This book is about redefining the value to health of creativity. Creativity derives from biological changes during human evolution as a tool that is needed for survival. The successful use of creativity generates feelings of pleasure and self-esteem that are beneficial to health. In particular, it can help depression. Current values do not give adequate importance to creativity, and the author challenges these values in this book. The book contains contributed chapters on a theory of creativity as an innate capacity, the therapeutic benefits of creativity, factors that encourage or inhibit creativity and current research on these, and accounts of creativity both as individual projects and as groupwork.
Contributors. Foreword.
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
Chapter 1 Promoting Health Through Creativity - an Introduction. (Therese Schmid).
Chapter 2 A Theory of creativity - an Innate Capacity. (Therese Schmid).
Chapter 3 Occupational Genesis - Creativity and Health. (Estelle B. Breines).
Chapter 4 The Therapeutic Benefits of Creativity. (Jennifer Creek).
Chapter 5 Factors That Encourage or Inhibit creativity. (Frances Reynolds).
Chapter 6 The Effects of Creativity on Physical and Psychological Well-being. (Frances Reynolds).
Chapter 7 Individual Accounts on The Effect of Creative Activity on health and well-being. (Compiled and edited by Therese Schmid).
Chapter 8 Integrating The firelight of Creativity. Sally Denshire).
Chapter 9 Group Projects - Experiences and Outcomes of creativity. (Compiled and edited by Therese Schmid).
Chapter 10 What is to be Done? (Therese Schmid).
Index.