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Creating Minds is an informative and fascinating look at the many dimensions of creativity. Gardner has a unique approach, focusing on seven persons who are universally acknowledged to be creative, each in a different area of endeavor but all from the same historical
time frame. They are all people “whose impact in our time has been compelling” (p. 4). “I believe,” says Gardner, “that if we can better understand the breakthroughs achieved by individuals deliberately drawn from diverse domains, we should be able to tease out principles that govern creative human activity, wherever it arises” (p. 7). This is a tall order but one that is beautifully fulfilled.
Gardner uses a triangular organizing structure in which he examines three key relationships in his subjects: the relationship between “the child and the master” as illustrated by Einstein and Picasso; between “an individual and other persons in his or her world,” as in the cases of Freud, Stravinsky, and Gandhi; and “the relationship between an individual and the work in which he or she is engaged,” as exemplified by T. S. Eliot and Martha Graham (p. 8). This schema of a triangular system is an explanatory oversimplification. Creative individuals oscillate between the world and the self and between the work itself and the work in relation to other individuals. One or another aspect of creativity may predominate a different times. Whether working in relative isolation or with the encouragement and even the collaboration of other people, the creative person is constantly preoccupied with his or her domain.
Historically, the key idea in tests of creativity has been that divergent thinking is a crucial element. People who come up with many different, sometimes unique solutions to problems are thought to be creative, an attribute that is independent of intelligence. Although creativity tests are valid, they do not indicate actual creativity in one's vocational life. Conversely, people who are acknowledged as being cre