Einstein on Creativity-by Devi Nina Bingham

             Albert Einstein: Letter to Jacquez Hadamard

Because creativity of any kind requires an intellect (the mind, or the brain), according to Einstein, physical creativity is a product of the subconscious intellect. The fact that Einstein had one of the highest IQs ever, combined with his belief that language is produced by the right hemisphere of the brain, which also generates creative thought, leads me to believe that his theory is worthwhile to consider. If the subconscious is what communicates visual or verbal "clear images" to the conscious mind, then the conscious mind is what creates "logical connections" between language.  (which, strangely, is in the right hemisphere of the brain that also generates creative ideas), then I am inclined to think that his theory is worthwhile taking into account. 

Einstein did not go into detail on the physical component of creativity other than to remark that our psychology governs our psychology, which I take to mean that our brain controls our brain. He makes special notice of the visual and motor systems and asserts that while we are in a creative mood, words are not required. He must be suggesting that our spoken language is subordinated to our motor (muscles) and visual (eyes) functions while we are engaged in creative work. Music comes to mind when thinking about various forms of physical creativity, notably playing an instrument. Consider performing on the piano. Language is not necessary for the pianist; they only require coordination and fast music reading abilities, just as Einstein said, muscles and eyes.

Einstein lists the aspects of cognition that, in his opinion, promote discovery and creativity in a letter to a colleague. As follows: 1.) "Clear images" that may be recreated in the mind precede rational reasoning and lead to language (Einstein, 32). 3. These visual and muscular forms of cognition will establish the "logical connections" to language. There are also "muscular types" of mind. 4. The body's motor and visual systems are engaged. 5.) However, achieving perfect consciousness is impossible.

I was astonished by how clinically and analytically Einstein answered after reading his comments. He was both a scientist and a mathematician, thus it makes sense that he would write his response in the form of an outline. His familiarity with Max Werthimer's work is another aspect of his letter that I found to be impressive.

Famous German psychoanalyst Werthimer was born in the same year as Dr. Fritz Perls, who founded Gestalt therapy and is also of German descent. Despite being an eclectic therapist, Gestalt therapy is the one I used the most, thus it goes without saying that I have read all of Perls' works. I've read a couple of Werthimer's novels because Dr. Perls thought highly of them. I was thrilled to learn that Werthimer and Einstein had communication. Einstein was also a German native. It seems natural that Einstein would be familiar with Wertheimer because Wertheimer was one of many German intellectuals who fled Germany during World War One to avoid being conscripted by the Nazis.

A.E. Housman: The Name and Nature of Poetry

A.E. Housman, a poet, raised an intriguing point when he identified 18th-century poets who were all "mad." All of them had experienced mental illness, and several had been hospitalized. He thought that this "madness" demonstrated that the conscious mind is not a "fount of poetry." He came to the conclusion that writing poetry was a "involuntary process" (Housman, 90). He quoted Plato as saying that the finest poets are those who are insane. Plato recognized that a poet's abilities were a type of "god-sent madness" that not everyone had. Plato, however, was fairly passionate in his religious ideas, assigning the Gods to many aspects of life. I don't think Housman offered any evidence to support his claims; he was just speculating. However, there is a scientific correlation between mood disorder rates and writers, poets, and artists. In the book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Redfield Jamison summarizes these studies (Jamison, 1996).

Housman begins this article by mentioning 18th-century English poets who left a lasting impression, including Collins, C. Smart, Cowper, and Blake, and claiming that they were all "mad." Many of these poets suffered from mental illnesses, and some even spent time in mental hospitals. The finest poets, according to Plato (Housman, 85), are those who are insane. In the words of Housman, intelligence is not the "fount of poetry" and might even hinder its production. Shakespeare, according to him, created the most beautiful poems when he composed meaningless lyrics. Despite the fact that Housman found W. Blake's poetry to be quite illogical, he extols him as the master of lyrical creativity. Its emotional impact and musicianship were significantly better than that of other poets, even if Blake was mad.

He talks about how going on walks helped him come up with new ideas for poems. He believed that his fresh insights didn't originate from his head, but rather from his "gut," or center, and he reasoned, "Poetry indeed seems to me more physical than intellectual." "In short, I think that the production of poetry, in its first stage, is less an active than a passive and involuntary process" (Housman, 90) is how he comes to his conclusion. 

Morton Prince-Subconscious Intelligence

Based on his experience as a hypnotherapist, artist Morton Prince claims that the unconscious is where creativity originates. Since we are not awake while we dream, Freud postulated that dreams must be the result of the unconscious rather than the sleeping conscious mind. Prince based his assertion on Freud's work as well as his own encounter with a hypnotherapy client who seemed to have engaged in some genuine spontaneous writing while dreaming or experiencing sleep paralysis.

Based on Freud's research on the issue, Price covers the controversial topic of dreams. He draws attention to the fact that dreams are made up of two types of dreaming: conscious and unconscious (according to Freud's theories). He describes the experience of one of his clients, a lady who awoke in a state that was neither fully awake nor sleeping and had a vision of a pair who appeared in her bedroom. When she awakened, she recorded the image. "Last night I woke from sleep quite suddenly, and though my brain was clear, my limbs were tranced," was the first thing she remembered. This reminded me of the sleep ailment known as Sleep Paralysis, in which a person has awakened yet cannot move the body, thus the name, Paralysis. Prince, however, makes no mention of this disease being present in his client; possibly this is because it was not yet legally recognized as a disorder at the time the article was written. She sees herself as writing naturally, an unconscious act, and she utilized words and phrases that she had wanted to say but had not. Through hypnosis, Prince was able to get her to remember the dream. We must therefore deduce the same subconscious process underlies the dream vision, he writes in his conclusion (Prince, 216). Prince held that poetry was also created through an unconscious process.

I can speak from personal experience as a clinician for nearly 20 years that our ideas, behaviors, and feelings are substantially more influenced by our subconscious mind than our conscious mind. According to Freud, 80% of everything we consciously say and do comes from our unconscious. I first believed that proportion to be an exaggeration to emphasize his argument in his landmark book, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (Freud, 1900). Although it's impossible to tell for sure, I'm with Freud on this. He was mistaken in many ways, but he was accurate regarding the subconscious's influence. 

In light of this, I concur with Einstein and Prince that the function of creativity is a general case of this. The creation of art occurs when an unconscious concept is brought to the conscious mind, where it may be best realized practically. More specifically, I think the creative inspiration we refer to comes straight from the unconscious. I am aware that the conscious mind is the polar opposite of inspiring and imaginative. It has various qualities, including being demanding, rational, critical, structured, and perfectionistic. It views the trees, not the forest, and is not the creatives' "big picture thinking" center. But for our brains to work properly, both sides are necessary since they both play a crucial role. However, the conscious mind deserves significantly less praise.

                                      Works Cited

Albert Einstein-Letter to Jacquez Hadamard. The Creative Process: A Symposium,

edited by Brewster Ghiselin, University of California Press, 1985, pp. 32-33.

 

 A.E. Housman-The Name and Nature of Poetry. The Creative Process: A Symposium,

edited by Brewster Ghiselin, University of California Press, 1985, pp. 85-91.

 

Morton Prince-Subconscious Intelligence. The Creative Process: A Symposium,

edited by Brewster Ghiselin, University of California Press, 1985, pp. 212-216.