by James L. Adams (1986)
A guide to creating a greenhouse environment in which ideas can thrive.If youre serious about encouraging creativity you need to understand the entire creative process.
Paul B. Paulus and Bernard A. Nijstad
'Group Creativity' summarizes the developments in the research on the processes involved in group or team creativity and innovation. The volume draws from a broad range of perspectives such as cognition, groups, creativity, information systems and organizational psychology.
Alan Lightman
"In today's frenzied and wired world, we are obsessed with the idea of not "wasting time." But have we lost the silences and solitude so essential to our inner lives? A great deal of evidence suggests the value in wasting time, of letting the mind lie fallow for some periods, of letting minutes and hours go by without scheduled activities or intended tasks, of unplugging from the grid. In this vital investigation of the rush and heave of the modern world, Alan Lightman explores the technological and cultural origins of our time-driven lives. More importantly, he reveals the many values of "wasting time", for replenishing the mind, for creative thought, and for finding and solidifying the inner self. Lightman urges us, as both individuals and as a society, to break free of the idea that not a second is to be wasted and to discover that sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing at all."--Dust jacket flap.
James R. Averill, Elma P. Nunley
For most of human history emotion has been the province of artists, shamans, and our latter-day shamans--therapists. Recently it has become the province of scientists as well. In Voyages of the Heart, James Averill and Elma Nunley draw on a decade of research on emotion and on creativity by psychologists, biologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, as well as on clinical experience, to construct a new model of emotional experience. Just as we develop our repertoires of intellectual skills through learning and maturation, the authors argue, so can we develop our repertoires of emotional skills to achieve our full human potential. Emotional creativity demands commitment to seek excellence in the affective as well as the intellectual domain. We can change and improve our emotional lives by acquiring knowledge about emotions--for example, recognizing and dispelling deeply ingrained myths about emotion, such as that we are "gripped", "seized", and "overcome" by feelings. According to the authors, we are not the victims of our emotions as these descriptions suggest. Rather, we actively construct our emotions, although on a preconscious level. We must seek then to become consciously aware of our own emotional lives. Research suggests that emotionally creative people are not only deeply involved in exploring the meaning of their own emotional experience, they also pay close attention to how their behavior affects others, while less emotionally creative people tend to focus on themselves. There is much to be gained from a better understanding of what exactly feelings are and where they come from. Our attitudes toward expression of emotion reveal high ambivalence: On the one hand, a person devoid of emotion is seen as cold and calculating; on the other, a person who becomes too readily emotional is regarded as childish. Some people feel empty on the inside, while others feel as though they are about to explode from the force of uncontrollable feelings. Even for those who lead more satisfactory emotional lives, a deeper understanding will enable us to manage our emotions in a simultaneously creative and disciplined way. Averill and Nunley explore differences in emotional experience between men and women, as well as fascinating historical and cross-cultural variations in the rules governing the display and management of emotion. Richly illustrated with examples from everyday life, Voyages of the Heart shows us how we can become more aware of our own thoughts and feelings, manage our emotions in a creative yet disciplined way, and live to the full extent of our human potential.
Jennie Shortridge
Who is Lucie Walker? Even Lucie herself can't answer that question after she comes to, confused and up to her knees in the chilly San Francisco Bay. Back home in Seattle, she adjusts to life with amnesia, growing unsettled by the clues she finds to the selfish, carefully guarded person she used to be. Will she ever fall in love with her handsome, kindhearted fiancé, Grady? Can he devote himself to the vulnerable, easygoing Lucie 2.0, who is so unlike her controlling former self? When Lucie learns that Grady has been hiding some very painful secrets that could change the course of their relationship, she musters the courage to search for the shocking, long-repressed childhood memories that will finally set her free.