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Collaborative Circles

Friendship Dynamics and Creative Work

Many artists, writers, and other creative people do their best work when collaborating within a circle of likeminded friends. Experimenting together and challenging one another, they develop the courage to rebel against the established traditions in their field. Out of their discussions they develop a new, shared vision that guides their work even when they work alone.

In a unique study that will become a rich source of ideas for professionals and anyone interested in fostering creative work in the arts and sciences, Michael P. Farrell looks at the group dynamics in six collaborative circles: the French Impressionists; Sigmund Freud and his friends; C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Inklings; social reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; the Fugitive poets; and the writers Joseph Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford. He demonstrates how the unusual interactions in these collaborative circles drew out the creativity in each member. Farrell also presents vivid narrative accounts of the roles played by the members of each circle. He considers how working in such circles sustains the motivation of each member to do creative work; how collaborative circles shape the individual styles of the persons within them; how leadership roles and interpersonal relationships change as circles develop; and why some circles flourish while others flounder.


328 pages | 48 halftones, 1 drawing, 1 table | 6 x 9 | © 2001

Art: European Art

Education: Psychology and Learning

Literature and Literary Criticism: American and Canadian Literature, British and Irish Literature

Psychology: Developmental Psychology

Sociology: Social Psychology--Small Groups, Sociology of Arts--Leisure, Sports

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Collaborative Circles and Creative Work

2. The Life Course of a Collaborative Circle:
The French Impressionists

3. Voices in the Circle
The Fugitive Poets in the Formation,
Rebellion, and Quest Stages

4. Creative Work in Collaborative Pairs:
Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford,
and the Rye Circle

5. Instrumental Intimacy in a Collaborative Pair:
Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Fleiss,
and the Early Psychoanalytic Circle

6. Two Sticks of a Drum:
Elizabeth Cady Stranton, Susan B. Anthony,
and the Circle of Ultras

7. Toward a Theory of Collaborative Circles

References
Index

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