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Background. The article describes the author’s way from researching the phenomenon of insight to revealing the psychological mechanism of creativity. Its first stage (1965) was a postgraduate continuation of the studies initiated in the term papers and dissertations under the guidance of S.L. Rubinshtein. At the second stage (1969) the author introduced a new experimental-diagnostic method “Creative field” into psychology. Objective. To reveal the author's approach to the consideration of the thought process and the nature of creativity; to describe the study of the mechanism of creativity as an ability to develop activities on one’s own initiative. Results. At the first stage of research work it was justified that the mechanism of insight opened by Y.A. Ponomarev is not the only one. The studies demonstrated the role of the nature of the thinking languages and the dynamics of changing their types: from the visual image to the sign, and then — from the sign to the structure. The visibility of the structure explains instant emergence of the hypothesis. The author’s conclusions were confirmed in the theories of N.I. Zhinkin, L.M. Wecker, M. Hunt. The second stage of research allowed the author to realize the Rubinstein's principle of creative activity and develop a typology of cognitive activity, which correlates with the cognition levels identified by G. Hegel: stimulus-productive level supposes implementation of the proposed task within the framework of initial requirements (according to Hegel — the level of the singular); heuristic level, carried out beyond the requirements of the original task, allows to discover new patterns (according to Hegel — the level of the special); creative level (according to Hegel — the level of the universal) is characteristic of the few. An open regularity does not act as a solution method, but as a starting point for constructing a theory. Conclusion. The article substantiates that the mechanism of creativity as the ability to develop one’s activity on his own initiative, can take place only with the dominance of cognitive motivation in the structure of personality. This has been confirmed in the sample of more than 10,000 subjects in a series of long-term studies in which one experiment is in process since 1970, when the subjects were 10th graders. The research data of these studies constitute a theoretical and empirical proof of the post-nonclassical methodological principle of the unity of truth and morality.