gene logic

… Eric Kandel’s new book on the brain, creativity, Freud, and the pathbreaking artists working in Vienna in the first twenty years of the 20th century.

More at The Finch and Pea.

In Kandel’s own words:

There are two reasons for thinking that the cognitive unconscious may contribute to creativity. First, the cognitive unconscious can manage a greater number of operations than the conscious processes that occur at the same time. Second, as Kris argued, the cognitive unconscious may have particularly easy access to what Freud called the dynamics unconscious - our conflicts, sexual striving, and repressed thoughts and actions - and can therefore make creative use of those processes.