Nancy C. Andreasen > Quotes

“Some people see things others cannot, and they are right, and we call them creative geniuses. Some people see things others cannot, and they are wrong, and we call them mentally ill. And some people, like John Nash, are both.”
― Nancy C. Andreasen

“A second component of creativity is utility, very broadly defined. For example, it is possible to conceive of something novel—such as a car without wheels—that has no creative value at all. The concept of utility must be broadly defined, however, because creativity in the arts is not always obviously useful. Its utility resides primarily in its ability to evoke resonant emotions in others, to inspire, or to create a sense of awe at what the human mind/brain can achieve. A final component of creativity is that it must lead to a product of some kind. That”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“One essential component of creativity is originality. Creativity involves perceiving new relationships, ways of observing, ways of portraying.”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“A second component of creativity is utility, very broadly defined. For example, it is possible to conceive of something novel—such as a car without wheels—that has no creative value at all. The concept of utility must be broadly defined, however, because creativity in the arts is not always obviously useful. Its utility resides primarily in its ability to evoke resonant emotions in others, to inspire, or to create a sense of awe at what the human mind/brain can achieve. A”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“How do human beings actually create the novel, beautiful, and useful ideas, images, and other products that are the hallmark of creativity?”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“For many of my subjects from that first study—all writers associated with the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—mental illness and creativity went hand in hand. This link is not surprising. The archetype of the mad genius dates back to at least classical times, when Aristotle noted, “Those who have been eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, and the arts have all had tendencies toward melancholia.” This pattern is a recurring theme in Shakespeare’s plays, such as when Theseus, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, observes, “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / Are of imagination all compact.” John Dryden made a similar point in a heroic couplet: “Great wits are sure to madness near allied, / And thin partitions do their bounds divide.”
― Nancy C. Andreasen

“how much is creativity under conscious control? To what extent do unconscious processes predispose to the creation of a poem or an idea? Alternatively, how important is careful preparation, logical planning, and detailed thinking-through of a sequence or a topic in advance of the act of creation? By all accounts, Kubla Khan was literally created as “a vision in a dream,” which was later recalled verbatim. It was not a consequence of any conscious effort. In fact, when Coleridge attempted to finish the poem using conscious effort, he failed completely. We have to ask how typical this is, and what other writers, artists, mathematicians, musicians, or scientists have to say about how they get their best ideas. How important is reason? How important is inspiration”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“The concept of creativity has historically been used interchangeably with the term “genius.” Genius is a common Latin word, originally derived from the Greek ginesthai, which meant “to be born or come into being.” In common usage in Roman times, genius originally referred to a god or spirit given to each person at birth that would determine his or her character and fortunes.”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“how much is creativity under conscious control?”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“Emily Dickinson, the “Belle of Amherst,” wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime that are striking in their originality of thought and their intensity of feeling. Most were not even published until after her death, and her works only very slowly gained the widespread critical acclaim and appreciation that they enjoy today. When did the act of creation occur? When she was actually writing the poems? Or only after they were discovered, published, and admired by society? Vincent van Gogh produced hundreds of paintings throughout his life. Yet no one, except a few friends, purchased any of his paintings, and he died an apparent failure. Only later did critical acclaim make his work widely sought after, and now his paintings sell for millions of dollars when auctioned at Sotheby’s or Christie’s. Most of John Donne’s songs and sonnets, satires, and religious and secular love poems circulated in a handwritten underground form during much of his life. For three centuries they remained largely underground and appeared infrequently in anthologies until the early twentieth century, when T. S. Eliot rediscovered the metaphysical poets and held them up as ideal models of what poetry should be like.”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“Emily Dickinson, the “Belle of Amherst,” wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime that are striking in their originality of thought and their intensity of feeling. Most were not even published until after her death, and her works only very slowly gained the widespread critical acclaim and appreciation that they enjoy today. When did the act of creation occur? When she was actually writing the poems? Or only after they were discovered, published, and admired by society?”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius

“Who decides that a creative product is genuinely creative, as opposed to not really very original, or as simply odd or idiosyncratic?”
― Nancy C. Andreasen, The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius