Decentering the creative self: How others make creativity possible

Objectives: Since its inception the psychology of creativity has been primarily concerned with the study of individual creators. However, creativity as a phenomenon fundamentally requires self-other relations. This study is dedicated to an exploration of: (a) who has a significant impact on a creator’s activity, and (b) what is the contribution others make to creative outcomes. Design: The study included 60 professional creators in France from the following domains: art, design, science, screenplay writing, and music composition. Methods: Participants were selected using convenience sampling. Twelve in-depth interviews from each creative domain were coded using thematic analysis. Five global themes emerged: the familiar other, the immediate other, the institutional other, the distant other and the internalised other. Results: Findings revealed both similarities and differences across the five domains in terms of the specific role others play in the creative process. If friends and family shape to some extent the activity of any creator, immediate others like peers are fundamental for scientists and clients guide the creativity of designers and scriptwriters. Both artists and scientists interact with a series of ‘gatekeepers’ specific for their domains while more distant others – the general public – are decisive in the case of music as a performance art. Conclusions: Others play a key formative, motivational, informational and regulatory role in the creative process. From internalised to distant, audiences are part of the equation of creativity calling for a ‘de-centration’ of the creative self and its ‘re-centration’ in a social space of actions and interactions.