Csikszentmihaly's point on Creativity

In his book Creativity (1996) Csikszentmihaly argues that creativity is very hard to define. But if pushed he would say this:

Are there then no traits that distinguish creative people? If I had to express in one word whay makes thir personalities different from others, it would be complexity. By this I mean that 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." Like the colour white that includes all hues of the spectrum, they tend to bring together the entire range of human possibilities within themselves.

These qualities are present in all of us, but usually we are trained to develop only one pole of the dialectic. We might grow up cultivating the the aggressive, competitive side of our nature, and disdain or repress the nurturant, cooperative side. A creative individual is more likely to be both aggressive and cooperative, either at the same time or at different times, depending on the situation. Having a complex personality means being able to express the full range of traits that are potentially present in the human repertoire but usually atrophy becaue we think that one pole or the other is "good," whereas the other extreme is "bad."

... creative persons definitely know both extremes and experience both with equal intensity and without inner conflict.

Csikszentmihaly then goes on to illustrate this point by reference to ten pairs of opposing traits that are often present in such individuals and integrated with each other in tension. He says:

Creative individuals are both / and:

• energetic / yet like rest and quiet
• clever / yet also naive
• playful / yet disciplined
• imaginative and fantastical / yet are rooted in reality
• extrovert / yet introvert
• humble / yet proud
• masculine /yet feminine
• traditional / yet rebellious
• passionate / yet objective
• suffer /yet enjoy

The intested will have to read pages 51-76 to see how Csikszebtmihalyi (1996) teases out these dichotomies.