Last updated 3/4/99
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Participatory Writing:
People Taking Creativity Writing About Creativity

Here I will, with the writier's permission, post writing from this course that makes particular points about creativity.

Carole Bentley-Bell
Carole Bentley-Bell wrote the following essay as part of the requirements for opting out of attending the first class in the Creativity course. It describes an incident about the unconscious in creativity, from her own experience as a student in ISP. She has given permission to use her essay in this course.

CREATIVITY OF THE MATHMATICAL KIND

In an essay written to describe his personal creative processes, Henri Poincare well known mathematician, shows us that the methods for solving dilemmas or finding solutions to problems can come to us in several ways. He demonstrates that we need not use either force, or continuous drudgery and toil to reach this goal. Poincare’s methods may seem strange to us initially but they yielded results that make his formula worth examining.

At first, Poincare tried to force the answers he was seeking to appear in his brain and then flow onto paper; sitting at his desk for 15 days he strained to resolve the mathematical question that plagued his mind. In the beginning he attempted to disprove the existence of a concept but ended by proving that the concept did indeed exist and named it in the bargain.

Initially Poincare’s schedule was exacting; staying for an hour or two at his work table each day, he tried many combinations of numbers without reaching the result he desired. Finally, sleeplessness and black coffee produced many ideas which seemed to fall in place and by the next morning he recorded his ideas on paper. From questions he asked of himself about the puzzle he was trying to solve he began to see a solution form.

Instead of belaboring the point, Poincare resorted to traveling to other regions which took his mind off the riddle solving that had taken up so much of his time. While he was on holiday out of the blue a solution came to him even though he was not consciously thinking of his problem. Having no time to verify the solution, he continued with his current pursuits. Upon returning to his home town he tackled some questions that he thought had no connection to his original problem and failed at solving these new quandaries. Failing to resolve these questions he left this torment for a visit to the seaside. At the seaside he turned his thoughts to other things and one morning unexpectedly another piece of the original puzzle came to him.

Upon returning to his home from the seaside, Poincare attacked the problem with a fresh outlook and succeeded in forming a systematic attack on his problem. However, one last piece of the problem would not fall into place so again our mathematician left home. Repeating his early tactic, Poincare cleared his mind and engaged in something totally different from that which had troubled him. His reward was the answer to that last element of his problem; the stubborn holdout at last came to him. Instead of immediately writing down his solution, Poincare waited and upon his return home wrote out the entire solution to the perplexing problem with no difficulty.

Poincare’s struggle with this particular problem led him to believe that the creative process is one of conscious and unconscious labor after which conscious work is again necessary in order to give essence and firmness to the unconscious work. He believes that although the unconscious mind is not a mechanical processor, it can supply hints that can help sort out and add to the creativity operation. Poincare shows us that the unconscious can succeed where the conscious will oft times fail.

This last sentence I have written causes me to agree with Poincare’s description of the work done by the unconscious. Many times my own unconscious self has provided the route for me to follow in my pursuit of an answer to a troubling question. At the least expected moment and sometimes at the eleventh hour my unconscious self has provided a new way to address a situation that I thought hopeless.

The most recent example I can think of is having to select a subject and then compile a fifteen page research paper for a course I was taking; I did not have a clue as to what I should write. I reread several chapters of the assigned book, searched the web, and reread the handouts I had been given in class. At last I thought I was ready to write; when I sat down I drew a blank. I sat there with a clean white screen and no words to put on that screen. After several more tries at different times, I finally gave up. Then, late one Saturday evening as I was listening to my favorite radio station my subconscious coughed up information and ideas that provided me with the subject and the title of my paper. I sat down to write and after mulling over these new ideas, I came up with the beginning of my paper.

I knew nothing about Poincare at the time of the "Assignment From Hell", but I was employing his method and it was working for me. Like Poincare, I allowed my conscious mind to relax and ignore my dilemma then, THE CHAMPION, my subconscious took over and helped me out. It’s a formula that I will use again and again because it works. Poincare and I can attest to that fact.