The Tragic Gift
For adults learning about Overexcitabilities
and Positive Disintegration
Are you gifted or creative? Intense, sensitive or complex? Neurodivergent? Have you been told you are “too much”?….
What are overexcitabilities?
Kazimierz Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD) says not all mental turmoil is mental illness. Difficult and dark emotions can be catalysts in personality development, which push us towards our authenticity.
With this theory, came the concept of overexcitability (OE). It is a forerunner to the neurodivergence movement which described intense and complex experiences of the world. It means a heightened sensitivity (and activity) in one or more of five areas – emotions, intellect, imagination, senses, or the body
Living with OE means:
– A heightened sensitivity to your inner world, and the outer world
– Seeing the world in a stronger, more multisided, and complex manner
– Having an intense, rich inner life – in your imagination, intellect, and emotions
– Being physically energetic, or heightened senses
– It is more common in gifted and creative individuals
He called OE a ‘TRAGIC GIFT’. The intense experience of life – good and bad – leading a person to see the world in a very different way.
Have you ever experienced an inner crisis? Felt like you might be broken inside? Like life pulled the rug out from under you?…
What is positive disintegration?
The theory of positive disintegration (TPD) can be life-changing, and it certainly was for me.
It helps people navigate inner crisis, accept neurodivergence and difference, and make peace with difficult emotions (in a way which doesn’t pathologise them).
Positive Disintegration describes the loosening and “disintegration” of existing mental structures, beliefs, and values. This inner conflict allows you to “positively” rebuild yourself more authentically.
Not all intense negative emotions are necessarily the cause of poor mental health – they may be as a result of a disintegration, or a product of neurodivergence. Dabrowski’s theory might help you see that these intense emotional experiences are not always a cause for a mental health or medical intervention.
About this website
This website has been created by a person with overexcitabilities (OE), for people with overexcitabilities, in order to kick-start your self-discovery journey. It is a starter-kit for people who have discovered they have OE, in a plain language, simple format. I’m sharing what I have learned in the hope that it will help other people – and let them that they are not alone!
The pages on this site contain summaries of Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD). It talks about OE, a form of neurodivergence, and the role that this different way of seeing the world plays in our development (and building our authentic self).
It also contains my personal stories, experiences with self-therapy, tips for working on self-development, as well as links to other resources.
Do you see yourself in this poem?
‘Be Greeted Psychoneurotics!’
– by Kazimierz Dabrowski
BE GREETED!
“For you see sensitivity in the insensitivity of the world, uncertainty among the world’s certainties.
For you often feel others as you feel yourselves.
For you feel the anxiety of the world, and its bottomless narrowness and self-assurance.
For your phobia of washing your hands from the dirt of the world,
for your fear of being locked in the world’s limitations,
for your fear of the absurdity of existence.
For your subtlety in not telling others what you see in them.
For your awkwardness in dealing with practical things, and
for your practicalness in dealing with unknown things,
for your transcendental realism and lack of everyday realism,
for your exclusiveness and fear of losing close friends,
for your creativity and ecstasy,
for your maladjustment to that “which is” and adjustment to that which “ought to be”,
for your great but unutilized abilities.
For the belated appreciation of the real value of your greatness
which never allows the appreciation of the greatness
of those who will come after you.
For your being treated instead of treating others,
for your heavenly power being forever pushed down by brutal force;
for that which is prescient, unsaid, infinite in you.
For the loneliness and strangeness of your ways.
Be greeted!”
Subscribe
100% authentic update emails
You’ll only get an email if I post a new blog, or other useful content to the site – no spam, no automated emails, and no rote newsletters at a set time.
Connect with other people who have OE on social
A group has been set up under the name ‘Adults With Overexcitabilities’ on Facebook, which you can join and meet other overexcitable people like yourself. You can also follow Adults With Overexcitabilities by the Facebook page or via the YouTube channel.