A Theory of Creativity By C.R Rogers

I maintain that there is a deperate social need for the creative behaviour of creative individuals. It is this which justifies the setting forth of a tentative theory of creativity - the nature of the creative act, the conditions under which it occurs, and the manner in which it may be constructively be fostered.  Such a theory may serve as a stimulus and giude to research studies in this field.

The Social Need
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Many of the serious criticisms of our culture and its trends may best be formulated in terms of a dearth of creativity.  Let us state some of these very briefly:
1)  In education we tend to turn out conformists, stereotypes, individuals who education is 'completed', rather than freely creative and oriiginal thinkers.

2)  In our leisure-time activities, passive entertainment and regimented group action are overwhelmingly predominant, whereas creative activities are much less in evidence.

3)  In the sciences, there is an ample supply of technicians, but the number who can creatively formulate fruitful hypotheses and theories is small indeed.

4)  In industry (Business), creation is reserved for the few - the manager, the designer, the head of research department - whereas for the many life is devoid of original or creative endeavour.

5)  In individual and family life the same picture holds true.  In the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the books we read, and the ideas we hold, there is a strong tendency towards conformity, towrads stereotypy.  To be original or different is felt to be 'dangerous'

    Why be concerned over this?  If as a people, we enjoy conformity rather than creativity, shall we not be permitted this choice?  In my estimation such a choice would be entirely reasonable were it not for one great shadow that hangs over all of us.  In a time when knowledge, constructive and destructive, is advancing by the most incredible leaps and bounds into a fantastic atomic (genetic) age, genuinely creative adaptation seems to represent the only possibility that we can kep abreast of the kaleidoscopic change in the world.  With scientific discovery and invention proceeding, we are told, at a geometric rate of progression, a generally passive and culture-bound people cannot cope with the multiplying issues and problems.  Unless individuals, groups, and nations can imagine, construct and creatively revise new ways of relating to these complex changes, the lights will go out.  Unless we can make new and original adaptations to our environment as rapidly as our science can change the environment, our culture will perish.  Not only will individual maladjustment and group tensions occur, but international annihalation (War & human destruction) will be the price we pay for a lack of creativity.  Consequently it would seem to me that investigations of the process of creativity, the conditions under which this process occurs, and the ways in which it may be facilitated, are of the utmost importance.


It is in the hope of suggesting a conceptual structure under which such investigations might go forward, that the following sections are offered.


The Creative Process
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There are various ways of defining creativity.  In order to make more clear the meaning of what is to follow, let me present the elements which for me, are a part of the creative process, then attempt a definition.

In the first place, for me as a scientist, there must be something observable, some product of creation.  though my fantasies may be be extremely novel, they cannot be usefully defined as creative unless they eventuate in some observable product - unless they are symbolized in words, or written in a poem, or translated into a work of art or fashioned into an invention.

To be continued.