Books

Your Creative Brain

Your Creative Brain incorporates the latest neuroscience research and entertaining examples from the lives of creative geniuses into an exciting personal training course for “amping up” creative productivity. Your Creative Brain, written by a respected Harvard expert on creativity and behavioral neuroscience, will help readers adapt to the challenges and dangers, as well as the opportunities, of the accelerated-change climate of the 21st century. Through a fun and effective program of mind exercises, readers learn to navigate seven brain activation patterns (called the CREATES brainsets) that will open new doors to personal and professional enrichment.

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Almost Depressed

Through engaging stories along with their professional experience, Jefferson B. Prince, MD, and Shelley Carson, PhD, outline the symptoms of depression, the role that stress plays in depression, as well as many of the physical conditions that can mimic depression. Then, based on the latest clinical research, they offer step-by-step guidance for making positive changes to help alleviate and reverse almost depression. There are many pathways that can lead you out of a state of almost depression toward resilience and brighter days ahead. Almost Depressed will show you the way.

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Dr. Carson’s Publications.

Peer-Reviewed Publications and Book Chapters:

  • Johnson, A.E., & Carson, S. (2025). Flow state, resilience, and performance strategies in elite three-day eventing equestrian athletes. Comparative Exercise Physiology, 21(1), 63-70.
  • Carson, S., Cook, A., Peabody, S., Scheinbaum, S., & Williamson, L. (2024). The impact of positive psychology on behavioral change and healthy lifestyle choices. In J.M. Rippe (Ed.), Lifestyle medicine, fourth edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
  • Carson, S.H., Yang, E., & Forgeard, M. (2021). Creativity and mental health. In J.C. Kaufman & R. J. Sternberg (Eds,), Creativity: An introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Carson, S.H. (2019). Creativity and mental illness. In J.C. Kaufman & R. J. Sternberg (Eds,) Cambridge handbook of creativity 2rd edition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
  • Nishimi K, Glickman E, Smith K, Ben-Joseph E, Carson S, Vranceanu A, Dunn EC. Master-planned communities in the United States as novel contexts for individual and population-level research. Preventive medicine, 154, 106864.
  • Carson, S., Cook, A., Peabody, S., Scheinbaum, S., & Williamson, L. (2019). The impact of positive psychology on behavioral change and healthy lifestyle choices. In J.M. Rippe (Ed.), Lifestyle medicine, third edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
  • Carson, S.H. (2018). Creativity and psychopathology: A relationship of shared neurocognitive vulnerabilities. In R.E. Jung & O. Vartanian (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of the neuroscience of creativity, pp. 136-158. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Fried, K., & Carson, S. (2018). The influence of performance expectations and personality on audience ratings of humor. Humor: The International Journal of Humor Research, 31(4), 645-661.
  •  Pojednic, R., Peabody, S., Carson, S., Kennedy, M., Bevans, K., & Phillips, E.M. (2016). The effect of before school physical activity on child development A study protocol to evaluate the build our kids success (BOKS) program. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 49, 103-108.
  • Carson, S. (2014). Leveraging the “mad genius” debate: Why we need a neuroscience of creativity and psychopathology. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8 (1), 771
  • Carson, S. (2014). Cognitive disinhibition, creativity, and psychopathology. In D.K. Simonton (Ed.), Handbook of genius. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Carson, S. (2014). The shared vulnerability model of creativity and psychopathology. In J. Kaufman (Ed.), Creativity and mental illness. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Carson, S. (2014). The impact of mindfulness on creativity research and creativity enhancement. In A. Ie, C. Ngnoumen, & E. Langer (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell handbook of mindfulness. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Carson, S. (2013). Creativity and psychopathology: Shared neurocognitive vulnerabilities In A. Bristol, J. Kaufman, and O. Vartanian (Eds.), The neuroscience of creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Carson, S.H. (2011). Creativity and psychopathology: A genetic shared-vulnerability model. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(3),144-153.
  • Carson, S. (2010). Latent inhibition and creativity. In B. Lubow & I. Weiner (Eds.), Latent inhibition: Cognition, neuroscience and applications to schizophrenia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Carson, S. & Langer, E.J. (2006). Mindfulness and Self-Acceptance. Journal of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, 24(1). 29-43.
  • Carson, S., Peterson, J.B. & Higgins, D. (2005). Reliability, validity and factor structure of the Creative Achievement Questionnaire. Creativity Research Journal, 17(1), 37-50.
  • Carson, S.H, Peterson, J.B., & Higgins, D. M. (2003). Decreased latent inhibition is associated with increased creative achievement in high-functioning individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 499-506.
  • Carson, S. & Langer, E. (2004). Mindful practice for clinicians and patients. In L. Haas (Ed.), Handbook of primary care psychology.  (173-186) London: Oxford.
  • Meyersburg, C.A., Carson, S.H., Mathis, M., McNally, R.J. (2014). Creative histories: Memories of past lives and measures of creativity. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice.
  • Peterson, J.B., Smith, K., & Carson, S. (2002). Openness and extraversion are associated with reduced latent inhibition: Replication and commentary.  Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 1137-1147.
  • Carson, S., Shih, M., & Langer, E. (2001), Sit still and pay attention? Journal of Adult Development, 8(3), 35-40.
  • Peterson, J.B. & Carson, S. (2000). Latent inhibition and openness to experience in a high-achieving student population. Personality & Individual Differences, 28(2) 323-332.
  • Carson S.H. (2011) Interest inventories. In: Runco MA, and Pritzker SR (eds.) Encyclopedia of Creativity, Second Edition, vol. 1, pp. 677-682 San Diego: Academic Press.
  • Carson, S.H, Steenkamp, M., & Litz, B.T. (2008). Peacekeeping. In G. Reyes, J. Elhai, & J. Ford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Psychological Trauma. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Carson, S.H., Fama, J., & Clancy, K. (2008). Writing for psychology at Harvard. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College.

 

PsycCritique Reviews:

  • Carson, S.H. (2017) “They who dream by day.” [Review of The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Personality Research, Editors: G. J. Feist, R. Reiter-Palmon, & J. C. Kaufman (2017)]. PsycCRITIQUES, 62(36), article 1. doi.org/10.1037/a0041014.
  • Carson, S.H. (2016). “A chaos of delight.” [Review of Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities, by Claudia Kalb (2016)]. PsycCRITIQUES, 61(33).
  • Carson, S.H. (2014). Why insight is so often out of sight. [Review of Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights G. Klein (2013)]. )]. PsycCRITIQUES, 59(18), article 3.
  • Carson, S. H. (2013). “The Truth is Out There” [Review of Varieties of Anomalous Experience (2nd Ed.) Editors: Etzel Cardeňa, Steven Jay Lynn, and Stanley Krippner (2014)]. PsycCRITIQUES, 58(46). doi: 10.1037/a0035294.
  • Carson, S.H. (2011). Reel greatness: The contributions of money, art, and sex to movie success. [Review of Great flicks: Scientific studies of cinematic creativity and aesthetics, by Dean Keith Simonton (2011)]. PsycCRITIQUES, 56(33). doi: 10.1037/a0024268