The Psychology of Genius: Creative Eminence in the Making

This paper reviews psychology’s long history of writings about human genius. A definition of genius is offered and explicated: “The capacity to imagine and implement a generally unforeseen domain change that, when eventually recognized, is widely accepted as an advance in that domain.” The review synthesizes informative findings from existing studies of genius, regarding: (1) the mental and personal dispositions of geniuses; (2) the roles of heredity and native talent; (3) the consequences of early giftedness; (4) the ways that individuals of genius interact with their social environments; (5) the workings of highly creative thinking; (6) the cognitive and social relations between geniuses and the domains they transform; (7) the roles of life conditions such as family composition, birth order, schooling, and mental health; (8) the importance of motivational factors such as purpose; and (9) the developmental trajectory of creative eminence. The review confirms the validity of the concept of individual genius, despite recent critical arguments to the contrary; and it asserts the usefulness of the concept for providing an understanding of the workings and potentials of peak human creativity.