly opposing realities without having to adopt one in particular. It is not reductionist, reducing a
philosophy, creation or way of being down to one common
denominator. It is expansive and yes-anding - accepting that
contradictory ideas, situations and traits can be operating simultaneously or within the same individual or system - and that adds to the
creative complexity, aliveness and richness of output.
