Sociocultural Dynamics: Changing Worlds

Abstract

At the end of World War II, the ground was fertile for making creativity a focus for psychological research, as well as a powerful social concept, first in the Cold War and then in global culture. That year Max Wertheimer’s Productive Thinking, which included a series of case studies based on Gestalt theory, was published posthumously. Abraham Maslow, inspired by Wertheimer, Kurt Goldstein, Alfred Adler and others, had just published his first piece on human motivation, prominently linking creativity to human actualization. J. P. Guilford left his role as chief of the U.S. Army Psychological Testing Unit, personally convinced that there is no such thing as a general intelligence factor. Five years later he would give the presidential address to the American Psychological Association, calling for the psychological study of creativity. Carl Rogers had developed a new approach to clinical practice at Rochester and accepted an invitation from the University of Chicago to set up a counseling center. Over the next 40 years he would have extraordinary influence on the fields of counseling and therapy and, like Maslow, would link creativity to self-actualization. And a young Howard Gruber, having finished his tour of duty in the army, more convinced than ever about the need to change the world.