The Creating Brain

The Neuroscience of Genius

By: Nancy C. Andreasen M.D.

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

In a fascinating tour of creativity and the brain, Nancy Andreasen, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa and the winner of the National Medal of Science, explores how the human brain achieves creative breakthroughs--in art, literature, music, and science--the role of genes and environment, extraordinary creativity vs. ordinary creativity, and the question of genius and insanity.

She examines what extraordinary creators have said about creating and how their insights reflect particular qualities of creative people, and she includes her fascinating interview with the playwright Neil Simon, in which he described how his mind and brain work. This book offers insight into what creates the creative brain as well as advice to nurture creativity in both children and adults.

©2005 Nancy C. Andreasen (P)2008 Dana Press

Critic reviews

"Our leading authority on creativity reveals herself with this splendid book as one of the most valuably creative persons of our time." (Kurt Vonnegut)
"The author's passion and admiration for creative genius and the arts...is evidenced in her exploration...vividly describe[s] mental activities that are anything but ordinary." ( Publisher's Weekly)

Awesome

Loved It! Great book, great narration. kept my interest and even had me looking into things I'd have never thought of...made a lot of connections.

Well written history of creativity

The author has an amazing story of overcoming obstacles and earning a PHd and a MD. I liked the book it was well written. I did think this book would have had more neuroscience in it. I was expecting a Golemanesque (Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence) type of book with detailed descriptions of functional brain system and the latest research. The book had a little of this.

The book includes an excellent history of the science of creativity, which I thought was interesting and worth reading. The author talks at length about some creative people like DaVinci and other artists, which was well done.

However I did think the mixture of literary criticism with a little bit neuroscience was a bit haphazard at times. I would have preferred a more in depth approach to the brain science of creativity. Which would talk about specific brain systems instead of trying to merge art, history, literary criticism, and neuroscience. Even though the author's intent is to show that such a synthesis is in itself creative.

I still recommend you listen to it because while I was reading the book I had a creative explosion in my mind, turned off my ipod and sat on a park bench for 2 hours scribbling some notes about an idea I thought was novel. Check it out.

Slightly underwhelming, but well read

Dr. Andreasen tackles an intuitive interesting topic, the neuroscience of creativity. Her perspective as a well-read and literary neuroscientist is refreshing in general, and adds value to her treatment of this topic.

I admit to feeling somewhat underwhelmed with what I actually ended up learning. Dr. Andreasen seems to have a soft spot for the traditional understanding of "genius", a concept I've always found rather unscientific. Rephrasing "genius" to "extraordinary creativity", Dr. Andreasen invokes the concept but does not defend it satisfactorily to leave me fully convinced.

What do I now know at the end of this book? Creativity is both innate and learned. Creative peoples are mysteriously more likely to suffer mental illness. Creative individuals throughout history had environments that contributed immensely to their success. If these concepts are new to you, then Dr. Andreasen gives a lovely introduction, and Kate Reading's performance is pleasant to listen to. If, like me, these concepts don't seem new, then the six hour listen is probably not worth the amount of new information you'll be presented with.

Finally a study focusing in creativity

As an architect, musician and many other things, this book was an instant interest to me and the content versus its cost is a real treat. I am eager to get a hold of the unabridged version. Well structured and easy to understand plus very practical exercises to promote a culture of creative thinking and habits. I recommend this book to people who wants to know what is behind creative people or their proficiency to be creative and to those who wants to discover or awaken their inborn capacities in any or every field humans could excel.

A Big Disappointment

I went into this with low expectations, and I was still disappointed. Not only does the author misunderstand the meaning of some key concepts (e.g., heritability), she also presents lots of controversial research without appropriate discussion. Also, the book reads as a little "self-helpy". Furthermore, the reader announces every single syllable, causing her to mispronounce some of them. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

Nothing new so I stopped listening

I stopped listening after the first three chapters because I hadn't learned anything new. Most the material covered there had been written about many times in the past, including the profile of the creative types and the introspective reports on creativity from Morart and others. I was hoping for something new, but didn't find it before I gave up.