On Scientific and Artistic Creativity

Leonardo, Vol. 6, pp. 57-58. Pergamon Press 1973. Printed in Great Britain ON SCIENTIFIC AND ARTISTIC CREATIVITY Albert Szent-Gyorgyi* Human activity is dominated by the search for happiness. Happiness, in its turn is, essentially, selffulfillment , a statein which all needs, be they material or intellectual, are satisfied. Pleasure is the satisfaction of a need and there can be no great pleasure without a great need. Ability brings with it the need to use that ability. If artists or scientists are willing to face deprivation, this is because the need to satisfy the urge of creativity is stronger than the need to satisfy physical or material desires. What underlies artistic or scientific creating is the need to satisfy the ability to create. Without such a need there can be no real artist and no real scientists. Without it art and science are only occupations, not vocations. The need is the result ofan ability. Being a scientist, I cannot speak about art as an inner experience. Scientific creation is in many ways germane to artistic creation but there are also important differences. On the whole, it is possible to distinguish two types of scientists. One type was called by W. Ostwald 'classical', the other 'romantic'. T. Platt called the first type 'Apollonian', the second 'Dionysian'. According to W. B. Cannon, what distinguishes the two groups is that members of the first are led by planning, while the members of the second are led by hunches. 'Hunch' may be but the everyday name for intuition. I would, myself, characterize the first group as dominated by conscious thinking, the latter by subconscious thinking. Ahunch or intuition is, probably, but subconscious thinking, with only its final result entering one's consciousness. Inmay weave in my personal research experience, as far as I can remember, I never solved a problem by conscious thinking. In order to solve a problem, I have to think very hard about it but this thinking never leads me anywhere; it is but a necessary priming process. Finding myself unable to solve my problem, I 'drop it', that is, let it sink into my subconscious. How long it stays there varies. It usually takes a few weeks, then, unexpectedly, the solution comes clear to my mind. Evidently, my brain went on working on the problem without my knowledge and worked on it till the problem was *Laboratory of the Institute for Muscle Research, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass. 02543, U.S.A. (Received 14 August 1972.) 57 solved, passing the solution into my conscious mind. Having understood this mechanism, I try to avoid activities or pleasures that interfere with the subconscious working of my brain. Such activities are parties, TV, movies and any sort of hustle-bustle. Activities that do not interfere with my subconscious are music, sleep, fishing, sailing, hiking or horse riding. This mechanism of problem solving has its advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are mostly material in nature. Science in America has been bureaucratized lately to a great extent and bureaucracy always tries to clip the wings ofimagination . In science, the bureaucracy does this by demanding long-term research projects for which one has to tell what oneis going to do and find during the period of the project in question, be this one year or five years. But, research means probing the unknown and, if one knows what lies ahead, then it is not research and is not worth doing. The 'Apollonians ' are much better off. They avoid big jumps and mostly bring to perfection existing lines. Accordingly, those that can make long research plans are the favorites of bureaucratic committees. Creative artists are more closely related to Dionysian than the Apollonian scientists. Having defined creative work as the satisfaction ofa need, I should say a few words about the origins of that need. The need may be composed of two components, the congenital, or inborn, and that acquired through education or experience. There can be no high grade artistic and scientific creation without talent. No labor or goodwill can entirely replace this 'gift' ofnature. But this gift ofnature is, in itself, meaningless and often demands definite environmental factors to come to fruition. I often...