The world of psychology (and well beyond) has lost a towering figure, with the October 20 death at 87 of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Although best known for developing and extending the concept of flow states, Dr. Csikszentmihalyi was one of the most renowned researchers on creativity, and his influence extends to business, technology, politics, and elsewhere. His research on flow and creativity also points to how people create order in life, and why that is so crucial. His death follows that of another highly influential psychologist, Albert Bandura, on July 26.
Csikszentmihalyi was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University and Founder/Co-Director of the Quality of Life Research Center, based at CGU. As I noted in my March 15, 2019 blog post 18 Quotes to Stimulate and Supercharge Your Thinking From Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Classic Book Flow, he left the University of Chicago and began teaching at CGU in 1999, at the Drucker School of Management. I recently learned that he came to CGU and the Drucker School because of the efforts of longtime Drucker School professor Jean Lipman-Blumen.
I interviewed him for an hour at his Drucker School faculty office in 2005 as background for my first book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life, published four years later. On April 20, 2003, almost exactly two years before meeting him, I reviewed his book Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning for USA TODAY. In the review, I described Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of Flow, in the context of that book, as “being so absorbed in an activity that we shut out distractions and worries to devote all our energy to the task at hand. It can occur in work or play, but the focus here is how people can find flow when they work, and how leaders can encourage flow in employees.”
On my first visit to Claremont to research my book in late 2002, I met (through Marilyn Thomsen, then of the Drucker School/CGU and now Director, Public and Media Relations for the University of La Verne) Drucker School professor Jeremy Hunter, who had been a Ph.D. student of Csikszentmihalyi’s at the University of Chicago, and later co-founded the Quality of Life Research Center with him. Jeremy sent me an advance copy of Good Business, which ultimately led to my review. During the 2005 visit, I interviewed Jeremy and Csikszentmihalyi hours apart on the same day, and interviewed Drucker each of the two days before that, which turned out to be six months before his death.
Both Marilyn and Jeremy became longtime, cherished friends of mine. I wrote about Jeremy (and briefly, Csikszentmihalyi as well) in my second book, Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way, in 2013, and I edited an article Jeremy wrote with UVA Darden School of Business professor Lili Powell, “How to Recapture Leadership’s Lost Moment,” for Leader to Leader, where I’m managing editor, in 2020. Marilyn’s 2000 feature story/interview with Csikszentmihalyi in CGU’s excellent publication The Flame is on the resources list below.
During my interview with Csikszentmihalyi in 2005, while explaining the differences in teaching graduate students in management after many years of teaching psychology students, he remarked that “when you’re working with grad students in psychology, you feel that you’re laying the foundations for somebody’s life work. He or she will build on it, and so you’re a part of this evolving knowledge system.” He later returned to teaching psychology students elsewhere at CGU, at the School of Social Science, Policy, and Evaluation.
The following 26 resources should provide a strong sense of the influence Csikszentmihalyi’s work and ideas continue to have on so many people and institutions. That influence will long outlast his death, and will continue to be applied and extended by others, inside and outside of academia:
The American Academy of Political and Social Science: The Academy Remembers Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
American Psychological Association: Strength Prize honors ‘flow’ founder
BBC: The ‘flow state’: Where creative work thrives
BrainWorld: Getting Into The Flow: A Q&A with Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Tom Butler-Bowdon: Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Chicago Tribune: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, U. of C. professor who developed concept of ‘flow,’ for when a person is lost in their work, dies
Claremont Graduate University: Passings: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the ‘Father of Flow,’ 1934-2021
Edge.org: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 1934–2021
Financial Times/Andrew Hill: ‘Flow’ can lift managers and their staff out of crisis apathy
The Flame/Claremont Graduate University: In the Flow
Eric Kim: 13 Lessons Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Can Teach You
Austin Kleon: A State of Flow
Kottke.org: The Ten Contradictory Traits of Creative People
Leadership&Flow: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – A life story with his own words
Lion’s Roar: The Man Who Found the Flow
The New York Times: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the Father of ‘Flow,’ Dies at 87
The New York Times: The Power of Concentration
PositivePsychology.com: 8 Ways To Create Flow According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Psychology Today: Flow and Happiness Do you have to be an expert to be happy?
TED/Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness
The Student Life/Claremont Colleges: Q&A: CGU Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Receives Hungarian National Award
University of Chicago: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, pioneering psychologist and ‘father of flow,’ 1934–2021
University of Chicago/UChicago Magazine: What’s in a game?
The Washington Post: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who described the ‘flow’ of human creativity, dies at 87
WIRED: Go With the Flow