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In this extended essay, Gemma Corradi Fiumara invites us to encounter a conundrum. Does the ordinary notion of genius obscure the notion of the ordinary genius? In addition to those who distinguish themselves through extraordinary feats of creativity in the arts, science, politics, etc., Fiumara asserts that there are those among us who—through acts
of “ordinary” (yet extraordinary) creative nonconformity, kindness, or humanity—show an essential genius, too.
The reader who is willing and able to join Fiumara in her scholarly play with this kind of question will enjoy this book. The scholar, the philosopher, and the independent thinker will be on familiar ground and will appreciate the author's erudition, her vast knowledge base, and (may I say) genius for creative integration and reconceptualization of otherwise static concepts. Clinical psychoanalysts will also find value but will need to be prepared to stretch themselves to fit into her scholarly style.
The title of the book, Psychoanalysis and Creativity in Everyday Life, does not prepare the reader for its subtitle, Ordinary Genius. Is this book about creativity or genius or both? How closely are these concepts related to each other? These ideas are not, in my reading, clearly separated in these pages, and perhaps this is the point of the book. In Fiumara's words:
This is an attempt to differentiate the praise of extraordinary “official” works of genius from an appreciation of the innumerable expression of “unofficial” everyday creativity—which is usually vulnerable to obscurity. In one sense, genius is historical, public, and acclaimed, while in another it is personal, private, psychological. In writings about creativeness, we recognize these two different senses of “creativity.” And even though the context often supports one or the other, they are at times used interchangeably. And yet, there are constant oscillations and contradictions even in those outlooks that are in favor of a sharp, essentialist differenc