• The Courage to Create

  • By: Rollo May
  • Narrated by: Sean Pratt
  • Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (198 ratings)

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The Courage to Create  By  cover art

The Courage to Create

By: Rollo May
Narrated by: Sean Pratt
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Publisher's summary

What if imagination and art are not, as many of us might think, the frosting on life but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms rather than the other way around? In this trenchant volume, Rollo May helps all of us find those creative impulses that, once liberated, offer new possibilities for achievement. A renowned therapist and inspiring guide, Dr. May draws on his experience to show how we can break out of old patterns in our lives. His insightful audiobook offers us a way through our fears into a fully realized self.

©1994 Rollo May (P)2015 Gildan Media LLC

Critic reviews

"A signal testimonial to the creative spirit.... A brilliantly incisive exploration of the creative 'encounter' - the coming to grips of the healthily committed creative artist or thinker with his sociocultural background and with his own dangerously Promethean impulses." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Extraordinary, wise, and hopeful...nearly poetic meditations." ( Boston Globe)

What listeners say about The Courage to Create

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😭😭😭😭

So good So good So good So good So good So good So good So good recommend to everyone a thousand times

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3 people found this helpful

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MUST LISTEN

Well written and an absolutely delight to insight about the nature of oneself as an artist. MUST LISTEN!

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insightful

beautiful listen, this was very revealing for someone with an artistic nature, it was a breeze to finish/listen to.

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May takes on the Creative Act

I had the pleasure of being a student to this gifted therapist and philosopher. May shows the connection between anxiety as the crucible for creativity. He has an encyclopedic memory and frequently brings brief passages from other authors to illuminate his point.

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7 people found this helpful

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Rollo May was brilliant

This was a well made audio book of critically important material for artists especially timely still in 2023 which is saying something. Essential listening and reading for creative humans.

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A magical synthesis

For context, this is my first encounter with May’s work. I am a musician, an engineer, an investor, and a dreamer.

Language is imperfect, so we lose fidelity when going from idea to language, then back to idea. May pays homage to that which rests between the lines, bustling and brooding, until finally our pre-conscious mind breaks through and reveals the form which seems to mold new shape into our reality.

He explores the value of the superlative and the illusions that lie within the precise.

Strongly recommend this book to anyone who finds it hard to quiet the mind and anyone who seeks solace in the natural tensions between art and science.

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New meaning to you

Understanding the source and structure of creativity helps expose nodes from which healthy well-being may be fostered. Peaceful read and deep resource to reference. Much mine and unpack-age here.

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creative rebranding of how to create

I enjoyed this book and at first was lost in the concepts; however, I quickly gained the perspective from which creativity is formed. I loved the delivery and explanation of form and its correlation to ones need to have it. Whether to give meaning to the old or new realities, form has taken on new meaning for me.

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Posts dream

I think this book helps the poets in a major way it's a creative's guide to truth.

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Sacreligious and irreverent

Not worth my time. It dishonors God, may He have mercy on the authors soul.

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