What does Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration have to do with Overexcitabilities?
Dabrowski theorized that a small subgroup of the population, those with overexcitabilities, "talents and abilities", and a strong drive for autonomous expression are capable of creating a highly moral personality led not by self-interest nor by the pressures of social conventions, but by a personally and consciously developed hierarchical value structure.
The "higher level" personality is developed through a series of "personal disintegrations", or psychological crises. These crises can be brought on by normal physical maturation milestones, existential conflicts, stressful external events, or just develop spontaneously. The disintegrations are considered "positive" because the individual is breaking free from the old self-serving, societally dictated behaviors, developing personal ideals and striving to live up to those more positive, altruistic standards of behavior.
Dabrowski believed that the people with the Developmental Potential for Positive Disintegration shared these three aspects:
Overexcitabilities -- heightened sensitivity, was to Dabrowski, necessary for higher levels of development. It takes imaginational and intellectual OE's to envision the ideal. The emotional OE is the "rudder to steer by." People with emotional overexcitabilities feel driven to establish value systems. They are the ones not only able to envision the higher path but feel compelled by their personal values to make the "higher" choice instead of the "lower", self-interested one.
Abilities and Talents - we all have talents and abilities. Those on the lower rungs of personal development use their abilities to serve themselves. Those who have progressed through higher levels of personal development use their talents and abilities to achieve and create their ideal selves and create the ideal world, as they are able to envision it.
The third factor of development potentiality is a drive toward individual growth and autonomy. It provides motivation to strive for more and to try to imagine and achieve goals currently beyond one's grasp. It also helps direct one's creativity towards autonomous expression. This third factor is a very strong motivation to develop one's self at any cost.
Dabrowski's observed that a person whose developmental potential is high enough will generally undergo disintegration, despite any external social or family efforts to prevent it. A person whose DP is low will generally not undergo disintegration (or positive personality growth) even in a conducive environment.
Dąbrowski saw disintegrations as a key to the overall developmental process. "Crises challenge our status quo and cause us to review our self, ideas, values, thoughts, ideals, etc. At this level, each person develops his or her own vision of how life ought to be and lives it. This higher level is associated with strong individual approaches to problem solving and creativity. One's talents and creativity are applied in the service of these higher individual values and visions of how life could be -- how the world ought to be. The person expresses his or her 'new' autonomous personality energetically through action, art, social change and so on."
Dabrowski called Overexcitabiltiies a "tragic gift." A person with strong overexcitabilities can experience great highs as well as great lows. They are driven to better themselves and the world around them but, their ability to see "what could be" and "what should be" can also be a source of personal stress and social conflict.
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That is probably enough to think about for now. Can you just see this in your kids? Have you felt your whole life this conflict between what should be and what is? Do you see in yourself or your children the compulsion to live by a set of intrinsically developed values that are often at odds with accepted practices? The gifted community has adopted Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration to describe the developmental potential of gifted children and adults.
Later I will describe Dabrowski's levels of personality development.
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Wow! That sure explains a lot. This really helps to explain why some of us that came from a crummy upbringings have such a strong moral and social sense of right and wrong, even against everything we were taught.
ReplyDeleteI also see it in all three kids. They're moral sense is so strong that they have been chastised by other parents for being too opinionated, or not relaxing when they experience others doing something that the norm considers acceptable.
It is so much easier to see this in others than in myself. My husband, for example, struggles mightily to deal with what should be and what is, both in his own work and in what he sees in others. It is not always easy to live with, but I really feel for him -- he is hard on others (mostly in private) but even harder on himself.
ReplyDeleteHe and I both have some paralysis when undertaking new or creative endeavors, because the ability to see both the ideal and the near impossibility of achieving real perfection makes action seem pointless.
It is hard to read this and apply to our family, either adults or children, because even on the Internet I have such a fear of seeming or being conceited or assuming we are better because of some special traits we have no control over.
Yet so much seems to explain the way we feel and act!
Gwen - I didn't think about it regards to our troubled childhoods. Thanks for that!!
ReplyDeleteGood for your kids! It might be hard for them but maybe the idea that it is good for them to be different in this way will help them.
Shaun - Thanks for responding.
ReplyDeleteYou said "even on the Internet I have such a fear of seeming or being conceited or assuming we are better because of some special traits we have no control over."
It is HARD. Sometimes I feel like when I say "Gifted" other people hear me saying "better than you." It is frustrating.
I was actually ranting about it tonight to Pere. Something I am trying to do is take the word Gifted out of the closet. I am trying to get people, especially women, to accept/come to terms with their giftedness. I think it is necessary for our mental health, self-actualization and for supporting our gifted daughters.
That is the path I am walking now. I have known I was gifted for as long as I can remember. And it has isolated me my whole life. It hurt that I didn't easily fit in. I went through periods of trying to reinvent myself as someone who was like everyone else. I went through cycles of trying to reach out and then avoiding people.
Now, at 35, I am trying to come to terms with being different. That is why I am posting all this stuff, it is what I have been reading and researching in my attempt at bibliotherapy.
"I went through periods of trying to reinvent myself as someone who was like everyone else."
ReplyDeleteI did as well. I distinctly remember trying to be "nice" to a few of my friends when I was a child, by explaining something to them. We had, what I thought to be a 'great time" together.
Later, I was sitting at my window , fondly watching the two of them go home for the evening ( it was open, as it was summer), and one leaned over to the other and said, "She's such a know-it-all. " And the other friend replied , " I know..." They proceeded home, talking about me.
I cried buckets of tears, and that was the beginning of me sitting in my dark room, listening to angst-filled music, with a single candle burning. I stayed that way for the next 10 years. :/
Forte
Cher Mere, I was moved by what you wrote in the comments. It's about breaking the cycle whether it be mother-daughter or women to women.
ReplyDeleteI love this theory. It's really given my struggle some context. Though perpetual disintegration and reintegration I've become a much more ethical and spiritual person. Not really because I'm trying to be but because my sense of self-violation has gotten to the point where it has simply become a necessity. I'm only 21 but I have a feeling this theory will be a life long friend. And it may be a tragic gift but I wouldn't want to live any other way. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDelete