Postformal Thought, Creativity, and Creating the “Self”

Abstract

Data show that postformal thinking is a tool with which adults can express creativity in everyday life as well a way to describe the process of adult creativity. Creative postformal thinking is expressed in many domains of life, as we saw in earlier chapters. Creativity in adulthood and old age, using the tools of postformal thought, can regulate the integration of intellectual and emotional stimulation from events or people, bridging affect and cognition and making the demands of adulthood bearable and meaningful.

Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

T. H. Huxley

Can we maintain a clarity of vision that reveals to us our oneness in time and space with all else?

Larry Dossey

The creative reaching out into novelty is a fundamental property of life.

Fritjof Capra