Man and Creativity: A Contrastive Analysis between Western and Islamic Psychologies

Introduction

This qualitative paper intends to survey some of the existing concepts on man and creativity. Very particularly, it will explore the different notions on man presented by Western mainstream and Islamic psychologies. Upon discussing the various concepts on man, the researchers will proceed to explore the topic on creativity in a contrastive manner given by Western and Islamic psychologies. In anchoring the discussion on man and creativity, the researchers will provide an appraisal on the different schools of thought presented in this research.

The Concept of Man in Western Mainstream Psychology

In the field of psychology, the research on man, which started in the ancient past, is an on-going study even during this modern scientific age. It is an undeniable fact that with the passing of time from the primitive to modern, new things have emerged with regard to the study on man and his nature. Being perennial in nature, the old and the new studies conducted on man try to unearth and bring to light many of man’s potentials, which were not known previously. Nye (1986)⁶⁴, states that although at times many of these studies complement one another in answering the intricate questions on the nature of man, there are also times when they contradict one another in their views on the theory and concept of man. Strangely enough, even living on the threshold of the modern and scientific age, psychologists, like other professionals who conduct studies on man, have yet to arrive at a consensus with regard to the question of what is the true nature of man.

In the Western mainstream psychology, the absence of an all-encompassing and holistic idea on human nature has been attributed largely to the diversity of paradigms adopted by these schools of psychology. In the case of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who was the founding father of this school of psychology, conceptualized man in a pessimistic and deterministic manner. His pessimistic view on human nature is based on his assumption that man is evil and selfish by nature. Freud’s deterministic concept on human nature maintains that every human being is enchained to the psychosexual developments of his or her life. According to him, Man is no more than an animal enslaved to his sexual impulses. He further thought that man is controlled by his libidinal impulses and therefore should be un-socialized and irrational in his behaviour.⁶⁵ Furthermore, Freud believed that man has no freedom to cut loose from the shackles of his psychosexual developments. As a consequence of not having the freedom of choice, man’s behaviour is determined by the warring parties of his psyche; namely the id, ego, and superego. Moreover, Freud, through his clinical research, overemphasized to the world that every man is driven by two psychological forces otherwise known as Eros (life instinct) and Thanatos (death instinct).⁶⁶ An exploration into Freud’s ideas on the id, ego and superego gives a clear-cut understanding that man undergoes endless tensions, stress, conflict, dilemma, chaos, and a whole range of other psychopathological illnesses due to the turmoil caused by the forces that reside within the unconscious part of the human psyche. Simply put, Freud’s ideas on man revolve around his theory of personality which is pivoted on his ideas on sexuality. With all these negative ideas, he painted a gloomy picture of man being an intellectual beast doomed for destruction.⁶⁷

On the contrary, the behaviourist school of psychology which based its ideas on man in line with the ‘tabula rasa’ theory of John Locke (1632-1704) states that a child is a blank slate at birth waiting to write down its experiences with the passing of time. Behaviourist psychologists, who emphasize the importance of learning experiences, adopt a mechanistic view of man that focuses on the importance of external factors impacting on human development. According to behaviourists like Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), J.B Watson (1878-1958) and B.F. Skinner (1904-1990), the environment plays a vital role in shaping man’s behaviour and personality.⁶⁸

With their ‘S-R’ (stimulus and response) theory, behaviourists take the neutral stand by saying that man is neither good nor bad in his nature. By putting man on a neutral position, they are of the opinion that man becomes good when placed in a good environment and becomes otherwise when placed in a bad environment. In taking a neutral position, they do not believe in the concept that states man is born with some innate knowledge. Furthermore, they also reject the existence of constructs such as the conscious and unconscious in the human mind.

With such ideas, it is understood that the form of psychology they believe in is purely a scientific one, which is based on the learning theory that pays heed only to the observable behaviour of man.⁶⁹

Contrary to the earlier schools of psychology; namely psychoanalysis and behaviourism, humanistic psychology, which emerged as the ‘Third Force’ of the Western mainstream psychology, deems man to be of innately good nature. Based on the existential and phenomenology philosophies, this school of psychology emphasizes the conscious experience of man without paying too much attention on the unconscious mind. Humanistic psychologists also reject the behaviourist school of psychology with its mechanistic view on how behaviour and personality develop (Maslow, 1968). They do not agree with the behaviourist concept, which states that all human actions can be reduced to a stimulus-response type of reaction. According to them, man has a subjective inner dimension, which influences his actions and thoughts. As such, man has the freedom of choice either to respond or not to respond to the demands of his environment. The main icons of humanistic psychology like Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and Carl Rogers (1902-1987) believe that the good potentials of man can only be manifest in totality when he undergoes the process of ‘fully-functioning person’ and ‘self-actualization’.⁷⁰

Concept of Man in Islamic Psychology

Ideas on human nature put forward by early as well as contemporary Muslim scholars are based on the ideas presented in the Qur’an and Hadith. As such, Islamic psychology has a rather different approach in the study of man compared to many Western theories on man. Islamic psychology based on the religion of Islam provides a concept of human nature, which is diametrically opposite to what has been conceived by most Western schools of psychology. It presents a concept of human nature, which is comprehensive and all encompassing: human beings have physical, social, psychological and spiritual dimensions that must be taken into account in psychological theory and practice.

Islamic psychology highlights many interesting facts on man.⁷¹ According to Islamic psychologists, among all creations in the heaven and earth, only man has been bestowed with many distinctive qualities. As the recipients of these distinctive qualities from God the Almighty, man is placed on the highest pedestal in the hierarchy of creation. Some of the distinctive features explained by Muslim scholars are: man has been created in the best of forms ( Al- Qur’an, Al-Tīn:1-4), provided with the creative intelligence (Al-Baqarah: 31-34), given the power of speech and freedom of choice ( Al-Rahmān: 4; Al-Insān: 3), born in the state of Fitrah (primordial nature) without the ‘Original Sin’, man is forgetful in nature (Ta Ha:115), born with the natural tendency to be a believer in God (Al- Rum:30), has a dual nature: body and spirit, and is the recipient of the Amānah (trust)(Al-Ahzab:72), Mīthāq (covenant) (Al-A’râf-172). Apart from that, man has been further honoured in his stature and position when Allah made all things created in the heaven and earth to be of service to him. (Al-Jāthiyah: 13; Al-Isrā’: 70)⁷².

Due to the fact that man has been endowed with such noble qualities, or for some other reasons only known to the Creator, man has been chosen to be His Khalīfah (vicegerent) on earth. As the vicegerent of God, man has to administer this world in accordance with the Divine Will of his Creator mentioned in the holy script of the Muslims. With these metaphysical concepts on man, Islamic psychology elucidates in clear terms man’s pre-existence in the form of soul, his birth, his life on this world with all the duties and responsibilities laid on his shoulders and also on the spiritual journey undertaken by man upon completing this worldly life.⁷³

What is Creativity

At a time when scholars are debating on the issue as to whether creativity is innate or is a learned behavior, this part of our research is focused on creativity: in particular, what it is and what it means to be creative. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, creative individuals have the following qualities:

• Creating or able to create,
• Having or showing imagination and artistic or intellectual, Inventiveness (creative writing), and stimulating the imagination and inventive powers.

According to Maimunah Osman (2005), creative thinking involves the following:

• The ability to generate new ideas;
• The ability to generate alternative ways to do things;
• The ability to look at a situation from multiple dimensions and perceptions;
• The ability to see things in a broader perspective; and
• The ability to bring new added values to a thing/matter.⁷⁴

She is of the opinion that creativity is demonstrated through change: in particular,

• To bring upon new ideas;
• New ways of solving problems;
• New ways of performing a task;
• Creating a new definition to a job;
• New ways of using a thing;
• Creating new added values to a thing.⁷⁵

Another vital issue related to creativity is how creativity has been perceived by people living in the different cultural contacts of the world. Some view creativity as a godly attribute inherited by some special individuals, while others think creativity as mimicry and a discovery made by someone. Besides this, the more often related vocabularies to creativity are critical thinking and innovation. Our reading on the topic of creativity has revealed that modern scholars overwhelmingly agree that being creative and critical are two qualities or attributes that are inseparable. Analogically explained they are the two-sides of the same coin. In many instances, creative people demonstrate a high level of critical thinking. While innovation in the western culture entails a break away from tradition and old traditional ways of doing and looking at things and situations. In the East, innovation has been perceived as reinterpretation of traditional ideas in the new setting. For some, regardless in the East or West, innovation means to recreate new things and ideas out of the old and existing things or ideas.⁷⁶

Turning to the question on what hinders one from being creative, critical or innovative, there can be many factors. Some of the important disincentives are set out below:

One’s belief that he or she is not creative because creativity is a trademark owned by gifted individuals.

Afraid of being different from others. Don’t want to be seen by others of his/her actions as outlandish, and not keeping to the tradition. Also, afraid of being criticized and marginalized by the society.

Fear of failure in promoting new ideas.

Reluctance to accept new ways of thinking.

Resistance to change.

Always looking at things from one’s perspective only; narrow mindedness, “my way or no way”.⁷⁷

The latest trends in understanding about creativity, critical thinking and innovation indicate general agreement that these qualities are not possessed exclusively by a selected group of people. These are attributes that can be learned, borrowed or imitated and experimented over time to be refined. Through these qualities people can further improve their lives and be able to bring sustainable development for the survival of the entire human race.

Creativity According to Psychoanalysis

The psychoanalysis school of thought in the Western mainstream psychology deems creativity or being creative as a sort of energy that comes from the id impulses which are sexual and aggressive in nature. In Freud’s view, since this energy that gushes forth from the unconscious is unpleasant and socially unacceptable to the society, it needs to be transformed so that it finds acceptance in the society. In order to do this, the ego as the peacemaker of the human psyche between the id and superego, uses one of its defense mechanisms known as sublimation to transform what is originally sexual and aggressive into a creative energy that produces behaviour and works of creativity. Freud in describing the origin of creativity in the mind said:

…first is repression, which is quite energetic. The second outcome occurs when sexual investigation is not totally repressed but is coped with by thought processes or by compulsive defenses. In the third outcome which is the' most rare and perfect type,' sexual curiosity is sublimated into that inquisitive attitude which leads to creativity.⁷⁸

Freud believed that a creative work of an individual is the outlet through which an individual releases all the stored-up contents of his unconscious from early childhood that were deemed to be socially unacceptable, but through sublimation at a later stage in life, the unconscious manifests itself in the form of creative work that will be acceptable to the society. Corey (1986) in elaborating on sublimation as one of the Freudian defense mechanisms stated the following:

From the Freudian perspective, many of the great artistic contributions resulted from a redirection of sexual or aggressive energy into creative behaviors. Sublimation involves diverting the sexual energy into other channels, ones that are usually socially acceptable and sometimes even admirable. For example, aggressive impulses can be channeled into athletic activities, so that the person finds a way of expressing aggressive feelings and, as an added bonus, is often praised.⁷⁹ .

Kris (1952) shared the same idea with Freud on creativity. except he differed in his view that the ego uses regression and not sublimation as its defense mechanism and as an outlet for the unconscious to express itself in the form of a creative work. In describing how creativity comes to the surface, he explains:

From the release of passion under the protection of the aesthetic illusion to the highly complex process of re-creation under the artist’s guidance, a series of processes of psychic discharge take place, which could be differentiated from each other by the varieties and degrees of neutralization of the energy discharged. All these processes, however, are controlled by the ego, and the degree of completeness of neutralization indicates the degree of ego autonomy.⁸⁰

Creativity According to Behaviorists

Unlike psychoanalysis, the behaviorist school of psychology is interested in the observable behaviours of man. They are only interested in the observable things in man that can be subjected to scientific psychological investigation. Since human creativity, emotion and thoughts are not tangible, behaviorism is not interested in exploring how these processes take place at the very core of the human psyche. As such, the behaviorist school of psychology presents an over simplified concept of creativity. Behaviorism is at loggerheads with the psychoanalysis concept of creativity which says that creativity in general or any creative work in its original nature is the libidinal and aggressive energy of the id which through sublimation is made presentable, adorable and acceptable to the society. To the behaviorists, creativity is something that can be answered in terms of stimulus-response.⁸¹

No doubt behaviorists agree in principle that creativity is something that emerges from stimulus-response but they somehow differ in their own views in defining creativity. Radical behaviorists like Skinner argued that there is no such thing as creativity, as all human activities have been controlled by people who dispense reinforcements and punishments like parents, teachers, peers, police, etcetera. He also believed that human dignity that comes from individual accomplishment and achievements are nothing more than something determined by the reward and punishment. To him, even creativeness in poetry is nothing but an act of composing a poem out of ‘bits and pieces’ of the stimulus that come from the environment. Creating a poem needs exploration and discovery but these acts are not viewed as creativeness, rather it is something related to the history of the poet and to the trial-and- error in the learning activities.⁸²

Irving Maltzman, a well-known figure in Behaviorism, believed that one can increase original behavior in others by simply rewarding them for their actions. As such, this means that creativity in man is the result of encouragement and reward given to man’s actions. Staats also explained creative thinking in terms of stimulus-response. In his view, creative ideas of an individual are made up of new combination of previously stored-up, unrelated ideas in the human memory.

The final view on creativity from the behaviorist school comes from Mednick. His view on creativity is focused on mental association (for example, ‘carrot’ may be associated with ‘rabbit’). In his opinion, a highly creative person is one who stores a large number of verbal and non-verbal mental associations which are readily at the disposal of an individual for recombining them into creative ideas.⁸³

Creativity According to Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychology deems that every individual has the capacity to be creative. Developing one’s creativity is very much related to the social environment in which one lives. In a free society where there is no restriction and hindrance that blocks the natural human tendencies, man would be able to bring forward and develop his creativity which has been in existence innately within his inner self. According to Humanistic psychology, man by actualizing his creative potentials, becomes a ‘self- actualized’ person. Furthermore, some humanistic psychologists, especially Maslow, believes that the unconscious is not a storehouse of man’s instinctual drives alone but it also stores many hidden potentials that are creative and adorable to others once they are brought out from man’s inner self.⁸⁴ They also believe that these hidden creative potentials should not make use any of ego defense mechanisms, as this will damage and distort the true quality and essence of the good and creative contents of the inner self. In addition to creativity associated with works that bear special characteristics and recognition (for example, a talented inventor and her/his invention), creativity also exists in the process of self-actualisation, without any special talent or skills, as noted by humanistic psychologists like Maslow and Rogers.⁸⁵

The views expressed by the humanistic psychologists above maintain that man’s unconscious stores creative and desirable potentials is contrary to the Freudian view that regards the unconscious as the powerhouse which stores sexual and aggressive instincts only. In addition, Maslow and Rogers were on the same wavelength in their approval of creativity in a means self-actualization. The following quotations reflect their ideas on creativity:

The main spring of creativity appears to be the same tendency which we discover so deeply as the curative force in psychotherapy- Man’s tendency to actualize himself to become his potentials…the urge to expand, extend, develop, mature- the tendency to express and activate all the capabilities of the organism, or the self.⁸⁶

…the concept of creativeness and the concept of healthy, self-actualizing fully human person seem to be coming closer and closer together, may turn out to be the same thing.⁸⁷

My feeling is that the concept of creativeness and the concept of healthy, self-actualizing fully human persons seem to be coming closer and closer together, and may turn out to be the same thing.⁸⁸

Creativity According to Islamic Psychology

Under the Islamic perspective of psychology, man’s creativity in life is what he has obtained from Allah as the Supreme Creator of the universe. Discussing man’s creativity from the Islamic perspective demands some elucidation on Allah’s attributes as the Creative Creator of the world, and the universe at large.

The attributes mentioned in the Qur’an that reveal Allah’s power as the mighty Creator are namely; Al-Khaliq or Al- Khallaq, Al-Badi, Al-Musawwir and Al-Fatir. The following are references to God’s attributes as the Creator:

To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: How can He have a son when He hath no consort? He created all things, and He hath full knowledge of all things (Al-An‘am 6:101).⁸⁹

That is Allah, your Lord! There is no god but He, the creator of all things; then worship ye Him, and He hath power to dispose of all affairs (Al- An‘am 6:102).⁹⁰

He it is Who shapes you in the wombs as He pleases. There is no god but He The Exalted in Might, The Wise (Ali ‘Imran 3:6).⁹¹

All praise is due to God, Originator of the heavens and earth, who causes the angels to be [His] message-bearers, endowed with wings, two, or three, or four. [unceasingly] He adds to His creation whatever He wills: for, verily God has the power to will anything (Fatir 35: 1).⁹²

According to Langgulung, the verses above, and many more such verses in the Qur’an that explain the Majesty and Power of Allah as the Almighty Creator, can be classified into three different time periods in the creation of man and other forms of life in the universe. The first one explains how He created the universe, man and the other living organisms in the beginning merely out of nothingness. The second one explains how He will bring creations into existence once more again on the day of resurrection for judgment. The third one explains His on-going act in creating things which depicts all changes and progress that take place between his first and second time periods. Furthermore, Langgulung is of the opinion that the last said act of creativeness of Allah in creating and bringing changes and progress in this world is shared by man to a lesser degree.⁹³

Similar to Langgulung, Iqbal has highlighted man’s God given qualities to create and to be creative. In Iqbal’s view, man being the vicegerent of Allah, has been imbued with the many godly attributes. For this reason, Iqbal feels that the ideal believer in God should be one whom he calls as the ‘co-worker’ with God. Since Allah gave this world to man as a raw and unfinished product to deal with, it becomes the duty of man to beautify and ameliorate what is unfinished. This idea of man being the ‘co-worker’ with God has been stated by Iqbal in one of his poems in Payam-i- Mashriq (Message from the East):

You made the night and I the lamp.
You made the clay and I the cup.
You made the deserts, forests, mountains high,
It is I [who made] flowerbeds and orchards and the park.
It is I who grinds the mirror out of stone.
It is I who makes from poison, antidote.⁹⁴

Being the co-worker of Allah, man has to be an active individual who is strong in his will to further develop what has been given to him by God. In this sense, Iqbal in many of his poems has asked man to take a vital role of being in possession or in control of one’s environment. Furthermore, Iqbal believed that it is the duty of man to bring forth the riches from the belly of the earth to be utilized for his spiritual development. In order to do this, man must equip himself with knowledge. As man has been taught by God, and given the faculty of naming things and forming concepts, it should be this gift of God that man must use to his advantage to gain dominance over the world of matter for his own spiritual upliftment (Iqbal, 1996). The claim made by Iqbal and Langgulung of man being a creative creator at a lesser degree than God finds validity in the following verse of the Qur’an:

Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the best of creators (Surah Al-Mukminun: 14).⁹⁵

Since the last part of the verse suggests that Allah as the best of creators, then surely man who is the best creation of God with all the noble qualities given to him also qualifies to have the ability to create and innovate creatively new things on this planet. Furthermore, Iqbal believed that man is not a static being. By relating to the Quranic message that the universe in which man lives is one that is constantly growing every minute and every second, Iqbal applied the same to state that in man, as well, there is a constant growth. By reading Iqbal’s philosophical ideas on the human personality one can understand that he highly valued the role, potentials and creative mind possessed by man. Iqbal’s ideas on man perfectly reflect the message found in the Qur’an. Iqbal’s (1996) positive views on man can be clearly seen in what he said in his monumental philosophical work of the Reconstruction:

Man, therefore, in whom ego has reached its relative perfection, occupies a genuine place in the heart of Divine Creative energy, and thus possesses a much higher degree of reality than things around him. Of all the creations of God, he alone is capable of consciously participating in the creative life of his Maker. Endowed with the power to imagine a better world, and to mould what is into what ought to be, the ego in him aspires, in the interests of an increasing unique and comprehensive individuality, to exploit all the various environments on which he may be called upon to operate during the course of an endless career.⁹⁶

The Quranic verse that states Allah taught all the ‘names’ to Adam (Surah Al- Baqarah 2: 31) could also mean that man inherits the many attributes of Allah in him. Among the many attributes of Allah, names like Al-Khaliq, Al-Badi, Al-Musawwir and Al-Fatir have great significance to the Islamic concept of creativity. Man, who inherits these attributes of Allah, has the tendency to exhibit creativity during his life in this world. The only difference between Allah and man as a creator is that Allah is the Almighty Creator and His power to create and to be creative is Absolute, while man’s power to create is relative or rather limited. Allah can create out of nothingness, but man needs something to create other more advanced, developed, sophisticated and innovative things.

The prerequisites for man’s creativity and being creative are due to his position as Allah’s vicegerent on earth; given the freedom to exercise his freewill to choose all that is good for this life and for the hereafter, and also for being Allah’s trustee in this world which demands responsibility and accountability at the same time. Despite the task of being Allah’s vicegerent, having to shoulder the trust given to him, and the fact that he will be held accountable for his action, man has to actualize his innate potentials by being industrious, productive, progressive, innovative and creative. All these qualities and their manifestation in the human life, in a way, can be interpreted as worship (Ibadah) in Islam. As such, Islamic psychology views man’s creativity as something that should be constructive and morally acceptable to the society, in line with the purpose for which man has been sent to this world. Creativity and creativeness in Islam also require man to be upright, just, and ready to abide by Allah’s commandments and to keep away from His prohibitions, also having no resentment and prejudice towards others.⁹⁷ .

Appraisal

The three Western mainstream psychologies differ fundamentally in their views on creativity. Freudian psychoanalysis looks at creativity as the sublimated energy of the Id made presentable in arts and artistic works. Freud was of the conviction that the Id is at work at the very core of all works of creativity. To prove his point, he analyzed great personalities in history like Plato (428-348BCE), Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Leonardo Da Vinci (1425-1519). In the case of Da Vince, he analyzed this great Italian artist and inventor’s life and wrote a book on him (Freud, 1916). To him, the state of being a creative person or a neurosis is separated by a thin line in the human psyche. One can be either one of the two depending on the situation and on how well the ego handles the situation. In Freud’s view, creativity is not the spark that one gets from the environment to produce great works, but it is the energy that comes from the unconscious of the human psyche which is later transformed into something acceptable by the help of one of the ego’s defense mechanisms.

J.B Watson, Skinner and others from Radical Behaviorism think that creativity like knowledge exists in the environment. To them, man is a ‘Tabula Rasa’ right from birth. As such, knowledge, motivation and creativity come through the stimuli from the environment. People can be motivated, energized and display creativity for being in the right environment and given the right stimulus. Based on the learning theory, they think people can be creative if there is a reward for them. Moreover, they do not believe that things like innate knowledge and man’s inner psychic powers that can be a source of his creativity. In short, they believe that creativity is a learned behaviour.

Maslow and Rogers believed that man is good in his nature and that the human self has a lot of potential for growth. Furthermore, they believed that man comes to this world with some basic, innate or latent knowledge. They also stated that man’s creativeness not only comes from within his human psyche but also from the environment. To them, a ‘fully-functioning person’, ‘self-actualized person’ and the one who goes through a ‘peak experience’ is an individual who is creative in his/her life. In short, they explained creativity in association with all these terms.

Islamic psychologists believe that every individual is capable of being creative. According to Islamic psychology, the state of man being creative is related to the Al-Asma taught to Adam by Allah the Almighty. The word Al-Asma in (Surah Al-Baqarah: 31) can be of anything like knowledge, languages, names of things, God’s beautiful Names, etcetera. Langgulung and others have highlighted that the Asma given to Adam will be inherited by all his progenies (humanity as a whole). Besides this, Islamic psychologists also believe that creativity is within the human Fitrah (man’s primordial nature) in which man has been created. As such, there is creativity in the human soul that needs to be actualized through proper parenting, schooling and conducive environment. From the Islamic perspective, man’s creativity and creativeness come from the human psyche and also from the environment. Man’s qualities of being able to create and to be creative can be seen clearly in the civilizations he has created. Gifted with these noble qualities man has been given the position of God’s vicegerent on earth.⁹⁸

Conclusion

This research on man and creativity has highlighted that different schools of thought in psychology have different concepts on what constitutes creativity. These differences of opinion are based on their divergent concepts of human nature. Regardless in the East or West, however, all marks of human achievement and civilization have only been possible due to man’s attributes of being a creative creator, inventor, and innovator. Man being the best creation of God, should use his creativity and all other God-given qualities towards creating a better world and not use his creativity to create war and destruction. Man’s creativity should stop all destructions that have happened to the flora and fauna. Lastly, man has to use creativity in an ethical manner in line with the purpose for which he has been sent to this world.