THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF CREATIVITY: HISTORY, PARADOXES, PERSONALITY By Samad I. Seyidov One of the principal aims of the book is to provide readers with a concise overview of both intellectual history and the leading concepts of international science and philosophy that impact the field of the psychology of creativity. The target audiences for the book are researchers in psychology, philosophy, history, literature, and University students. The book presents a contrasting study of the views of ancient Indian, Chinese, Greek, Middle Eastern, and Russian philosophers on creativity. It also discusses the subject of creativity as viewed by Freud, Jung, Adler, the Gestalt school, and other prominent Western psychologists. A special place is provided for an overview of the history of Soviet psychology, and of the revival of psychology in Azerbaijan after the fall of the Soviet Union. The author emphasizes the importance of the social environment in determining the development of the personality. He states that most personal activity is directed at serving the values of the surrounding society, not the values of the person himself. The author considers that creativity is a psychic defense mechanism which people use to solve everyday problems in order to restore their inner and outer equilibrium. Through references to the world's leading psychology schools, the author reveals new paradoxes of creativity such as "logic" "morality" "quantity" "universal availability" "desirability" "searching" "the model" "the narrowing of the unconscious" "determinants" and "the product" He describes the distinctive features of the creative personality, namely the capacity for metaphorical thinking, flexibility, inner vision, neutralization, originality, verbal facility, a rich imagination, field-independence etc. [endorsements] Samad Seyidov's study of creativity comes at the right time and from the right place. Not only are we passing throug.
