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What is "the artist type"? How is an artist's mind structured? What are the links between creativity and mental health? Are there particular personality traits and psychological experiences that great artists have in common? Are most artists really mad? What defines the artist's personality?
This book answers these questions by way of a deep, multi-angled, psychological analysis of the personality-based roots of creativity and the creative process. It draws on decades of scientific research focused on the central, mysterious trait of Openness, the true unifying glue behind everything creative. Featuring dozens of notable creators such as John Coltrane, Diane Arbus, Francesca Woodman, David Bowie, Frida Kahlo, Jack Kerouac, John Lennon, and others, this book showcases the nuances of an artist's mind beyond oversimplified formulas that falsely connect art to mental illness, painting a more authentic picture of the structure of the artist's psychology. Ultimately, this book reveals that the "torture" in an artist's perceived image has more to do with personality, creative processes, states of mind, and a need to express trauma symbolically, repeating it in the form of art.
As an eminent psychobiographer with an award-winning career as a personality and creativity psychologist, Dr. William Todd Schultz yet again offers his unique perspective on a fascinating topic that is both engaging and insightful. In exploring the precise nature of inner chaos in a wide range of renowned artists, this book takes an enchanting dive into the artistic abyss for all those interested in creativity, personality, and psychology, including both general and academic readers.
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN: 9780197611098
Number of pages: 210
Weight: 345 g
Dimensions: 150 x 215 x 21 mm
This book blew my mind. It grabs you right away and you can't put it down. Fascinating and brilliant, beautifully written. It's like nothing I've ever seen on the subject before. All artists should read it. - Asia Argento, actress, director, writer, and artist
A brilliant psychologist takes on the question of what makes artists artists. And yes, he has data. And rigorous research. And superb intuition too. (Did I mention style?) One of civilization's great mysteries — solved! Or closer to solved. What an adventure! - Walter Kirn, New York Times bestselling author of Up in the Air, Thumbsucker and Blood Will Out
There is no way to be more rigorous and comprehensive in one's research or more thrilling and illuminating in presentation. The great mystery of creativity bursts into clarity in these pyrotechnic pages. This book will make you rethink everything you know about art, psychology, yourself — a critical step in cultivating an artist's outlook. - Yelena Akhtiorskaya, author of Panic in a Suitcase
A book on artistic creativity should be written by a creative author – and Todd Schultz has one of the most creative minds in psychology today. Drawing upon personality science, personal experience, and a wealth of biographical vignettes, Schultz presents a fascinating and truly unique perspective on what it means to be an artist and how artists do their creative work. There are insights here for artists themselves, as well as psychologists, and for so many of the rest of us who aspire to be more creative in our thinking, in our work, and in our lives. - Dan P. McAdams, The Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University, Author of The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning
Creativity often gets discussed in airy and imprecise ways, but the science behind it is unassailable. In this extraordinary, elegantly written book, Schultz shows us the psychological research, tracing it through the lives of various artists—John Lennon, David Bowie, Sylvia Plath, Frida Kahlo—to elucidate how personality lays the foundation for the states of mind in which art gets made. Essential reading for artists and anyone curious about the creative process. In other words, for pretty much everyone. - Amanda Fortini, Beverly Rogers Fellow at The Black Mountain Institute and author of the forthcoming book of essays, Flamingo Road
Books about creativity and 'unleashing your inner artist' are a dime a dozen. With The Mind of the Artist, we have something entirely different – a serious, nuanced, evidence-based look into the research behind creativity and what separates Picasso from the hobbyist down the street. - David J. Morris, author of The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
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