Genius: The Natural History of Creativity

Problems in the Behavioural Sciences

by Hans Jürgen Eysenck

This text presents a novel theory of creativity that is based on the linkage between the psychopathological characteristics of creative persons and geniuses. It traces creativity from DNA through personality to special cognitive processes and the qualities of genius.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, History, Philosophy, Business, Genetics

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

= Hans J. Eysenck = H.J. Eysenck
Hans Jürgen Eysenck (/ˈaɪzɛŋk/; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a psychologist born in Germany, who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas. At the time of his death, Eysenck was the living psychologist most frequently cited in science journals

Reviews

[Marcus Norberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eysenck dissects the concept of creativity and genius, and does a really interesting and good of a job. Essentially, he gets it down to three parts that are needed to be regarded as highly creative or brilliant:

(1) Genetics and (moderate) psychoticism - the way you are wired genetically and biologically makes your brain work in a specific way. One important aspect is cognitive inhibition. How cognitively inhibited you are, meaning to which degree you make unusual connections to certain ideas, regulates how original your thoughts and actions are. This is connected to psychoticism. Psychoticism (a personality trait Eysenck has done extensive work on) is a measure on how impulsive and sensation seeking a person is. Moderate psychoticism is creatively favorable, because too low a score makes a person rigid in their thinking, and too high a score is connected to pathology. Schizophrenics and bipolar individuals are too scattered to make a productive contribution

(2) Intelligence and motivation - moderately high or high intelligence (IQ) is necessary, but not sufficient. Highly creative people also need to be motivated and conscientious. They need to have to motivation to be highly industrious. Lazy creatives wouldn't get their ideas or works out to the public

(3) Socio-cultural factors - the creative person needs to be acknowledged as useful. It doesn't matter if a person is brilliant if society or its culture doesn't accept what the person is doing. If society is unaccepting, the creative person's work wouldn't be widely known. Creative people in poor places in the world also have a hard time making it, because of the difficulties of spreading their ideas

Eysenck puts forward that creativity (and intelligence for that matter) isn't something everyone has at their disposal. All people are not equals in creativity, and it's not even normally distributed in the population. Creativity seems to follow a Pareto distribution, or Price's law. Most people are not creative at all, a small percentage is moderately, and an extremely small minority is extremely creative and prolific. The most creative individuals put out an immense body of work, while the rest barely contributes to the whole.

This book was interesting and fascinating in it's analysis, and is backed up by a lot of scientific work. Some parts were more fascinating than others, of course, especially the parts about intuition and the contribution of the unconscious in new discoveries.
That being said, parts of the book were very technical in describing certain concepts and studies, and took significantly more time to get through. Those parts were also harder to understand, and maybe could've been shorter. Most of the cited research is dated (but not outdated, I would say) so there are probably new discoveries in this field that aren't available in this book. Eysenck is cautious about not jumping to conclusions too early though, because of the research that is needed in the future.

Highly recommended read if you're interested in psychology and creativity. It has a lot of insights regarding these themes

[Merce Cardus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insights. I agree with Jonhatan Swift: 'When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.'
http://goo.gl/HeuQN

[Jorge Prieto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Overall it was quite insightful. It diverts a bit from the main topic towards the end, which the author is quite aware of, but he also justifies it as the only way to explain the empirical basis for his theories. The reading at this point becomes frankly more technical than I was hoping, especially for those like me who are not knowledgeable in the areas of medicine or psychology, but considering that he wrote two-thirds of the book for the non-academic, I would say it vastly compensates it and makes the experience very enjoyable.

[Kristian Bjerke Dalen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Utrolig interessant tema, så jeg slukte den naturligvis. Noe av det er så utrolig at det er vanskelig å tro på. Jeg er ikke forsker, så jeg kan ikke gå den etter i sømmene. Kontroversiell forfatter. Har dessverre/heldigvis (?) permanent endret hvordan jeg tenker om kunstnere og kreativitet. Vanskelig å si om jeg er glad for at jeg leste den eller om jeg angrer.

[ssopm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing work, addressed a lot of my concerns about what true creativity is and what deserves respect in the art world. Hans Eyesenck is a gem to the world.

[Arul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A statistical analysis of geniuses strewn through history. Brief accounts of the childhood prodigies and the how notoriety in a given field is considered genius. I held them in good regard until (my beloved french philosopher) Foucault came and said Genius/Creativity is only possible with pre-existing rules. And everyone was just power-driven and nothing else. AND THUS MY BRAIN WAS BLOWN INTO SMITHEREENS.

I mean, let's say some random high IQ fuckwad is creating (for e.g.) a portable microwave oven (sorry, that's silly) anyways, probably his first motive wont be that the product should be good for the humankind. It should probably be attracting a mate. We're all sex-driven right? The only thing that motivates us. The reason I'm reading books or the reason somewhere people are productive and being intelligent.

Intelligent conversations are enticing and interesting. Not that much people want to have a conversation with a mute. A person who can't even string four-words and form a meaning-ful sentence. I mean, that's how I was when I was in school. No one is even interested in me because I'm just mute and boring. and has a funny face. But I took good grades though. I think our thoughts are even designed to attract a mate. Jesus!

[Roj George · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most comprehensive book I have come across that deconstructs the topics of intelligence and creative thinking. A lot of compilement and citations from forerunners in the field. Some of the ideas were very gripping and educational

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relatively sexist and somewhat limited in scopes of certain issues, but very very helpful and illuminating in the subject