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 EVERYDAY
CREATIVITY
and New Views of Human Nature
 EVERYDAY
CREATIVITY
and New Views of Human Nature
Psychological, Social, and
Spiritual Perspectives

Edited by Ruth Richards

Foreword by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

American Psychological Association

Washington, DC
Copyright © 2007 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.
Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this
publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, including, but
not limited to, the process of scanning and digitization, or stored in a database or
retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by
American Psychological Association
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
www.apa.org

To order In the U.K., Europe, Africa, and the Middle

APA Order Department East, copies may be ordered from
P.O. Box 92984 American Psychological Association
Washington, DC 20090-2984 3 Henrietta Street
Tel: (800) 374-2721 Covent Garden, London
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Printer: Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing, Binghamton, NY

Cover Designer: Naylor Design, Washington, DC
Technical/Production Editor: Tiffany L. Klaff

The opinions and statements published are the responsibility of the authors, and such
opinions and statements do not necessarily represent the policies of the American
Psychological Association.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Everyday creativity and new views of human nature : psychological, social, and
spiritual perspectives / Ruth Richards, editor ; foreword by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ;
with Fred Abraham ... [et al.].—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9792125-7-4
ISBN-10: 0-9792125-7-X
1. Creative ability. 2. Creative ability—Social aspects. I. Richards, Ruth.
II. Abraham, Frederick David.

BF408.E896 2007
153.3'5_dc22 2006103319

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record is available from the British Library.

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition
 To my daughter
Lauren Jo Richards-Ruby
and to all of us as we learn, develop, dream,
and seek life's possibilities
 CONTENTS

Contributors
Foreword .................................................................................................... xi
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Acknowledgments .................................................................................. xiii
Introduction...............................................................................................3
Ruth Richards

I. Creativity and Our Individual Lives ........................................ 23

Chapter 1. Everyday Creativity: Our Hidden Potential ............... 25
Ruth Richards
Chapter 2. Living Well Creatively: What's Chaos Got to
Do With It? .................................................................. 55
David Schuldberg
Chapter 3. Artist and Audience: Everyday Creativity
and Visual Art ............................................................. 75
Tobi Zausner
Chapter 4. To Understand Is to Create:
An Epistemological Perspective on Human
Nature and Personal Creativity .................................. 91
Mark A. Runco
Chapter 5. Audience Flow: Creativity in Television
Watching With Applications to Teletherapy .......... 109
Steven R. Pritzker

VII
Chapter 6. Structures of Consciousness and Creativity:
Opening the Doors of Perception 131
Allan Combs and Stanley Krippner

II. Creativity and Society 151

Chapter 7. Telling the New Story: Darwin, Evolution,
and Creativity Versus Conformity in Science 153
David Loye
Chapter 8. Standing Up for Humanity: Upright Body,
Creative Instability, and Spiritual Balance 175
Mike Arons
Chapter 9. Creativity in the Everyday: Culture, Self,
and Emotions 195
Louise Sundararajan and James R. Averill
Chapter 10. A "Knowledge Ecology" View of Creativity:
How Integral Science Recasts Collective
Creativity as a Basis of Large-Scale Learning 221
S. J. Goerner
Chapter 11. Cyborgs, Cyberspace, Cybersexuality:
The Evolution of Everyday Creativity 241
Frederick David Abraham
Chapter 12. Our Great Creative Challenge:
Rethinking Human Nature—
and Recreating Society 261
Riane Eisler

III. Integration and Conclusions 287

Chapter 13. Twelve Potential Benefits of Living
More Creatively 289
Ruth Richards

Author Index 321

Subject Index 331
About the Editor 349

via CONTENTS
 CONTRIBUTORS

Frederick David Abraham, PhD, Blueberry Brain Institute, Waterbury,

VT; formerly, University of California, Los Angeles, and Silliman
University, the Philippines; neuroscientist, psychologist; cofounder,
Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences;
coauthor, A Visual Introduction to Dynamical Systems Theory for
Psychology
Mike Arons, PhD, State University of West Georgia, Carrollton; former
Chair of Humanistic Psychology; philosopher, founded fourth
program in humanistic psychology; worked with Abraham Maslow
James R. Averill, PhD, University of Massachusetts, Amherst;
psychologist with interests in emotions and creativity across
cultures; writings include the book Voyages of the Heart
Allan Combs, PhD, California Institute of Integral Studies, San
Francisco, CA; neuropsychologist, consciousness researcher, systems
theorist; books include Radiance of Being
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD, C. S. and D. J. Davidson Professor of
Psychology and Management; Director, Quality of Life Research
Center, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA
Riane Eisler, JD, President, Center for Partnership Studies, Pacific
Grove, CA; cultural historian, evolution theorist, human rights and
peace activist; award-winning author of The Chalice and the Blade,
The Power of Partnership, and The Real Wealth of Nations
S. J. Goerner, PhD, Director, Integral Science Institute, Chapel Hill,
NC; past president of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology
and Life Sciences, Pewaukee, WI; psychologist, computer scientist;
books include After the Clockwork Universe
Stanley Krippner, PhD, Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco, CA;
received 2002 American Psychological Association Award for

IX
 Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of
Psychology; expert in dreamwork and creativity, altered states, and
shamanism; books include The Mythic Path (with David Feinstein)
David Loye, PhD, cofounder, Institute for Partnership Studies, Pacific
Grove, CA; formerly at University of California, Los Angeles,
School of Medicine and Princeton University; social psychologist,
futurist, systems theorist, creator of The Darwin Project; books
include Darwin's Truth
Steven R. Pritzker, PhD, Saybrook Graduate School and Research
Center, San Francisco, CA; prizewinning Hollywood writer in
earlier years with credits including The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
coeditor of The Encyclopedia of Creativity (with Mark A. Runco)
Ruth Richards, MD, PhD, Saybrook Graduate School and Research
Center, San Francisco, CA; McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical
School; coauthor of The Lifetime Creativity Scales and coeditor of
Eminent Creativity, Everyday Creativity, and Health
Mark A. Runco, PhD, California State University, Fullerton, and
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration;
editor of Creativity Research Journal; coeditor of The Encyclopedia of
Creativity (with Steven Pritzker); Past President of American
Psychological Association Division 10 (Society for the Psychology
of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts)
David Schuldberg, PhD, University of Montana, Missoula; psychologist,
clinician, and researcher in chaos theory and in issues of creativity
and mental health whose studies have helped bring these areas
together
Louise Sundararajan, PhD, EdD, Rochester Regional Forensic Unit,
Rochester, NY; psychologist and philosopher with interest in
relations between emotion, creativity, and spirituality, including
Eastern and Western views
Tobi Zausner, PhD, C. G. Jung Institute, New York, NY; artist,
psychologist, and art historian with expertise in creativity and
health and archetypal imagery; author of When Walls Become
Doorways: Creativity and the Transforming Illness

CONTRIBUTORS
 FOREWORD
MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI

Much has been written about creativity in the past few decades. We
have learned a great deal about how great artists and scientists go about
their work, about what motivates them, about their childhood, and even
about their old age. As usually happens with the advancement of science,
all this knowledge keeps suggesting new questions. One of the most central
questions being, so what does what we learn about these outstanding creative
individuals tell us about our own lives—about the everyday, small "c"
creativity that goes into raising our children, surviving in our jobs, and
making life rich and interesting? Many scholars have asked that question,
but few have even begun to speculate what an answer to it might look
like.
In this collection, Ruth Richards and her collaborators have finally
taken the plunge and produced a stimulating, thought-provoking kaleido-
scope of views about what everyday creativity can involve for people, both
individually and together. Readers will come across many scintillating gems
along the way. At the same time, as is often the case with pioneering
ventures, readers may also find what time will show to be false starts. Because
this volume is in itself a creative product, it is useful to remember an oft-
repeated definition of creativity: It dwells on the edge that separates chaos
from order. Whereas most scholarly books on creativity might err by staying
safely on the side of order, this volume tends to venture occasionally into
the possibility of chaos. That is the risk one must take when creativity is
at stake.
However, this is certainly not a pop-psych or how-to book. It is not
easy reading because of the variety of perspectives it presents and vocabularies

XI
it uses. Yet for those individuals who are serious about understanding how
to live their lives more creatively, and for those who wish to study and
understand everyday creativity, there are enough budding ideas to build on
and exciting hints to explore to keep one busy for a lifetime. And as with
all good books, it is what the reader brings and adds to it that will make
this book a great one.

xii FOREWORD
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We contributors were all delighted that this book found a home with
the American Psychological Association. We are grateful to Lansing Hays
for seeing its potential and accepting the project, and to two anonymous
reviewers for their astute suggestions for the volume. In the development
phase, it was an honor to work with Ron Teeter, who stands with only one
other editor this writer has known in helping authors bring forth important
material that might never have appeared otherwise. I am not the only
contributor to say so.
The cover design struck us as beautiful and elegantly simple. Anne
Woodworth Casque and her staff deserve many creative accolades. In the
production phase Tiffany Klaff and her copyeditors did excellent work—
careful, thorough, sensitive to nuance, and timely in keeping us on track.
I would also like to thank the others at APA Books whose names we don't
know, but who have assisted, and continue to assist, in various ways.
As volume editor, I would also like to thank Kathleen Drucker Spivack,
Pulitzer nominee, editor with whom I've worked, friend, inspiration, and
source of golden poetry and prose. In several ways, she has helped this
project come to realization. Finally, I am well aware that we all have dear
family and friends who have supported our work and our intentions, and
whose own identities, suggestions, examples, and hopes, too, are interwoven
in various ways with what one reads here. Heartfelt thanks to you all.

xin
 EVERYDAY
CREATIVITY
and New Views of Human Nature
 INTRODUCTION
RUTH RICHARDS

If I had to define life in a word, it would be Life is creation.

—Claude Bernard

We humans are often "everyday creative," or we would not even be

alive. To cope with changing environments, we improvise, we flexibly adapt,
we try this and that. At times, we change the environment to suit us—
whether we are making a living, raising a child, feeding the family, writing
a report, or finding our way out of the woods when lost. Far from being a
minor or specialized part of our lives, our everyday creativity—our originality
of everyday life—is, first of all, a survival capability. It is also a universal
capability.
But, as this book suggests, our everyday creativity offers us more: It
offers a dynamic process and a powerful way of living. When developed, it
can open all of us to new depths, richness, and presence. This book brings
together a variety of eminent thinkers and writers, who offer new and
sometimes speculative perspectives on how creativity can enter our lives in
unsuspected ways, from the prosaic to the dramatic. They offer as well a
renewed appreciation of creativity—as a process, a force, a strategy, even
a vehicle for societies at a difficult, and perhaps decisive point, in human
history.
Our human creativity, it is suggested, can affect our health and well-
being, personal growth and development, our creativity together, and even
the evolution of cultures. It can also, as our multidisciplinary thinkers suggest,
offer new views of ourselves in this complex and interdependent world, and
reasons for being on this earth in the first place. Here is hope indeed, in a
troubled age.
Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature is not just about
personal growth or social change, but about transformation—offering new
views of who we are, individually and together, and new ways of being in
the world, and affecting it. When the authors say "new," this also means
new in every age, and new for each of us; ways of engaging life we must
come into for ourselves, while discovering a freshness and a wonder we
could not have imagined beforehand.
Our chapter contributors tell us in many forms, and in many contexts,
that we humans have only begun to discover what is possible. If indeed our
capacity for creativity in our daily lives can offer new pathways to human
unfolding and fulfillment—both individually and together—then people
need to hear about this, and assess the possibilities for themselves. That is
the reason for this book.

EVERYDAY CREATIVITY IS ABOUT MORE THAN THE ARTS

Contrary to the earlier view, some people think that our creativity is
mainly about the arts and, furthermore, that it is an activity largely reserved
for "geniuses" and certain widely recognized people—at least if it is to be
taken seriously. For them, everyday creativity seems an "extra," set apart
from the rest of life. People who believe this are depriving themselves of
their creative birthright. "I'm not creative!" one hears people say, even
emphatically, next explaining they cannot draw a portrait or a likeness
(Richards, 1990, in press). Not the point! How much of life these people
may be missing by leaving their creativity underdeveloped.
We use our everyday creativity throughout our lives, at work and
leisure, whether making a sale, organizing a benefit, counseling a client,
helping the kids do homework, or planning a winter vacation (Cropley,
1990; Kinney, Richards, & Southam, in press; Richards, Kinney, Benet, &
Merzel, 1988). Furthermore, when everyday creativity is, in fact, about
aesthetic concerns, it is not just about writing poetry or singing in a choir,
but also about helping one's child with a school display, writing a letter to the
editor, rearranging a room, or landscaping the yard. In truth, our creativity is
less about Activity A or B, than a way of approaching life which can expand
our experiences and options, and even deeply affect who we are—and
can become.
Seen as a process, and even a way of life, our everyday creativity offers
whole new ways of thinking, of experiencing the world, and experiencing
ourselves. It can pull blinders from our eyes, and bring us alive, making us

RUTH RICHARDS
more conscious participants in our lives, aware of the dynamic of life
moving about us (see Franck, 1993; Loori, 2004; Nachmanovitch, 1990;
Richards, 2006). It can offer us joy, energy, and challenge. Colors become
brighter, and sounds become sweeter. The smallest moments—a raindrop,
a gust of air—offer wonder. We may even have a chance for fundamental
transformation.

IDENTIFYING EVERYDAY CREATIVITY

How does one identify everyday creativity? Formally, this involves

meeting just two criteria, now widely accepted, as defined by the remarkable
creativity researcher, the late Frank X. Barren (1969), namely: originality
and meaningfulness. There needs to be something new, in other words—
whether a concrete product, behavior, or idea. In addition, the product—
one of Mooney's "four Ps of creativity"—should not be random, accidental, or
idiosyncratic. It should communicate to others. Still, an identified "accident"
might qualify as creative if it meets the two criteria. The mishap of a broken
jar of jam on the floor is probably not creative. Yet seeing, appreciating,
and photographing its accidental pattern of deep red and sparkling glass
might still be. There is newness and the intent to show an artistic effect.
(Kinney et al., in press; Richards et al., 1988; Shansis et al., 2003).
In addition, in this book, originality can be assessed against different
baselines, for different purposes. A creative outcome may be new on a global
scale, or to a particular reference group, or to a domain or area of endeavor,
or simply to one's own personal experience (Beghetto & Kaufman, in press;
Runco, 1996; Richards, 1981). It depends on one's purpose.
This is not to overlook the other three of Mooney's "four Ps" of
creativity (Richards, 1999) which are often less stressed than creative prod-
uct. One can also speak of the creative process, person, and press of the
environment (environmental factors that help or hinder creativity). It is
process, above all, that is a focus in this book—as it leads to the various
products (or gets derailed along the way). Our concern lies mostly with the
benefits and possibilities for us personally, as we go through our day, while
discovering how experience can be different if we live life more openly and
innovatively. With everyday creativity, it is not so much what one does as
how one does it.

EVERYDAY CREATIVITY IS NOT NEW—

BUT IS IT SOMETIMES OVERLOOKED?

Everyday creativity is not a new idea. It has diverse precursors, including

the work of psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers, educators, and other

INTRODUCTION
scientists and artists interested in origins of originality or newness in human
experience. Philosopher and educator John Dewey's (1934/1980) views of
aesthetics focus on process, and the richness and immediacy of all of life.
Dewey spoke of "an aesthetic in the raw," intertwined with how we live
each day—often overlooked by modern culture, "where what (we) know as
art is relegated to the museum or gallery" (p. 6). Consider that the
mechanic engaged in his job, interested in doing well and finding
satisfaction in his handiwork, caring for his materials and tools with
genuine affection, is artistically engaged. The difference between such
a worker and the inept and careless bungler is as great in the shop as
it is in the studio, (p. 5)

Dewey also mourned the removal from everyday life, and from the
community, of the sacred, noting that, for many, "an aura of mingled awe
and unreality encompasses the 'spiritual' and the 'ideal' while 'matter' has
become by contrast a term of depreciation" (p. 6). Yet a child may find
unsurpassed wonder in a cloud, a rainbow, a drop of dew. Can we not return
awe, wonder, and deeper meaning to our lives? (See also Loori, 2004;
Richards, 2001; Schneider, 2004.)
Clinicians, meanwhile, had their own concerns with originality, viewed
both as process and clinical indicator, emerging from less healthy origins.
Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, as well as neo-Freudians such as
Lawrence Kubie, saw clients' innovative ideas and productions as transforma-
tions of unconscious or preconscious thoughts and conflicts toward a more
settled homeostasis (Richards, 1981). Humanistic and transpersonal psychol-
ogists, by contrast, looked to ongoing growth-oriented aspects of the person
(Taylor & Martin, 2001), with creativity as a central part of humans'
continuing development (Arons & Richards, 2003), as in work on creativity
by Carl Rogers (1961) or Abraham Maslow (1968). Maslow's self-actualizing
creativity is of particular interest, although not identical to everyday creativ-
ity, and will be discussed more elsewhere.
In an entirely different domain, flexible, original human adaptations,
as a survival capability can be connected with the "phenotypic plasticity"
of evolutionary biologists such as Theodosius Dobzhansky (1962). Here our
human creativity or ingenuity, possessed by all humans, is relevant to our
genetic or "genotypic" endowment, manifesting "phenotypically" in diverse
and flexible responses to environmental conditions, within the bounds of
our genetic inheritance.
Many psychologists joined in the scientific and laboratory study of
creativity, spurred by J. P. Guilford's (1950) Presidential Address to the
American Psychological Association, bemoaning the lack of scientific atten-
tion to creativity. Concern was not about creative functioning of the rare
few, but about better developing a universal and natural resource in our

RUTH RICHARDS
youth and populace. J. P. Guilford (1967), E. Paul Torrance (1962, 1988),
Frank Barron (1969, 1995), and Ravenna Helson (1971; Kelson, Roberts,
& Agronick, 1995) are just a few well-known names. Some researchers
sought distinct creative abilities, and individual differences, especially Guil-
ford, with his "structure of intellect" model, and also Torrance with his
related verbal and figural "divergent thinking" tests for fluency, flexibility,
originality, and elaboration.
Other psychologists, such as Barron, Helson, Donald MacKinnon,
Harrison Gough, and others at the Institute of Personality Assessment and
Research at the University of California, Berkeley, went beyond ability to
include more general and nonintellective characteristics of the creative
person; it is of interest that they found similar patterns across domains,
related more directly to the personality (Barron & Harrington, 1981; Helson,
1999). Two examples of these are: openness to experience, and tolerance of
ambiguity, about which one shall hear more in this book.
A long-standing debate still continues about the extent to which
creative characteristics are domain-specific (e.g., varying from artists to
scientists) or involve similar features across different domains—with the
most likely resolution being that there is some of each (see Sternberg,
Grigorenko, & Singer, 2004, and selected chapters in this book).
Other researchers have since developed additional theories, measures,
and research programs relevant to everyday creativity (e.g., Richards et al.,
1988; Runco, 1999; Runco & Pritzker, 1999), building on what has gone
before. In fact, the literature on creativity has expanded, filling volumes. It
has led to the launching of periodicals such as the Journal of Creative Behavior,
The Creativity Research Journal, and the newer journal for Division 10 of
the American Psychological Association, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity,
and the Arts, as well as the publication of the Encyclopedia of Creativity.
Now, into the 21st century, one of the characteristics mentioned earlier
as important to creativity, openness to experience, is highlighted as a factor
in the "five factor theory of personality" (Costa & Widiger, 1994). The
new positive psychology (Peterson, 2006), too, has been reawakening interest
in our more healthy and universal capacities, and these certainly include
our day-to-day creativity.
If everyday creativity is not a new idea, it still seems downplayed
compared with other life concerns. It is likely that many of us know intu-
itively what our own everyday creativity is (or feels like), even if we have
not learned to look for it or name it. In view of this, it becomes even more
important to ask why the creativity we take seriously is widely considered
exclusive to eminent or exceptional people—just think about media cover-
age of famous artists, actors, authors, inventors, public figures—in preference
to the creativity we all can manifest. Do we let a few famous people carry
the creative ball for the rest of us?

INTRODUCTION
 And creativity is not without a moral dimension. One is reminded,
sometimes, of how easily human creativity can be used for harmful and
destructive purposes. What makes the difference? C. Rogers (1961) and
others (e.g., Barren, 1969; Pennebaker, 1995; Richards, 2006) remind us
that a continued and open process, tapping deep unconscious sources, tends
toward health, and Maslow (1971) shows that one's values can even change
toward more universal benefit and contribution at higher levels of self-
actualizing creativity. Others (Feinstein & Krippner, 1997; Singer, 2006)
remind us that our guiding life stories and images can also be changed. A
special issue of the Creativity Research journal, edited by Howard Gruber
and Doris Wallace (1993) further explores creativity in the moral domain.
How to live our humanistic or spiritual values in our creative life and work
is a general concern among contributors to Everyday Creativity and New
Views of Human Nature, and of many religious and secular leaders (e.g.,
Carter, 2001; Dalai Lama, 1991; Minh Due, 2000; Nhat Hanh, 1992;
TarthangTulku, 1991; also see Badiner, 1990; Rothberg, 2006; Scholl, 1995;
Whitmyer, 1994).
Because of all this, multiple and potential factors that contribute to—
or discourage—everyday creativity are considered in this book, all of which
may play a role to varying degrees. To mention one, there can be powerful
inner and outer blocks, or obstacles, to our creativity (Amabile, 1996;
Montuori & Purser, 1999; Richards, 2006). If, at times, we find it "hard to
get started," there may also be outside systems and even self-organizing
forces that prefer we don't get started either. Their power can be surprising.
Yet meanwhile, talent and innovation are increasingly being sought
at all levels of work, in a global information age (Florida, 2005; Richards,
in press). An aging population, in addition, may start awakening to new
evidence of creativity's healing properties. One may find renewed energy
behind opening the blocks to developing one's creativity. In some opinions,
there may be a new creative age coming (Florida, 2002; Naisbitt &_ Aburdene,
1990); if not, it is at least a time for opportunity and change.

BENEFITS OF CREATIVITY—SOME BACKGROUND

Why can one say creativity is good for people ? Here are some highlights.
For instance, as a result of multiple studies and the use of rigorous methodol-
ogy, research on expressive writing is particularly notable. Such writing
connects to improvements in health, both physical and psychological, as
seen later in this volume. It has, remarkably enough, even been linked
to stronger immune function—enhancing resistance to disease (Lepore &
Smyth, 2002; Pennebaker, Kiecolt-Glaser, & Glaser, 1988). Might the soar-

R17TH RICHARDS
ing popularity of blogs on the Internet have anything to do with such health
benefits?
One also finds numerous anecdotes, examples, and research reports
about other arts medicine approaches, and in many areas including grief
and loss, eating disorders, mood disorders, coping with cancer, HIV, and
other illnesses, as well as toward enhancing personal growth and well-
being (Levine & Levine, 1999; Richards, 2004; N. Rogers, 1993; Runco &
Richards, 1998; Schlitz, Amorok, & Micozzi, 2005; Wiseman, 1986; Zausner,
2007). It is ironic, and sad too, that many still do not connect creativity
with health.
Turning from arts to creative orientations and attitudes, it is striking
that older people who think more divergently and innovatively and remain
interested, open and curious, tend to be more comfortable with aging, illness,
and death. Here are valuable findings for the baby boomers as they age.
These elder citizens also show a fuller involvement with life (Smith & van
der Meer, 1990; Adams-Price, 1998; Adler, 1995). Or looking at children
and their penchant for fun, play, and fantasy, how interesting to discover this
is time well spent—enhancing social and emotional, as well as intellectual
development, and bringing greater sense of control over one's life, and the
mastery of fears (Richards, 1996; Russ, 1993; Scales, Almy, Nicolopoulou,
& Ervin-Tripp, 1991; Singer, Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2006). Play can
be considered part of everyday creativity and, furthermore, has been called
the "cornerstone of the imagination" (Van Hoorn, Nourot, Scales, &
Alward, 1993, p. 25). We adults could certainly play more ourselves (see
Nachmanovitch, 1990).
Resilient creative coping may help with immediate difficulties (Albert
& Runco, 1986; Flach, 1990; Goertzel & Goertzel, 1962; Richards, 1990,
1998; Runco & Richards, 1998) and, beyond that, yield more lasting benefits
for personal growth, even progressing over the years (Helson et al., 1995).
The lower aggression found among more versus less creative children (Dudek
&. Verrault, 1989) is an appealing example.
Of particular interest is when creativity previously fueled by "deficiency
needs" as per Maslow (1968; see Rhodes, 1990; Storr, 1988), such as needs
for safety, love and esteem, becomes in itself a force for change and growth,
increasing a creator's intrinsic motivation. Take a troubled young person
who finds refuge and self-esteem in a science lab, and then continues on
with the work for the thrill of discovery. Especially in the arts, there may
be a growing awareness of more universal themes—so that now the troubled
young person is writing creatively about conflict at home, and empathizing
broadly with a similarly disaffected teenage cohort. Sometimes a need devel-
ops to contribute from these insights to the broader culture (Jamison, 1993;
Ludwig, 1995; Morrison & Morrison, 2006; Rhodes, 1990; Rothenberg, 1990;
Runco & Richards, 1998; Zausner, 2007), in forms which can help everyone.

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