"Wallas’ Four-Stage Model of the Creative Process: More Than Meets the Eye?" by Eugene Sadler-Smith

Summary

This academic article delves into Graham Wallas's influential four-stage model of the creative process: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Verification, initially presented in his 1926 work, The Art of Thought. The author, Eugene Sadler-Smith, argues that a closer examination of Wallas's writing reveals a more nuanced, five-stage model that explicitly includes Intimation, a phase of fringe consciousness preceding Illumination. By highlighting Intimation, the article aims to provide a more accurate understanding of Wallas's original conceptualisation and to offer a richer framework for contemporary creativity research, connecting it with concepts from neuroscience and intuition studies.