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Sternberg, Robert. (1998). Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge University Press.
The goal of the Handbook of Creativity is to provide the most comprehensive, definitive, and authoritative single-volume review available in the field of creativity. To this end, the book contains 22 chapters covering a wide range of issues and topics in the field of creativity, all written by distinguished leaders in the field. The chapters have been written to be accessible to all educated readers with an interest in creative thinking. Although the authors are leading behavioral scientists, people in all disciplines will find the coverage of creativity divided in the arts and sciences to be of interest. The volume is divided into six parts. Part I, the Introduction, sets out the major themes and reviews the history of thinking about creativity. Subsequent parts deal with methods, origins, self and environment, special topics and conclusions.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1992). Optimal Experience : Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness. Boston: Cambridge University Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1993). Flow. New York: Perennial Press.
You have heard about how a musician loses herself in her music, how a painter becomes one with the process of painting. In work, sport, conversation or hobby, you have experienced, yourself, the suspension of time, the freedom of complete absorption in activity. This is "flow," an experience that is at once demanding and rewarding--an experience that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates is one of the most enjoyable and valuable experiences a person can have. The exhaustive case studies, controlled experiments and innumerable references to historical figures, philosophers and scientists through the ages prove Csikszentmihalyi's point that flow is a singularly productive and desirable state. But the implications for its application to society are what make the book revolutionary.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1998). Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life (Masterminds Series). New York: Basic Books.
This is a simpler, more practical book than Csikszentmihalyi's other popular works on the subject. He explains how you can apply the insights from his teams' experiments at the University of Chicago.
Gelb, Michael. (2000). How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. New York: Dell Trade Paperback.
Hughson, N & R. Hughson. (2001). Psychology of Creativity. Tempe, Arizona: Hughson Publishing Company.
Artists, writers, scientists, managers, psychologists, educators, or anyone who creates. Are you looking for inspiration, words, a way to express yourself? Would you like to destroy the myth that creativity is a mysterious gift for only a chosen few? Would you like to know exactly what to do and sooner rather than later? Would you like to find yourself by losing yourself in your art form rather than be derailed by distractions to your real purpose in life? If so this is the book for you.
May, Rollo. (1994). The Courage to Create. New York: W.W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition.
Believing that creativity is central to our being, May outlines the limits to what we know and do not know about creativity. He links the element of courage to creativity to reveal the process of discovery in which a person generates new forms and patterns that build new social systems.
Root-Bernstein, Robert S. & Michelle Root-Bernstein. (2001). Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People. Mariner Books.
Operating on the arguable assumption that creative thinking is essentially pre-verbal, intuitive and emotional, the Root-Bernsteins (Honey, Mud, Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels) outline 13 "tools" that help translate spontaneous imaginative experiences into specific media, such as painting, music, scientific experiments and poetry. Among the techniques they identify and describe are "imaging," "abstracting," "body thinking" and "empathizing." Although there is considerable overlap between categories (for example, in the sections on "analogizing" and on "recognizing patterns"), the Root-Bernsteins succeed in defining each category's uniqueness. Freely acknowledging that they are not asserting anything startlingly novel, the authors present an impressive number of firsthand accounts of the creative process, from Albert Einstein and Merce Cunningham to Oliver Sacks and Charles Ives. Some may have trouble accepting the premise that all creative thinking--whether for poetic composition or scientific experiment, and regardless of the thinker's native culture or language--is "universally" categorizable, but the authors make a strong case for a view that is becoming increasingly popular. They conclude with a list of suggestions for how to transform education from the elementary level up so that it is better suited to our demanding, multidimensional culture.
