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Piirto, J. (2002) "My Teeming Brain": Understanding Creative Writers. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press (395 pp., $27.50 pb, $79.50 hb, ISBN-1-57273-276-8).
This book is a detailed report about a massive research project studying creative writers. The project was completed singularly by the author and researcher, Jane Piirto. The book situates the study in the creativity research literature and more broadly in its nexus of the field of psychology. Piirto frames her analysis of the work by and about 160 writers within the context of the Piirto Pyramid model. Not only will those who desire greater understanding of the lives of creative writers be interested in this book, but researchers seeking examples of excellent qualitative analytical studies will have this book on their shelves.
This book is organized in two major parts with supporting appendices. The first part of the book provides the context for the study, including literature for creativity, psychology and writers. The goals of the study included integrating information regarding creativity research (Chapter 1), the creative person (Chapter 2-3) creative processes (Chapter 4), and what the writer must know to produce the "product" (Chapter 5). Dr. Piirto states that the book "combines original research with a synthesis of research in order to come up with a look at creativity as...