Overexcitabilities in Gifted Children
By Lesley Sword
Kazimierz Dabrowski (1902 - 1980) was a Polish Psychiatrist and Psychologist who worked with creative adults and adolescents. He proposed the Theory of Positive Disintegration which maintains that crises and disintegration are necessary for psychological growth and the attainment of a personality ideal.
Dabrowski believed that inner conflict is a developmental rather than a degenerative sign ie advanced development requires a breakdown of existing psychological structures in order to form higher, more evolved structures.
Overexcitabilities play a central part in Dabrowski's theory of advanced development. Overexcitability is a sensitivity of the nervous system, an expanded awareness of and a heightened capacity to respond to stimuli such as noise, light, smell, touch etc.
The term �overexcitability� conveys the idea that this stimulation of the nervous system is well beyond the usual or average in intensity and duration.
Michael Piechowski, who worked with Dabrowski, explains the overexcitabilities as an abundance of physical, sensual, creative, intellectual and emotional energy that can result in creative endeavours as well as advanced emotional and ethical development in adulthood. He says that the overexcitabilities feed, enrich, empower and amplify talent.
Overexcitabilities are assumed to be innate: a genetic predisposition of the nervous system to respond more and more intensely to life's stimuli. This causes those with strong overexcitabilities to have more intense than usual experiences of life.
Overexcitabilities appear in five forms:
Psychomotor - surplus of energy: rapid speech, pressure for action, restlessness impulsive actions, nervous habits & tics, competitiveness, sleeplessness.
Sensual � sensory and aesthetic pleasure: heightened sensory awareness eg sights, smells, tastes, textures, sounds, appreciation of beautiful objects, music, nature, sensitivity to foods and pollutants, intense dislike of certain clothing, craving for pleasure.
Intellectual � learning, problem solving: curiosity, concentration, theoretical & analytical thinking, questioning, introspection, love of learning and problem solving, moral concern, thinking about personal and social moral values.
Imaginational � vivid imagination: creative & inventive, a rich and active fantasy life, superb visual memory, elaborate dreams, day dreams, love of poetry, music and drama, fears of the unknown, mixing of truth and fantasy, great sense of humour.
Emotional � intensity of feeling: complex emotions, extremes of emotion, empathy with others, sensitivity in relationships, strong memory for feelings, difficulty adjusting to change, fears and anxieties, inhibition, timidity, shyness, self-judgment, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, heightened awareness of injustice and hypocrisy.
References
Piechowski, M. (1999) Overexcitabilities. In Encyclopedia of Creativity Volume 2. M. A. Runco & S.R. Pritzker Eds. Academic press. Pp325-334
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Copyright 2002, Lesley Sword.
Properly attributed, this material may be freely reproduced and disseminated.
