bisociation meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

bisociation

noun

Etymology Blend of bi- + association; coined by Hungarian-British author Arthur Koestler in his 1964 book The Act of Creation.

Human sciences, Psychology, Sciences A blending of elements drawn from two previously unrelated patterns of thought into a new pattern.

Arthur Koestler's concept of bisociation was introduced in the last chapter to explain how associating two absurd or ridiculous ideas gives rise to humour. Koestler goes on to describe how bisociation may be the key to creativity.1995, Mike Baxter, Product Design, page 68:
In Memoirs of a Woman Doctor, images of confinement merge with family images. One of the most memorable of these bisociations is that involving the mother's "imprisonment" of the first-person narrator's hair in braids.1995, Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Men, Women, and God(s): Nawal El Saadawi and Arab Feminist Poetics, page 167:

3 more examples

Bisociation is the contact of two operative fields.[…]The junctional concept which connects the ideas of two operative fields, is the bisociative concept, and the combination of two mental associations which are logically unrelated in bisociation.2008, J. Nazareth, The Psychology of Military Humour, unnumbered page:
2010, Marc Segolt, Christian Borgelt, Selecting the Links in BisoNets Generated from Document Collections, Paul R. Cohen, Niall M. Adams, Michael R. Berthold (editors), Advances in Intelligent Data Analysis IX: 9th International Symposium, IDA 2010, Proceedings, Springer, LNCS 6605, page 197, Several famous scientific discoveries are good examples of bisociations, for instance Isaac Newton's theory of gravitation and James C. Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic waves.
In 1964, Arthur Koestler proposed a theory of general creativity wherein he outlined the process of bisociation and explained its importance with respect to originality. The phenomenon of bisociation involves the intermingling or bringing together of two or more unconnected matrices of thought.2014, Naresh N. Vempala, “Creativity, Theories of Musical”, in William Forde Thompson, editor, Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia, page 276: