For this installment of Five on Fridays, we speak with Professor Anna Abraham about creativity, the human spirit, and more.
Watch our interview with Prof. Abraham where she dispels myths about the human brain from mental illness to psychedelics.
1. What are you optimistic about?
The indomitable human spirit.
2. What have you changed your mind about and why?
I recently changed my mind about how to define creativity. I advocate for redefining a creative act as one that is novel and satisfying. It better captures human creativity (in opposition to, for e.g., AI forms) across domains (arts and sciences) and across modes (creator versus recipient) by accommodating the emotional, motivational, and interoceptive landscape that shape and determine how and why we create.
3. What is your favorite beautiful explanation or answer?
Rabindranath Tagore great insight: “Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.”
4. What’s something our viewers might not know about you? I have zero visuospatial orientation. I never have any idea where I am am geographically speaking. It drives my loved ones absolutely crazy.
5. What are you reading and/or watching right now?
I am re-reading Arthur Koestler’s fantastic The Act of Creation. I first read it more than 20 years ago and I felt drawn to it again recently.
