Psychoanalytic contributions to the generation of creativity in children.
This paper describes the major characteristics of the concept of creativity: (1) originality and uniqueness, (2) comprehensibility to others, (3) utility, (4) generalizability to allied and other fields, (5) a capacity for continued and repeated creative outputs in similar and/or different fields, and (6) a capacity to stimulate others to artistic, literary, or scientific originality. Consideration is given to out limited current knowledge of hereditary factors contributing to creativity, in contrast to familial factors which are likely to include environmental contributions. A review follows of psychiatric and psychoanalytic observations on the enhancement or inhibition, during child development, of the innate capacity to be creative in children and adults. In regard to the development of creative prowess, emphasis is placed on the importance of preserving and encouraging the use of primary-process thinking in children so that this mental activity can be called upon at will. Emphasized also is the importance of the availability of examples of creative ability in parental behavior as well as in the kinship and social networks to which the child is exposed. The encouragement of analogical thinking and imagination in children and the development of the ability to turn on and off such mental activity by secondary-process thinking is stressed. Hence, in the enhancement of the creative process in children, catalytic parent-child rearing and exposure to creative people are key elements. Three brief case examples are given in which the creative potential was blocked or inhibited and later released by psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy