Gifted Education lnternationa/1985 Vo/3, pp 38-42 © 1985 A B Academic Publishers

the balance of opposites in the creative process God guard me from those thoughts men think In the mind alone: He that sings a lasting song Thinks in a marrow-bone... W. B. Yeats This paper argues that the creative process is a complex interaction of thinking, emotion and intuition and the major characteristic is the balancing of opposites which integrate the process. The creative process can only be maintained by holding the opposites in a state of dynamic tension which can be called a "tolerance of ambiguity". This tension of opposing forces charges the creative expression with power avoiding the degeneration which occurs when the balance of opposites i