On Two Concepts of Boredom in the Context of Reflections over Whether Boredom is Creative

Abstract

This article exposes the specific relations between a situational experience of boredom and states of mind described by the author as being constrained (blocked) or unconstrained (open). Some researchers in the field of boredom say that “boredom is creative” and explain their claim by the neurological fact that a lower degree of arousal of the brain is associated with a widening of the field of attention, and by the disposition of bored individuals to make distant associations. Other people consider that “boredom is creative” because being bored involves the experience of some situational limitations that need to be overcome, thus inspiring (previously) bored people to act creatively. The question that emerges here is the following: Should the mental state connected with being bored be described in categories of the experience of constraint or is it rather related to a sense of openness? Hopefully, an analysis of this particular issue will bring us closer to understanding the essential question of the nature of boredom.