The Psychology of Creativity:

History of Creativity Research 12
subjects. This tangential participation in creativity research is evident in the psychoanalytic, Gestalt, and behaviorist
schools.
Psychoanalysis
Of the three schools just mentioned, the psychoanalytic is the most distinctive. It was the only one founded
in the tradition of clinical science that arose at the end of the 19th century, and it was the only one that developed
outside the research universities that provided the main venue for scientific inquiry. The central figure in this
school, naturally, is its founder, Sigmund Freud. Despite the pride Freud had in his originality, his ideas did not
spring up sans intellectual antecedents. Instead, he was firmly rooted in his times (Sulloway, 1979). From our
standpoint, the most conspicuous circumstance is the fact that he was trained in the tradition just discussed. As a
neurological pathologist, he had actually studied under Charcot, among others. It should not surprise us, therefore,
that he viewed creativity and genius in a similar vein. This perspective is seen in the development of
psychobiography, an endeavor that he played a major role in developing. Indeed, Freud’s (1910/1964)
psychoanalysis of Leonardo da Vinci is often seen as one of the seminal works in the field, notwithstanding its
major flaws (Elms, 1988). The principal problem with psychobiographies of creative personalities is that they too
frequently become “pathographies” (Runyan, 1982). That is, like Lombroso and James, creativity comes out of
some “sick soul” who is merely trying to cope with his or her psychological demons.
Happily, psychobiography does not represent the only psychoanalytic input in creativity research (Gedo,
1997). A more influential and perhaps more important contribution is the concept of “primary process” thinking.
Primary process thought is more primitive than “secondary process” thought. Where the latter is devoted to
conscious, logical, and realistic reasoning, the former is replete with fantasy, imagination, irrationality, and
unconscious motives. Freud (1908/1959) explicitly compared creativity with daydreaming. In a sense, creators
dream out loud, whether the dreams take place on a piece of paper, a canvas, or a block of stone. Although many
psychologists felt uncomfortable with Freud’s emphasis on infantile desires, it remains true that the cognitive
process he described has some significant role in the creative act (Suler, 1980). Later investigators would simply
call the process by a different name to avoid the Freudian connotations. Examples might include primordial
cognition (Martindale, 1990), remote association (Mednick, 1962), and autistic thinking (Berlyne, 1965).
Gestalt