Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration

The objective of each chapter was to share Dr. Dabrowski's legacy with interested audiences, and this book does exactly that. Though Dr. Dabrowski died in Warsaw, Poland in 1980, his ideas live on in this book. --Jackie Drummer, President, WI Association for Talented and Gifted<br /><br />A major contribution! A comprehensive description, analysis, and discussion of Dabrowski's theory of oversensitivities and Positive Disintegration. Essential reading for anyone interested interested in learning more about personality development in gifted individuals. --Jerald Grobman, M.D., Psychiatrist and Supervisor of Psychology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City<br /><br />This book collects for the first time articles written by some of the prime followers of Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski's work. Many of the authors were colleagues or students of Dabrowski in Canada; others were part of the original Dabrowski study group in the U.S. For a glimpse into the origins of the theory in North America, this book is unsurpassed. --Jane Piirto, Ph.D., Trustees' Professor in School of Education, Ashland University, Ohio, Recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award from Mensa Education and Research Foundation<br /><br />This text will become a benchmark in making the Theory of Positive Disintegration more mainstream with counselors and psychologists and more prevalent in the field of gifted education. A highly readable book with rich ideas and unique and powerful insights. I recommend it to anyone wanting to better understand gifted individuals and the primacy of emotions in our psychological development. --Nicholas Colangelo, Ph.D., Myron and Jacqueline Blank Professor of Gifted Education, Director, Belin-Blank Center, The University of Iowa

This book collects for the first time articles written by some of the prime followers of Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski's work. Many of the authors were colleagues or students of Dabrowski in Canada; others were part of the original Dabrowski study group in the U.S. For a glimpse into the origins of the theory in North America, this book is unsurpassed. --Jane Piirto, Ph.D., Trustees' Professor in School of Education, Ashland University, Ohio, Recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award from Mensa Education and Research Foundation

This text will become a benchmark in making the Theory of Positive Disintegration more mainstream with counselors and psychologists and more prevalent in the field of gifted education. A highly readable book with rich ideas and unique and powerful insights. I recommend it to anyone wanting to better understand gifted individuals and the primacy of emotions in our psychological development. --Nicholas Colangelo, Ph.D., Myron and Jacqueline Blank Professor of Gifted Education, Director, Belin-Blank Center, The University of Iowa

Sal Mendaglio, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary, as well as a chartered psychologist. His interests include the emotionality of gifted persons, self-concept, Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration, and counseling gifted persons.

Chapter 2- Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration: A Personality Theory for the 21st Century

Why should a relatively obscure theory of personality, known only in North America in the fields of gifted education and whose development began in the 1930s, be proclaimed as a theory for the 21st century? In fact, I selected the title for two specific reasons. First, Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration (TPD) places emotions in a central role, relegating intelligence to a secondary position of influence on personality development. Dabrowski's theory does not only state that emotions influence personality development, but it also specifies how this is accomplished. This emphasis on emotion and its relationship to personality, articulated some 60 to 70 years ago, reflects the emphasis on emotions that we have seen in psychology in the 1990s and continue to see in the 2000s. While emotions have always been an important consideration in personality theories, TPD is unique because it assigns an essential role to emotions in the personality development, something that is now acknowledged in the field (e.g., Izard & Ackerman, 2000).

Second, some believe that there is a decline in interest in theories of personality (Walters, 2004). Dabrowski's theory, with its unique approach to personality, may serve to re-invigorate the field. At first glance, this may seem ambitious; however, Dabrowski's theory has a track record in vitalizing a field of study. Dabrowski's theory, after its introduction to the North American study of giftedness by Michael Piechowski (1979a), has significantly influenced research on the social and emotional aspects of giftedness (e.g., Baum, Olenchak, & Owen, 1998; Colangelo & Ogburn, 1989; Fiedler, 1998; Hazell, 1999; Mendaglio, 1998; Morrissey, 1996; Piechowski, 1997; Schiever, 1985). For the past 20 years, the theory of positive disintegration has been the driving force in this area of study...

TPD provided an answer that no other theory that I had encountered provided--intelligence is not a sufficient condition for human development, because development is not equated with academic or materials success in life. In TPD, development is equated with becoming truly human, a state accomplished by individuals who struggle to make sense of themselves and society. In the process, they transform themselves from self-serving human animals to altruistic human beings...

In TPD, experience of negative emotions is essential for advanced psychological development. Therefore, the goal of the therapy is not to eliminate negative emotions, because when individuals are on the path of development, negative emotions are essential companions. Dabrowski taught his patients TPD concepts to help them understand the necessity of emotions in development. In essence, he taught his patients that their experiencing of intense negative emotions was a sign of their development--something to celebrate, not remediate. Specifically, patients were taught to reframe commonly held beliefs about negative emotions and to move from the view that they are symptoms to be eliminated, instead seeing the negative emotions as harbingers of growth and development. Such conceptual reframing is a hallmark of TPD.