What is Creativity?

I do have to start with what I fear will be a long response (I apologize!) — but I really love this question. I do think there’s something to be said about any inquiry that can’t technically have one answer. Contradiction of ideas, especially in the case of defining something so conceptual, ironically seems to warrant the best and most clear answers. I believe that, yes — “to create” is the ability to produce something distinctive in this world. But, I think that, on some level or another, creativity is simpler than that: it’s the most genuine human attempt at trying to be understood.

That’s what most people want — to be understood, right?

Maybe I’m wrong, but heck, if I am, the world we’re living in would be a particularly dispassionate place. And that’s ironic too, if you think about it. Why would we, as humans, want to produce something so isolated and novel in nature if we wanted to be understood? As a human myself (especially one who got stuck with scrambled eggs for brains), I sometimes get into fits of an extreme sort of euphoric frustration when I’m working on a creative project — it’s almost an indescribable level of inspiration (please tell me I’m not the only one who experiences this!).

The mind can be a lonely place, I think. And while the drive of creativity stems from the yearning to be understood, the yearning to be understood stems from a place of fear. It goes both ways, too — we seem to be afraid of things we don’t understand. In my high school psychology class, my teacher finally addressed that large, arachnid-shaped elephant in the room: why are so many of us ridiculously afraid of spiders?

The answer is surprisingly simple: they’re the least like us in features; almost alien-like. So naturally, we’re a little freaked out by them. It’s evolutionary. But think about that for a second — a lot of creativity is fear based. And I’m no psychologist (I’m just as qualified as anyone else to be taking a shot at this creativity thing), but I strongly believe most fear comes from a place of caring. We’re humans! With the exception of a few of us, we care a lot. And that care drives us to be creative.

Furthermore, fear seems to also be a reason why people don’t show their full plethora of creativity — they’re afraid their possibility of being understood will be “rejected by society” in a way. Maybe that original idea you decide to share in class — yes, the one you thought was particularly fantastic — gets met with a single “interesting” from a student, complete with the classic confused look and slow nod. We all know what that means. Maybe it’s seen as a killer idea by another classmate, but shucks, it can be a creative slap in the face.

Creativity, no doubt, occurs in the brain. The right hemisphere of the brain is truly fascinating. In her TED Talk titled A Stroke of Insight, the manner in which Jill Bolte Taylor describes the anatomy of our super weird, wrinkly organ of matter is eye-opening — she defines a level of conscious control that we have over our ability to choose to live in either our right or left hemisphere. Maybe this isn’t quite possible, but I think that in order to be understood, we must “choose” to live in our right hemispheres. It’s essentially a mindset switch that prompts creativeness.

I will admit, I can’t quite explain what happens during the creative process. I’ve spent a good portion above trying to explain why it happens, but I can’t explain how the creative process actually works. I think that’s the magic of it, though — I don’t think we’re supposed to understand it. And that in itself is a crazy thought: the process of trying to be understood derives from a process we don’t understand. But, like I said from the beginning: contradiction seems to warrant the best and most clear answers. Creativity is a closed book. And personally? I don’t think we’re supposed to open it.

Image sourced from Freepik.