Remembering the Stages, Forgetting the Person
Who Really Was Graham Wallas
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21345379 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kyung Hee Kim (0000-0002-3795-4671, School Psychology and Counselor Education William & Mary Graduate School of Education Williamsburg Virginia USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Creative Behavior (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0175 • E-ISSN: 2162-6057 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/jocb.70123 |
| OpenAlex | W7163016268 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
One hundred years after the publication of The Art of Thought (1926), Graham Wallas remains widely cited yet poorly understood. His stages of preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification continue to circulate as a foundational model of creativity, even as the life that gave rise to them has largely faded from view. This article argues that this disconnect reflects a deeper problem in creativity research: the tendency to separate ideas from the lives that sustain them. Drawing on Wallas's writings and contemporaneous accounts, the article reconstructs him as a person shaped by moral seriousness, disciplined effort, intellectual independence, and a sustained commitment to education and social reform. His stages are reinterpreted not as a detachable schema, but as one expression of an ethical orientation toward thought grounded in judgment, responsibility, humane insight, and endurance. The article concludes by asking what is lost when creativity is treated as a model rather than a way of living with ideas
Creativity · Expression (computer science) · Forgetting · Orientation (vector space) · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Mind wandering and attention
| Highly cited | No |
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