"Generativity" is a term coined by the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson in 1950 to denote "a concern for establishing and guiding the next generation." I define it as creativity between the generations. Generativity can be expressed in literally hundreds of ways, from raising a child to stopping a tradition of abuse, from writing a family history to starting a new organization. You try to "make a difference" with your life, to "give back," to "take care" of your community and your planet.

Some Japanese colleagues have translated "generativity" as "sedai-keisho-sei." "Sedai" means "the generations." "Keisho" means something like "receiving and putting your stamp on." And "sei" means "the sense of." That describes the process involved. You receive something from the past, you create something out of it, you pass it on to the future.

I've described this process in a short article written originally for Science & Theology News and in a longer talk I gave in Kyoto. (Click on the links for free Adobe PDFs.) The most complete treatment is in my book Make It Count.

I've also posted PDFs of "Generative Humanity" and "Religion, Psychology and the Sterile Self," my earliest treatments of generativity. These articles are philosophical in bent. Things get more concrete in Outliving the Self. Here I tell the life stories of eight people struggling with the legacies they've received and the legacies they're creating, some of them on the "dark" side.