New Releases by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The findings in this book are the results of a monumental five-year study of a group of exceptionally talented teenagers, examining the role that personality traits, family interactions, education, and the social environment play in a young person''s motivation to develop his or her talent. Diagrams.

A profound exploration by a leading American psychologist of what it means to have a good life, of living well and well being, using the theory that human beings are at their most creative, most rewarded ahd happiest when they are performing in a state of "flow"; when details are subordinated to the purpose. The result is an unusual combination of serious psychology and self-help; a book that answers the questions self-help books ask, but in a way that reflects the cutting edge of psychological research and thinking.

In this volume three of the key figures in the field set out to establish some parameters for the study of creativity. After examining the earlier works on the subject, they present their current research findings, and then attempt to project where the field is likely to go in the decade ahead. Gardner, the proponent of biological aspects of creativity, ranges widely as he examines Freud''s Vienna and the features of medicine that both constrained and challenged his revolutionary idea. Csikszentmihalyi, with his exploration of genes and memes, examines individual issues as well as broader contextual concerns. Feldman concentrates on the notions of coincidence and the transformational imperative. These essays point to the rejuvenation of the field of creativity research, and suggest where the field is likely to move in the future. This work is a major synthesis of value to advanced researchers as well as students and all those concerned with creativity.

This study attempts to gain information concerning the receptive, as opposed to the creative, aesthetic experience by talking to museum professionals who spend their working lives identifying, appraising, and explicating works of art. The study is based on an underlying assumption that rules and practices for looking at art exist and must be mastered if success is to ensue. The anthropological research approach uses semi-structured interviews and subjects the responses to systematic analysis. Major conclusions emphasize the unity and diversity of the aesthetic experience. The structure of the aesthetic experience is found to be an intense involvement of attention in response to a visual stimulus, for no other reason than to sustain the interaction. The experiential consequences of such a deep and autotelic involvement are an intense enjoyment characterized by feelings of personal wholeness, a sense of discovery, and a sense of human connectedness. The aesthetic content requires two sets of preconditions that make the experience possible: the challenges contained in the object and the skills of the viewer. While the structure of the aesthetic experience is rated similar in terms by all the respondents, the challenges, or content stimuli that triggers the experience vary considerably. These challenges of art are the formal structure of the work, its emotional impact, the intellectual references it carries, and the opportunities it creates for a dialogue among the artist, his time, and the viewer. Without this content challenge there would be nothing to arrest the viewer, and consequently no experience. Level of skill is critical. Challenges and skill must be nearly in balance for the attention to become focused. A complex work of art will engage only a person who has developed complex visual skills. The book is divided into six chapters and concludes with appendices. "Interview Questions for Museum Professionals" and "Aesthetic Experience Questionnaire Form." Contains approximately 100 references. (MM)

Der Autor untersucht das flow-Phänomen, das er zuerst beschrieben und so genannt hat, in vier völlig unterschiedlichen Bereichen menschlicher Tätigkeit: beim Schachspielen, beim Klettern im Fels, beim Rocktanzen und bei der Arbeit des Chirurgen. Auch flow-Erfahrungen im Alltagsleben werden erörtert.

The meaning of things is a study of the significance of material possessions in contemporary urban life, and of the ways people carve meaning out of their domestic environment. Drawing on a survey of eighty families in Chicago who were interviewed on the subject of their feelings about common household objects, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton provide a unique perspective on materialism, American culture, and the self. They begin by reviewing what social scientists and philosophers have said about the transactions between people and things. In the model of ''personhood'' that the authors develop, goal-directed action and the cultivation of meaning through signs assume central importance. They then relate theoretical issues to the results of their survey. An important finding is the distinction between objects valued for action and those valued for contemplation. The authors compare families who have warm emotional attachments to their homes with those in which a common set of positive meanings is lacking, and interpret the different patterns of involvement. They then trace the cultivation of meaning in case studies of four families. Finally, the authors address what they describe as the current crisis of environmental and material exploitation, and suggest that human capacities for the creation and redirection of meaning offer the only hope for survival. A wide range of scholars - urban and family sociologists, clinical, developmental and environmental psychologists, cultural anthropologists and philosophers, and many general readers - will find this book stimulating and compelling.

Filled with brilliant wisdom and insights, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety offers a timeless introduction to the concept of flow and the scientific basis behind it-all through the work of one of the field''s great scientists, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi. Through real-life examples, discover how enjoyable activities provide a common experience-a satisfying, often exhilarating, feeling of creative accomplishment and heightened functioning-and under what conditions ''serious'' work can also provide this intrinsic enjoyment.