Emotional Creativity

Abstract

Creativity encompasses and is influenced by several emotions. Emotional creativity is a critical component in the creative process. It is the ability to create something new through the influence of emotions evoked from the personal or experiences of others. Creative works inspired by emotions are often original and greeted with Euphoria. This chapter demonstrates how different emotions inspire different forms and levels of creativity with examples of notable artists who experienced emotional creativity. This chapter discusses research linking emotions to creativity and the explanations of how the identification and regulation of emotions, which are often referred to as emotional intelligence, make a difference in whether creativity becomes useful, helpful, or hurtful. The dark side of creativity, which occurs when creativity becomes hurtful instead of helpful, and research into its causes is also discussed in this chapter. An example of a notable figure in the twentieth century, i.e., Adolf Hitler who masterminded World War II, is used to demonstrate how emotions played a role in this phenomenon. A conclusion alluding to the fact that creativity or creative outcomes are not necessarily bad but the application of creative work and the ability to identify emotions and regulate or control the emotions to drive creative performance validates emotional creativeness.