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Serendipity in the Theater: Maude Adams as James M. Barrie's American Muse
Author(s) -
CHUMACEIRO CORA L. DÍAZ
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
the journal of creative behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.896
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2162-6057
pISSN - 0022-0175
DOI - 10.1002/j.2162-6057.2003.tb00833.x
Subject(s) - creativity , serendipity , psychoanalysis , psychoanalytic theory , set (abstract data type) , psychology , cognitive science , cognition , art , art history , epistemology , philosophy , computer science , neuroscience , social psychology , programming language
A special niche in theatre history is addressed to begin to fill a void in the contemporary creativity literature. The present essay focuses on Maude Adams and James M. Barrie in an attempt to demonstrate that, serendipitously, Adams initially impacted Barrie's creative process, and thereafter became his platonic source of inspiration for the plays he created for her, meriting the belated title of muse. Set change theory is underscored as a plausible cognitive explanation for Barrie's illumination. The psychoanalytic theory of transference is proposed as an underlying mechanism for facilitating the change of mental set during the incubation stage. A brief discussion on a selective theoretical integration from the fields of cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis, and neuroscience is followed by conclusions.