ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the issue of creativity is approached systematically, to reveal a plurality of approaches. Identity construction of doctors through self-forming within specialties can also be seen as the specialty interest of the medical humanities in medical education, that forms of creativity are foregrounded as educational aims. Medical aesthetics may make the difference between the merely competent practitioner and the exquisite practitioner who is a connoisseur of her craft. Medical aesthetics should not be confused with 'aesthetic medicine' that is often used as a descriptor for plastic surgery. Andrei Aleinikov coined the term 'creative pedagogy' to distinguish education concerned with creativity from education concerned with critical thinking. Learning from modern jazz improvisation, Haidet suggests that building space into communication with patients, developing a unique professional voice and 'achieving ensemble', or dialogue, are essential parts of both jazz improvisation and medical practice. It is a metaphor for breaking down, or democratizing, strict hierarchies. A creative medical education will 'think improvisation'.
