order to find some relationship with the world around him, even if that relationship is unhealthy and even self-destructive.
Gardner posits that the creative individual is connected profoundly in many ways with the time, society and culture in which he or she lives. The modern world, he says, is a "museum without walls," a "global village" (Gardner, 1993, p. 4). His theory of creativity is based on the belief that there are common threads which run through the lives and creative efforts of such individuals. Obviously, then, the presence of such threads will mean that the individual has a greater chance to lead a creative life. Specifically, the individuals Gardner studies in order to test and apply his theory are Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, T.S. Eliot, Martha Graham, and Mahatma Gandhi.
In examining these seven personalities, Gardner says he is searching for
conclusions about the nature of the Creative Enterprise writ large. I believe that if we can better understand the breakthroughs achieved by individuals deliberately drawn from diverse domains, we should be able to tease out principles that govern creative human activity. . . . I argue . . . that each creative breakthrough entails an intersection of the childlike and the mature; the peculiar genius of the modern in this century has been its incorporation of the sensibility of the very young child (Gardener, p. 8).
Again we see Gardner's emphasis on the realm of the child
in creativity. Clearly, the creative individual cannot simply rely on external sociocultural nurturing. He or she must make extraordinary, sustained individual effort. However, if the sociocultural environment obstructs creative opportunities, the individual will find it difficult if not impossible to lead a creative life. In short, if the child is robbed of a childhood or denied creative encouragement, he or she will not have developed the "sensibility of the ve...