Brain Pickings: Freud asserted that daydreaming is essential to creative writing — something a number of famous creators and theorists intuited in asserting that unconscious processing is essential to how creativity works, from T. S. Eliot’s notion of “idea incubation” to Alexander Graham Bell’s “unconscious cerebration” to Lewis Carroll’s “mental mastication.” In the 1950s, Yale psychologist Jerome L. Singer put these intuitive observations to the empirical test as he embarked upon a groundbreaking series of research into daydreaming.
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Interesting. I've never really given much thought to daydreaming. I think some of my favorite activities -- like hand sewing -- stem from being able to do something constructive with my hands while letting my mind wander. I think this is when I come up with my best ideas. It's a calm time to synthesize thoughts, memories, and ideas and let things congeal for a while. You never know what comes out! I think all too often we don't give our brains that bit of calm and blank time to just think and wander. I have to say though that I'm always much more content when I do get this time. I've always liked to sew without any music or other stimulus to 'pass the time.' I've always been content and never bored -- I think it is because I like the quiet time to think. My dad always says that he's never been bored in his whole life. I don't think you ever can be bored if you just keep your brain active and let it be creative. Give it that space and let the ideas synthesize!
It seems as we understand the brain more thoroughly, we come increasingly to the conclusion that what we thought of as separate, the exterior world of the body and the interior world of the mind, are not as distinct as we had imagined. Our perceptions which seem so concrete to us are nothing more than a complex arrangement of electrons and neurons that take cues from the complex arrangement of electrons and protons surrounding it to help a complex arrangement of electrons and carbon-based cells navigate and reproduce. Sounds romantic doesn't it. In this pragmatic light, the things we see in our heads are no less "real" than what we see around us. Discussions surrounding this paradox have been a cornerstone of philosophy since Plato described shadows on a cave wall. I would be curious when the very idea of a "daydream" came into use. A quick search using Ngram (an engine that searches all of Google's digitized books for word usage) shows the word "daydream" as a single word only came into use after 1920 in English (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=daydream&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdaydream%3B%2Cc0). While this is in no way scientific or conclusive, it is interesting that a word with a negative connotation for the act of quiet imagination has its birth in our culture at the height of Industrialization and Mechanization. In an age that romanticized the precision and diligence of the automaton, it's no wonder "daydreaming" became linked with laziness and melancholy, two of the most UN-industrious human characteristics. In fact, it is our ability to imagine, to foresee possible outcomes, to visualize the shape of a cog or the arc of a curveball, to dream of a rocket, to create without input, that maintains our very slight edge over the computers. It seems to me there could not be a better time for daydreaming to come back into fashion.
I initially chose to read this article because of its title, as "daydreaming" is something I tend to do a lot of. As Sophie mentions, it's very easy to let my thoughts wander while my hands are doing something else. I teeter back and forth on how "productive" "daydreaming" (at least in my case) really is. I'm attracted to all the positive implications in this article, that letting the mind travel in an uninhibited fashion encourages imagination and creativity. But how does that exhibit itself in my decisions, actions, and speech? I feel like it's similar to that that age-old adage about making a decision via coin toss: you don't know what you want until that breath of hesitation when the coin is in the air, and you suddenly know what outcome you're hoping for. In a weird way, I think this applies here. I could spend hours focussed marinating on a problem or dilemma, or essay. And it's not until I back away from it or "daydream" that my thoughts stumble upon something tangent that relate to the idea I was seeking.
I also think it's interesting how Andrew pointed out that the term "daydream" has a negative connotation, and the origin of the term. It's a fascinating correlation.
I also found it interesting that in his studies he linked imagination to delayed gratification. I wonder how such results would differ in another time, because we live in such an instant-gratification oriented society.
I think the next step in this research goes back to the perpetual argument of nature vs. nurture. Who is naturally inclined to daydream, and who is encouraged? Or, the other direction in which I would be curious to see this develop would be these studies linking to the personalities of the extrovert v. the introvert.
The distinction that this article makes between the negative effects of daydreaming and the positive ones are very accurate. While it is easy to figure out the negative impacts of daydreaming it is hard to understand exactly how much our mind needs daydreaming to not only creatively function but to plan for the future and figure out problems. This has a lot to do with the negative connotation that are sometimes associated with artists. People may think that artists are lazy or constantly in their heads when they are really just trying to figure out problems and let their brains actually work for them.
It is also fascinating that daydreaming allows you to be wholly in the moment and not at all there. We are simultaneously present and passive. We can be fully engaged while being worlds away at the same time. This gives you perspective and intimacy from a project which can create a very exciting outcome.
Daydreaming is one of those things that when I know I have nothing pressing to do,I don't mind staring off into the distance and letting my mind wander for quite some time. A great deal of my creative inspirations come from that habit. That said, there is a highly negative connotation attached the concept of daydreaming. The romantic, idealistic interpretation provided by this article is by no means broadly accepted. When I grow silent and begin to daydream people around me often ask if i'm okay or if something is wrong because sitting down and staring off into the distance for prolonged periods of time is just not a commonly accepted practice. It should be. The issue is that we are all so focused on the work at hand and our careers that the concept of doing nothing just doesn't compute. There is too much going on to just do nothing for a little bit. The thing is, after daydreaming, I'm always far more productive then I was when I started and far more inspired to do creative work. From a young age children need to be taught that it is okay to just daydream for a little while and stare off at nothing. But that dreaming needs to be monitored so that dreaming isn't the only thing one ever does.
I have a mind that tends to wander and daydream when its not supposed to, and I have fully embraced it. In high school there was hardly a class in which I could keep myself from daydreaming. High school was not nearly creative enough, so I would always let my mind wander and travel to far off places. I think now, as a design student, that daydreaming has helped me become a creator and thinker. Being at CMU, I am now able to really act on the years that I spent daydreaming in high school. design and art projects harness that creative mentality that i used to spend daydreaming.
As an avid daydreamer I have never really thought that my skill was actually helping me be more creative. I have always developed creative ideas in this wonderful submissive state but never really applied them to real life situations. I think maybe it was developing in my subconscious the whole time. This being said, I would not really consider myself an overly creative person, but I have my moments. This article is very interesting because it puts something that always seemed negative in a positive light. After reading this article I wish I could go back to my high school teachers and show them this article and say, "See, your class was making me more creative."
I agree with Andrew's interpretation of when daydreaming became a problem instead of a natural human behavior. Our brains are not able to handle above a certain threshold of use and if the side effect of that is that we daydream then we should let the natural defense mechanism work. People need some relief from the day to day slog. Daydreaming and a time of self reflection are perfectly valid uses of time. We as a culture are constantly overstimulated by the technology that we have access to. Having music, movies, social media, and an endless supply of information in our pockets sets an impossible bar of stimulus for people. Using meditation to gain a higher insight into the human condition and the world around us has been a cornerstone of many groups for many years.
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