This past Sunday, August 23, 2015 I listened to “On Being” with Krista Tippett. Her guest this week was the neuropsychologist, Rex Jung, whose particular interest is the interplay between intelligence and creativity. His extensive background as a business person, a person who worked with individuals who were labeled limited in terms of intelligence, a person who is a parent, son, teacher, therapist, and a neuropsychologist combine to leave him uniquely qualified to explore the relationship between creativity and intelligence.
Not surprisingly – to me at least - my brain immediately began to wonder about and question the terms intelligence, creativity, wisdom, interaction, and playfulness or humor.
Dr. Jung’s working definition of intelligence seems to be the ability to acquire knowledge. But then, of course, we must ask, What is knowledge?” Technically, it is what I understand to be a a statement about “reality” which may or may not be shared by others. If we are attempting to measure intelligence, we have to focus on what is currently the accepted shared perceptions or agreements. For example, there may be shared agreement on how to decline a certain work in a particular language. There may be shared agreement that George Washington was the first President of these United States and was sworn into office on April 30, 1789. There may not be shared agreement on what sort of president he was, what he actually accomplished or did not accomplish as a president, what sort of person he was, whether he was a good husband, or how many places he slept!
If I check the Merriam-Wesbster dictionary for a definition of intelligence I get:
Medical Definition of INTELLIGENCE. 1. a : the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations b : the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests) 2. : mental acuteness.
This definition thus expands the concept to include more than the ability to memorize certain information which is presented as “true” or “fact.” According to this information, one has to be able to apply what one is learning to change something in one’s environment or to think about changing something in a more abstract manner.
Still, even with this expanded definition, we humans do not rise much above the level of computers and, in fact, may be much less efficient than a computer at many tasks.
So, thus far, we have this concept of knowledge which is a shared reality gained by using a certain portion of my brain more than other parts to access, memorize, and store information. At one time, a shared reality was that our universe was the only one in existence and the planets in this universe were the only ones in existence. Another shared reality might be, for some, that we humans on this planet are the only so-called intelligent beings in this or other universes. However, as our understanding of the so-called laws of physics and our ability to explore the application of those laws change, the content of our shared reality might change.
Dear me! My brain is getting tired already! Let’s go on to the definition of creativity. Dr. Jung suggested in his discussion with Ms. Tippett:
“Well, I'm pretty humble about this because I'm a newcomer to the field. So I'm an expert in intelligence, but I'm a carpetbagger to creativity [laughs]. So I've adopted the definition that I found when I got here, and the definition of creativity is something both novel and useful. And I like that dynamic interplay of novelty and usefulness. If something is just novel, it could be useless. It could be the word salad of a patient with schizophrenia. That's novel, but it's not particularly useful within a given context and utility — mere utility is not enough. It has to be something new. It has to be useful.”
If I again check Merriam-Webster I get:
Full Definition of CREATIVE. 1. : marked by the ability or power to create : given to creating <thecreative impulse> 2. : having the quality of something created rather than imitated : imaginative <thecreative arts>
Well, that is not very helpful is it? Recently I was at an exhibit of the works of M. C. Escher whose work includes such fun drawings as “Waterfall” which initially appears to be this very fanciful building which one could build. Closer examination reveals that it is partly an optical illusion in the sense that it a drawing of a building which would be impossible to build. There are many other examples of this in his many works. The drawing is not useful if we think of using it as a basis for making the building. It is useful In the sense that it is fun and makes me think about all that I perceive. Thus, it fits Dr. Jung’s definition.
Of course, there are those who would argue that nothing fits Dr. Jung’s definition. They would maintain that we do not learn in the traditional sense but rather retrieve information that we already know; that, in fact, there is nothing “new” to discover. But let’s not go there just now.
Perhaps we can think about the concept of wisdom as opposed to intelligence or creativity. Perhaps it will be easier on this poor old brain! What is wisdom? That which the wise person knows or understands? Humm. Then what is wise? Oxford suggests:
wise 1
adjective
1
Having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment:
Oh dear. This gets even more confusing. What is good judgment? Is deciding to put more and more people into jail in the United States good judgment? Is the use of violence to deal with violence good judgment even though if we look at its long-term success rate, it is not very successful?
Dr. Jung would say that people such as Jesus and Ghandi were wise people. What was “wise” about them”? Perhaps the fact that they truly believed that learning to treat each other with love as equals - as one unit - was wise? If that is true, we seem to not value wisdom very much in our society. Does wisdom need to be appreciated to be considered wise?
Oh! My poor brain is really hurting now! This is all too, too much. I can well understand why I drove my teachers throughout my school experience to tears or drink or …. Bless their hearts. I had questions on top of questions on top of questions. No wonder that the perfect major for me was not engineering after all but philosophy. I could “philosophize” for pages and pages and pages about almost any subject.
It is not surprising that when discussing creativity, Dr. Jung introduced the subject of humor We might think of humor as that ability to see the absurdity of life, of our ability to complicate this life journey, of taking ourselves so seriously. What Dr. Jung noticed often about those who had brain damage or who had been born with so-called limited intelligence was that they often were wiser in their simplicity than those of us who test high on the IQ scale. (At least this is what I heard him saying. I am well aware that this matches my experience and, thus, affects what I hear which becomes part of my store of knowledge!)
It is not surprising that laughter is often the best medicine for our physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and intellectual health.
Laughter helps us suspend what we think we know and opens the connections to that part of our brain which is capable of being creative. The bottom line is that if we are not in touch with both the absurdity of thinking that we know (have knowledge) while we necessarily have to act as if we know we will not be creative enough to gain the state of wisdom!!
Written August 23, 2015
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