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[stocks]

In a lecture entitled, "The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius" (again, to an overflowing house), Dr Andreasen observed out that Newton "probably had something in the schizophrenia spectrum. "He was born prematurely, was single his entire life, lived alone most of his life, was chronically suspicious, had all kinds of unusual interests and beliefs, and had a clear psychotic break at age 40.

Einstein was eccentric with schizotypal traits and had a son with schizophrenia, and James Watson also has a son with schizophrenia.

"So we can say that three of the most important discoveries in modern science were done by men who had association with schizophrenia," Dr Andreasen pointed out. "What’s the odds that occurred by chance? There must be something there."

James Joyce and Bertrand Russell also had schizophrenia in their families. With this in mind, in the 1970s, Dr Andreasen interviewed participants in the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, expecting to run across a percentage of well-adjusted individuals with schizophrenia in their families, only to find herself "absolutely astounded" to encounter instead 80 percent of them with some form of mood disorder, as well as increased rates of mood disorder and creativity in their first-degree relatives.

Confessed Dr Andreasen: "This is a great example of starting out with the wrong hypothesis and coming up with a completely different answer."

So what is going on in the brain? Dr Andreasen explained that there are 100 billion neurons in the cerebral cortex, as many as the stars in the Milky Way, with an almost infinite capacity to make connections.

All humans have creative capacity, Dr Andreasen was quick to point out. For instance, when people talk to each other, each individual is saying something he or she has never said before. But then there is extraordinary creativity, involving those who have a greater capacity to see and create new things.

In nature, there are non-linear and dynamic self-organizing systems, where small causes may have large outcomes (think butterfly effect). Birds that take off in flight create a formation, then change places to maintain their formation. Similar dynamics can be found in the ecosystem and in the economy. No one is in charge. The whole is greater than its parts. The parts spontaneously self-organize to create something new.

Creativity is probably an unconscious process. The Romantic poet, Coleridge, in writing "Kubla Khan," (subtitled, "A Vision in a Dream"), recounted how he sank into an opiate-induced sleep while reading a book about the Orient. Wrote Coleridge (with reference to himself in the third person) "all the images rose up before him as things with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort."

Says Neil Simon: "I step into a state that is apart from reality." And Mozart: "Whence and how [ideas] come, I know not; nor can I force them … Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. And Poincare: "Ideas rose in crowds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination."

As Dr Andreasen explained: "Most people who are creative will say, ‘It happens unconsciously, I can’t explain it.’" Writers literally don’t know where their next sentence is coming from. Yet teachers demand that their students make an outline first. Dr Andreasen confessed to surreptitiously writing her school papers first, then submitting an outline of the paper she had already written.

At the neural level, these unconscious processes play out in our association cortices (frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital). These cortices have no specific function (such as moving a limb). "Their whole role is to facilitate making connections between one part of the brain and another." When we are thinking creatively, these cortices are running wild. "Initially, it just might be gobbledygook." Then something locks together. Gook to gobbledygook to E=MC2. "In a way, the brain disorganizes to self-organize to produce a new idea."

http://www.mcmanweb.com/

http://en.wikipedia....cy_C._Andreasen

[calmcookie]

Mr. Stocks ... Thanks for your interesting post.
______________________________

Within You

Creating is the joy in life
Creating is the way
Creating makes us one on earth
It's in you every day

To let it out, to let it flow
To show it light of day
It's everything we need on earth
It's sunlight, every ray

When handed any sorrow
When given every pain
It's the never changing face of love
Creation, that's its name

CJP (also known as C.C. )

Edited by calmcookie, 05 June 2007 - 01:16 PM.

[spielchekr]

So it begs the question "do the best traders tend to be creative or rigid"?

[mss]

So it begs the question "do the best traders tend to be creative or rigid"?

DEPENDS or ED corrected

[calmcookie]

So it begs the question "do the best traders tend to be creative or rigid"?

DEPENDS or ED corrected

MSS ... You made a BRIEF comment on a firm topic

Edited by calmcookie, 05 June 2007 - 09:08 PM.

[spielchekr]

Any other "enhancements" to the "subject" you'd like to add?

[calmcookie]

Some "members" just get out of "hand." oooooh, that was bad