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The Courage to Create Reprint Edition

by Rollo May (Author)
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"Extraordinary, wise, and hopeful…nearly poetic meditations." ―Boston Globe

What if imagination and art are not, as many of us might think, the frosting on life but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms, rather than the other way around? In this trenchant volume, Rollo May helps all of us find those creative impulses that, once liberated, offer new possibilities for achievement.

A renowned therapist and inspiring guide, Dr. May draws on his experience to show how we can break out of old patterns in our lives. His insightful book offers us a way through our fears into a fully realized self.

Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0393311066
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0393311068
  3. Edition
    Reprint
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Publication date
    March 17, 1994
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.4 x 8.3 inches
  8. Print length
    144 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A signal testimonial to the creative spirit…A brilliantly incisive exploration of the creative 'encounter'―the coming to grips of the healthily committed creative artist or thinker with his sociocultural background and with his own dangerously Promethean impulses."
― Publishers Weekly

"A lucid and highly concentrated analysis of the creative process…[May] describes the requisites for the creative encounter and the moment of the 'breakthrough.'"
― Saturday Review

About the Author

Rollo May (1909-1994) taught at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, and was Regents' Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. An influential psychologist, he was the best-selling author of Love and Will, as well as the author of The Courage to Create, Man's Search for Himself, The Meaning of Anxiety, and Psychology and the Human Dilemma.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (March 17, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393311066
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393311068
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1230L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:

About the author

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Rollo May

Rollo May

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Rollo May (1909-1994) was an influential existential psychologist and the author of Love and Will, The Courage to Create, and The Discovery of Being.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
408 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

luv2shoppe
5.0 out of 5 stars For all Creatives
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2024
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This is a must read for any creatives on this planet!! So much to learn… do not pass this one up!! If you have the courage to go after your dreams this will give you a waterfall of everything you need to just go for it!!
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R
5.0 out of 5 stars Coherent yet elusive argument
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2018
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At the center of this book is an attempt to answer the question – “What is it that leads an artist to create a masterpiece?” The result – a rather haphazard list of quips and intelligent examples that seem to form a coherent yet elusive argument that’s structured yet leaves the question unanswered. The book rather answers the question – “what takes place in the mind of a person during the creative process.” Rollo May acknowledges in the preface that over the course of his college and university lectures on creativity, he always hesitated to publish these lectures because they seemed incomplete. This book is that incomplete publication after his realization that the unfinished quality would always remain with mystery of creation still remaining open. Nevertheless, the book achieves more than what a random list of musings would, perhaps because it leaves a lot for the reader to infer. So whether a reader likes this book or not depends on what she/he is able to infer from it.
The argument of creativity in the book revolves around three elements – courage, unconscious and encounter. Each of these words assume a new meaning in this book, a meaning orthogonal to dictionary definition of these words, which makes understanding the arguments a bit difficult. What’s required from the reader is a forgetting of the essence of these words and an attempt to look at the arguments with ingenuous eyes; with a novel look the arguments would start to make sense. The reader would then realize what Rollo May means when he says that “A painter paints a picture with the same feelings as that with which a criminal commits a crime,” or that “Creativity is indeed to forge in a smithy in one’s soul the uncreated conscious of the world. It is difficult, perhaps so as the writers call it a battle with the Gods. It’s for this reason it requires courage to triumph into the unknown.” Amid many such quips and intelligent arguments, Rollo May ends his argument without proof or supporting examples with this assertion - “Creativity is yearning for immortality, hence a battle with Gods.” What a reader makes out of it is your prerogative. The quotes above are from the chapter on creativity and the remaining book talks about role of unconscious and encounter in creativity. The element of unconscious is explained by using an example from Henri Poincare’s autobiography. It can be summarized in many ways but is best left for the reader to read in the book. Similar to unconscious, the idea of encounter in creativity is elusive and therefore little attempt is made to define it but only explain it through relevant examples and assume that the reader will for his/her own opinion of the examples. This book although labeled as a text in Psychology may be closer to a text in Philosophy.
This book may leave the reader with an uncanny feeling of knowing a few concepts that she/he is not able to explain in clear words either to self or to friends. That shouldn’t come as a surprise as if it was difficult for the author himself to describe what he was trying to communicate, it is not surprising that the reader may be left with the same feeling. No wonder there are few meaningful and detailed reviews on this book.
Nevertheless, however much elusive the concepts in the book are, if methodically internalized could help anyone engaged in creativity process understand his/her own thought process.
32 people found this helpful
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Billy D
4.0 out of 5 stars Rollo reaches artists
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2015
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Inspiring. Easy to relate to on so many levels. Especially in the early chapters.
Loses it's charm a bit later on.
2 people found this helpful
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James McNabb
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book!
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024
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Gets to the heart of the matter.
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Dani
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2023
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Great price quality
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Seth A. Carlson
3.0 out of 5 stars Exquisitely quotable
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2019
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I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys subjects on creativity, the subconscious, or general psychology. May's work, now newly half a century old, echoes important lessons still relevant today.
4 people found this helpful
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kirtida gautam
5.0 out of 5 stars "Artists pursue meaninglessness until they can force it to mean."
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2017
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"Artists pursue meaninglessness until they can force it to mean."
The Courage To Create is one of the best books I have read this year. Like many of the great books that enter in my life at a particular moment of my individual journey, this book came to me during a timely moment of creation.
I am struggling to write #Book3YinYang. The major struggle is not about the creativity itself, it's to understand the "creative" as the subjective and objective entity.
For the first time, when I started writing in the creative zone with #Book1YinYang, I believed what people believe when the fall in love-- it will never last.
But as a career novelist, Now, I understand that Art is like any long term relationship.
It can't survive on Aha moments alone.
It is bound to have those days of agony when getting to work becomes a struggle.
But that is the beauty of pursuing the career as an artist.
You have to practice Yang-- method of creation.
You have to practice Yin-- the beauty of moments.
And only when both of them are applied, the Father and Mother are present, true creativity comes to life.
39 people found this helpful
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Billy dean
5.0 out of 5 stars Somebody hit there Golden Point
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2022
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Such a good flow of words it almost feels like your not reading or learning. Maybe because this was written a few years back but I enjoyed the setting and tone of this book including the authors thoughts. “Creating” is looked at from the perspectives we should consider going about our daily lives so we are more frequently able to hit our flow states whether in material, mental or a spiritual plane those abilities are innate in us all.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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C
5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating theme and writing
Reviewed in Canada on July 30, 2020
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This is the second book I read authored by Rollo May. Since the first time I read his work (A Man's Search for Himself), my experience in life bring my thoughts back to his work again and again. I am more than excited to read The Courage to Create and I am sure it will be another unique experience.
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Anthony
5.0 out of 5 stars "An introspective look into the creative process, embracing feeling and reason together as one."
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 8, 2020
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The person I got this book for had this to say about it:

"The book, even though it dates from the 70's, still seems quite current in how it portrays people and the world around us. Some parts of reality are a bit different now, but overall the main discussion throughout the book sounds valid and is very well thought through. Even though on the back it is classed as being on the subject of 'Psychology', I would personally have classed this book as being more along the lines of 'Philosophy'.

There were only a few parts in the book that I considered dated or odd, but these parts ended up leading to interesting points anyway, so I cannot fault them. I read the book in about a week, reading 10-20 pages at a time, the book having about 140 pages, at least in the edition I received.

Although I am an artist, I did find the author's psychoanalytic background to be very refreshing, not to mention the content was written plainly and with clarifications, so I would definitely recommend this book to other artists, regardless of what media they use, because the way the author approaches creativity as a whole is very methodical and may help us better understand our own processes of creative activity.

I think what will really stick with me, is the fact that this book acted as a confirmation of sorts for certain pre-conscious concepts I already had, bringing them to the front of my mind and giving me a chance to integrate these thoughts more fully into how I personally view art, the artist and the people who are not artists but nonetheless appreciate the arts.

I am not familiar with the author's other works yet, but after reading this, my interest for them has certainly been piqued."
4 people found this helpful
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Maragathavalli Inbamuthiah
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a must read for everyone. Simple ...
Reviewed in India on September 3, 2017
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This book is a must read for everyone. Simple to read, concepts very clearly explained, deep and thought provoking at the same time.
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LENY
2.0 out of 5 stars Started Strong then fizzled
Reviewed in Japan on July 8, 2017
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I was reading this book for its insights into existential psychotherapy . As is so often the case that turned out to not be what I expected. It was more like a philosophical treatise on art and artists in the ways and reasons they create their masterpieces . I think maybe some art theorizers might be interested in this book but after the first chapter 2 which was pretty personal and insightful for me the rest was just to abstract and definitely not an easy book to finish for me, so I didn't.
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Nilce Ortiz
4.0 out of 5 stars Muito bom!!!
Reviewed in Brazil on January 22, 2015
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A coragem para criar...sair da massa do conformismo e inovar.No entanto, esta em inglês, alias muito bem escrito.Um pouco mais difícil.
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