Volume 1: A Dissertation, The Creative Leap: The Science and Philosophy of Creativity.
Access status:
Open Access
Type
ThesisThesis type
Professional doctorateAuthor/s
Stephen, SewellAbstract
The mystery of creative thinking, and creativity itself, has long fascinated human beings, and not only those of us, namely artists, who have taken it upon themselves to bring something new and original into the world and who consequently find themselves struggling through the dark ...
See moreThe mystery of creative thinking, and creativity itself, has long fascinated human beings, and not only those of us, namely artists, who have taken it upon themselves to bring something new and original into the world and who consequently find themselves struggling through the dark and forbidding landscape of the creative process. This struggle is a well known trope of popular culture, but as the economy of modern societies becomes increasingly dominated by the need for innovation, the questions of what creativity is and how it can be stimulated have become more pressing. For a number of decades now various kinds of scientific investigation have attempted, with some limited success, to define and analyse creativity, while the earlier psychoanalytic approaches, first sketched by Freud, have been eschewed as no more than unscientific speculations. This dissertation is an attempt to build a case that some of the confusion relating to creativity, and consciousness in general, stems from unresolved philosophical questions arising from the bifurcation of European thought after Descartes’ announcement of the Cogito, and that a more productive research program might arise, and indeed is beginning to arise by putting aside the animus between what is currently described as science and the work of Freudian inspired thinkers such as Jacques Lacan. All this I consider in the context of a process, developed by Dr. Sue Woolfe, and called by her “the Lull,” which she teaches to student writers so that they can wilfully invoke for themselves the creative state. While this technique and its teaching is not unique in providing a model of creativity with practical applications, by looking at the Lull and its effectiveness I hope to show that a rapprochement between contemporary neuroscience and Freudian-inspired thinkers is not only possible, but necessary if we are to give a fuller description of creativity, this most vital element in human consciousness. Volume 2 - Wolf, A Novel
See less
See moreThe mystery of creative thinking, and creativity itself, has long fascinated human beings, and not only those of us, namely artists, who have taken it upon themselves to bring something new and original into the world and who consequently find themselves struggling through the dark and forbidding landscape of the creative process. This struggle is a well known trope of popular culture, but as the economy of modern societies becomes increasingly dominated by the need for innovation, the questions of what creativity is and how it can be stimulated have become more pressing. For a number of decades now various kinds of scientific investigation have attempted, with some limited success, to define and analyse creativity, while the earlier psychoanalytic approaches, first sketched by Freud, have been eschewed as no more than unscientific speculations. This dissertation is an attempt to build a case that some of the confusion relating to creativity, and consciousness in general, stems from unresolved philosophical questions arising from the bifurcation of European thought after Descartes’ announcement of the Cogito, and that a more productive research program might arise, and indeed is beginning to arise by putting aside the animus between what is currently described as science and the work of Freudian inspired thinkers such as Jacques Lacan. All this I consider in the context of a process, developed by Dr. Sue Woolfe, and called by her “the Lull,” which she teaches to student writers so that they can wilfully invoke for themselves the creative state. While this technique and its teaching is not unique in providing a model of creativity with practical applications, by looking at the Lull and its effectiveness I hope to show that a rapprochement between contemporary neuroscience and Freudian-inspired thinkers is not only possible, but necessary if we are to give a fuller description of creativity, this most vital element in human consciousness. Volume 2 - Wolf, A Novel
See less
Date
2017-02-02Faculty/School
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Literature, Art and MediaAwarding institution
The University of SydneyShare