-
1 Text B
-
2 Chinese Version
The Creative Personality
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
1 I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it's complexity (复杂性). They contain contradictory (矛盾的)extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a"multitude (众多状态)."
2 Here are some traits that are often found in creative people. These traits are integrated with each other in a dialectical (辩证的) manner.
3 1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest. They canwork long hours with great concentration while remaining fresh and enthusiasticall the time. This does not mean that creative people are always active. Infact, they rest often and sleep a lot. The important thing is that they knowhow to control their energy, which is not ruled by the calendar, theclock or an external schedule. When necessary, they can focus it likea laser beam; when not, creative types immediately recharge (给…充电) their batteries. This is not a biorhythm (生物节律) inheritedwith their genes; it was learned by trial and error as a strategyfor achieving their goals.
4 2. Creative people tend to be smart yetnaive at the same time. Another way of expressing this dialectic (辩证法) is the contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness(幼稚). As Howard Gardner reveals in his study of themajor creative geniuses of the 20th century, a certain immaturity (不成熟), both emotional and mental, can go hand in hand with deepestinsights.
5 Earlier studies on superior mentalabilities show that children with very high IQs do well in life, but after acertain point, IQ does not seem to be correlated (使相互关联) any longer with superior performance in real life. Later studiessuggest that it might be difficult to do creative work with a lower IQ, but anIQ beyond 120 does not necessarily imply higher creativity.
6 Furthermore, creative people seem able touse well two opposite ways of thinking: the convergent (趋同的) and the divergent (求异的). Convergentthinking is measured by IQ tests, and it involves solving well-defined,rational problems that have one correct answer. Divergent thinking leads to noagreed-upon solution. It involves the ability to generate a great quantity ofideas; fexibility (灵活性), or the ability toswitch from one perspective to another; and originality (创造力) in picking unusual associations of ideas. Yet divergent thinkingis not much use without the ability to tell a good idea from a bad one, and forthis, we must rely on convergent thinking.
7 3. Creative people alternate (交替) between imagination and a deeply-rooted sense of reality.Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that isdifferent from the present. In fact, the whole point of art and science is togo beyond what we now consider real and create a new reality.
8 4. Creative people tend to be bothextroverted (性格外向的) and introverted (性格内向的). We're usually one or the other, either preferring to be in thethick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines (界外区域) and observing the passing show. Infact, in current psychological research, extroversion (性格外向) and introversion (性格内向) are considered to be the most stable personality traits that distinguish people from each other. Creative individuals seem to exhibit both traits at the same time.
9 5. Creative people are humble andproud at the same time. These individuals stand "on the shoulders of giants."Their respect for the area in which they work makes them aware of the long lineof previous contributions to it. And they're usually so focused on futureprojects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding,are no longer very interesting to them.
10 6. Creative people are both rebelliousand conservative. Being only traditional leaves an area unchanged; constantly takingchances without regard to tradition rarely leads to novelty (新颖). But the willingness to take risks is absolutely necessary.The economist George Stigler is very emphatic (强调的) in this regard, "I'd say one of the most commonfailures of able people is a lack of nerve. They just play safe games.In innovation (创新，革新), you have to play a lesssafe game, if it's going to be interesting. It's not predictable thatit'll go well."
11 7. Most creative people are very passionate(充满激情的) about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficulttask. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lackscredibility (可信性).
12 8. Creative people's openness andsensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to agreat deal of enjoyment. Inventors (发明家) have a low threshold (下限) of pain. Things bother them. A badly designed machine causes pain to an inventive(有发明才能的) engineer, just as the creative writer is hurtwhen reading bad prose.
13 Being alone at the forefront (最前线) of a discipline also leaves you exposed and vulnerable. Eminence (显赫) invites criticismand often vicious (恶意的) attacks. When an artisthas invested years in making a sculpture (雕塑品),or a scientist in developing a theory, it is devastating if nobody cares.
14 Perhaps the most difficult thing forcreative individuals to bear is the sense of loss and emptiness theyexperience when, for some reason, they cannot work. This is especially painfulwhen a person feels his or her creativity drying out.
15 Yet when a person is working in the areaof his or her expertise (专门技能), worries andcares fall away, replaced by a sense of happiness. Perhaps the mostimportant quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creativeindividuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its ownsake. Without this trait, poets would give up striving (努力) for perfection and would writecommercial jingles (广告短歌); economists would work forbanks where they would earn at least twice as much as they do at universities;and physicists would stop doing basic research and join industriallaboratories where the conditions are better and the expectations morepredictable.
