It's a "beautiful" world: record production and consumption of goods and services; eradication of hitherto incurable diseases; healthier lives and longer life spans; instantaneous communication across the globe; scientific breakthroughs; a long list of technological marvels; unprecedented levels of physical comfort and material well-being.
But, how could "the most brilliant civilization in human history" bring about so much misery, anxiety, stress, and insecurity? How could "the highest standards of living the world has ever known" leave practically everybody dissatisfied with life? To illustrate:
- Why are there so many "emotionally disturbed children" and "troubled young people?"
- Why do so many students "hate school," or perceive their academic experience as an inconvenience they would rather avoid?
- Why are there so many "busy-yet-bored employees" whose hearts are not in their daily work?
- Why do modern workplaces engender so much alienation, stress, burnout, and nervous breakdown?
- Why are there so many "outwardly successful, and yet emotionally troubled" executives?
- Why do so many rich people view life as "empty and meaningless" and yearn for "something" they say their material success does not give them?
- Why are leaders finding it increasingly difficult to lead? Why are the people increasingly unwilling to follow?
- Why has the vast majority of human beings become "the forgotten four-fifths?"
- Why, metaphorically, do most people go to their graves with their stories untold and their music still inside: unplayed and unheard?
Conventional wisdom regards these as separate problems, and attributes them to such factors as neurosis, genetic inferiority, culture deficiency, dependency, deviant character, lack of achievement motivation, dysfunctional family, learning disability, inferior teaching tools, incompetent leadership, and other similar "explanations." Depending on what is perceived as the "cause" of specific problems, various solution strategies have been proposed and tried, including therapy, counseling, behavior modification, mass literacy, more modern learning devices, management reforms, new technology, and so on. The limited success (abysmal failure, in some cases) of many of these strategies
hardly needs elaboration.
Only recently has it been realized that many of the widely reported psychological and social problems that are afflicting individuals and societies are not separate crises, but aspects (or symptoms) of a single fundamental problem: undiscovered, underutilized, or actively repressed human potential and, consequently, a deeper lack of fulfillment in people's lives. Bringing together some of the most illuminating interpretations of human nature, Great Insights on Human Creativity observes that, in the near-total focus on material well-being, humanity has inadvertently reduced its existence to one partial aspect and, in the process, neglected what is most important in people's lives: their creativity and, therefore, their personal sense of worth.
Drawing upon authoritative scientific conclusions, anecdotal evidence, and the accumulated wisdom of the ages, Great Insights on Human Creativity conclusively demonstrates the inherence of creativity in human nature, its primacy among the forces driving human behavior, and the necessity of its recognition, development, and actualization for personal fulfillment and responsible social behavior. Arising from this conclusion, Great Insights on Human Creativity argues that "if we sincerely want to deal
with increasingly complex global problems and to build a more viable, truly human, civilization, what is needed is a system that allows people to experience themselves as
intelligent and creative, and that also enables them to engage their creative talents in significant and beneficial social and environmental initiatives and, thus, to find meaning and fulfillment in their lives."
Contrary to commonplace assumptions, Great Insights on Human Creativity demonstrates that:
- Parenting is more than "paying for college tuition" or providing one's children with the finest things of the marketplace. More than anything else, it is helping each child to recognize and to respect the integrity of his or her unique abilities and, therefore, to develop a solid sense of personal worth.
- The real purpose of education is not the transmission and acquisition of knowledge, per se. It is enabling each student to discover what he or she is naturally good at and/or passionate about and, then, providing him or her with
the tools - including academic knowledge - to succeed in areas of his or her maximum potential.
- The ultimate reason why people work is not pay and benefits, but the opportunity to associate with fellow human beings in an important undertaking that beneficially engages one's unique abilities and gives meaning to one's life.
- Management is not only getting things done through people. It is, also, making work a meaningful and fulfilling experience for each employee, and transforming the workplace into a collaborative community of mutually-supporting
individuals, helping one another succeed in their various areas of responsibility.
- Leadership is not just the ability to influence others to do what one wants them to do. Enlightened leadership is the ability to inspire one's constituents to excel, and even to lead, in areas of their unique abilities.
- National development is only partly economic growth and material well-being. The other part is the extent to which a country is able to mobilize and harmonize the unique abilities of all its members for the common good.
Great Insights on Human Creativity, the first-of-its-kind collection of wit and practical wisdom on "creative parenting," "creative aging," "creative education," "creative work," "creative management," "creative leadership," and "creative citizenship," provides the tools we need to foster creativity in our homes, schools, corporations, institutions, and national societies:
- Raise creative, self-confident children.
- Make learning in our classrooms exciting, meaningful, and individually rewarding. Help students to recognize and to excel in areas of their greatest potential and, thus, to feel good about themselves and school.
- Humanize our organizations. Make work a meaningful and fulfilling experience and, thus, enhance workers' productivity, commitment, and self-esteem.
- Enable women, minorities, and other vulnerable members of society to recognize and more fully tap their creative potential for a more meaningful, purposeful, and fulfilling existence.
- Harmonize our unique abilities and insights in tackling the great world problems of our time and in building a more fulfilling global society.
Great Insights on Human Creativity is intended for wide readership and is designed as an easy-to read, easy-to-apply, personal companion. Here are a few of the reasons why you need this revealing and sobering new book:
- The wisest, sanest, and most illuminating ideas for our time, pinpointing the roots of our current crises and opening up new prospects for tackling them.
- The largest work of its kind and the most comprehensive reference resource on human creativity: authoritative, revealing, and provocative, with thousands of insights you will not find anywhere else.
- Penetrating insights into human nature shatter many of the myths and misleading assumptions that have prevented large segments of the human population from ever discovering their talents, kept others functioning well below their inherent capacities, stripped most people of their personal sense of
worth, and afflicte