Creativity in Context; The Courage in Therivel’s GAM/DP

The desire to quantify and categorize creativity so that we can easily identify the individual characteristics which serve
as its precursors is one which authors have been attempting to successfully complete for some time. In this light, William
Therivel’s High Creativity Unmasked, discusses how his GAM/DP theory accounts for highly creative people from history as well as a rationale for the rise and
fall of creativity in selected cultures throughout history. By examining the latest published work on how Genetic Endowment,
Assistances, Misfortunes and Divisions of Power, and how they relate to creativity, Therivel proposes unique rationales for
the rises and declines of cultures. This paper examines how creativity and courage work together and in some cases side by
side, to explain more fully the role of creativity in culture. This article examines some of Therivel’s examples and provides
alternate explanations for the phenomena he ascribes to the decline of creativity. In addition, the complexity of both creativity
and courage are discussed, both in the current context, and in the next steps for research and theoretical discussion.