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Summary
Summary
Howard Gardner changed the way we think about intelligence. In his classic work Frames of Mind , he undermined the common notion that intelligence is a single capacity that every human being possesses to a greater or lesser extent. Now building on the framework he developed for understanding intelligence, Gardner gives us a path breaking view of creativity, along with riveting portraits of seven figures who each reinvented an area of human endeavor. Using as a point of departure his concept of seven "intelligences," ranging from musical intelligence to the intelligence involved in understanding oneself, Gardner examines seven extraordinary individuals--Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, T.S. Eliot, Martha Graham, and Mahatma Gandhi--each an outstanding exemplar of one kind of intelligence. Understanding the nature of their disparate creative breakthroughs not only sheds light on their achievements but also helps to elucidate the "modern era"--the times that formed these creators and which they in turn helped to define. While focusing on the moment of each creator's most significant breakthrough, Gardner discovers patterns crucial to our understanding of the creative process. Not surprisingly, Gardner believes that a single variety of creativity is a myth. But he supplies evidence that certain personality configurations and needs characterize creative individuals in our time, and that numerous commonalities color the ways in which ideas are conceived, articulated, and disseminated to the public. He notes, for example, that it almost invariably takes ten years to make the initial creative breakthrough and another ten years for subsequent breakthroughs. Creative people feature unusual combinations of intelligence and personality, and Gardner delineates the indispensable role of the circumstances in which an individual works and the crucial reactions of the surrounding group of informed peers. He finds that an essential element of the creative process is the support of caring individuals who believe in the revolutionary ideas of the creators. And he documents the fact that extraordinary creativity almost always carries with it extraordinary costs in human terms.
Author Notes
Howard Gardner is Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard University; Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine; and Codirector of Harvard Project Zero. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this boldly ambitious study, Gardner ( Frames of Mind ) profiles seven creative giants. Creativity, he argues, is not an all-purpose trait but instead involves distinct intelligences, as exemplified by Picasso's visual-spatial skills or by Gandhi's nonviolent approach to human conflict or Martha Graham's search for a distinctly American form of bodily expression. Each of the seven creative geniuses whom Gardner incisively limns transcended interpretive frames or conventions that became entrenched during the 19th century; each forged a new ``system of meaning''; and each, in Gardner's view, struck a ``Faustian bargain,'' sacrificing a rounded personal life for the sake of an all-consuming mission. Gardner also finds a childlike component in each of their creative breakthroughs (e.g., Einstein's ``thought experiment'' of riding a light-beam). This highly stimulating synthesis illuminates the creation of the modern age. Photos. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
It takes chutzpah to come up with a scheme for analyzing creativity--especially in subjects already exhaustively examined. But for psychologist and MacArthur fellow Gardner (Harvard Graduate School of Education), it amounts to a natural progression from his earlier dissections of intelligence: Frames of Mind and Multiple Intelligences argued that, instead of a generalized intelligence, there are at least seven varieties (musical, logical-mathematical, visual, etc.). Here, Gardner chooses prototypes of each variety and provides capsule biographies and analyses along such themes as the child versus the adult creator, and the creator in relation to others and to the work. Gardner finds sufficient commonalities among his seven types of intelligence to provide a synthesis: an ``exemplary creator'' (E.C.). This individual (whom Gardner calls ``she'') is somewhat ``marginal'' in the social milieu, born into a reasonably comfortable family away from the creative center (Picasso and Stravinsky moved to Paris, Freud to Vienna...). There may not be much family love and affection but there may be a devoted nurse or a role model. The child is strong-minded and exhibits ability but isn't necessarily a prodigy. She moves into a decade of mastery of the domain and accomplishes a critical breakthrough that may include the affirmation of a few chosen peers (Picasso and Braque; Stravinsky and Diaghilev). Second and third breakthroughs may develop in successive decades until old age takes its toll. The E.C. retains childlike characteristics, including self- centeredness, even exploitation of others (Stravinsky's litigiousness; Picasso's sadism). E.C.s may make Faustian bargains, often leading to disastrous domestic life and parenthood. One can come up with counterexamples, and argue that there might be Western/20th-century biases at work here. But one has to hand it to Gardner for offering some provocative post-Eriksonian thoughts on creativity that are a lot more stimulating than those that measure creativity according to the ``100 uses of a safety pin'' school of thought.
Choice Review
Gardner presents a portrait of the "Exemplary Creator" (or "E.C.") based on the biographies of seven creators of the modern era, each of whom represents one of the multiple intelligences identified by Gardner: Freud (intrapersonal), Einstein (mathematical), Picasso (visual), Stravinsky (musical), T.S. Eliot (linguistic), Martha Graham (kinesthetic), and Gandhi (interpersonal). According to Gardner, the "E.C." (referred to as "she") typically comes from a middle class home on the periphery of the intellectual mainstream, a home that encouraged learning but is not a particularly warm environment. The "E.C." typically endures a period of social isolation where "her" talents are not appreciated by members of her discipline, with few close confidants. Since Gardner only included one woman in his sample, his use of the pronoun "she" when describing the "Exemplary Creator" is purely gratuitous. The extent to which this profile fits other creators of the modern era remains to be demonstrated, as well as the applicability of this profile to creators in other cultures and historical periods. It is also interesting that Gardner, who is one of the most outspoken critics of treating intelligence as being monistic (as IQ), should present a monistic theory of creative thinking. Appropriate for public libraries. F. Smolucha; Moraine Valley Community College
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Preface | p. xi |
| Part I Introduction | p. 1 |
| 1 Chance Encounters in Wartime Zurich | p. 3 |
| 2 Approaches to Creativity | p. 19 |
| Part II The Creators of the Modern Era | p. 47 |
| 3 Sigmund Freud: Alone with the World | p. 49 |
| 4 Albert Einstein: The Perennial Child | p. 87 |
| 5 Pablo Picasso: Prodigiousness and Beyond | p. 137 |
| 6 Igor Stravinsky: The Poetics and Politics of Music | p. 187 |
| 7 T. S. Eliot: The Marginal Master | p. 227 |
| 8 Martha Graham: Discovering the Dance of America | p. 265 |
| 9 Mahatma Gandhi: A Hold upon Others | p. 311 |
| Part III Conclusion | p. 357 |
| 10 Creativity across the Domains | p. 359 |
| Epilogue: The Modern Era and Beyond | p. 391 |
| Notes | p. 407 |
| Bibliography | p. 435 |
| Name Index | p. 451 |
| Subject Index | p. 458 |
