The Courage to Create

At the center of this book is an attempt to answer the question – “What is it that leads an artist to create a masterpiece?” The result – a rather haphazard list of quips and intelligent examples that seem to form a coherent yet elusive argument that’s structured yet leaves the question unanswered. The book rather answers the question – “what takes place in the mind of a person during the creative process.” Rollo May acknowledges in the preface that over the course of his college and university lectures on creativity, he always hesitated to publish these lectures because they seemed incomplete. This book is that incomplete publication after his realization that the unfinished quality would always remain with mystery of creation still remaining open. Nevertheless, the book achieves more than what a random list of musings would, perhaps because it leaves a lot for the reader to infer. So whether a reader likes this book or not depends on what she/he is able to infer from it.The argument of creativity in the book revolves around three elements – courage, unconscious and encounter. Each of these words assume a new meaning in this book, a meaning orthogonal to dictionary definition of these words, which makes understanding the arguments a bit difficult. What’s required from the reader is a forgetting of the essence of these words and an attempt to look at the arguments with ingenuous eyes; with a novel look the arguments would start to make sense. The reader would then realize what Rollo May means when he says that “A painter paints a picture with the same feelings as that with which a criminal commits a crime,” or that “Creativity is indeed to forge in a smithy in one’s soul the uncreated conscious of the world. It is difficult, perhaps so as the writers call it a battle with the Gods. It’s for this reason it requires courage to triumph into the unknown.” Amid many such quips and intelligent arguments, Rollo May ends his argument without proof or supporting examples with this assertion - “Creativity is yearning for immortality, hence a battle with Gods.” What a reader makes out of it is your prerogative. The quotes above are from the chapter on creativity and the remaining book talks about role of unconscious and encounter in creativity. The element of unconscious is explained by using an example from Henri Poincare’s autobiography. It can be summarized in many ways but is best left for the reader to read in the book. Similar to unconscious, the idea of encounter in creativity is elusive and therefore little attempt is made to define it but only explain it through relevant examples and assume that the reader will for his/her own opinion of the examples. This book although labeled as a text in Psychology may be closer to a text in Philosophy.This book may leave the reader with an uncanny feeling of knowing a few concepts that she/he is not able to explain in clear words either to self or to friends. That shouldn’t come as a surprise as if it was difficult for the author himself to describe what he was trying to communicate, it is not surprising that the reader may be left with the same feeling. No wonder there are few meaningful and detailed reviews on this book.Nevertheless, however much elusive the concepts in the book are, if methodically internalized could help anyone engaged in creativity process understand his/her own thought process.

This is a must read for any creatives on this planet!! So much to learn… do not pass this one up!! If you have the courage to go after your dreams this will give you a waterfall of everything you need to just go for it!!

This book will encourage you, the "want a be" artist to jump in and test your creativity, challenge yourself and old beliefs as to who is artistic, and inspire you be the artist that is waiting to be born.

"Artists pursue meaninglessness until they can force it to mean."The Courage To Create is one of the best books I have read this year. Like many of the great books that enter in my life at a particular moment of my individual journey, this book came to me during a timely moment of creation.I am struggling to write #Book3YinYang. The major struggle is not about the creativity itself, it's to understand the "creative" as the subjective and objective entity.For the first time, when I started writing in the creative zone with #Book1YinYang, I believed what people believe when the fall in love-- it will never last.But as a career novelist, Now, I understand that Art is like any long term relationship.It can't survive on Aha moments alone.It is bound to have those days of agony when getting to work becomes a struggle.But that is the beauty of pursuing the career as an artist.You have to practice Yang-- method of creation.You have to practice Yin-- the beauty of moments.And only when both of them are applied, the Father and Mother are present, true creativity comes to life.

From the prologue to the very last page this book speaks to the moment. It addresses the possibilities of change in an evolutionary context. As a student of creativity this is a Rosetta Stone. Where Koestler offers a panorama of creativity and de Bono provides a software of creativity and Edward Wilson describes the why of creativity, Rollo May captures the soul of creativity.I lack the words to do it justice! Read it!

This was just difficult for the average person to read. Very wordy. I would have not chosen this book if I had known this.

I am a fan of Rollo May--he has an amazing breadth of knowledge that he brings to bear on the subject of creativity. Although he and many others who investigate the nature of creativity focus on the truly transformational works of art and artists who create them, he does speak to what I think of as the working creative--someone who has the habit of creation. The book is written so that one can hear the underlying lectures that led to this book. Because of that, the text can feel a little academic in tone--but I found the book provided an insightful and widely informed perspective to a complicated subject.

Gets to the heart of the matter.