The Dark Side of Creativity: What Is It?

Abstract

In everyday usage as well as scholarly discussions, it is almost axiomatic that creativity is good. Indeed it cannot be denied that it oft en leads to benefi cial advances in art and literature, science, medicine, engineering, manufacturing, business, and other areas (the bright side). Unfortunately, the enchantment with creativity is so intense that, as James , Clark , and Cropanzano ( 1999 ) complained, people, including researchers “... typically ignore the fact that a great deal of creative eff ort is done in service of negative ends” (p. 212). James, Clark, and Cropanzano argued that this has led to an absence of consideration of negative creativity or, as the editors of the present volume would put it, a failure to come to grips with the dark side of creativity. Th is means that little has been worked out about the “... triggers, processes, outcomes ...” (p. 212) of the dark side. Th e result is obvious: Approaches to recognizing the dark side, avoiding circumstances that foster its growth, discouraging its manifestation, redirecting it, protecting against its negative consequences , and the like, are not well developed. Th e purpose of this book is to increase both awareness of the dark side and understanding of the forms and processes of negative creativity, begin to develop the necessary conceptual framework, and set in motion a discussion of how to deal with it in practical settings. In pursuing this goal, the book contains chapters by people from disparate fi elds of study (e.g., psychology, criminal justice, sociology, engineering, education, history, and design) and diff erent areas of focus (e.g., personality development, mental health , deviant behavior , law enforcement, and counterterrorism ) in order to illustrate the nature of the dark side of creativity, examine its variants, draw attention to its dangers (although even