The activities are varied. It can be playful, educational and educational, educational and transformative, creative and destructive, production and consumer, economic, socio-political and spiritual. Special activities are creativity and communication. Finally, as an activity one can analyze language, the human psyche and the culture of society.

Material and spiritual activities

Activities are usually divided into material and spiritual.

Material activities are aimed at changing the world around us. Since the surrounding world consists of nature and society, it can be productive (changing nature) and socially transformative (changing the structure of society). An example of a material production activity is the production of goods; Examples of social transformation are government reforms and revolutionary activities.

Spiritual activities are aimed at changing individual and social consciousness. It is realized in the spheres of art, religion, scientific creativity, in moral actions, organizing collective life and orienting a person to solve problems of the meaning of life, happiness, and well-being. Spiritual activity includes cognitive activity (gaining knowledge about the world), value activity (determining norms and principles of life), predictive activity (building models of the future), etc.

The division of activity into spiritual and material is arbitrary. In reality, the spiritual and the material cannot be separated from each other. Any activity has a material side, since in one way or another it relates to the outside world, and an ideal side, since it involves goal setting, planning, choice of means, etc.

Creativity and communication

Creativity and communication has a special place in the system of activities.

Creation is the emergence of something new in the process of human transformative activity. The signs of creative activity are originality, unusualness, originality, and its result is inventions, new knowledge, values, works of art.

When talking about creativity, we usually mean the unity of the creative personality and the creative process.

Creative person represents a person endowed with special abilities. The actual creative abilities include imagination and fantasy, i.e. the ability to create new sensory or mental images. However, often these images are so divorced from life that their practical application becomes impossible. Therefore, other, more “down-to-earth” abilities are also important - erudition, critical thinking, observation, desire for self-improvement. But even the presence of all these abilities does not guarantee that they will be embodied in activity. This requires will, perseverance, efficiency, and activity in defending your opinion. Creative process includes four stages: preparation, maturation, insight and verification. The actual creative act, or insight, is associated with intuition - a sudden transition from ignorance to knowledge, the reasons for which are not realized. Nevertheless, one cannot assume that creativity is something that comes without effort, work and experience. Insight can only come to someone who has thought hard about the problem; a positive result is impossible without a long process of preparation and maturation. The results of the creative process require mandatory critical examination, since not all creativity leads to the desired result.

There are various techniques for creative problem solving, for example, the use of associations and analogies, searches for similar processes in other areas, recombination of elements of what is already known, an attempt to present something alien as understandable, and something understandable as alien, etc.

Since creative abilities can be developed, and creative techniques and elements of the creative process can be studied, any person is capable of becoming a creator of new knowledge, values, and works of art. All that is needed for this is the desire to create and the willingness to work.

Communication there is a way of being a person in relationship with other people. If ordinary activity is defined as a subject-object process, i.e. a process during which a person (subject) creatively transforms the surrounding world (object), then communication is a specific form of activity that can be defined as a subject-subject relationship, where a person (subject) interacts with another person (subject).

Communication is often equated with communication. However, these concepts should be separated. Communication is an activity of a material and spiritual nature. Communication is a purely informational process and is not an activity in the full sense of the word. For example, communication is possible between a person and a machine or between animals (animal communication). We can say that communication is a dialogue, where each participant is active and independent, and communication is a monologue, a simple transmission of a message from the sender to the recipient.

Rice. 2.3. Communication structure

During communication (Fig. 2.3), the addressee (sender) will transmit information (message) to the addressee (recipient). To do this, it is necessary that the interlocutors have information sufficient to understand each other (context), and that the information is transmitted in signs and symbols that are understandable to both (code) and that contact is established between them. Thus, communication is a one-way process of transmitting a message from the sender to the addressee. Communication is a two-way process. Even if the second subject in communication is not a real person, the characteristics of a person are still attributed to him.

Communication can be considered as one of the sides of communication, namely its information component. In addition to communication, communication includes social interaction, the process of subjects learning about each other, and the changes that occur with subjects in this process.

Language, which performs a communicative function in society, is closely related to communication. The purpose of language is not only to ensure human understanding and transmit experience from generation to generation. Language is also a social activity to form a picture of the world, an expression of the spirit of the people. The German linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), emphasizing the procedural nature of language, wrote that “language is not a product of activity, but an activity.”

Play, communication and work as types of activity

Under labor understand the expedient human activity to transform nature and society to satisfy personal and social needs. Labor activity is aimed at a practically useful result - various benefits: material (food, clothing, housing, services), spiritual (scientific ideas and inventions, achievements of art, etc.), as well as the reproduction of the person himself in the totality of social relations.

The labor process is manifested by the interaction and complex interweaving of three elements: living labor itself (as human activity); means of labor (tools used by humans); objects of labor (material transformed in the labor process). Living labor It can be mental (such is the work of a scientist - philosopher or economist, etc.) and physical (any muscular work). However, even muscular work is usually intellectually loaded, since everything that a person does, he does consciously.

In the course of work, they improve and change, resulting in increasingly higher labor efficiency. As a rule, the evolution of means of labor is considered in the following sequence: natural-tool stage (for example, stone as a tool); tool-artifact stage (appearance of artificial tools); machine stage; stage of automation and robotics; information stage.

Subject of labor - a thing to which human labor is directed (material, raw materials, semi-finished product). Labor ultimately materializes and is fixed in its object. A person adapts an object to his needs, turning it into something useful.

Labor is considered the leading, initial form of human activity. The development of labor contributed to the development of mutual support among members of society, its unity; it was in the process of labor that communication and creative abilities developed. In other words, thanks to work, man himself was formed.

Understand activities aimed at the formation of knowledge and skills, the development of thinking and consciousness of the individual. Thus, learning acts both as an activity and as a transmission of activity. The famous psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1934) noted the activity-based nature of education: “The educational process should be based on the personal activity of the student, and the entire art of the educator should be reduced only to directing and regulating this activity.”

The main feature of educational activity is that its goal is to change not the surrounding world, but the subject of the activity itself. Although a person changes both in the process of communication and in work activity, this change is not the immediate goal of these types of activities, but only one of their additional consequences. In training, all means are specifically aimed at changing a person.

Under game understand the form of free self-expression of a person aimed at the reproduction and assimilation of social experience. As the constitutive characteristics of the game, the Dutch cultural theorist Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) identifies freedom, positive emotionality, isolation in time and space, and the presence of voluntarily accepted rules. To these characteristics we can add virtuality (the game world is two-dimensional - it is both real and imaginary), as well as the role-playing nature of the game.

During the game, norms, traditions, customs, and values ​​are learned as necessary elements of the spiritual life of society. Unlike work activity, the purpose of which is outside the process, the goals and means of gaming communication coincide: people rejoice for the sake of joy, create for the sake of creativity, communicate for the sake of communication. In the early stages of human development, beauty could only be felt during the play time of the holiday as beauty, outside the relations of utility, which gave rise to an artistic attitude towards the world.

Occurs mainly during play, learning and work. In the process of growing up, each of these activities consistently acts as a leader. In play (before school), the child tries on different social roles; at more adult stages (at school, college, university), he acquires the knowledge, teachings, and skills necessary for adult life. The final stage of personality formation takes place in the process of joint labor activity.

Human society differs from all natural formations in that it has such a specific form of interaction with the surrounding world as human activity.

Activity is a type of activity aimed at changing the external environment in a way that results in something new. Defining activity through the novelty of the result involves highlighting the corresponding human ability to create new material and spiritual values, traditionally called creativity.

In the structure of activity, a distinction is made between a subject (actor or group), an action, an object (result) of activity, which fixes a new quality, form, state, as well as conditions and means of activity. Any activity always has a certain motivation, leading to a decision to act with a certain purpose and in a certain way. Motivation and activity cannot take place without developed values ​​and activity algorithms.

It is customary to conventionally distinguish between three types of activity: practical, cognitive and value-based. In practice, they are usually combined in each act.

Human activity is fundamentally different from animal activity.

The activity of an animal is determined by adaptive biological laws; its goal is only adaptation to natural conditions. The expedient regulation of the animal's relationship with the environment occurs on the basis of instincts and reflexes.

Human activity presupposes, firstly, not only adaptation to the environment, but also its transformation. This is a practically transformative activity. Secondly, a person himself sets the goals of his activity, carrying out independent goal setting. Human activity is not only expedient, but also purposeful. This allows a person's abilities to go beyond experience. Thirdly, and this is the main thing, human activity presupposes the presence of a self-conscious subject of action, opposing the object and influencing it.

Purposefulness of activity becomes possible because a person has a consciousness that allows him to outline a goal in the form of an ideal image, a project of the desired result. Thus, activity includes two opposite forms - ideal and material transformation of an object.

There are several classifications of human activity. The most commonly used division of activities is

1) practical and spiritual activities or

2) productive and reproductive activities.

Practical activity is a substantive, direct transformation of the surrounding nature and social reality, including man himself. Practical activities are divided into material-productive (transformation of nature) and social-organizational (transformation of society). Spiritual activity is divided into spiritual-practical (reflection of the world in the figurative form of art, myth, religion), spiritual-theoretical (in the form of scientific knowledge) and value-based (in the form of ideology and worldview).

It is customary to single out play, communication and work as fundamental types of human activity. The specificity of the game as a type of activity is that the goal is the process itself, and not the result. Communication involves the exchange of ideas and emotions. Moreover, if this exchange includes the exchange of material objects, then such activity constitutes communication. Labor is defined as a social activity of a person, i.e. the ability to transform the environment of existence. The combination of these types of activities gives rise to other types, for example, educational, social-transformative, etc.

There are different types of creativity:

Production and technical

Inventive

Political

Organizational

Philosophical

Artistic

Mythological

Religious

Musical

Everyday household, etc.

Chess

in other words, types of creativity correspond to types of practical and spiritual activity. The most interesting thing about a person is his inherent ability and need to create. Currently, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, cybernetics and other sciences are studying various aspects of the problem of creativity. A special branch of science is also being formed - the theory of creativity (eurylogy, creatology). This topic has always worried art. Philosophy is responsible for the integration of knowledge about creativity and methodological support for collective work in various fields of culture. In creativity, not only something original is created, but also the essential powers of a person, his abilities and skills are developed. Creativity is self-realization, the objectification of freedom. Although there is an unconscious element in creativity, it is not the opposite of rationality, but is its natural and necessary complement.

1. The concept of creativity

The problem of creativity, like other philosophical problems, was initially discussed in line with mythological and religious traditions. Creativity was understood as an inherent property of God, as creation from nothing (creatio ex nihilo). The idea of ​​the unknowability of creativity is organically connected with this, which N. Berdyaev quite frankly expressed: “It is incomprehensible that creativity exists.” The discrepancy between such ideas and the data of science and practice is striking. However, merely stating such a discrepancy is clearly not enough. It is more correct, without reducing the essence of the matter to logical inconsistencies, to try to see in ideas about “absolute” (Divine) creativity an exaggerated desire, sometimes in spite of circumstances, of a creative person for originality and perfection in the execution of a plan and achieving the maximum possible results with a minimum of means. Mythological and religious-idealistic interpretations of creativity and the corresponding social norms and actions can rightfully be characterized as a mystification of creativity. Contrasting views and actions aimed at objective knowledge of the nature of creativity and the effective use of people's creative abilities in the interests of society represent the demystification of creativity. If illusory ideas, as a rule, arise spontaneously, then overcoming them is basically a conscious, purposeful process.

Demystification of creativity is an organic part of the process of cognition and transformation of the world. Methodological principles tested in other fields of science and practice are of paramount importance for unraveling the “mystery” of creativity. The objective prerequisites for creativity are already contained in the universal properties of matter, its uncreateability and indestructibility (from which the impossibility of creatio ex nihilo directly follows), its self-movement and self-development. Man consciously uses these properties of matter. But it would be wrong to dissolve the essence of creativity in the general properties of matter. In the history of knowledge, there have been attempts at a broad interpretation of creativity, when it was associated with all of nature, in fact, proclaimed an attribute of matter. A similar approach is characteristic of both idealists (Plato, A. Bergson, etc.) and materialists (for example, K. A. Timiryazev. Creativity is not inherent in all matter, but only in man and society. The current expression “creativity of nature” is only a metaphor. Based on the social specificity of this process and the need to correlate it with more general concepts, creativity can be defined as a special form of interaction between subject and object, leading simultaneously to the development of both, and as a form of consciously directed progressive development

Introduction

Creativity is a process of human activity that leads to the creation of a new and original product, new material or spiritual values. Creative activity is one of the main determinants of a person’s essence; it emphasizes the superiority and originality of his psyche. Thanks to this feature, man created cities, cars, spaceships, computers and much more.

Nowadays, creativity is becoming a necessary tool for solving many problems, both for creating new objects, developing ideas, and for planning and anticipating situations. The demand for human creative skills is increasingly growing.

What exactly is creative activity? What is its essence and structure? What is a product of creative activity? This work will provide the most concise and succinct answer to the questions posed.

Creative activity

“Creativity is the spiritual and practical activity of a person, the result of which is the creation of original, unique, never before existing cultural values, the establishment of new facts, the discovery of new means and patterns, as well as methods of research and transformation of the world. In fact, human activity can act as creativity in any sphere of his life: scientific, production and technical, artistic, political, etc. Creativity can be considered in two aspects: psychological, when the process, the psychological mechanism of the act of creativity as a subjective act of the individual is studied, and philosophical, which examines the question of the essence of the phenomenon of creativity.”

In the general structure of creative activity, several main subsystems can be distinguished:

• · The process of creative activity
• Product of creative activity
• · The personality of the creator, reflected in the process and product
• · The environment and conditions in which creativity takes place.

When studying creativity, all these subsystems are considered together. Each aspect influences each other, the personality on the subject of activity, the subject on the personality. Through the interaction of personality and reality in the process of activity, a creative product is born. The environment and conditions also leave their mark; creativity is partly a person’s reaction to the environment, due to the peculiarities of human psychology.

“The main thing in creativity is not external activity, but internal activity - the act of creating an “ideal”, an image of the world, where the problem of alienation of man and environment is resolved. External activity is only an explication of the products of an internal act.

Highlighting the signs of a creative act, almost all researchers emphasized its unconsciousness, spontaneity, the impossibility of its control by the will and mind, as well as a change in the state of consciousness.

One can cite characteristic statements by A. de Vigny (“I don’t make my book, but it is made on its own. It ripens and grows in my head like a great fruit”), V. Hugo (“God dictated, and I wrote”), Augustine ( “I do not think for myself, but my thoughts think for me”), Michelangelo (“If my heavy hammer gives solid rocks one look or another, then it is not the hand that moves it that holds it, guides and guides it: it acts under the pressure of an outside force"), etc.”

This means that another aspect that influences creative activity is the intuitive principle in the individual. Perhaps intuition and the unconscious influence the final product much more than the environment or conditions. For example, a particular effect of “powerlessness of will” during inspiration, when the author is completely immersed in work, not noticing the world around him and the passing of time.

At the moment of creativity, a person becomes unable to control the flow of images and experiences. Images appear and disappear spontaneously, struggle with the primary plan (plan of work), more vivid images crowd out less vivid ones from consciousness. This leads to the problem of unawareness of the method of obtaining the result, when the author cannot explain the reason, the source of his fantasies.

It is also important to emphasize that creativity and creativity can be considered as a form of behavior that is not consistent with the norms accepted in a certain community of people, but at the same time does not violate the legal and moral regulations of the group.

In the psychological analysis of creativity, we can say that this is one of the most difficult sections of psychology due to the vagueness of the very concept of creative activity; in fact, all life is creativity, since it is impossible to repeat a simple movement in the same way or pronounce the same word in the same way. Every moment of a person is unique, like the person himself, every person is individual and his activity is individual. However, there is a separation between ordinary activity and purely creative activity. What, then, can be called creative? Society’s subjective assessment of novelty and originality is not very specific; different groups may evaluate the same work differently. Convincing the authors of a work is of little use, just as the works themselves cannot prove their originality. Even the concept of relativity may be at work here, and therefore a clear answer to the question posed is difficult to formulate.

Some scientists believe that creativity: “an extremely diverse concept... creativity is a necessary condition for the development of matter, the formation of its new forms, along with the emergence of which the forms of creativity themselves change. Human creativity is only one of these forms.” Ya. A. Ponomarev considers creativity as an interaction leading to development. With this approach to creativity, this concept becomes unnecessary, since by it Ya. A. Ponomarev understands any development of living and inanimate nature.

Others: in the “Dictionary” of S. I. Ozhegov: “Creativity is the creation of cultural and material values ​​that are new by design” or the definition of A. G. Spirkin (1972): “Creativity is a spiritual activity, the result of which is the creation of original values, establishing new, previously unknown facts, properties and patterns of the material world and spiritual culture.”

The absence of strict criteria for determining the boundary between creative and non-creative human activity is now generally recognized. At the same time, it is obvious that without such criteria it is impossible to identify with sufficient certainty the subject of research itself. The majority of modern foreign scientists involved in creativity issues admit that a lot of work has been done in the area of ​​the problem of creativity criteria, but the desired results have not yet been obtained. For example, the authors of many studies conducted in recent decades in the United States believe that determining the difference between creative and non-creative activities remains completely subjective.

Creativity has long been considered a special gift, and there were only two areas in which this gift could be realized: scientific and technical creativity and artistic creativity. Well, sometimes design activities were also added. But now it has been proven that creativity can manifest itself in any area of ​​our lives in special creative activities.

There are many that differ both in character and in their product. But creativity cannot be called one of these types; rather, it can be considered as a level or stage of development of any sphere of human activity.

Reproductive activity

The first or lowest level is considered to be the reproductive or reproduction level. It is associated with the processes of mastering activity skills and learning. But for many people, their activities, including professional ones, remain at this level. Not because they study all their lives, but because reproductive activity is simpler and does not require much mental effort.

This level involves repeating techniques and actions developed by other people, creating a product based on a model. Let's say, a person who knits a sweater according to a pattern is engaged in reproductive activities, a teacher who uses the teaching methods proposed in teaching aids is also at this level, as is a housewife who prepares salads according to recipes found on the Internet.

And this is normal, for this purpose society accumulates and carefully preserves experience so that people can use it. Most people spend the bulk of their time engaged in reproductive activity, mastering social experience and using ready-made knowledge. True, reproductive activity in its pure form occurs mainly in the learning process. People tend to strive for something new and very often they introduce something of their own, original into other people’s schemes, developments, recipes, that is, they introduce creative elements into reproductive activity, thereby increasing social experience.

Creativity level

Unlike the reproductive level, the creative level involves the creation of a new product, new knowledge, and new ways of activity. It is this kind of activity that is the basis for the development of human civilization.

The creative level is theoretically accessible to every person with normal mental development, since everyone has creative potential. In fact, not everyone develops it, and the creativity inherent in children is not preserved in all adults either. The reasons for this are very different, including the peculiarities of upbringing and the limitations of a society that does not need too many active creatives.

Creative activity, even with high potential, is impossible without reproductive activity. Before writing a symphony, the composer must master musical notation and master playing a musical instrument. Before writing a book, a writer must at least learn the letters, spelling and style rules. All this is done on the basis of assimilating ready-made experience, the knowledge that has been accumulated by other people.

Product of creative activity

The result, the result of any activity, is some kind of product. This distinguishes it from the simple biological activity of animals. Even if we are talking about mental activity, it also creates a product - thoughts, ideas, decisions, etc. True, there is a type of activity in which the process is more important. This is a game, but the game ultimately leads to a certain result.

It is the product that reflects the originality of the activity; in creativity it is characterized by novelty. But the concept of the new is relative, a person is not able to come up with anything absolutely new, because in his thinking he operates only with the knowledge and images he has.

An indicative case occurred with Leonardo da Vinci, to whom a familiar innkeeper ordered an image of an unprecedented monster for a sign. The famous artist, realizing that he would not be able to draw anything unprecedented, began to meticulously sketch individual details of animals and insects: paws, mandibles, antennae, eyes, etc. And then from these details he constructed such a creepy but realistic creature that when he saw a large drawing on a round shield, the innkeeper ran away in horror. Actually, master Leonardo demonstrated the very essence of creative activity - combinatorics.

On the other hand, there is objectively new and subjectively new:

• In the first case, in the process of creative activity, a product is created that has never existed before: a new law, mechanism, painting, recipe for a dish, teaching method, etc.
• In the second case, novelty is associated with a person’s individual experience, with his personal discovery of something.

For example, if a three-year-old child built a high tower out of cubes for the first time, then this is also a creative activity, because the child created something new. This novelty may be subjective, but it is also significant and important.

Creativity as a process

Creative activity is sometimes called combinatorial, but the uniqueness of its process is not limited to this.

The study of creativity began long before our era, and many ancient philosophers paid attention to this amazing activity, which reflects the very essence of human existence. But creativity began to be studied most actively from the beginning of the 20th century, and currently there are many theories and scientific directions in the study of this subject. It is studied by world-famous psychologists, sociologists, specialists in the field of cultural studies and even physiologists. Summarizing the research results, we can highlight several specific features of the creative process.

• This is a creative process, that is, its result is always not just a new product, but a product that is significant for society. True, there is also some contradiction here, which is the subject of dispute among specialists in the field of creativity psychology. If a person has designed a new type of deadly weapon, then this is also creativity. However, it cannot be called creative.
• The basis of the creative process is special, which is characterized by non-standardity, spontaneity and originality.
• Creative activity is associated with the subconscious, and inspiration plays a large role in it - a special altered state of consciousness, which is characterized by increased mental and physical activity.
• Creative activity has a clearly defined subjective side. It brings a sense of satisfaction to the creator. Moreover, pleasure comes not only from the result, but also from the process itself, and experiencing a state of inspiration is sometimes akin to the effects of a drug. This perception of creativity, the feeling of euphoria that the creator experiences, is the reason that a person often creates, creates unique things, not because he needs it, but because he likes it. An author can write “on the table” for years, an artist can give away his paintings to friends without thinking about exhibitions, and a talented designer can store his inventions in a barn.

However, creativity is still a social activity; it requires an assessment of society and is focused on the usefulness and necessity of the created product. Therefore, social approval is a very important and strong incentive that activates creativity and promotes creativity. Parents must remember this and actively encourage and praise their children for any manifestation of creativity.

Types of creative activity

It’s not for nothing that creativity is called a spiritual-practical activity. It combines two types of activity or two spheres in which the creative process takes place: internal, spiritual, occurring at the level of consciousness, and external practical, associated with the embodiment of ideas and plans. Moreover, the main, leading type of creative activity is precisely internal - the birth of a new idea or image. Even if they are never translated into reality, the act of creativity will still remain.

Spiritual creative activity

This type of activity is both the most important and the most interesting, but difficult to study. Not only because it happens at the level of consciousness, but mainly because even the creator himself is poorly aware of how the creative process occurs in his brain, and often does not control it.

This unconsciousness of creative processes creates a subjective feeling of a message from the outside or a plan given from above. There are many statements by creative personalities that confirm this. For example, V. Hugo said: “God dictated, and I wrote.” And Michelangelo believed: “If my heavy hammer gives solid rocks one look or another, then it is not a hand that moves it: it acts under the pressure of an outside force.” The 19th-century philosopher W. Schelling wrote that the artist “is affected by a force that draws a line between him and other people, prompting him to depict and express things that are not fully revealed to his gaze and have an inscrutable depth.”

The feeling of otherworldliness of the creative act is largely due to the enormous role of the subconscious in creative activity. At this level of the psyche, a huge amount of figurative information is stored and processed, but this is done without our knowledge and control. Under the influence of increased brain activity during the creative process, the subconscious often brings ready-made solutions, ideas, and plans to the surface of consciousness.

Spiritual creative activity, if considered as a process, has three stages.

Stage of initial accumulation of information

As already mentioned, the basis of creative activity is the transformation of ideas, images, theoretical and practical knowledge existing in memory. Information is not only a building material for creativity; it is comprehended, analyzed and gives rise to associations with the knowledge that is stored in memory. Without associative thinking, creativity is impossible, since it connects different areas of the brain and blocks of information to work on a problem.

Already at this level, a creative person’s ability to notice details, see unusual phenomena, and the ability to look at an object from an unexpected angle is manifested. At the stage of initial accumulation of information, a premonition of a plan is born, a vague expectation of discovery.

The stage of forming a plan or developing an idea

This stage can occur in two forms:

• in the form of a scrupulous analysis of the idea that has arisen, its planning and elaboration of different options and solutions;
• in a heuristic form, when the accumulation of information and reflection on its possible use suddenly gives birth to an idea as bright as a fireworks flash.

Often the impetus for the birth of a plan can be some insignificant event, a chance meeting, a phrase heard or an object seen. As happened, for example, with the artist V. Surikov, who found the color and compositional solution for the painting “Boyaryna Morozova” after seeing a crow sitting in the snow.

Development of the plan

This stage is no longer spontaneous, it is distinguished by a high level of awareness. It is where the idea is conceptualized and concretized. The scientific theory is “overgrown” with rigorous evidence, diagrams and drawings are created to implement the design concept, the artist selects the material and execution technique, and the writer works out the plan and composition of the novel, creates psychological portraits of the characters and determines the plot twists.

Actually, this is the last stage of creativity, which occurs at the level of consciousness. And the next stage is practical activity.

Practical creative activity

The separation of these two types is arbitrary, since even at the practical stage the main creative work is performed by the brain. But there are still some features inherent specifically in practical creative activity.

This type of creativity is associated with special abilities, that is, with abilities for specific activities. A person can create a brilliant idea for a painting, but it can only be translated into reality, brought from the level of consciousness, only by having a knack for visual activity. And not only in the form of potential.

That is why it is so important for creative activity to master professional skills and mastery of mastery in a specific field. The lack of professionalism is clearly visible in children's creativity. It is, of course, bright, fresh, original, but in order for the child’s potential to be revealed, he needs to be taught how to use a pencil and brush, various techniques and methods of visual or literary creativity. Without this, the child will quickly become disillusioned with creativity, because he will not be able to achieve the desired result.

On the other hand, practical creative activity is also controlled by consciousness and subconscious. And the most culminating period of the creative act is inspiration. This state occurs when both types of creative activity interact.

Inspiration is perhaps the most amazing thing in creative activity. Even the ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the special state of the creator, which he called ex stasis - outside oneself, going beyond the limits of consciousness. But it is no coincidence that the word “ecstasy” - the highest pleasure - comes from the same term. A person in a state of inspiration really feels a surge of mental and physical energy and enjoyment of the process.

From a psychological point of view, inspiration is accompanied by an altered state of consciousness, when a person creates without noticing time, hunger, fatigue, sometimes bringing himself to physical exhaustion. Creative individuals tend to treat inspiration with great reverence, which is not surprising. Under its influence, productivity increases significantly. In addition, the euphoria that often accompanies inspiration causes a desire to experience this state again and again.

Nevertheless, there is nothing supernatural, otherworldly or mystical in inspiration. Its physiological basis is a strong focus of excitation in the cerebral cortex, which arises under the influence of active work on an idea, a plan, one might say, obsession with them. This focus of excitation provides both high performance, activation of the subconscious level, and partial suppression of rational control. That is, inspiration is the result of persistent mental work, so it is useless to lie on the couch and wait for it to descend before you can start creating.

Creative activity, although it presupposes the presence of special abilities, is accessible to everyone, because there are no incapable people. You don't have to be an artist, poet or scientist to be creative. In any field, you can create something new, discover new patterns or methods of activity. Find what you like, what you have an inclination for, and be creative, enjoying both the result and the process itself.