Author, self, monster: Using Foucault to examine functions of creativity.

Abstract

The relationship of individuals to groups has been central, and problematic, to the construct of creativity since it emerged in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Psychological research has often used the idea of creativity to differentiate and/or advocate constructs of the individual as creator, but has used a sociocultural criterion— eminence—to assure validity. Researchers and creative practitioners are then caught in a contradiction in psychology’s own terms: using extrinsic outcomes at the level of culture as the starting point to conceptualize individual activities characterized by intrinsic motivation. Even research that focuses on everyday creativity often identifies creativity only through judgment of products. Sociocultural approaches go further, defining creativity as social judgment of individuals’ works. But what does the eminence of relatively few individuals indicate about social questions (changes in discourse and power relations) or about psychological questions (the people in the system)? This article explores an alternative approach, using Foucault’s analysis of the author function, technologies of self and the related technology typology (production, signs, power and self). Comparing Foucault’s analyses to the psychological discourse demonstrates advantages of integrating Foucault’s ideas into the study of creativity. Analyzing the functions of creativity, rather than its ontology or location, provides a unifying framework for the wide array of approaches psychologists have developed. Within that framework individual experiences can be examined in relation to the distorting nature of the author function, needs for production and shifts in power relations, rather than conflated with them.