New Horizons in Creativity

The book is devoted to exploring creativity from several points of view and in a variety of domains that are mostly not discussed in the common approaches to creativity. An endeavour of this kind is of particular importance at the present time which is marked by the occurrence and necessity of changes in many domains of life and social functioning. Creativity is probably a major resource for dealing with the changes in a manner that minimizes suffering and maximizes growth for the individual and for humanity at large. The book includes 13 chapters by world-renowned experts in creativity which present new viewpoints about major processes of creativity and main domains in which it is manifested and needs to be explored. Two of the chapters are devoted to health and wellbeing, dealing with the role of intuition in medicine (chapter 7), of technology in nursing (chapter 9) and of mindfulness and related techniques in mental wellbeing (chapter 8). The emotional aspect is counterbalanced by the cognitively-grounded explorations dealing with problem-solving (chapter 11), science and education in mathematics (chapter 10) and with humour (chapter 12) which contributes its share for moderating excessive seriousness in most domains of life. Three chapters deal with organization in terms of work, production (chapters 2 and 3) and perhaps unexpectedly with diplomacy (chapter 4) which provides the overall framework for social and administrative functioning. Creativity in the external environment is the dominant theme of the chapter that deals with the landscape (chapter 5) and ecology (chapter 6). The book is framed by two chapters in the beginning (chapter 1) and at the end (chapter 13). The first chapter provides an introduction to the study of creativity based on the major developmental trends in theory and methodology in the past up to the present (chapter 1). The last chapter provides an integrative introduction for development of creativity in the future, based on motivation, cognition and emotion, characterizing the producers of creativity and those who benefit from it through experiencing and implementation (chapter 13). Each chapter contributes its share to highlighting the role and potential contribution of creativity to enhancing the meaningfulness of our life and being in the world.