THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF CREATIVITY:

HISTORY, PARADOXES, PERSONALITY

By Samad I. Seyidov

One of the principal aims of the book is to provide readers with a concise overview of both intellectual history and the leading concepts of international science and philosophy that impact the field of the psychology of creativity. The target audiences for the book are researchers in psychology, philosophy, history, literature, and University students.

The book presents a contrasting study of the views of ancient Indian, Chinese, Greek, Middle Eastern, and Russian philosophers on creativity. It also discusses the subject of creativity as viewed by Freud, Jung, Adler, the Gestalt school, and other prominent Western psychologists. A special place is provided for an overview of the history of Soviet psychology, and of the revival of psychology in Azerbaijan after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The author emphasizes the importance of the social environment in determining the development of the personality. He states that most personal activity is directed at serving the values of the surrounding society, not the values of the person himself. The author considers that creativity is a psychic defense mechanism which people use to solve everyday problems in order to restore their inner and outer equilibrium.

Through references to the world's leading psychology schools, the author reveals new paradoxes of creativity such as "logic," "morality," "quantity," "universal availability," "desirability," "searching," "the model," "the narrowing of the unconscious," "determinants," and "the product." He describes the distinctive features of the creative personality, namely the capacity for metaphorical thinking, flexibility, inner vision, neutralization, originality, verbal facility, a rich imagination, field-independence etc.

[endorsements]

Samad Seyidov's study of creativity comes at the right time and from the right place. Not only are we passing through a period of rapid change, particularly in such fields as nanotechnology, neuroscience, physiological psychology, and genetics, but also the participants in this change are no longer limited to a small group of western countries, but are increasingly appearing in different parts of the world. If the social upheaval that these changes are having in established societies is great, it is even greater in newly emerging societies. Are we equipped to manage these changes, and can the creative arts and sciences join to interpret them, drawing on their varied traditions in order to do so? That is surely the vital question that we carry away from Professor Seyidov's important study of personality and creativity.

Prof. Humphrey Tonkin, President Emeritus at the University of Hartford (USA)

"The Phenomenology of Creativity" by Samad Seyidov is not only an interesting book, but a fascinating one. The Rector of Azerbaijan Languages University did a large and deep investigation through the history of the human creativity and its resorts to obtain conclusions about the nature of this phenomenon. The studies on the creativity made by Prof. Seyidov are able to be in the attention at every researcher in that area.

Dr. Horia Gârbea, Romanian writer, Vice-President of The Romanian Cultural Institute

Key principles of psychology are marked by paradoxes and contradictions, whose proper address requires creativity. This complex but intellectually fascinating phenomenon Seyidov's study explores with admirable insight and clarity.

Prof. Eleni Karamalengu, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens