Theoretical aspects of the formation of the creative qualities of the student's personality through arts and crafts. Distribution in absolute numbers. Creative people are energetic but focused

The thinking of creative people constantly requires digging into themselves and generating new ideas, which are becoming more and more every day. Thanks to these ideas, creative people can improve their lives in one way or another.

Willingness to ask questions

The creative mind is very . He actively tortures himself large quantity questions and diligently seeks answers to them. In this he is like the mind of a child.

Ability to start thinking from scratch

This is the second quality inherent in creative thinkers, which means that they use “thinking from scratch”. It means asking yourself the question: “I wonder if I would start doing this if I didn’t know what I know on this moment and wouldn't do what I'm doing now?"

And if such a person answers this question in the negative, then he stops doing this business, and is taken to some other occupation. It's amazing how many smart people continue to persevere in doing something for which they have no cravings at all.

Ready for change

The third quality of these people is that they are willing to accept change. They are well aware that in our lives, the unwillingness or inability to change leads to sad consequences. And if you want to be responsible for your life, then you must not only adapt to life changes but also to make those changes.

It is believed that 70% of the decisions we make on life path, subsequently turn out to be incorrect, which can also be read at www.psyhodic.ru. Based on this statement, a person should be ready to change his mind at any moment and start doing something new.

Ability to recognize misjudgments

The fourth quality creative personalities is the willingness to calmly admit the wrongness of one's judgments. People spend a lot of energy to protect themselves from accepting the idea that they made the wrong decision. And creative people are flexible in this regard. They can change their minds and accept the fact that they were wrong.

Learning without interruptions

Truly creative people freely admit that they may not know something. After all, it is impossible to know everything.

It doesn't matter what problem you have. Anyway, someone probably already solved it. And so there is a solution to this problem. The easiest way to solve any problem is to find turnkey solution and try to repeat it. The experience of other people's mistakes is what you need in order to find application in your practice.

Purposefulness

Creative people stubbornly follow their goal. They know exactly what they want. They present their goal as if it is already real. And the more they visualize their goals, the more they come up with methods to achieve them. And that means they get to what they want faster.

Controlling your ego

The seventh quality of a creative person is that his ego does not matter much in his decision-making. He is ready to accept a good idea from any source.

Based on the foregoing, one can already imagine who such a creative person is, what qualities he possesses.

A creative person always strives to create new, unique material or cultural values. Such a person is always talented, and in many areas (for example, Leonardo da Vinci, who excelled in painting and architecture, mathematics and technology).

Modern psychology divides people with a creative mindset into two types:

1. Divergents, that is, people capable of a wide range of creative activities, easily establish distant connections between incompatible and disparate concepts and phenomena; have a rich imagination; original approach to the problem; may oppose generally accepted judgments that have become a cliché; differ in autonomy, independence from other people's opinions; boldly and openly go towards new ideas and experiments; enjoy the discovery.
2. Convergents, i.e. people prone to narrow, focused, deep and specific research; tend to such types of intellectual activity where it is necessary to focus on a more in-depth search in one direction; easily adapt their thinking to social stereotypes, operate with generally accepted clichés; for creative activity they need external stimuli; slowly and thoroughly step on a pre-selected reliable path; indifferent to cognitive emotions). Each author, based on individual abilities and inclinations, seeks to choose the optimal style of working on the material. And the creative processes associated with the preparation of a journalistic work have regular stages, the knowledge of which will allow future journalists, both divergent and convergent, to optimize their activities.

From others, a creative person is distinguished by originality of thinking and the ability to create, enthusiasm, as well as a number of other qualities, such as:

1. Perseverance (perseverance), confirming the presence of motivation. The ability to focus on one occupation, perseverance in spite of failures is one of the qualities of a creative person, helping to get rid of lethargy and indecision. Gives you the opportunity to bring projects to completion. To develop perseverance will help: choosing a life guide, regular exercise or some kind of creative activity.
2. Openness to new experience, emotional openness, flexibility of thought, eccentric views and beliefs - largely due to them, people have original ideas and solutions. All creative people have this kind of openness.
3. Curiosity - the desire to improve their knowledge, interest in various areas of human life and just the environment. This quality gives a person the ability to be active in life, and also stimulates activity for new discoveries and knowledge. It brings joy from the knowledge of the surrounding world, allows you to expand the boundaries of your capabilities. The development of this quality is facilitated by observation, as well as the desire for knowledge. Without curiosity, a creative person is simply impossible.
4. Imagination - the ability of thinking to create new images based on real objects. Thanks to him, the boundaries between the impossible and the possible are erased. This quality gives freedom of imagination in any field: art, cinema, literature, etc. The imagination can be developed. To do this, you need to read books deeply, plunging into the world of characters, be interested in art, visiting exhibitions, art galleries, performing psychological exercises aimed at developing fantasy. Creative personalities are often dreamy.
5. Self-confidence, independence. Thanks to these qualities, a person is completely free from the opinions of others, in other words, emotionally stable. He is able to make his own decisions and implement them. Due to these qualities, any ideas, even the most reckless, at first glance, a person can find real application. The acquisition of these qualities is facilitated by: the development of critical thinking, self-respect, as well as the fight against fear of people. Independence contributes to the promotion of innovative ideas and the development of progress.
6. Ingenuity - the ability of a person to solve life problems in an unconventional way, to create unusual things. Thanks to this quality, masterpieces are created. Benefits: the ability to do extraordinary things, unlimited imagination, the joy of the creation process, freedom from laziness of the soul and body. This quality of a creative personality is not innate. It can be acquired through: increasing one's own erudition, self-improvement (eliminating any signs of laziness), setting and achieving a specific goal. An inventive person is not afraid to try something new in life.
7. Speed of information processing: resourcefulness in answers, quickness of thought, love of complexity - a creative person juggles ideas without any self-censorship. A sudden insight, when the solution seems to appear out of nowhere.
8. Thinking by analogy and the ability to address the preconscious and the unconscious. Thinking by analogy operates on the principle of free association of thoughts and images. Pre- and unconscious phenomena include night dreams, daytime daydreams, and strong emotions.

Analyzing the listed qualities, it becomes obvious that each person has a creative potential that he can develop. Currently, there are many different exercises for developing creativity.

For example, the exercise "Free Monologue".

Task: stop controlling your thoughts, learn to think more freely.

In a quiet and peaceful place, close your eyes and allow your body to relax. For a moment, focus on thoughts and images that arise spontaneously. Then answer six questions for yourself:

1. What did I see, feel, hear?
2. What was my internal monologue about (what were the small voices whispering inside me)?
3. What were my thoughts?
4. My feelings?
5. My emotions?
6. What does this all mean to me? (A long-standing problem, unfulfilled desire, inability to loosen control and “let go” of what is happening ...).

Creativity exercises:

1. "Two accidents." Take dictionary and choose two random concepts at random. Just point your finger at any page. Compare them, try to find something in common between them. Come up with a crazy story in which you put the relationship. This exercise is great for brain training.
2. "10 + 10". Choose any word, it must be a noun. Now write 5 adjectives that you think suit him best. For example, “socks” are black, warm, woolen, winter, clean. Made? Now try writing 5 more adjectives that don't fit at all. This is where everything stalled. It turns out that this is very difficult to do. Dig into different areas of perception and find the right words.
3. "Name". Try every time you are interested in some subject, come up with a name for it. It can be short and biting, or long and deployed. The purpose of the exercise - you must definitely like the name.

Examples of exercises to develop writing skills:

1. Think about one of the objects in the room. Without opening your eyes, list as many characteristics of the item as you can. Write down everything that comes to mind without looking at the subject.
2. Choose a poem that you like. Take his last line - let this be the first line of your new poem.
3. What would you say uninvited guest who came to see you at three o'clock in the morning.
4. Write a story that begins with the words: "Once I had an opportunity, but I missed it ...".
5. Write a letter to your ten year old self. Letter to the past.

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PERSONAL QUALITIES OF A CREATIVE PERSON

Introduction

“A child who has experienced the joy of creativity even in the most minimal degree becomes different from a child who imitates the acts of others.”

B. Asafiev

In everyday life, we talk about the upbringing of children, referring to the influence of parents, relatives, teachers and other adults on them. If these influences are not effective, then they begin to look for the guilty: bad comrades, "harmful" movies and TV shows, unqualified teachers. Often they talk about bad heredity. And all this is quite fair.

A child, being born, has certain inclinations and predispositions. Moreover, for a long time, many scientists argued that both always have plus signs and it depends only on upbringing whether they develop or not. Science has now given us good enough reason to be considerably less optimistic. Quite convincing evidence has been obtained that, for example, some people are born predisposed to drug addiction, alcoholism, and even the opposite behavior. Another thing is that such a predisposition is not fatal. Whether a person, for example, becomes a drug addict or not, depends on how his life develops, starting from infancy.

It also depends on upbringing, that is, a targeted influence on a child, teenager, youth. But to a large extent, what a person will become, what his inclinations and inclinations will develop and which will not, what personal qualities he will acquire, depends on the numerous circumstances of his life. From what kind of people he will meet on his way and how his relationship with them will develop. From what geographical, natural, social environment it will grow, how it will interact with it. From how actively the person himself will strive to build his interaction with the outside world, relationships with people. That is, on how his development will go - physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social.

Creativity in man

But how does the development of creativity in a person take place?

A lot of talent, intelligence and energy were invested in the development of pedagogical problems related to the creative development of the individual, primarily the personality of the child, adolescent, outstanding teachers of the 20s and 30s: A.V. Lunacharsky, P.P. Blonsky, S.T. Shatsky, B.L. Yavorsky, B.V. Asafiev, N.Ya. Bryusov. Based on their experience, enriched by half a century of development of the science of teaching and raising children, the best teachers, headed by the “elders” - V.N. Shatskoy, N.L. Grodzenskaya, M.A. Rumer, G.L. Roshal, N.I. Sats continued and continue to theoretically and practically develop the principle of creative development of children and youth.

Creativity gives birth in a child to a living fantasy, a living imagination. Creativity, by its very nature, is based on the desire to do something that no one has done before you, or even though what existed before you, to do in a new way, in your own way, better. In other words, the creative principle in a person is always a striving forward, for the better, for progress, for perfection and, of course, for beauty in the highest and broadest sense of this concept.

This is the creative principle that art educates in a person, and in this function it cannot be replaced by anything. By its amazing ability to evoke creative imagination in a person, it certainly occupies the first place among all the diverse elements that make up complex system upbringing of a person. And without creative imagination, one cannot budge in any area of human activity.

Often from parents and even from teachers-educators one can hear such words: “Well, why does he spend precious time writing poetry - he doesn’t have any poetic gift! Why does he draw - after all, an artist will not work out of him anyway! And why is he trying to compose some kind of music - after all, this is not music, but some kind of nonsense turns out! ..”

What a huge pedagogical error in all these words! In a child, it is necessary to support any of his desire for creativity, no matter how naive and imperfect the results of these aspirations may be. Today he writes incoherent melodies, unable to accompany them with even the simplest accompaniment; composes poems in which clumsy rhymes correspond to the clumsy rhythms and meter; draws pictures depicting some fantastic creatures without arms and with one leg ...

Just do not try to laugh at these manifestations children's creativity no matter how funny they seem to you. That would be the biggest pedagogical mistake you can make in this case. After all, behind all these naivety, clumsiness and clumsiness lie the sincere and therefore the most true creative aspirations of the child, the most genuine manifestations of his fragile feelings and thoughts that have not yet formed.

He may not become an artist, or a musician, or a poet (although it is very difficult to foresee this at an early age), but he may become an excellent mathematician, doctor, teacher or worker, and then they will make themselves felt in the most beneficial way. his childhood creative hobbies, a good trace of which will remain his creative imagination, his desire to create something new, his own, better, moving forward the cause to which he decided to devote his life.

Russian scientists psychologists Medvedeva I.Ya. and Shilova T.L. within the framework of the “dramatic psycho-elevation” program, working with “difficult” children, they talk about various situations when parents and teachers, not considering the creative principles in the child’s personality, almost caused irreparable harm to the formation of his personality and character.

For example, Alyosha S., who, had he been born in a family with different attitudes, would have been completely normal, healthy and, most likely, happy. And so his appearance was disfigured by frequent tics, he stuttered badly, was afraid to open his mouth and raise his eyes. But when he nevertheless raised them, his ugly face was illuminated by some otherworldly light. His mother complained about his stupidity, his inability to study, and in those cornflower blue eyes one could read shy inspiration and a lurking living dream.

It quickly became clear that Alyosha's daydreaming is the "root of evil." An authoritarian father and a mother completely subordinate to him with tenacity worthy of best use, pushed the boy onto a path alien to him, demanded from him the ability to work with his hands, interest in the exact sciences. And he was a dreamer. He is even in the questionnaire to the question “What do you love most?” succinctly replied: "Dream."

It was very difficult for psychologists to convince his father, who worked at a construction site, and his mother, who grew up in the village, that the dreamy Alyosha, if he, as he is, is supported and helped to orientate correctly, can not only fully recover, but also become an outstanding person. . Toward the end of the treatment cycle, when the boy's face stopped twitching, the parents of the children who worked with Alyosha in the same group whispered in surprise: “Wow, what a handsome boy!”

Dreaminess is not a vice, not harmful property. And in preadolescence, adolescence and youth, this is the most important soul-building element.

Talking about the education of a creative principle in a person leads us to a very important and most urgent problem in our conditions: the difference between a specialist-creator and a specialist-craftsman. This extremely important problem is closely connected with the problems of aesthetic education.

A genuine specialist-creator differs from an ordinary specialist-craftsman in that he strives to create something beyond what he is “instructed” to create. The craftsman is satisfied with the fact that he creates only what he is supposed to - "from here to here." He never strives for more and for the better and does not want to burden himself with such aspirations. He cannot be accused of bad work - after all, he does everything that he is supposed to, and maybe even does it well. But such a generally formal attitude towards one's work, in whatever field it may be, not only does not move life forward, but even serves as a brake, because in relation to life one cannot stand still: one can only either move forward, or fall behind.

The presence or absence of creativity in a person, a creative attitude to his work becomes the watershed that passes between the specialist-creator and the specialist-craftsman.

This must be emphasized with all clarity, for one sometimes hears more than strange opinion that there are “creative” professions and “non-creative” professions. The greatest delusion! And this delusion in practice often leads to the fact that a person engaged in supposedly uncreative work considers himself entitled to have a non-creative attitude towards his work.

There is no such area, such profession, where it would be impossible to show creativity. And when they say that students - graduates of a general education school should be oriented towards one or another profession, they forget about the main thing: that from the first grade of school it is necessary to inspire students with the idea that there are no bad professions, just as there are no uncreative professions, that, working in any profession, each of them will be able to open a new, even a small world. But if he works according to a craft, not creatively, then he will not create anything worthwhile in the “creative” profession itself.

Therefore, the most important task of aesthetic education at school is the development of creativity in students, no matter how it manifests itself - in mathematics or in music, in physics or in sports, in community service or in the patronage of first graders. Creativity plays a huge role in the classroom itself. All good teachers know this. After all, where there is a creative initiative, there is always a saving of effort and time, and at the same time the result is increased. That is why teachers who are unwilling to introduce elements of aesthetics and art into the study of the subjects they teach are wrong, referring to the fact that their own workload and the workload of students is already too great. These teachers do not understand what a kind, generous and faithful helper they are thereby giving up.

The concept of personality development

Personality most often defined as a person in the totality of his social, acquired qualities. This means that personal characteristics do not include such features of a person that are genotypically or physiologically determined and do not depend in any way on life in society. Many definitions of personality emphasize that personality does not include psychological qualities a person that characterizes his cognitive processes or individual style of activity, with the exception of those that are manifested in relations with people, in society. The concept of "personality" usually includes such properties that are more or less stable and testify to the individuality of a person, determining his actions that are significant for people.

Personality is a person taken in the system of such his psychological characteristics, which are socially conditioned, manifested in social connections and relations by nature, are stable, determine the moral actions of a person that are of significant importance for himself and those around him.

The formation of a person's personality is a consistent change and complication of the system of relations to the surrounding world, nature, work, other people and to oneself. It happens throughout his life. Particularly important is the age of childhood and adolescence.

The development of a person as a person is carried out comprehensively and holistically in the unity of his physical and spiritual forces. Psychology and pedagogy argue that the human personality is formed and developed in activity and communication. The leading personality traits develop as a result of external influence on the personality, its inner world.

Human development is a process of quantitative and qualitative change, the disappearance of the old and the emergence of the new, the source and driving forces of which are hidden in the contradictory interaction of both natural and social aspects of the individual.

The natural side of a person develops and changes throughout his life. These developments and changes are age-related. The source of the social development of the individual is in the interaction of the individual and society.

Three factors influence the formation of personality: upbringing, social environment and hereditary inclinations.

Upbringing is considered by pedagogy as a leading factor, since it is specifically organized system impact on a growing person to transfer the accumulated social experience.

Social environment is of paramount importance in the development of the individual: the level of development of production and the nature of social relations determine the nature of the activity and worldview of people.

Makings- special anatomical and physiological prerequisites for abilities for different types of activity. The science of the laws of heredity - genetics - suggests that people have hundreds of different inclinations - from absolute hearing, exceptional visual memory, lightning-fast reaction to rare mathematical and artistic talent.

But the inclinations by themselves do not yet provide abilities and high performance. Only in the process of education and training, public life and activities, assimilation of knowledge and skills in a person on the basis of inclinations are formed capabilities. The inclinations can be realized only when the organism interacts with the surrounding social and natural environment.

“Whether an individual like Raphael succeeds in developing his talent depends entirely on demand, which, in turn, depends on the division of labor and on the conditions for the enlightenment of people generated by it.” (Marx K., Engels F. “German Ideology”, op. 2nd)

Creativity presupposes that a person has abilities, motives, knowledge and skills, thanks to which a product is created that is distinguished by novelty, originality, and uniqueness. The study of these personality traits revealed the important role imagination, intuition, unconscious components of mental activity, as well as the needs of the individual for self-actualization, in the disclosure and expansion of their creative possibilities. Creativity as a process was considered initially, based on self-reports figures of art and science, where a special role was assigned to "insight", inspiration and similar states, replacing the preliminary work of thought.

Preconditions for genius

Every child has the makings of a genius. We are all members of the same community called homo sapiens, and therefore have inherited the genes that give us a unique human brain, we are born in certain circumstances that can stimulate or slow down the development process, with each birth of a child, a potential genius is born ...

As for individual talents, their diversity is so great, they are inherited so independently that, due to genetic recombination, each person is given a certain set of abilities, be it the most diverse types of auditory and visual susceptibility, auditory and visual memory, combinatorial abilities, linguistic, mathematical, artistic talents.

But what is a genius?

If we recognize as geniuses only those who are almost unanimously recognized as geniuses in the world, then total number there will hardly be more than 400 - 500 of them for the entire time of the existence of our civilization. The selection of celebrities who have been given the maximum place in encyclopedias leads to approximately such figures different countries Europe and the USA, if we subtract from the number of these celebrities those who fell into their number due to nobility or other random "merits". But if the distinction between geniuses and talents remains controversial, then especially great difficulties are encountered in defining the very concept of "genius".

According to Buffon, genius lies in an extraordinary measure of endurance. Wordsworth defined genius as the act of enriching the intellectual world with some new element. Goethe argued that the initial and final feature of genius is the love of truth and the desire for it. According to Schopenhauer, the essence of genius is the ability to see the general in the particular and the constantly moving study of facts, the feeling of what is truly important. According to Carlyle, genius is primarily an extraordinary ability to overcome difficulties. According to Roman y Cajal, this is the ability, during the maturation of an idea, to completely ignore everything that is not related to the problem raised, and the ability to concentrate, reaching a trance. According to W. Ostwald, this is the independence of thinking, the ability to observe facts and draw correct conclusions from them. According to Lyukka: "If we evaluate productivity objectively, namely, as the transformation of the existing into value, as the transformation of the temporal into the eternal, then genius is identical to the highest productivity, and genius is continuously productive, because it is creativity that is its essence, namely the transformation of words into deeds" .

The term " genius " is used both to denote a person's ability to be creative, and to evaluate the results of his activity, suggesting an innate ability to productive activity in one area or another; genius, unlike talent, is not just the highest degree of giftedness, but is associated with the creation of qualitatively new creations. The activity of a genius is realized in a certain historical context of the life of human society, from which the genius draws material for his creativity.

Geniuses often do not find the area in which they are most gifted for a long time. Moliere, a very mediocre playwright and dramatic artist, relatively late becomes the author of brilliant comedies and switches to comic roles. Jean Jacques Rousseau can serve as a good example of how a person gets to his true calling by trial and error. The most educated, most well-read, morbidly conceited, almost obsessed with justice, he has been writing operas for more than a decade - "Gallant Muses", "Narcissus", "Prisoners of War", "Letters on French Music", writes poetry, and all this is good. professional level(although, it seems, his operas were never staged either under him or posthumously). He took his failures in the musical field seriously, even tragically, and only when he is middle-aged does he finally write what makes his name immortal and his influence enormous. G.H. Andersen tries many wrong paths before becoming the greatest storyteller. Balzac writes mediocre dramas before coming to The Human Comedy. A.N. Tolstoy, possessing the gift of an unusually visible, plastic, brightest description of events, dreamed of a deep psychological analysis subconscious, about the continuation of Dostoevsky's line, evidence of which is "The Lame Master".

But in all cases, genius is, first of all, an extreme strain of individual talents, it is the greatest, unceasing work, designed for centuries, despite the non-recognition, indifference, contempt, poverty, which Rembrandt, Fulton, Beethoven, etc. tasted to their heart's content.

The decisive role of child and adolescent conditions of development in determining value criteria, attitudes, aspirations and self-mobilization

a) the importance of childhood and adolescence

The enormous importance of early childhood and childhood developmental conditions for the future intellect was quantified by Bloom. According to his data, optimization of the conditions of intellectual development at the age of up to 4 years increases the future intelligence quotient, IQ, by 10 units, optimization at the age of 4-9 years by 6 units, at 8-12 years by 4 units. Accordingly, the neglect of the intellectual development of the child, especially at the age of 4 years, sharply worsens the future intelligence. It is at this early childhood age that constant communication with an affectionate mother lays the foundations of sociality, contact, and kindness. Well-groomed, well-fed children, but deprived at this critical age of affection, tenderness, attention, if they do not fall ill with the “abandonment” syndrome, then they grow up as ruthless egoists, incapable of social contacts.

Psychoanalysis, biology and genetics now converge in the understanding that the creative abilities of the individual depend on the conditions in which he spent his first years of life. The chances presented or taken away at this time determine his subsequent capacity for education.

The biographies of great people contain many direct and indirect indications of the decisive role of selectively perceived childhood and adolescence experiences. Strange, unexpected questions of young children, not yet tangled up with their eternally busy parents and educators, when thought through, show that children are not only talented linguists, but also the most annoying why, experimenters focused on creativity. But by the time they have normally transcended the sciences and accumulated skill, their curiosity tends to vanish. Partly because their aspirations for knowledge and skill are broken not only by the busyness of adults, but also by their own indispensable mediocrity in most of the activities in which they are involved in the Brownian movement of the natural need for self-manifestation. A child who begins to hum when musicality is lacking, who draws when color is mediocre, who clumsily races or dances, who argues with a much more eloquent teaser, who memorizes poorly foreign language, acquires an inferiority complex that will prevent him from discovering in himself an outstanding mathematical, design, poetic or any other talent.

Meanwhile, natural selection, while creating humanity, worked tirelessly to develop the "exploratory instinct", curiosity, inquisitiveness, impressionability and learning in childhood and adolescence, in the same way as it works to develop and preserve the memory of this cognitive period among the elderly, the former main transmitters of the social succession relay from one generation to another (at least until the period of literacy). But either a certain flexibility or fortitude is required in order to preserve in oneself those traits with which creative abilities are associated. We can call them an exploratory instinct, curiosity, inquisitiveness, but these phenomena are highly age related.

Learning, as a typical age-related phenomenon, is extraordinary fast growth knowledge in childhood and adolescence created by the grandiose forces of natural selection. It is well known what amazing abilities a small child possesses.

Unfortunately, the early childhood, childhood and adolescence period in the biographies of geniuses for the most part remains poorly covered, simply unknown. But where this period is illuminated, it almost invariably turned out that this particular age passed under conditions exceptionally favorable for the development of this genius. Moreover, we are talking about much. more about the intellectual than about the economic situation. The social continuity superimposed on undoubted hereditary genius is rarely traceable. But in all decisive cases when the childhood, adolescence and youth of a genius are known, it turns out that one way or another he was surrounded by an environment that optimally favored the development of his genius, partly because the genius still managed to choose, find, create it.

The extraordinarily talented, businesslike, knowledgeable and efficient V. Suvorov, seeing that his son is small and frail, decides that military service is not suitable for him. But with his drinking stories, he so inspired his son with a love for military affairs that he begins to absorb all the books about the war from his father's large library. "Arap" Hannibal, who accidentally spoke to him, is convinced of such a deep knowledge of the boy that he persuades his father to give his son the opportunity to become a military man, despite the already lost 13 years of a fictitious "internship". Fortunately, in this case, we know for sure that we are indebted to Hannibal to some extent for the appearance of not only A.S. Pushkin, but also another genius - A.V. Suvorov. But how many such circumstances are hidden from us? Since the vast majority of people spend their childhood in conditions that are not optimal for the development of individual talents, humanity is losing a huge number of potential geniuses, but not developed due to a mismatch. social environment and their gifts.

But if an optimum has been created, if upbringing, self-education or an inner call led in youth or in youth not only to the maximum development of individual talent, but also to the corresponding value criteria, then a monstrous barrier of impossibility of realization arises further.

A number of researchers have found that the firstborn achieves significantly more than subsequent children, partly due to higher education, more attention and "demand" from parents, a greater sense of their responsibility. But the first-born has no genetic advantages over his brothers, it's all about educational and environmental factors.

It is obvious that there are gigantic reserve capabilities of the "normal" human brain that need development, volitional stimulation and opportunities in order to create very talented and even brilliant deeds. Countless examples show that no matter how often potential geniuses are born (and this frequency, according to the laws of population genetics, should be approximately the same at all times and in all nations, because natural selection for high intelligence has long ceased), their development and implementation will be in largely determined by social factors.

b) to the genetics of intelligence

To what extent, under relatively close, similar developmental conditions, is the tested intellectual genotype inherited?

In his studies, Cavalli-Sforza supposedly accepted that the excess over the average level of intelligence is 50% due to the environment, 50% heredity; this is probably close to true for large populations, but in individual cases one factor can account for up to 100% and another for 0.

Is it possible to massively recreate the conditions of education that Beethoven, Mozart, Goethe, Bacon, Pushkin had for hundreds of thousands, millions of children? It is technically possible, but obviously ineffective, because Pushkin in Mozart's conditions will not become a great poet, and Mozart in Pushkin's conditions will not become a great composer. Technically, by the age of ten, it is possible to reveal quite a full range of abilities of a teenager. But by this time, the stage of the formation of enthusiasm, the stage of the formation of value criteria, the formation of conscience, humanity, without which talents, even outstanding ones, can become exploiters and stranglers of other people's talents, especially larger ones, will be missed. Realizing that the conditions of upbringing and education in the child-adolescent period are of decisive importance for development, that “demand” is required for the realization of genius, the social order for genius is precisely of this type It is possible, by studying the problem, to clearly see the role of genetics.

Genius is a disease?

It is considered to be reliably established that in even, in general favorable conditions of development, very great importance acquire hereditary differences in giftedness. In this regard, a pattern of increased mental activity in gouty patients was revealed.

The increased frequency of gouty among geniuses found its solution in 1955 in the remarkable work of Oruan, who showed that uric acid is structurally very similar to caffeine and theobromine, known stimulants of mental activity. Oruan also pointed out that uric acid in all animals of the preprimate level, which is broken down under the action of uricase to allantoin, in primates, due to the absence of uricase, is stored in the blood, and this is presumably associated with new stage evolution, going under the sign of increased brain activity.

Since gout and hyperuricemia (elevated uric acid) are quite clearly inherited in a variety of metabolic disorders, a working hypothesis has arisen:

1. This metabolic disorder is one of many possible mechanisms for the emergence and transmission to offspring of that proportion of increased intelligence that is hereditarily conditioned.

2. Moreover, gouty stimulation of the brain is one of those mechanisms that can increase its activity to the level of talent or genius. Then at least some of the cases of genius would be amenable to natural science deciphering, and genius itself would turn from a subject of speculative reasoning into an object of scientific research.

There is a number of unusually strong evidence that a very significant proportion of the largest figures in history and culture really suffered from gout. Scientists also drew attention to the fact that among geniuses, catchy highbrow and even gigantophobia are unusually common. Biologists need only recall the portraits of Mendel, Morgan, Crick and Watson.

Considering the factors of increased mental activity, of course, one must clearly understand that the presence of any of them, separately or in pairs, does not at all guarantee high mental activity. It is quite obvious that any of them can be completely suppressed by a multitude of negative hereditary, biological, biosocial and social factors.

If the first gouty person recorded in history was the Jewish king, the wise Asa, a descendant of Solomon, then Hero of Syracuse in the 10th century BC already knew about the connection between joint disease and bladder stones, i.e. about urolithiasis in gouty patients. A mass of urates was found in the big toe of the skeleton of an elderly man buried in Upper Egypt. The oldest find is a uric acid kidney stone from a 7,000-year-old Egyptian mummy.

The Roman poet Lucian, who described the pangs of gout in his poems, suffered from gout and died from it. Stakeley believed that many Greek leaders who participated in the Trojan War suffered from gout, including Priam, Achilles, Oedipus, Protesilaus, Ulysses, Bellerophon, Plesten, Philoctetes, while Tyranion Grammaticus died of gout.

By this time, attention had already been paid to the unusually high intelligence of many gouty people. These observations were confirmed by medieval authors, publicists and doctors of modern times. In 1927, G. Ellis gave a clear definition of the characteristics of gouty geniuses, noting their exceptional determination, energy, inexhaustible perseverance and hard work, perseverance that overcomes any obstacles.

Suffered from gout:

Mark Vipsanius Agrippa (63 - 12 BC). The gout of Marcus Agrippa has been reliably established. Moreover, it is known that he suffered three severe attacks of gout and committed suicide at the beginning of the fourth attack, not wanting to endure any further incredible torment.

Pope Gregory the Great (540 - 604). He was an ascetic, a man of unusually strong will, an outstanding administrator and writer. He suffered from severe gout, so widespread that his swollen hands could not handle a pen, and he had to tie a pen to a brush in order to write, or else dictate his extensive classical works.

Michelangelo (1475 - 1564). Almost all of his biographers mention his kidney stone disease, and R. Rolland also mentions gout. He combined incredible, unstoppable industriousness with almost limitless versatility.

Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506). In Spanish literature about Columbus, it is not uncommon to mention that he suffered from gout, and in English books it is vaguely said about gout, then about rheumatism.

Boris Godunov (1551 - 1606). Boris Godunov was broken not by remorse, but by severe gout. Graham mentions Boris Godunov's gout Grunwald: "In 1598 he grew stout, his hair turned gray, gout attacks made walking a torment for him." "It is known that even earlier he had to escort his sister to the cemetery not on foot, according to custom, but on a sleigh due to gout."

John Milton (1608 - 1674). . Milton was blind, but he said that blindness tormented him less than gout. covered with tophi, that Milton led an extremely moderate life.

Peter I (1672 - 1725). Portraits of Peter I, his gigantic stature are well known, but it is not clear to everyone what significance his huge, constantly bulging eyes, his quick, overlapping speech, incredible mobility, mental and physical, have. Direct data on the gout of Peter I could not be found, but his gout, judging by the presence of nephrolithiasis, 20-year-old "rheumatism" and other signs, is extremely likely.

If, after all that has been said, to look at the past, one can notice a far from constant, but still clear pattern: in periods of relative rest, uniform, smooth development, gout, of course, also exists, but somehow they are not particularly distinguished, not very noticeable. All destinies are clearly predetermined by social, class, caste boundaries.

But a crisis arises, whether it be the formation or disintegration of an ethnos, revolutions, conquests, revival, reformation or counter-reformation, the formation or liberation of a nation, the emergence of new sciences, a new art - and gouty people are in the forefront, with a frequency of tens and even hundreds of times higher than their frequency in the population.

The legendary, heroic period of Greece - among the first heroes of gout Priam, Achilles, Ulysses, Bellerophon, Oedipus. The struggle between Carthage and Greece for the Sicilian Greeks is led by the gouty Hiero of Syracuse.

The formation of the Macedonian kingdom and the conquest of the great Persian empire: at the head of the probable gout Philip of Macedon and Alexander of Macedon who fell ill with gout very early.

Rome - the best commanders, "emperors" - almost all gouty. The crisis of the Roman Republic and the rise of the empire. Among the 5 - 6 major figures is the forgotten, but great Mark Agrippa. The formation of the Roman Catholic Church - headed by gouty Gregory the Great. Creation of the Frankish Empire - led by gouty Charlemagne.

The crisis of the empire of the Ottoman Turks, named after the founder of the gouty dynasty Osman, whose work was continued by the gouty or its transmitters Orkhal Bey, Bayazid I, Mohammed I, Murad II, Mohammed II the Conqueror, Bayazid II, Murad IV. The invasion of the Turks is stopped by the gout-hyperuricemic Janos Hunyadi, the gouty Matvey Korvin, the gouty Emperor Karl and the gouty King Jan Sobieski.

Renaissance crisis. Among the leaders are the gouty Cosimo and Lorenzo Medici, Michelangelo. Age of great geographical discoveries - led by gout Columbus.

The crisis of humanism, reformation and counter-reformation: among the leaders are gouty Thomas More, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Martin Luther, the Saxon elector Frederick III the Wise, who sheltered him, renounced the imperial crown, I. Calvin, Charles V, Philip II, gouty people of Giza, Henry IV, Henry VII , Henry VIII Tudors, Cardinal Wolsey, Burley, Alexander Farnese.

Crisis of the Thirty Years' War: in the top ten gout figures Wallenstein, Generalissimo Torstenson, Conde the Great, Mazarin. The revolution in England is headed by gouty Cromwell, the crisis of offensive wars is led by gouty Louis XIV, gouty Colbert, Conde the Great, Turenne, Maurice, Marshal of Saxony, William III of Orange, John Churchill-Marlborough.

The crisis of the Great Northern War, the entry of Russia into the ranks of the great powers, the elimination of Sweden from them - the main characters are gouty Peter I, Charles XII, August the Strong.

The crisis of the formation of Prussia: the gouty "Great Elector", his gouty grandson King Friedrich Wilhelm, gouty great-grandchildren Frederick I and Henry of Prussia.

The crisis of the struggle between France and England for dominance in the East Indies and North America. From the English side - victorious gout Pitt the Elder and Clive.

The crisis of the breakaway of the American colonies from England. Among the 4-6 dominant personalities are gouty Pitt Senior and B. Franklin.

The great long crisis of the formation of independent united nations. It is headed in France by the gouty Louis XI, in England by the gouty Tudors and Elizabeth with their gouty ministers Burley and his son, in Russia by the gouty Ivan III, Boris Godunov, Peter I.

The universal monarchy of the Habsburgs collapses on the national idea, in Holland the idea is embodied by William of Orange, apparently not the arthritic ancestor of a good dozen arthritic geniuses. Among the forerunners of the idea of equality, fraternity and freedom in France are the gouty d'Alembert and B. Franklin.

The crisis of revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The goutiness of Napoleon I is very doubtful, but his most prominent Marshal Berthier is an indisputable gout, like his main, most stubborn opponent, Pitt the Younger, the organizer of new anti-Napoleonic coalitions, sparing no funds either for subsidies to the continental powers, or for the creation of an ubiquitous, strongest military fleet.

The rise of great colonial England. A string of energetic, extraordinarily talented, knowledgeable, enterprising gouty prime ministers is changing from R. Walpole and both Pitts to Canning, Derby, Palmerston, Disraeli. The crisis of the unification of Germany, the war with Denmark, Austria, France. Among the main figures gouty Bismarck and Wilhelm I.

The crisis of the emergence of natural science, mathematics, physics and chemistry. Among the greatest gout figures are Galileo, F. Bacon, Leibniz, Newton, Harvey, Jacob and Johann Bernoulli, Boyle, Wollaston, Berzelius, Darwin. Era of engines internal combustion headed by the gouty Diesel.

Among the greatest philosophers are gouty Montaigne, Malebranche, Kant, Schopenhauer. Among the greatest artists, sculptors, composers, poets, writers of gout are Milton, Goethe, Pushkin, Tyutchev, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Rubens, Renoir, Beethoven, Maupassant, Turgenev, Blok.

One could name two dozen more crises and at least two hundred non-gouty geniuses. But it is impossible to embrace everything, and there is a fatal incompleteness of pathographies. Which of the biographers was interested in what exactly the described figure had been ill with?

But after all, right behind the gouty "geniuses" there is a long line of giant-headed ones (starting with Pericles and not ending with Burns), giant-headed ones (Marx, Engels, Lenin), and very high-browed "geniuses". They are followed by a long line of hypomanic-depressive geniuses and a small group of arthritic-manic-depressive "geniuses". The group of talented geniuses with Marfan's hyperadrenaline syndrome, which is still small, but will expand, has already included such significant and diverse figures as Abraham Lincoln, G.Kh. Andersen, K.I. Chukovsky, ichthyologist G. Nikolsky, V. Kuchelbecker.

But the genius of Joan of Arc, perhaps, indicates a powerful stimulating effect of the male sex hormone not associated with target organs (hereditary testicular feminization syndrome).

Of course, the point is not at all that these geniuses, talents, and only they, perform the tasks of society. The society dominates, but the tasks set by it are exorbitantly often carried out precisely by those who, both the society and the internal features, have given the opportunity to develop and realize their "genius", solving the super-task assigned or arising before them. And if the lists are full of nobility, it is only because they have usurped, monopolized both the possibilities for developing their talent and the possibilities for its realization. Countless, however, are those who, having these opportunities, did not use them. But what has been done clearly shows the gigantic reserve capabilities of the mind, which are not used due to the unsatisfactory state of society, its inconsistency with the needs of the era, the inability to set the initial stimulation, optimize the development and implementation of talent.

It is easy to see that in any area gouty is not only the first of the first, but their frequency is ten times higher than the frequency of gout among the middle-aged, elderly and old population, even living in conditions of food and alcohol abundance. The extraordinary variety of areas in which gouty people have taken the lead is excellent proof of the enormous role played by purposeful mobilization and activation of the intellect in great accomplishments.

There are other patterns of hereditary genetic abnormalities and the appearance of brilliant personalities.

marfan syndrome, a special form of disproportionate gigantism, the result of a systemic connective tissue defect; inherited dominantly, i.e., along a vertical line, but with very varying manifestations. Historical figures: Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), Hans Christian Andersen (1805 - 1875), Charles de Gaulle (1890 - 1970), K.I. Chukovsky (1882 - 1969).

Morris syndrome, Jeanne d'Arc, androgens. Pseudo-hermaphroditism should have generated the most severe mental trauma, but the emotional stability of these patients, their vitality, diverse activity, energy, physical and mental, are simply amazing. For example, in terms of physical strength, speed, dexterity, they are so superior to physiologically normal girls and women that girls and women with Morris syndrome are subject to exclusion from women's sports.

With the rarity of the syndrome, it is found in almost 1% of outstanding athletes, that is, 600 times more often than one would expect if it did not stimulate exceptional physical and mental development. Prokop names a dozen great athletic "Amazons" with this syndrome.

Joan of Arc (1412 - 1432) was tall, strongly built, exceptionally strong, but slender and with a thin feminine waist, her face was also very beautiful. The general physique was somewhat masculine in proportion. She was very fond of physical and military exercises, very willingly wore men's clothes... She never had menstruation, which allows us, based on the combination of other features, five and a half centuries later, to confidently diagnose Joan of Arc with testicular feminization - Morris syndrome.

Paradoxically, it is prominent women who often have a clearly defined male characterology. Such is Elizabeth I Tudor, Christian of Sweden, daughter of Sultan Adolf, Aurora Dudevant (Georges Sand), the German poetess Annette Droste-Gülshof, the once famous theosophist Blavatsky and many others.

Hypomanic. The disease of manic-depressive psychosis is usually diagnosed clinically at the height of an attack of mania or depression, in the first case by erratic jumps of thoughts and senseless, but energetic actions, in the second case by an unusually oppressed, hopeless mood. But the symptomatology does not always and not in all patients reach a clearly pathological, psychotic level, the anomaly can be reduced to periodic sharp rises and sharp drops in mood. Characterized by the preservation of full consciousness, without any disturbance of thinking. In the first approximation, we can say that it is not thinking that suffers, but tone.

Brain, justifying the notion of the connection of genius with psychosis or psychopathy, gives a long, albeit incomplete, list of English authors who suffered from cyclothymia, schizophrenia, obsession, psychopathy, alcoholism or drug addiction. These are Beddes, Vlek, Boswell, Benian, Burns, Byron, Chatterton, Claire, Coleridge, Colpins, Cooper, Crabbe, De Kinsey, Dickens, D. Donne, Gray, Johnson, Lemb, Rossetti, Ruskin, Shelley, Smart, Swift, Swinburne, Tennyson, F. Thompson. As proof that English authors are no exception, he names Baudelaire, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Goethe, Gogol, Hölderlin, Nietzsche, Poe, Rimbaud, Rousseau, Strindberg, Swedenborg and Verlaine.

With regard to psychopaths, syphilitics, alcoholics and drug addicts, we note that talent and genius do not necessarily have to protect against these diseases. But didn't alcoholics, drug addicts, psychopaths become creators not because of their addictions, but in spite of them?

Conclusion

In the formation of personality as a sociobiological phenomenon, society and microsociety take the first place, which is demonstrated by a sharp fluctuation in the frequency of appearance of prominent figures and geniuses.

Apparently, the "normal", "average" human brain, in the absence of external brakes in relation to it and under the chronic influence of any of the four internal doping, is potentially capable of unusually high productivity, close to brilliant. The concretization of the factors hindering or stimulating development and realization is primarily the task of sociologists and educators, but studying the biographies of prominent figures, both realized and not realized, can be very helpful in this.

But it is probably not so important that there would be a huge number of brilliant, outstanding people in the country, in the nation. For a nation to be prosperous, its citizens must be healthy and rationally developed. The psychological situation in every family, in the kindergarten group, in the secondary school class, develops into a moral, psychologically healthy atmosphere throughout the country. Therefore, an individual approach to each child, the creative development of his personality, the education of the best of his qualities, is of the utmost importance for all of us. As far as we listen to our child, brother, sister today, to what extent we can provide fertile ground for the development of his personal qualities, we and our children will have to live in such a future.