Creativity and emotion: Reformulating the Romantic theory of art

The creative process has mystified thinkers in the western tradition at least since Plato. According to Oatley (in press), our contemporary view of creativity is predominantly Romantic. From the Romantic perspective, beauty, goodness, and truth are inherent in human nature and we have access this natural way of being through our emotions. Thus, romanticism offers a theory of the creative process: it is the personal exploration and authentic expression of the emotions. The following paper tests the Romantic hypothesis by drawing on multiple perspectives within the human sciences. To begin, a more comprehensive statement of the Romantic hypothesis is offered via R. G. Collingwood’s The Principles of Art (1938). From there, the hypothesis is evaluated with respect to the psychology of emotion, emotional neuroscience, dynamic systems modeling, and phenomenology. In conclusion, it is argued that, for the most part, the Romantics were right. However, contemporary science offers some valuable insights into the nature of emotion and creativity. With these insights in mind, a reformulation of the romantic theory is proposed.