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2 - Creativity Has No Dark Side

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Mark A. Runco
Edited by
David H. Cropley ,
Arthur J. Cropley ,
James C. Kaufman  and
Mark A. Runco
Mark A. Runco
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Athens
David H. Cropley
Affiliation:
University of South Australia
Arthur J. Cropley
Affiliation:
University of Hamburg
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
California State University at San Bernardino
Mark A. Runco
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

Creativity does not have a dark side. Creative products and efforts can be malevolent, but that is apparent in their impact and is not an inherent quality of creativity nor a requisite trait in the creative personality. Claiming that there is a dark side to creativity is much like arguing that hammers are evil because they can be used to dismantle as well as construct things. Creativity is indeed in some ways a tool of humanity, but of course that is merely a metaphor and, as such, only imperfectly applicable. The important point is that the process that underlies all creative things is not moral or immoral, ethical or unethical, good or evil. It is essentially blind. Like a tool, it can be applied in many different ways, some of which are benevolent and some of which are unethical and immoral, but to understand creativity it is best to be parsimonious and leave out what is extraneous, and that includes all possible effects. This chapter develops this view of parsimonious creativity and describes the ostensible dark side as a function of values and decisions that are ancillary to actual creative work.

There is no denying that creative talents have in the past been used in highly unfortunate ways. Many famous examples of this have been described by McLaren (1993), Stein (1993), and the authors of others chapters in this volume.

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The Dark Side of Creativity , pp. 15 - 32
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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