Sigmund Freuds Creative Thinking - Research Paper Example

Sigmund Freud’s Creative Thinking The of Sigmund Freud is not unfamiliar to most people in the modern world regardless of their level of education. This name has become synonymous with psychoanalysis, the science he essentially invented at the beginning of the 19th century. Originally trained as a neurologist, Freud’s work with his patients, frustrated by a mediocre ability to hypnotize, necessarily took on a more imaginative turn that revolutionized the way people approached the treatment of the mind (Robbins, 1999). Although others had been doing work to understand the inner workings of the mind before him and others have come after him to refine and build on his theories, as well as add theories of their own, Freud is generally credited with the first break-through in treating the mind as an entity separate from the body. His identification of different levels of thought and how these levels interact and intertwine led to his development of psychotherapy. This intuitive leap, however, did not occur by accident. To formulate his theories and demonstrate their effectiveness, it was necessary for Freud to think ‘outside the box’ of his contemporaries, to employ the various stages of creative thinking in order to change the way in which most doctors viewed the appropriate treatment of their mentally disturbed patients. The creative process itself is often divided by those studying it into four general stages. These include gathering sufficient information to recognize that a problem or issue exists, reflecting upon this information to such an extent that the ideas can be expressed clearly and coherently, selecting an idea or group of ideas from those generated and then producing possible solutions to these concepts. These are often labeled with such terms as preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. The first two of these processes occur in the mind of the creator, almost completely without outside assistance while the second two often include interaction with others as the creator works to communicate and refine his (or her) ideas sufficiently enough to communicate both the idea as well as the solution. Each phase presents its own challenges and approaches. For example, the initial phase is characterized by the creator’s interest in solving a problem. As this individual becomes more and more obsessed with the issue at hand, he or she begins to gather as much available information about the topic as possible, often allowing themselves to freely associate ideas from a number of sources. “During the initial, intuitive phase, each thought activates, and potentially retrieves information from, a large region containing many memory locations” (Gabora, 2002). This is different from the second stage in that the thinking taking place is done primarily in the conscious range as the individual seeks to find answers to any gaps in the information they’ve received and to find ways of connecting previously unrelated information. In the second phase of creation, the creator allows the information that has been gathered to freely associate in the subconscious mind, hence the term incubation to refer to this stage. The thought processes in this stage are also differentiated from the thought process in later stages in the type of thought required. These two stages employ associative thought. This is because connections are made during this phase of the creativity process that allows connections to be made that are more correlative that causally related. This is usually where the big breakthroughs happen, when two thoughts that were previously considered unrelated become connected through this free association and meditation. In other words, creative ideas “reveal unsuspected kinships between other facts well known but wrongly believed to be strangers to one another” (Poincare, 1915: 115). These phases of creative thought determined to be associative, regardless of what else they might be called, can also be thought of as the brainstorming phase, that phase of thought where mental connections are allowed to make their own path. The third and fourth stages of the process can involve the input of other people as the creator discovers a possible solution to the problem and works to find a means of both proving and communicating this solution. “In the third stage, illumination, a possible solution surfaces to consciousness in a vague and unpolished form. Subjective and theoretical accounts of this phase of the creative process speak of discovering a previously unknown ‘bisociation’, or underlying order” (Gabora, 2002). As these ideas begin to surface, the creator may share them with others to get an idea of how they are coming together or to help eliminate unconnected ideas, refining the possible solutions or making new connections not previously explored. As this process progresses, it enters the verification stage, during which the creator works to ensure the ideas are appropriately communicated as well as begins working to prove that these ideas could actually present a solution. As the first two stages of creative thinking employ associative thinking, these last two stages employ analytic thinking to come up with a solution and be able to place it within a communicable code of language. In this mode, it is possible for the creator to determine the differences between cause and effect, determining where the problem begins is essential to determining a solution to that problem that completely addresses it. In addition, no solution is acceptable unless it can be effectively communicated, which often takes another creative turn, as well as fully tested and proven. Whatever knowledge generated in this way must also fit within the already determined knowledge of the time or demonstrate the necessity for divergence. In the development of the psychoanalytic process, these stages of creative thinking can be traced through Sigmund Freud’s work as well as in the language he uses to try to illustrate his ideas to the world. His obsession with trying to treat patients suffering from such conditions as hysteria and other conditions of the brain is evident not only in his training as a neurologist but also in his frustration over trying to use hypnosis. In the preparation mode, Freud learned the ideas of Franz Brentano, Jean-Martin Charcot, Hippolyte Bernheim, Josef Breuer and others (Robbins, 1999). Brentano was responsible for Freud’s belief that conscious thought was always intentional (Robbins, 1999). Charcot and Bernheim, both neurologists like Freud, had been using hypnosis as a means of treating their hysterical patients, but had differing views on its primary effectiveness. Charcot believed hypnosis and hysteria reflected a disorder in the central nervous system while Bernheim felt the role of suggestibility in hypnosis was important in the treatment of these patients (Kihlstrom, 1998). In both cases, it became more and more obvious that the causes of hysteria were mental rather than physical in nature. Josef Breuer, working with Freud, discovered that many of the symptoms of hysteria could be removed by posthypnotic suggestion (Robbins, 1999). In addition to the information learned from others, Freud’s frustrated attempts at hypnosis forced him to instead listen to his patients talk when not under hypnosis. He encouraged them instead to use what he called ‘free association’, which entailed talking about whatever came into their heads without inhibition or fear. Through this process, he was able to discover that the unconscious mind could be reached and progress could be made. Much of his theory was developed in this way, working with clients to discover those traumas that existed in their subconscious mind that manifested themselves in other ways in the conscious mind. Rather than representing a step by step creative process, then, Freud’s theory developed upon a long string of recurrent stages, one leading to another as the information gained from his patients revealed ever new possibilities. Even Freud’s method of explaining what he meant in his ideas reflects a creative process in that it freely associates one idea with another, more concrete analogy to make understanding easier. For example, even though he divided the mind up into three distinct parts consisting of the id, the ego and the superego, he wrote that making these dividing lines simple and straightforward is a mistake. We cannot do justice to the characteristics of the mind by means of linear contours, such as occur in a drawing or in a primitive painting, but we need rather the areas of colour shading off into one another that are to be found in modern pictures. After we have made our separations, we must allow what we have separated to merge again. Do not judge too harshly of a first attempt at picturing a thing so elusive as the human mind. (Freud, 1940). In his work, Freud discovered the subconscious mind could be revealed through other methods in addition to free association. These included transference, dreams, what are now termed ‘Freudian slips’ of the tongue and off-hand jokes (Robbins, 1999). These conclusions are equally based on patient interaction and the creative thinking process that sought to discover the reasons why certain patients behaved the way they did. Although the concept of the unconscious mind had existed well before Freud began his work, and the concept of hypnosis had been around for at least a century prior to his failure to work with it, it was Freud’s understanding, through the creative process, of what the effects of hypnosis were in the treatment of the mind, as well as why these effects manifested themselves, that ultimately led to his development of the psychoanalytic process and the concepts therein. Through the concept of the preconscious mind, Freud introduced the possibility that the conscious and unconscious mind were indeed linked in sophisticated ways, each affecting the other in a process ultimately geared toward protection and defense against traumatic events. Through his work, the concept that some conditions, such as hysteria, were actually mental conditions brought out by things remembered in the subconscious, became more widely accepted and the means of treating these illnesses became more scientific as well as more humanistic. As people began to realize the effects of trauma, more and more attention was given to preventing the trauma to begin with through legal and social means. As more and more people began to understand the concepts Freud brought forward, such as dream imagery, Freudian slips and subconscious fears, his work also began to affect many other fields outside of the strict realm of psychiatry. Literary works began to take on new depth of character, or new modes of communication, such as Gertrude Stein’s free association exploration novel with the simple Freudian title “Id”. Literary criticism also took on new flavor as not only the characters, but the authors were examined for their mental state at the time of writing or for true to life motivations for actions taken. Film was equally affected as the viewing public demanded a more realistic, full-bodied and full-minded character regardless of the film genre. Another field significantly affected by Freud’s theories was that of philosophy. As more and more understanding emerged regarding the ideas Freud brought forward, such as transference, libido and repression, as well as the involvement of dreams in revealing what this inner mind was thinking, philosophy began to take a closer look at such theories as Marxism and feminist ideas. Even the world of advertising was overhauled with the widespread acceptance of Freud’s ideas as commercials began to take on more subconscious imagery as a means of selling a product by appealing to a deeper level of being. References Freud, Sigmund. (1940). An Outline of Psychoanalysis. New York: W.W. Norton. Gabora, Liane. (2002). “Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Creative Process.” Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Creativity and Cognition. T. Hewett & T. Kavanagh (Eds.). Loughborough University, pp. 126-133. Kihlstrom, J.F. (1998). “Hypnosis and the Psychological Unconscious.” Encyclopedia of Mental Health. Vol. 2, pp. 467-477. Academic Press. Poincare, H. (1913). “The Foundations of Science.” Science Press. Lancaster PA, 1913. Robbins, Brent Dean. (1999). “Sigmund Freud.” Mythos and Logos. Retrieved November 18, 2006 from < http://www.mythosandlogos.com/Freud.html> Read More