
The Dynamics of Creation
1972
First Published
3.99
Average Rating
304
Number of Pages
What drives the artist to create masterpieces and the scientist to forge breakthrough theories? This is the fundamental question that British psychiatrist Anthony Storr sets out to answer in The Dynamics of Creation. Storr begins by debunking the popular notion that creative people are necessarily motivated by neurosis. Although creativity can spring from a desire for power, wealth, prestige or sexual conquest, at its deepest level it is an integrative impulse that both nourishes and consoles the human soul. In probing the origins and the consequences of creativity, Storr paints brief, stunningly insightful portraits of an astonishing range of gifted individuals, including Leonardo da Vinci, Darwin, Mozart, Einstein, Kafka, Newton, Balzac and Wagner. Like his bestselling Solitude, The Dynamics of Creation is a brilliantly compelling synthesis of psychology, biography, cultural analysis and artistic appreciation.
Avg Rating
3.99
Number of Ratings
103
5 STARS
31%
4 STARS
43%
3 STARS
21%
2 STARS
4%
1 STARS
1%
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Author

Anthony Storr
Author · 12 books
Anthony Storr was an English psychiatrist and author. He was a child who was to endure the typical trauma of early 20th century UK boarding schools. He was educated at Winchester, Christ's College, the University of Cambridge and Westminster Hospital. He qualified as a doctor in 1944, and subsequently specialized in psychiatry. Storr grew up to be kind and insightful, yet, as his obituary states, he was "no stranger to suffering" and was himself allegedly prone to the frequent bouts of depression his mother had. Today, Anthony Storr is known for his psychoanalytical portraits of historical figures.