hidden analogy _, “ soctaCanalysis —, al ire Ai Sony soe gee empty Rigg “| oo. Me ap > schematisation 7 - gt” ones puczele toy cat a> WOTATPUZE +,THE ACT OF CREATION In this major and long-awaited study Arthur Koestler advances the theory that all creative activities—the conscious and unconscious processes underlying amtstic originality, scientific discovery, and comic inspiration—have a basic pattern in common, which he attempts to define. He calls it ‘bisociative’ thinking —a word he coined to distinguish the various routines of associative thinking from the creative leap which connects previously unconnected frames of reference and makes us experience reality on several planes at once, He also suggests that phenomena analogous to creativity are manifested in various ways on various levels of the animal kingdom, from flatworms to chimpanzees, if the experi- menter knows how to look for them. The dog trained by Pavlovian methods is given as little chance to display originality as the human robots of Brave New Wold. Wut under appropriate conditions, man and animal are shown to possess uniuspected creative resources. ‘Vhe problem of creativity is fundamental to the assessment of man’s condition, ‘The duininint trend in the last fifty years of academic psychology was to take a view of man which reduced him to the status of a conditioned automaton. ‘I pebeve', Koesder writes, ‘that view to be depressingly true—but only up to a poist. The argument of this book starts at the point where it ceases to be true. ‘There are two ways of escaping our more or less automatized routines of thinking and behaving. The first is the plunge into dreaming or dream-like states, where the rules of cational thinking arc suspended, The other way is also an escape— from: boredom, stagnation, intellectual predicaments and emotional frustrations —but an escape in the opposite direction; it is signalled by the spontaneous flash of iasight which shows a familiar situation or event in a new light.’ : Most of the time man isa slave of his habits. Habit and originality are opposite polss of his nature; Koestler attempts to show that they also reflect basic principles which can be traced in different guiscs on alll levels of the organic hierarchy. In Book One of this volume, ‘The art of Discovery and the Discoveries of Art’, ike analyses the ‘bisociative’ process—the way the mind of genius works in the wdences and arts, This part is written for the general reader without scientific background. In Book Two, ‘Habit and Originality’, he supplies the wider, scientific frame-work on which the theory rests; this part presupposes a closer Acquaintance with the biological sciences and current tren’s in experimental poychology. Even here, however, he writes with such lucidity that the reader will be urresistibly Jed on to follow through his arguments. To quote from the Foreword of Professor Six Cyril Burt: ‘It is not merely a highly original contribution to present-day psychology. It is also a richly documented study in the history of scientific discovery and an essay in the analysis of literary and artistic creation.... Mr. Koestler’s book will at once take its place as a classic among recent contributions to the science of the human mind.Also by Arthur Koestler Novels THE GLADIATORS DARKNESS AT NOON ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE THIEVES IN THE NIGHT THE AGE OF LONGING Autobiography DIALOGUE WITH DEATH SCUM OF THE BARTH ARROW IN THE BLUB ‘THE INVISIBLE WRITING THE GOD THAT FAILED (with others) Essays THE YOGI AND THE COMMISSAR INSIGHT AND OUTLOOK PROMISE AND FULFILMENT THE TRAIL OF THE DINOSAUR REFLECTIONS ON HANGING THE SLEEPWALEKERS THER LOTUS AND THE ROBOT SUICIDE OF A NATION? (edit.) Theatre TWILIGHT BARAM uu it { ‘ Wir de , aa Lf | ia Ch) a) 1 1 a ARTHUR KOESTLER JUTCHINSON OF LONDONHUTCHINSON & CO. (Publishers) LTD 178—202 Great Portland Street, London, W.1 London Melbourne Sydney Auckland Bombay Toronto Johannesburg New York *™ First published 1964 © Arthur Koestler 1954 This book has been set in Bembo type face. It has been printed in Great Britain by The Anchor Press, Lid., in Tiptree, Essex, on Antique Wove paper.I CONTENTS * Foreword by Professor Sir Cyril Burt Author’s Preface BOOK ONE THE ART OF DISCOVERY AND THE DISCOVERIES OF ART * PART ONE THE JESTER THE LOGIC OF LAUGHTER The Triptych—The Laughter Reflex—The Paradox 9, Laughter—The Logic of Laughter: A First Approach— Matrices and Codes—Hidden Persuaders—Habit and Originality—Man and Machine LAUGHTER AND EMOTION Aggression and Identification—The Inertia of Emotion— The Mechanism of Laughter—The Importance of not being Earnest VARIETIES OF HUMOUR Pun and Witticismn—Man and Animal—Impersonation— The Child~Adult—The Trivial and the Exalted—Carica- ture and Satire—The Misfit—The Paradox of the Centipede —Displacement—Coincidence—Nonsense—Tickling—The Clown—Originality, Emphasis, Economy 13 21 27 5 64CONTENTS IV FROM HUMOUR TO DISCOVERY 87 Explosion and Catharsis—‘Seeing the Joke’ and ‘Solving the Problem’—The Creation of Humour—Paradox and Synthesis—Summary PART TWO THE SAGE V MOMENTS OF TRUTH 10 The Chimpanzee and the Stick—Archimedes—Chance and Ripeness—Logic and Intuition—Summary VI THREE ILLUSTRATIONS 121 x. The Printing Press—2. Gravity and the Holy Ghost— 3. Evolution through Natural Selection VI. THINKING ASIDE 145 Limits of Logic—The Unconscious before Frend—The Mechanization of Habits—Exploring the Shallows—The’ “Hooked Atoms of Thought’—Exploring the Deeps—The Word and the Vision—The Snares of Language VIT_ UNDERGROUND GAMES 178 The Importance of Dreaming—Concretization and Sym- bolization—Punning for Profit—The Benefits of Impersona~ tion—Displacement—Standing on One’s Head—Analogy and Intuition—Summary IX THE SPARK AND THE FLAME 212 False Inspirations—Premature Linkages—Snowblindness— Gradual Integrations—The Dawn of Language—Summary X THE EVOLUTION OF IDEAS 224, Separations and Reintegrations—Twenty-six Centuries of Science—Creative Anarchy—‘Connect, Always Connect’ —The Thinking Cap—The Pathology of Thought— Limits of Confirmation—Fashions in Science—Boundaries of Science—Summary XI SCIENCE AND EMOTION 255 Three Character-Types—Magic and Sublimation—The Boredom of Science—SummaryXI XVI XVIL XVOL XIX CONTENTS 9 PART THREE THE ARTIST A, THE PARTICIPATORY EMOTIONS THE LOGIC OF THE MOIST EYE 271 Laughter and Weeping—Why do we Weep?—Raptness —Mourning—Relief—Pity—Self-Pity—Summary PARTNESS AND WHOLENESS 285 Stepchildren of Psychology—The Concept of Hierarchy ON ISLANDS AND WATERWAYS 292 B. VERBAL CREATION ILLUSION 30r The Power of Ilusion—The Value of Illusion—The Dynamics of Illusion—Escape and Catharsis—Identification and Magic—The Dawn of Literature RHYTHM AND RHYME 31r Pulsation—Measure and Meaning—Repetition and Affinity —Compulsive Punning—Coaxing the Unconscious IMAGE The Hidden Analogy—Emotive Potentials—The Picture- 320 strip—On Law and Order—On Truth and Beauty INFOLDING 333 Originality and Emphasis—Economy—The Last Veil— Summary . CHARACTER AND PLOT 345 Hdentification—Phantoms and Images—Conflict—Integra- tions and Confrontations—Archetypes—Cataloguing Plots— Puppets and Strings THE BELLY OF THE WHALE 358 The Night Journey—The Guilt of Jonah—The Root and the Flower—The TightropeIv CONTENTS C. VISUAL CREATION MOTIF AND MEDIUM Looking at Nature—Pignent and Meaning—The Two En- vironments—Visual Inferences—Codes of Perception—Con- vention and Creation IMAGE AND EMOTION Virtues of the Picture Postcard—Taste and Distaste—Motion and Rest—Ascending Gradients—Summary ART AND PROGRESS Cumulative Periods—Stagnation and Cross-Fertilization— Statement and Implication CONFUSION AND STERILITY The Aesthetics of Snobbery—The Personal Emanation— The Antiquarian Fallacy—The Comforts of Sterility BOOK TWO HABIT AND ORIGINALITY x Introduction PRENATAL SKILLS Structure and Function—The Cell-Matrix—Nucleus and Cytoplasm—Regulative and Mosaic Development— Organizers and Inducers—Summary THE UBIQUITOUS HIERARCHY Development of the Nervous System—Locomotor Hier- archies—The Goldfish and the Crab—Shuffling the Sala- mander’s Limbs—Limits of Control DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM AND REGENERA- TIVE POTENTIAL Acting and Reacting—What is Equilibrium?—Super- Elasticity and Regenerative Span—Physiological Isolation RECULER POUR MIEUX SAUTER Structural Regenerations—Reversed Gradients—The Dangers of Regression—‘Routine Regenerations’—Reorganizations of 383 393 413 415 430 447 454