Creating : A practical guide to the creative process and how to use it to create anything -a work of art, a relationship, a career or a better life.

Customer Reviews

Some sections of the book launch into an attack on cultural assumptions. Bravo. Most of it was valid in supporting his approach to creating. However, I was uncomfortable with some of his extreme statements about certain disciplines and cultural traditions. He seemed to dismiss all of psychotherapy, and take some cheap shots, for instance, rather than limiting his comments to self-indulgent and deluded approaches. He overgeneralized and thus misrepresented other cultural traditions, ideas, and disciplines. For example:

"While meditation and psychotherapy may have replaced tranquilizing and recreational drugs, all of them presume you are entitled to feel good, even if you need to dull your senses and color reality to find happiness, self-love and fulfillment." p122 Fawcett edition, 1991

On the contrary, I would argue, going through a course of therapy based on Alice Miller's (sample title: Thou Shalt Not be Aware) views might allow and traumatized individual to function in life without enduring constant shaming, flashbacks, and emotional paralysis. It can be important to examine emotions, and feel good at times. Also the meditation I have personal experience of, mindfulness and insight meditation, as described by Chogyam Trungpa (sample title: Meditation in Action) and others are not about brainwashing oneself or dulling the senses. In fact, mindfulness meditation is likely to lead to some of the same insights and awareness Fritz describes in his discussion of the mind, separation, and so on. Fritz would do better if he didn't dismiss everyone else's work. Yes, it's true that people can get too focused on transient emotions and fixing the self. However, meditation and psychotherapy do still have something to offer, keeping in mind the 80/20 rule -- most of everything is crap, so buyer beware.

Ironically, right after Fritz' section on the lack of necessity to choose a right worldview, he launches into what is obviously his worldview. Oh, he has a disclaimer, and he's not dogmatic at that particular moment, but still, throughout the book, he does argue for his views of how things work, what will be if you follow his process. My suggestion: just ignore his adamant, paternalistic ranting, see through it, and go for his basic ideas, which are useful even though he has an obnoxious personality and a bit of a ham-fisted way of throwing around generalizations.

If you want to create something, this book can challenge you in a useful way.

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