You Don't Have to be 'Tortured' to Be an Artist

Sadness isn't the only creative fuel.

Share: Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share using Native tools Share Copied to clipboard In the 1990s, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, renowned for his theory of “flow,” interviewed 100 highly successful, creative people. Many of his subjects had suffered disappointments and tragedies throughout their lives—failures, financial troubles, the loss of family members. But Csikszentmihalyi noticed that their pain “did not turn into an emotional swamp in which they floundered; instead, it helped to strengthen their resolve.” But did their su

related reading

• the zone of geniusmindmine.substack.com
• Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are bornhenrikkarlsson.xyz
• Why do I feel trapped as an artist if creativity is so freeing?jessicaabel.com
• Pain is not the unit of Effort — LessWronglesswrong.com
• How Fear Chokes Creativity and What to Do About It - Creativity Workshopcreativityworkshop.com
• 5 Boring Ways to Become More Creativemarkmanson.net
• The Real Link Between Creativity and Mental Illness | Scientific Americanblogs.scientificamerican.com
• Creativity (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)plato.stanford.edu
• Are Artists Born or Made - brilliantiobrilliantio.com
• To be creative, Chinese philosophy teaches us to abandon ‘originality’psyche.co
• creativity is relaxationread.scottdomes.com
• The Creative Independentthecreativeindependent.com