Creativity and Healing: An Empirical Study of Floral Design (Ikebana)

Abstract

The theory of embodied cognition focuses on mechanisms of meaning beyond the traditional in western metaphysics dichotomy of body and mind. These mechanisms are considered to be the emerging aspects of meaning related to early infant experience of interaction with the environment. Image schema as the earliest form of representation in the mind corresponds to the notion of archetype from analytical psychology. Theory and research suggest that being in touch with the archetypal level of cognition is related to integration of parts of the personality and promotes well-being. Art and creativity are considered to facilitate this process and in this sense to promote healing. Active imagination is a method devised by C. G. Jung to relate to different aspects of the personality through creativity which results in a creative product. Active imagination bears similarity to art, however it focuses not only on the aesthetic outcome of the creative endeavor but also on the transformation of the personality in this process. Analytical psychology studies a number of creative expressions of the products of active imagination such as sand play, drawing, clay modeling, writing, dancing and psychodrama. However, there are no available empirical studies of the healing aspects vii

Relationships of Creative Personality Traits and Spatial Abilities to Shaping Creativity and Floriculture Material Shaping Skills

“…Floriculture design is a visual art (Henss et al, 2006). Shaping in floral design is the use of techniques such as trimming, weaving, pasting, tying, wrapping, layering, and threading to transform the original shape of floral materials to express an abstract idea (Chou, 2017); therefore, shaping is considered a creative activity (Sotirova-Kohli, 2009). Creativity has been described as an aggregation of multiple personal characteristics, including personality traits (Sternberg and Lubart, 1995) and spatial abilities (Gardner, 1983).…”