Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the creative personality
Creativity researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced me-high chick-sent-me-high) notes creative people are especially complex. “Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude.”
Personality characteristics he describes include:
* Humble and proud, both painfully self-doubting and wildly self-confident.
* May defy gender stereotypes, and are likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other as well. A kind of psychic androgyny.
Read more in his article:
The Creative Personality: Ten paradoxical traits of the creative personality
The photo is Tilda Swinton, at the 2008 Oscars, where she won for her role in “Michael Clayton.”
Part of her power as an actor – shown in many of her characters – is in her androgynous looks and energies.
Swinton has said she is fascinated by the question, “How do we identify ourselves, and how do we settle into other people’s expectations for our identity?”
She says she has been referred to as “Sir” in elevators.
[There are many more quotes by her – just do a search using the form in the sidebar at the right.]
Related articles:
The Complex Personality of Creative People, by Douglas Eby.
Creativity and Flow Psychology by Douglas Eby.
Book: Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
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