Positive Disintegration

In episode 7, Chris and Emma were joined by Fiona Smith, a psychologist from Sydney, Australia. Fiona brings to life the issue of living with intensities and sensitivities, from her perspective of a parent as well as her own experiences. We learn (again) that having an intense experience of life brings challenges, and we hope that listeners will resonate with her words. We discussed empathy, overexcitabilities, what it’s like to be image-free (aka aphantasia), and how Dąbrowski’s theory has played a role in Fiona’s life and work. The bottom line is that you're not alone in struggling with your intensity—there's a reason why you don't fit into the world. And you know what? That’s OK! The blessings of rich experience are as real as the challenges. Resources mentioned in this episodeGifted Minds [Fiona’s website]Walking in Another’s Shoes and Getting Blisters (Fiona’s article from Advanced Development Journal) Article for Mensa Australia: Celebrating Your Gifted Child's SensitivityNew chapter coming soon: “On Boredom and Bullying: How Being Gifted, Bored and Frustrated in the Classroom Can Lead to Being Bullied or Being a Bully at School” by Fiona Smith & Dominic WestbrookWe talked about the 2016 Dabrowski Congress. Click here for the playlist of videos on YouTube from the 2022 Dabrowski Congress in Denver. Maggie Brown’s research: “Research With Gifted Adults: What International Experts Think Needs to Happen to Move the Field Forward”* A transcript of this episode is available on the Dabrowski Center website.Connect with us!Positive Disintegration on SubstackVisit the Dabrowski Center websiteFacebookInstagramThe Positive Disintegration YouTube ChannelAdults with Overexcitabilities group on FacebookDabrowski Center and Positive Disintegration Podcast Community on FacebookThe Tragic Gift blog by EmmaEmail us at positivedisintegration.pod@gmail.comPlease consider supporting the podcast to help fund this work through the Dabrowski Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Find Positive Disintegration MerchIf you enjoyed this episode on Apple or Spotify, please remember to click on the stars and leave a rating or write a review. Thank you! <3Do you know someone who would benefit from our work? Please share this post with others who would appreciate learning about Positive Disintegration. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.positivedisintegration.org/subscribe

In episode 6, Chris and Emma were joined by Kate Arms, JD, PCC, a leadership coach who talked about her personal experience of development through positive disintegration, and how she created her own autopsychotherapy practice. What is Autopsychotherapy? This is a question that has been asked often on social media, and it is one of Dabrowski’s dynamisms that requires more explanation than you will find in the literature. Kate talks about some of the strategies and methods that have worked for her, and we share our ideas and stories on what we have found useful, in the hope that others in the process of development will benefit.Definitions mentioned during our discussionAUTOPSYCHOTHERAPY: Psychotherapy, preventive measures, or changes in living conditions applied to oneself in order to control possible mental disequilibrium. Autopsychotherapy is the process of education-of-oneself under conditions of increased stress, as in developmental crises, in critical moments of life, in neuroses and psychoneuroses. It is an off-shoot of education-of-oneself operating at the borderline of levels III and IV. As development advances through spontaneous to organized multilevel disintegration, the conflicts, disturbances, depressions, and anxieties are handled consciously by the individual himself. Because of the great rise and differentiation of autonomous factors the individual has available to him the means not only to contain areas of conflict and tension but even more so to transform them into processes enriching and strengthening his development. Conscious self-healing is an example of this process at work; it is, however, more crucial in the mental and emotional than in the physical realm. Solitude and concentration play a very important role in this process. (Dąbrowski, 1996, p. 40)SUBJECT-OBJECT IN ONESELF: One of the main developmental dynamisms which consists in observing one’s own mental life in an attempt to better understand oneself and to evaluate oneself critically. It is a process of looking at oneself as if from outside (the self as object) and of perceiving the individuality of others (the other as subject, i.e. individual knower). (Dabrowski, 1972, p. 305)Resources mentioned in this episodeKate’s books:* Extreme Resilience Workbook* L.I.F.T.: A Coach Approach to Parenting* Side by Side: A Model for Healthy Relationships* Unblock: Writing Prompts for Works in ProgressSignal Fire Coaching (Kate’s website)Neurodiversity Coaching AcademyParents of Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Kids (The Facebook group where Kate and Chris are admins)Living with Intensity by Susan Daniels and Michael M. PiechowskiThe Zen Path through Depression by Philip MartinSelf-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin NeffYou can find Kate on Twitter: @Kate_ArmsEmma’s blog post on autopsychotherapy. Kate has a newsletter on Substack called Psychological Safety at ScaleReferencesDabrowski, K. (1972). Psychoneurosis is not an illness: Neuroses and psychoneuroses from the perspective of positive disintegration. Gryf.Dąbrowski, K. (1996). Multilevelness of emotional and instinctive functions. Part 1: Theory and description of levels of behavior. Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego.* A transcript of this episode is available on the Dabrowski Center website.Connect with us!Positive Disintegration on SubstackVisit the Dabrowski Center websiteFacebookInstagramThe Positive Disintegration YouTube ChannelAdults with Overexcitabilities group on FacebookDabrowski Center and Positive Disintegration Podcast Community on FacebookThe Tragic Gift blog by EmmaEmail us at positivedisintegration.pod@gmail.comPlease consider supporting the podcast to help fund this work through the Dabrowski Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Find Positive Disintegration MerchIf you enjoyed this episode on Apple or Spotify, please remember to click on the stars and leave a rating or write a review. Thank you! <3Do you know someone who would benefit from our work? Please share this post with others who would appreciate learning about Positive Disintegration. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.positivedisintegration.org/subscribe

In episode 5, Chris and Emma were joined by Dr. R. Frank Falk, who has been dealing with the construct of overexcitability as a researcher for more than 40 years. Frank talked about his work with the original Overexcitability Questionnaire (OEQ) and the subsequent development of the Overexcitability Questionnaire-Two (OEQ-II). We discussed the challenges of researching OE and the effort that Chris and Frank are making to rectify misunderstandings about Dąbrowski’s theory in the gifted community. Resources mentioned during this episode: Developmental Potential by Michael M. Piechowski (this is the chapter Frank mentioned from New Voices in Counseling the Gifted).Most of the research on overexcitabilities can be found in this repository on the OSF website: Research on Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration. The Origins and Conceptual Evolution of Overexcitability by Wells & Falk. (Click here to access the article from the journal’s website.) Reexamining Overexcitability: A Framework for Understanding Intense Experience by Piechowski & Wells. Bill Tillier’s website: positivedisintegration.com.Mellow Out by Michael M. Piechowski.Living with Intensity by Daniels & Piechowski.Gifted Development Center website (for more about the OEQ-II). The Dabrowski Newsletter we mentioned can be found in the materials available for download from Bill’s website (for a fee). The two special issues of Roeper Review co-edited by Cheryl Ackerman: Vol. 31 (2) and Vol. 31 (3). Frank’s work can also be found on ResearchGate.* A transcript of this episode is available on the Dabrowski Center website.Connect with us!Positive Disintegration on SubstackVisit the Dabrowski Center websiteFacebookInstagramThe Positive Disintegration YouTube ChannelAdults with Overexcitabilities group on FacebookDabrowski Center and Positive Disintegration Podcast Community on FacebookThe Tragic Gift blog by EmmaEmail us at positivedisintegration.pod@gmail.comPlease consider supporting the podcast to help fund this work through the Dabrowski Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Find Positive Disintegration MerchIf you enjoyed this episode on Apple or Spotify, please remember to click on the stars and leave a rating or write a review. Thank you! <3Please share this post with others who would appreciate learning about Positive Disintegration. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.positivedisintegration.org/subscribe

In episode 2, Chris talked about their presentation at the 2021 NAGC Conference on distinguishing science from pseudoscience. Emma and Chris went over the five types of overexcitability and their forms and expressions, the connection between OE and positive disintegration, and also discussed some of the myths and misunderstandings about OEs that are found in the gifted community. Resources mentioned in this episode:Mellow Out by Michael M. PiechowskiReexamining Overexcitability: A Framework for Understanding Intense Experience by Piechowski and WellsThe Origins and Conceptual Evolution of Overexcitability by Wells and FalkThe Curse of Tony Stark by Emma NicholsonLiving with Intensity by Daniels and Piechowski* A transcript of this episode is available on the Dabrowski Center website.Connect with us!Positive Disintegration on SubstackVisit the Dabrowski Center websiteFacebookInstagramThe Positive Disintegration YouTube ChannelAdults with Overexcitabilities group on FacebookDabrowski Center and Positive Disintegration Podcast Community on FacebookThe Tragic Gift blog by EmmaEmail us at positivedisintegration.pod@gmail.comPlease consider supporting the podcast to help fund this work through the Dabrowski Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Find Positive Disintegration MerchIf you enjoyed this episode on Apple or Spotify, please remember to click on the stars and leave a rating or write a review. Thank you! <3Please share this post with others who would appreciate learning about Positive Disintegration. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.positivedisintegration.org/subscribe

In the inaugural episode, Emma and Chris introduced themselves and Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration. The discussion touched on some of the basics, such as: * Who was Dr. Kazimierz Dąbrowski, and where did his theory come from?* What is positive disintegration?* Unilevel vs. Multilevel processes* Overexcitabilities and Developmental Potential* Levels of Development* DynamismsWe also talked about how Chris and Emma came to learn about the theory and find meaning in the idea of positive disintegration. Thank you for joining us on this journey!Click here for extended show notes with an edited transcript (Paid subscribers only)* A transcript of this episode is available on the Dabrowski Center website.Connect with us!Positive Disintegration on SubstackVisit the Dabrowski CenterFacebookInstagramThe Positive Disintegration YouTube ChannelAdults with Overexcitabilities group on FacebookDabrowski Center and Positive Disintegration Podcast Community on FacebookThe Tragic Gift blog by EmmaEmail us at positivedisintegration.pod@gmail.comPlease consider supporting the podcast to help fund this work through the Dabrowski Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Find Positive Disintegration MerchIf you enjoyed this episode on Apple or Spotify, please remember to click on the stars and leave a rating or write a review. Thank you! <3Please share this post with others who would appreciate learning about Positive Disintegration. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.positivedisintegration.org/subscribe