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84 Creativity

Unfortunately, this interesting and elegant theory – so 21st century in
both its emphasis on self-organization and its attempt to explain cogni-
tive phenomena with neurophysiology – cannot be true. The behavior of
individuals vis-à-vis complex cognitive tasks is strongly influenced by prior
knowledge and practice. training effects are large in magnitude and they
can make the production of a novel solution either more or less likely. The
Gestalt theory cannot accommodate this commonplace observation. What
is the locus of training effects if restructuring is a predetermined tumble
down a minimal energy curve to a stable end state specified by the laws of
self-organization, operating on the electrical activity of neural matter? The
Gestalters formulated their theory in conscious opposition to the behaviorist
claim that human beings are infinitely malleable in response to experience.
as a consequence, they produced a theory that goes too far in its denial
of prior experience, as Jean Piaget, robert Weisberg and other critics have
pointed out. 60
Köhler’s hypothesized connection between self-organization in the cor-
tex and creative thinking is not explanatory but itself in need of explanation.
Why must a structure that is determined by the laws of self-organization in
neural matter correspond precisely to the mental representation of a situ-
ation that is most helpful in solving the problem that the situation poses?
Without further principles about the relation between the brain, the mind
and the world, this intrinsic harmony appears as mysterious as Poincaré’s
claim about the relation between beauty and mathematical truth. indeed,
the claim that the direction of a creative process is dictated by the laws of
material nature is strangely incompatible with the open-ended character of
creative work.
The Gestalt theory of restructuring has no deep answer to the question
of why creativity is limited. Why do we not flip instantaneously and effort-
lessly, as soon as we encounter a poor Gestalt? Why does the flipping act
require cognitive work, even sustained effort in the face of an impasse? The
Gestalters sometimes wrote as if there is resistance to representational change.
For example, Koffka wrote, “We know from the testimony of great thinkers
that in order to solve difficult problems, they persevered in concentrating
on them. But this concentration is effective only inasmuch as it supplies the
problematical external situation with sufficient energy to make reorganiza-
tion possible.” However, they never specified why restructuring requires
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“sufficient energy.”
a satisfactory explanation for creativity should break down the creative
process into component processes that are simpler than the target process