Identifying the Highly Creative Person

 

The Center for Creative Intelligence is established upon the understanding that highly creative people are often set apart by similar characteristics and experiential themes that are frequently overlooked:

 

1. Highly creative individuals can usually be identified by the existence of a specific cluster of innate aptitudes:

• High ideaphoria - a naturally rapid flow of ideas;
• Divergent thinking - a natural inclination for simultaneous and multifaceted thinking, used in conjunction with linear thinking;
• Acute sensory skills - in one or more of the five senses, most often exhibited in terms of having strong sensitivities to light, sound or visual images;
• Strong intuitive capabilities - the experience of knowing something is true and being highly accurate without reliance on concrete information.
• High emotional intelligence - an acute awareness and understanding of one’s own feelings as they occur, and the ability to be highly attuned to the emotions of others.

These aptitudes, when used in combination, give rise to creative intelligence – a superior ability for innovative thinking and application.

 

2. Creative aptitudes are frequently hidden beneath an easily-recognized problem in daily life. While individuals are usually aware of the problem, they may not be aware of the underlying aptitude. Specific problems usually correlate with specific aptitudes. For example, the experience of feeling overwhelmed can frequently accompany a naturally high flow of ideas.

 

3. Creative aptitudes can become liabilities when they are not recognized, nurtured and given a meaningful outlet on a direct basis. This phenomenon may be considered the ‘double-edged sword’ experience that accompanies creative aptitudes.

 

4. Highly creative people can face a lifetime of hardship and psychological pain when they do not see themselves or their abilities clearly. As a result, they may fit themselves into situations that are unsuitable for them, and may blame themselves when they are unable to resolve their problems. They often experience the deepest turmoil when they are not able to materialize their talents in a recognizable or tangible form, even though, on some level, they may realize that they are capable. They often feel confused in their attempts to figure this ‘puzzle’ out. Highly creative people can feel particularly marginalized when mainstream images of daily life do not feel compatible with their own values and interests. This experience can lead to a feeling of being ‘psychologically homeless.’

 

5. Highly creative people frequently suffer from a type of psychological trauma when their experiences and abilities have not been adequately acknowledged from an early age. As adults, this trauma can be re-triggered on a regular basis when others do not appear to understand or appreciate what they are saying or doing. As a result of these instances, they may come to believe that their way of seeing and doing things is somehow not valid.

 

6. Highly creative individuals who receive mental health treatment from doctors or therapists who remain under-educated about the characteristics of the gifted and talented are often at risk of receiving an inaccurate or inappropriate mental health diagnosis. The experience of receiving misguided treatment can be further traumatizing, thus compounding the difficulties they may already have.

 

7. Creatively gifted people are often plagued by a need to find out what they are meant to do in life. They are driven by a strong need to respond to a calling, although initially they may not even know what it is. The need to attend to the call can be pushed aside for awhile, but it can not be avoided indefinitely without incurring some psychological and/or concrete cost.

 

Prompted by this realization, one can become more willing and able to accept the costs that come with the vocation rather than those that result from avoiding it. An authentic vocation provides intrinsic fulfillment and invariably contributes to the greater good.