From private intuitions to public symbol systems: An examination of the creative process in georg cantor and sigmund freud

Abstract

Case studies of major creative figures who were active in different domains can help to indicate commonalities and distinctive features in the creative process. With this goal in mind, a comparison is made between the mathematician Georg Cantor's study of various orders of infinity and the psychologist Sigmund Freud's exploration of the operation of the unconscious. In both cases, similar processes can be discerned: (a) articulations of a new intuition; (b) construction of local coherences; (c) the reworking of standard symbol systems, giving way to the creation of a new, more adequate symbolic system; and (d) the articulation of a new thema (Holton, 1988). The study also describes a number of contrasts, among them the criteria by which formulations are judged in the two domains, the contrasting cosmological stances assumed by the investigators toward their projects, and the differing needs for a formal symbol system.

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