The Genius of Creativity and the Creativity of Genius: The Neuro-Dynamics of Creativity in Karl Jaspers and Sigmund Freud

Petar Radoev Dimkov
South-West University of Bulgaria

Dimkov, P. R. (2018). The genius of creativity and the creativity of genius: The neuro-dynamics of creativity in Karl Jaspers and Sigmund Freud. Journal of Genius and Eminence, 3(1), 66-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.18536/jge.2018.04.3.1.06

Creativity is one of the areas which continuously attracts attention. In an interdisciplinary spirit, this article focuses on the dynamics of creativity with respect to Freudian psychoanalytical thought processes and Jaspers’ conception of a boundary situation. This effort is correlated with the newest research findings in cognitive neuroscience and neurocognitive psychology of creativity. Philosophical research is also brought in to explain the activity of creative thought and a new conception of creativity is offered, with a third thought process used, along with a miniature boundary situation. This represents a development and extension of the original ideas of Sigmund Freud and Karl Jaspers. The current article thus constitutes an examination of the intersection of creativity research, the metapsychology of Sigmund Freud, and the existential philosophy of Karl Jaspers. It makes it a neuro-philosophical discussion par excellence and represents both a theoretical project and translation. Subsequently, a novel conception is offered, namely that creativity as unique human experience is illuminated in the miniature of boundary situation as controlled disinhibition of the intellect or regression in the name of the ego and as controlled spiral movement via dialectical “jumps” or “leaps.”