ABSTRACT
Kris's (1952) concept of regression in the service of the ego stressed the importance of being in control of primary-process thinking. Kris postulated that creative individuals could regress, in a controlled fashion, and tap into primary-process thinking. The individual could go back and forth between early, primary-process thought and more mature, rational, secondary-process thinking. Regression was an important concept because the individual would, at will, go back to an earlier, primitive mode of thought and use it adaptively for creative purposes. The creative individual could be distinguished from the individual with a thought disorder in that the creative individual was in charge of this regressive process and could logically evaluate the loose, primitive associations and images. In one study (Russ, 1993), I presented creative individuals' descriptions of the creative process that described getting in touch with primary-process thinking. One good example is a description of the free flow of associations in a monologue by the comedian, Robin Williams. In commenting about the process, he said:
Primary-process thinking contains both cognitive and affective elements. Some expressions are mainly cognitive, whereas other expressions have a dominant affective component. The affective elements could play as important a role in creative thinking as the cognitive elements. Theoretically, affect is a major component of much primary-process thinking. The concepts of drive-laden and instinctual energy bring us into the realm of affect. Rapaport (1951) used the term affect-charge in discussing primary-process thought. Primary-process content, in Holt's (1967) conceptualization, contains affect categories of oral, libidinal, and aggressive. Freud (1895/1966), in Project for a Scientific Psychology, stated that primaryprocess thought is frequently accompanied by affect.
