FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THE EXISTENCE OF THE DARK SIDE

In everyday usage as well as scholarly discussions, it is almost axiomatic that creativity is good. Indeed it cannot be denied that it often leads to beneficial advances in art and literature, science, medicine, engineering, manufacturing, business, and other areas (the bright side). Unfortunately, the enchantment with creativity is so intense that, as James, Clark, and Cropanzano (1999) complained, people, including researchers “… typically ignore the fact that a great deal of creative effort is done in service of negative ends” (p. 212). James, Clark, and Cropanzano argued that this has led to an absence of consideration of negative creativity or, as the editors of the present volume would put it, a failure to come to grips with the dark side of creativity. This means that little has been worked out about the “… triggers, processes, outcomes …” (p. 212) of the dark side. The result is obvious: Approaches to recognizing the dark side, avoiding circumstances that foster its growth, discouraging its manifestation, redirecting it, protecting against its negative consequences, and the like, are not well developed. The purpose of this book is to increase both awareness of the dark side and understanding of the forms and processes of negative creativity, begin to develop the necessary conceptual framework, and set in motion a discussion of how to deal with it in practical settings.