Emotion, Metaphor, and the Creative Process

Abstract

We propose a central role of emotions in generating metaphors for creative thinking. We focus on individualized emotions attached to concepts or images and describe how these emotional endocepts interact with each other and can provide the basis for creative associations between memory elements. We discuss individual differences, context effects, and implementation issues. Metaphor provides a means of expressing emotion-based associations for creative problem solving, In terms of metaphor generation, emotional resonance can identify domains relevant to a problem for building a metaphor. We also address links between creativity, intuitive thinking, and modern art and poetry. In general, our proposal specifies one way in which emotion and cognition may be intricately related.