The Creative Person as Maverick

Abstract

The innate talents that are the essence of creativity are associated with a particular type of character structure. The child's creative potential has to be supported by the infantile milieu, which also happens to have a characteristic stamp. Within this context of personality configurations and developmental antecedents associated with creative ability, there can be considerable variation. I am not postulating a specific or stereotypic creative character. There are, however, certain qualities that can be found in various character types (and can even exist alongside psychopathology) that are often found in creative scientists and perhaps artists as well. I believe the maverick often possesses these character traits and many of the scientists I have had the opportunity of treating proudly considered themselves mavericks. The creative personality is characterized by paradoxes; these cast it in the maverick mold. Possessors of this personality belong and do not belong. They do not break the rules but bend them a little. They are nonconformists but not rebels. They display many features that do not seem to belong together. The paradoxical qualities that dominate the creator's personality and behavior are the outcome of a certain fluidity of character and ego boundaries. The creative process involves a broad range of functioning and traverses various levels of the psyche, frequently reaching down to the very earliest, primary-process-oriented parts of the self. Ego boundaries, in turn, can become quite fluid and permeable, even though they are ordinarily firmly established and well structured. It is this broad spectrum, a prominent feature of the creative process (Giovacchini, 1965, 1971, 1981), that has been often confused with psychopathology. These paradoxical elements are the outcome of an infantile environment that has provided considerable gratification. Again the early milieu of creative personalities may be extremely varied, but there has always been some person or persons who have had a considerable emotional investment in the child. As the developing psyche incorporates and introjects these gratifying and security-establishing experiences, they become amalgamated into the self-representation. In the face of adversity, they provide confidence and reassurance and allow the creator to soothe him- or herself when upset by inner tension. Consequently, creative scientists do not depend so much on the outer world as they do on inner resources. One scientist told me that he could not understand how anyone could ever be bored. Even if he were denied access to his work, he could always find something interesting to do or explore.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)