References: Flow & creativity

The key studies and reviews behind these pathways – organised by page, so you can see exactly what each claim on the site is based on.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row. Csikszentmihalyi’s own founding text, describing the research with painters and the wider studies this page traces flow back to.
Nakamura, J. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002). “The concept of flow.” In Handbook of Positive Psychology. Oxford University Press. The main source behind this page’s account of the common features people report during flow – a clear goal, complete concentration, and a loss of self-consciousness.

Crothers, S.M. (1916). “A Literary Clinic.” Atlantic Monthly. The original essay in which the term “bibliotherapy” was coined, as described on this page.
Mar, R.A. & Oatley, K. (2008). “The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience.” Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(3), 173–192. Research from this page’s own recommended author, behind its claim that following a character’s inner life exercises some of the same mental machinery used for understanding real people.

Bernatzky, G., Presch, M., Anderson, M. & Panksepp, J. (2011). “Emotional foundations of music as a non-pharmacological pain management tool in modern medicine.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(9), 1989–1999. The evidence behind this page’s claim that music produces measurable physiological changes within moments of a piece starting.
Bernardi, L., Porta, C. & Sleight, P. (2006). “Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory changes induced by different types of music in musicians and non-musicians: the importance of silence.” Heart, 92(4), 445–452. The main evidence behind this page’s claim that slower tempos are associated with a calming effect on heart rate and blood pressure.