Schachtel's Metamorphosis : I. On the Confounding of Creativity Contexts

Abstract

In its more specific aspect, this paper is a critical analysis of the concept of allocentric perception, advanced by E. G. Schachtel in his book Metamorphosis. It claims that Schachtel's presentation confounds the novelty and personal-subjective meaning contexts of creativity. That is, it claims that although the perceptions of the allocentric perceiver make his personal-subjective world more meaningful for him and may lead to his making the personal-subjective world of other individuals more meaningful for them, these perceptions are not a cause or condition of his producing anything that historians call innovative. In its more general aspect, the paper is a further effort to clarify the nature of creativity, the meaning of Rorschachian rationality and inner creation, and the nature and meaning of the contemporary “conformity” protest.