The Psychology of Artistic Creativity : An Existential-Phenomenological Study.

AcknowledgementsIntroductionPART ONE: PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDIES OF ARTISTIC CREATIVITYChapter OneSolitude Is Writing: Marguerite Duras on Creative WritingPlace of SolitudeSeparation from OthersSolitude as a State of MindWriting Is the UnknownWriting Comes Like the WindDoubt Equals WritingMadness of WritingAn Open Book Is Also NightThe Howls of Animals in the NightRaw and PreciseChapter TwoInspiration Comes From Your Mind: Agnes Martin on PaintingAgnes Martin's PaintingsPassion for the Horizontal LineInspiration Is a CommandA Vacant MindBeauty Is the Mystery of LifeHappiness Is Being on the Beam With LifeAbstract EmotionsPerfection and InspirationChapter ThreeAffinity for the Infinite: Einojuhani Rautavaara on ComposingFirst ImpetusI Am the MidwifeMusic Has a Will of Its OwnTaste for the InfiniteA Glimpse of EternityChapter FourOne With a Word: Inger Christensen on Writing PoetryThe Blank PaperThe Organizing Effect of the CoincidenceI Write Like Wind WritesState of SecrecyLanguage in Its Inextricable Connectedness to RealityStructure Is Already ThereUndivided Wholeness of the UniverseChapter FiveA Luminous State of Being: Marina Abramović on Performance ArtI Am the WorkPure PresenceParallel RealitiesWalking Through WallsLuminous State of BeingCleaning the HouseLiving AntennaIdeaChapter SixDifferences Within Oneness: Kui Dong on CompositionMeans to CreateEmptying the MindSound IdeaConcept of MusicNo MeaningThin Line of MysteryEmotional EnergyAppealing InfinityPART TWO: AN EXISTENTIAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ARTISTIC CREATIVITYChapter SevenOrigins of Artistic CreativityPure Experience Is IneffableOrdinary Experience in Daily LifePulsating ConsciousnessPure Experience as SensationPure Experience as Living RealityPure Experience Is an Empty MindPure Experience as OnenessPure Experience Has a Life of Its OwnPure Experience Is Imbued With VitalityPure Experience as Foreign PowerChapter EightThe Impulse to CreateFirst Impulse to CreateSensation as Creative ImpulseVitality of the First Creative ImpulseApproaching Death to Become AliveSensate Form and EmotionSketch of a Phenomenological ModelChapter NineSource for Artistic CreativityEmotions in Artistic CreativityEmotional LifeAbstract EmotionsExistential ImprintsConcealed Emotional MemoryEmminded KnowledgeSource for Artistic CreativityChapter TenA New Model for Artistic CreativityPsychological Creativity ResearchExistential Approach to Artistic CreativityPrelude to Artistic CreativityImpulse to CreateNature of Creative ProcessGoing With the FlowEmbodied Artistic SkillWork of ArtIndex

This ground-breaking book provides a unique insight into artistic creativity that lays the foundation for a new theory. Through a review of documents such as essays, published interviews, lecture notes, and more, the book uses case studies of six contemporary artists to provide a detailed phenomenological study of artistic creativity. The book offers a narrative account of six contemporary artists and their ways of approaching art-making. Through comprehensive accounts based on the individual artist's descriptions, the book reveals an existential dimension of art-making that explores the inspirational moment, the state of mind during creativity, how creativity can originate in a spontaneous stream of consciousness and how emotions play a major role in the creative process. The book sets out a unique understanding of artistic creativity as an alternative to the prevailing cognitive conceptions within psychology. Offering novel insights into how art is created and can influence the human psyche, the book will primarily appeal to academics, scholars, and post-graduate students within the area of creativity research, psychological aesthetics, and the psychology of art, as well as those with an interest in art and artistic work.