Creativity's Paradoxical Character: A Postscript to James Webb Young'sTechnique for Producing Ideas

This study reconsiders the classical work of James Webb Young, A Technique for Producing Ideas. The analysis shows that although Young's paradigm is instructive, it is not the whole story. Several paradoxical ramifications to the Youngian model are presented. For example, knowledge is shown to be something less than a creator's perfect ally. Creative insight is not always the final step in a progression of identifiable events. Sometimes genius is more a matter of serendipity than of intellectual brilliance. Finally, it is argued that deadlines are blessings in disguise. They are blessings because they quicken the flow of creative juices and the secretion of adrenalin. In contrast to Young's view that the creator remove himself or herself from the process after collecting and synthesizing information, the suggestion here is that the active pursuit of solutions bears sweet fruits. In short, a pervasive paradoxical dimension is superimposed on Young's conception of the creative process.