Creative People at Work: Twelve Cognitive Case Studies

To demystify creative work without reducing it to simplistic formulas, Doris Wallace and Howard Gruber, one of the world's foremost authorities on creativity, have produced a unique book exploring the creative process in the arts and sciences. The book's original "evolving systems approach" treats creativity as purposeful work and integrates cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, and motivational aspects of the creative process. Twelve revealing case studies explore the work of such diverse people as William Wordsworth, Albert Einstein, Jean Piaget, Anais Nin, and Charles Darwin. The case study approach is discussed in relation to other methods such as biography, autobiography, and psychobiology. Emphasis is given to the uniqueness of each creative person; the social nature of creative work is also treated without losing the sense of the individual. A final chapter considers the relationship between creativity and morality in the nuclear age. In addition to developmental psychologists and cognitive scientists, this study offers fascinating insights for all readers interested in the history of ideas, scientific discovery, artistic innovation, and the interplay of intuition, inspiration, and purposeful work.

Doris B. Wallace received her doctorate from the Institute of Cognitive Studies at Rutgers University. She is a Senior Research Psychologist at Bank Street College of Education in New York, a family therapist, and a collaborator in an international study of children of the Holocaust. Howard E. Gruber was formerly Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Institute for Cognitive Studies at Rutgers University, and Professor of Genetic Psychology at the University of Geneva. He is currently Research Scholar at Teachers College, Columbia University.