This second edition of the renowned Cambridge Handbook of Creativity expands on the first edition with over two thirds new material reaching across psychology, business, entrepreneurship, education, and neuroscience.

It introduces creativity scholarship by summarising its history, major theories and assessments, how creativity develops across the lifespan, and suggestions for improving creativity. It also illustrates cutting-edge work on genetics and the neuroscience of creativity, alongside creativity's potential for both benevolence and malevolence.

The chapters cover the related areas of imagination, genius, play, and aesthetics and tackle questions about how cultural differences, one's physical environment, mood, and self-belief can impact creativity. The book then examines the impacts on creativity of behaviour by teachers, managers, and leaders in particular.

The classic study of the creative process from the national best-selling author of Flow, Creativity is about capturing those moments that make life worth living. Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi reveals what leads to these moments - be it the excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab - so that this knowledge can be used to enrich people's lives.

Drawing on nearly 100 interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists, to politicians and business leaders, to poets and artists, as well as his 30 years of research on the subject, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous flow theory to explore the creative process.

He discusses such ideas as why creative individuals are often seen as selfish and arrogant, and why the "tortured genius" is largely a myth.

Most important, he explains why creativity needs to be cultivated and is necessary for the future of our country, if not the world.

Mobile Brain–Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity presents a multidisciplinary exploration of how art, science, and engineering intersect to advance understanding of human creativity and innovation. Drawing from international conferences held in Cancun and Valencia, this collaborative work investigates fundamental questions about how creative arts engage the brain, promote innovation, and create meaning through aesthetic problem-solving.

The book examines how arts-science partnerships can advance understanding of individual and social cognition, improve health outcomes, and support lifelong learning, while exploring how emerging neurotechnologies are transforming both scientific inquiry and artistic expression. Contributors reveal insights about collaborative potential between disciplines, documenting current advances and charting future research directions.

Designed for academic researchers, industry professionals, artists, and anyone interested in interdisciplinary innovation, the work bridges disciplinary languages through accessible design elements and supplementary materials including video content and conference presentations. The book serves as both documentation of current arts-science collaboration and a roadmap for future developments at the intersection of creativity, neuroscience, and human understanding.

Creativity has long been thought of as a personal trait, a gift bestowed on some and unachievable by others. While we laud the products of creativity, the stories behind them are often abridged to the elusive "aha!" moment, the result of a momentary stroke of genius.

In The Craft of Creativity Matthew A. Cronin and Jeffrey Loewenstein present a new way to understand how we innovate. They emphasize the importance of the journey and reveal the limitations of focusing on outcomes. Drawing on a wide range of scholarship, their own research, and interviews with professionals and learners who employ creativity in the arts, engineering, business, and more, Cronin and Loewenstein argue that creativity is a cognitive process that hinges on changing one's perspective. It's a skill that anyone can hone, and one that benefits from thinking with others and over time. Breaking new ground in the discussion about how we innovate, this book provides strategies that everyone can use to be more creative.

When psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman discovered Abraham Maslow's unfinished theory of transcendence, sprinkled throughout a cache of unpublished journals, he knew it contained fresh insights for living in today’s chaotic world.

In this groundbreaking book, Kaufman picks up where Maslow left off, building a new level at the peak of the famous hierarchy of needs pyramid—and integrating the latest research on attachment, connection, creativity, purpose, and other building blocks of a life well-lived.

Transcend provides a roadmap for finding fulfillment, not by striving for money, success, or "happiness," but by becoming the best version of ourselves, or what Maslow called self-actualization.

With never-before-published insights and new research findings, along with exercises for gaining insight into your own unique personality, this empowering book is a manual for reflection and personal growth—and a tool for nurturing a deeper connection not only with our highest potential, but also with the rest of humanity.

Is it possible to make sense of something as elusive as creativity?

Based on psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman’s groundbreaking research and Carolyn Gregoire’s popular article in the Huffington Post, Wired to Create offers a glimpse inside the “messy minds” of highly creative people. Revealing the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, along with engaging examples of artists and innovators throughout history, the book shines a light on the practices and habits of mind that promote creative thinking. Kaufman and Gregoire untangle a series of paradoxes— like mindfulness and daydreaming, seriousness and play, openness and sensitivity, and solitude and collaboration – to show that it is by embracing our own contradictions that we are able to tap into our deepest creativity. Each chapter explores one of the ten attributes and habits of highly creative people:

Imaginative Play Passion Daydreaming Solitude Intuition Openness to Experience Mindfulness Sensitivity Turning Adversity into Advantage * Thinking Differently

With insights from the work and lives of Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Proust, David Foster Wallace, Thomas Edison, Josephine Baker, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, musician Thom Yorke, chess champion Josh Waitzkin, video-game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and many other creative luminaries, Wired to Create helps us better understand creativity – and shows us how to enrich this essential aspect of our lives. 

What happens in our brains when we compose a melody, write a poem, paint a picture, or choreograph a dance sequence? How is this different from what occurs in the brain when we generate a new theory or a scientific hypothesis?

In this book, Anna Abraham reveals how the tools of neuroscience can be employed to uncover the answers to these and other vital questions. She explores the intricate workings of our creative minds to explain what happens in our brains when we operate in a creative mode versus an uncreative mode. The vast and complex field that is the neuroscience of creativity is disentangled and described in an accessible manner, balancing what is known so far with critical issues that are as yet unresolved. Clear guidelines are also provided for researchers who pursue the big questions in their bid to discover the creative mind.

Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation is a groundbreaking work of postmodern philosophy that explores how our modern world has become filled with copies that have no original source. Baudrillard argues that we now live in a "hyperreality" where fake or simulated experiences have replaced what is real and authentic. Moving away from traditional ideas about economics and psychology, he develops a new theory about how culture works in our time. This influential book examines how media, technology, and consumer culture have completely changed our relationship to truth and reality. It remains an essential work that continues to shape how we think about media, philosophy, and culture today.

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next gener­ation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the problems of the 1970s often prevent urban-density and green-energy projects that would help solve the problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.

Progress requires facing up to the institutions in life that are not working as they need to. It means, for liberals, recognizing when the government is failing. It means, for conservatives, recognizing when the government is needed. In a book exploring how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and pre­serves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance. At a time when movements of scarcity are gaining power in country after country, this is an answer that meets the challenges of the moment while grappling honestly with the fury so many rightfully feel.

In a world where AI generates art and algorithms compose music, what makes human creativity so special? The answer lies not in what creativity produces, but in what it does for us. While we celebrate the Picassos and Einsteins, we often overlook creativity's most profound gift: its capacity to transform ordinary lives into extraordinary ones.

For too long, creativity has been relegated to art studios and innovation labs, treated as a luxury rather than a necessity. But creativity isn't just about producing something new—it's about thinking differently, approaching challenges with fresh perspectives, and finding meaning in everyday moments.

The research is clear: creativity can be utilized to make people happy and satisfied in their lives. When we embrace our creative potential, we become more resilient, adaptable, and fulfilled. We develop the mental flexibility to navigate uncertainty and the perspective to find beauty in unexpected places.

This new edition comes at a critical time. As our world becomes increasingly automated, the need for creative thinking has never been greater. But this book isn't just about preparing for the future—it's about enriching the present. Whether you're a student seeking passion, a professional stuck in routine, or someone wanting more meaning in daily life, creativity offers a path forward.

Creativity isn't a fixed trait—it's a skill that can be developed throughout our lives. This book will show you how to unlock your creative potential, overcome barriers to creative thinking, and harness creativity's power to improve your entire approach to living.

The journey begins with a simple recognition: creativity isn't just something we do—it's something we are. The question isn't whether you're creative, but how you'll choose to express the creativity that already exists within you.

Discover the secret to flourishing in an age of division: belonging. In a world filled with discord and loneliness, finding harmony and happiness can be difficult. But what if the key to unlocking our potential lies in this deceptively simple concept? Belonging is the feeling of being a part of a group that values, respects, and cares for us—a feeling that we can all cultivate in even the smallest corners of social life. In Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, Stanford University professor Geoffrey L. Cohen draws on his own and others’ groundbreaking scientific research to offer simple, concrete solutions for fostering a sense of belonging. These solutions can generate surprisingly significant and long-lasting benefits.

It all begins with an idea.