Interesting Quotes, Vol. 14

The introduction of overexcitabilities to gifted education in 1979

Today's excerpts are from the chapter “Developmental Potential” by Dr. Michael M. Piechowski, published in the 1979 book New Voices in Counseling the Gifted.¹ The book was edited by two of Michael’s friends from graduate school:

“Nick [Colangelo] was my officemate when we were graduate students in counseling at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduate assistants at the Research and Guidance Laboratory for Superior Students… Nick became interested in the theory and in my project, as did Kay Ogburn (later Colangelo), with whom we shared our office. After we all graduated, Nick and another of our officemates, Ron T. Zaffrann, conceived the idea of putting together a book under the title New Voices in Counseling the Gifted (Colangelo & Zaffrann, 1979). It was the first book of its kind and was graced by a general chapter on developmental potential and one on a clinical example of multilevel potential (Ogburn-Colangelo, 1979; Piechowski, 1979a).” (Piechowski, 2008, pp. 75-76)

Developmental Potential

This chapter introduced the overexcitabilities and Dąbrowski’s theory to the field of gifted education. The impact of this chapter on the gifted community and gifted ed literature was hugely significant.

Dr. Linda Silverman (2009)² wrote about discovering this piece:

“I vividly recall the excitement I felt as I read chapter 2, Michael Piechowski’s (1979) “Developmental Potential.” The concepts were so powerful that I would stop every few pages to call a dear friend long distance and read the passages aloud. I was smitten. Chapter 11, Kay Ogburn-Colangelo’s (1979) delicious application of TPD to counseling—complete with tapescripts—was frosting on the cake. My [book] review (Silverman, 1980a) centered primarily on the wonderful ideas introduced in these two chapters. As part of the review, I needed to contact the editors, neither of whom I knew, and incorporate some information about them. So I called Nick Colangelo, briefly interviewed him, and then popped my real question, “Who is Dabrowski?” Then I called Ron Zaffrann with the same inquiry. They both told me to call Michael Piechowski; Nick gave me his phone number. It took a while to get up my courage, but eventually I dialed that number.

Michael graciously sent me several papers on TPD, whereupon I plunged headlong into the study of the theory. The following semester, I used New Voices as my text for the graduate course, Counseling the Gifted, and my students became as enthralled with the theory as I was. What was it about TPD that made it so appealing to those of us who work with the gifted?” (p. 142)

You may not realize that if Linda hadn’t read that chapter and followed up with Michael, I wouldn’t be writing this post. I never would’ve heard about Dąbrowksi’s theory, and I wouldn’t have experienced the blessing of discovering the theory in my own life.

Michael was ready to start moving away from working with the theory when he met Linda. Her enthusiasm about the theory drew others to Michael’s work, and he began training Linda and others on how to rate the overexcitabilities based on the research and work he described in this chapter.

Not only did Linda include New Voices in her course, but she also did research, helped create a study group, and presented the theory at conferences and wherever she could—she brought it to others.

One of those people was Stephanie Tolan, and you can listen to a clip of Stef discussing the impact of discovering this chapter from Episode 19.

Let’s get to the quotes.

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Five Dimensions of Mental Functioning

Michael described the concept of developmental potential as “a psychological model of giftedness” taken from Dąbrowski’s theory of human development. This hypothesis was not supported by subsequent research, yet people in the gifted community continue talking about overexcitability as though it’s synonymous with giftedness. We know that many gifted individuals experience the world intensely and have OEs, but not all of them do.

In the post where I discussed his work from the 1970s, I mentioned that Michael has little interest in defining constructs. His passion lies in bringing theory to life with data in the form of case material. The chapter includes many examples:

“To give an idea of each form of psychic overexcitability a definition or short summary description would not do, consequently, ample illustrative material is included to enable the readers to compare their own observations and perhaps collect their own examples.” (Piechowski, 1979, p. 27)

He provided us with a fresh, updated definition of overexcitability grounded in his research in this chapter. But first, he gives us some background:

“The concept of developmental potential is one of the central concepts in Dabrowski's theory of human development, called the theory of positive disintegration (Dabrowski, 1964; Dabrowski and Piechowski, 1977). The origins and final formulation of the theory owe much to the study of gifted, creative, and eminent individuals (Dabrowski, 1937, 1967, 1972).” (Piechowski, 1979, p. 27)

Next, Michael tells us about a paper by Dąbrowski from 1938 called “Types of Increased Psychic Excitability.” He didn’t have a copy of this paper until relatively recently, and he translated it into English and published it in Advanced Development in 2019. It’s important to note that the theory was also informed by Dąbrowski’s work with children and adults who had been hospitalized and considered mentally ill.

Pointing back to the posts I made about NAGC, I want to say that this is another place where we’re told that the overexcitabilities predated the theory and, therefore, wouldn't require the entire TPD to understand them:

“The five forms of psychic overexcitability were discovered by Dabrowski (1938) prior to the formulation of his theory; they were described as "types of increased psychic excitability" and were introduced to denote a variety of types of nervousness. Nervousness is tension in the nervous system and Dabrowski got the idea from observation of children under conditions provoking tension.” (p. 28)

He tells us the five types of overexcitability can be viewed as ways of processing emotional tension:

“The imposition of restraint provokes emotional tension. This tension finds expression in several different modalities. Children that squirm in their seats release their tension psychomotorically; the daydreamers escape the tension into the world of fantasy or spontaneously create pictures and scenes as images of the sources of tension; the upright, tensed children feel the tension emotionally; the alert ones get their mind going and are ready to put their wits to use. There are five modalities of expressing tension: psychomotor, sensual, imaginational, intellectual, and emotional. They are called forms of psychic overexcitability.” (p. 28)

Next, we learn that there are developmental implications for overexcitability:

“The term overexcitability, rather than just excitability, was chosen to convey the idea that this is a special kind of excitability, one that is enhanced and distinguished by characteristic forms of expression. Only when the expressions of "excitability" are beyond and above what can be considered common or average do they make a significant contribution to development. And it is this criterion—contribution to a higher level of development that guides the selection of expressions of overexcitability apart from expressions that are not developmentally significant.” (p. 28)

This is very important and not something most people realize. Here, we have a glimpse into what Dąbrowski meant by levels of overexcitability. Michael tells us more about what emotional OE looks like and what it’s not:

“For instance, one may readily consider violent and explosive temper as a sign of emotional overexcitability. But this is insufficient. Violent emotions which are uncontrolled, not reflected upon, and which do not occur in the context of a true and deeply felt personal relationship, do not count as emotional overexcitability in the sense of the term as used here. This is because intense, even violent, feelings cannot go unchecked in the context of a personal relationship out of consideration for the other person. In relations where people do not perceive each other as persons, such emotions are checked only by means of contracts for mutual benefit and subjugation to self-serving goals.” (p. 28)

Next, he shares the updated definition:

“Each form of overexcitability can be viewed as a mode of being in the world, or as a dimension of mental functioning. Thus, the psychomotor mode is one of movement, restlessness, action, excess of energy; sensual mode—of surface contact, sensory delectation, comfort and sensuality; the intellectual mode—of analysis, logic, questioning, the search for truth; the imaginational mode—of vivid dreams, fantasies, images, personifications, strong visualization of experience; the emotional mode—of attachments and affectional bonds with others, empathy, the despair of loneliness, the joy of love, the enigma of existence and human responsibility.

These are modes of personal experience and personal action. Each mode can be viewed as a channel through which flows information in the form of sensations, feeling, experience, images, expectations, etc. These five dimensions can be thought of as the main channels of perception—apprehension of the patterns of experience, and of conception—the formation of images of experience. They may be likened to color filters through which the various external impingements, and internal stirrings reach the individual. They determine to what occurrences and in what way one is capable of responding.

The type of response is specific to that type of overexcitability which is the most dominant in a given person. For instance, persons characterized by emotional overexcitability when asked what triggers in them a high feeling, answer that it is the presence of a loved person or of a very special friend; while if the answer to the same question is the speed and excitement of water skills, playing a hard game of racquet ball, or racing a motorcycle, indicates psychomotor overexcitability. In the latter case, although the question was asked in the emotional dimension, (“do you ever feel high?”) the response came in the psychomotor dimension.” (pp. 28-29)

The consequence of overexcitability is that it leads to tension. Different people have different strengths and combinations of OE:

“These “channels” can be wide open, narrow or operating at bare minimum. They are assumed to be part of a person's constitution and to be more or less independent of each other. If more than one of these channels, or all five, have wide apertures, then the abundance and diversity of feeling, thought, imagery, and sensation will inevitably lead to dissonance, conflict and tension, but at the same time it enriches, expands, and intensifies the individual's mental development. At times the inner tensions and conflicts may be overwhelming.” (p. 29)

Sources of Study Material

Before going into the next section, I want to call your attention to something I wrote in Interesting Quotes, Vol. 12. I said that I’d made an error in the Origins paper about the source material for the table of forms and manifestations of OE. When I re-read the 1979 chapter, I realized what I included in the paper was correct. So, I’ve removed that final section of the post because I don’t want to confuse people.

On page 29 of the chapter, Michael said, “The description and examples illustrating the five forms of overexcitability are derived from two sources.” He talked about both of them in Episode 48.

1. A systematic examination of 433 instances of overexcitability identified in autobiographical material (Piechowski, 1973). The original source of this material was a study of six subjects plus a historical case of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince (Dabrowski and Piechowski, 1972). Of the six subjects, four were gifted: a folksinger (female), a painter and writer (17-year-old male, high school junior), an art teacher and poet (female), and a psychologist (female) who was also a writer and poet.

2. Pilot material collected in 1973-75 at the Research and Guidance Laboratory for Superior Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. High school students of superior ability participating in the program at the laboratory were asked to answer an open-ended questionnaire of 46 items. The questions were designed to elicit material representative of the five forms of psychic overexcitability. Thirty one completed questionnaires were received. (Piechowski, 1979, p. 29)

Here is the first published table of “Forms and Expressions of Psychic Overexcitability.”

Table 2-1, Forms and Expressions of Psychic Overexcitability.

The pages following the table have rich examples from the data Michael collected and analyzed in the 1970s. I’m going to share the first paragraph for each type of overexcitability:

PSYCHOMOTOR OVEREXCITABILITY

“The manifestations of psychomotor overexcitability are essentially of two kinds: surplus of energy and nervousness—a psychomotor expression of emotional tension. In nervousness, the emotional tension is translated into psychomotor activity such as tics, nail-biting, or impulsive and violent behavior.” (p. 31)

SENSUAL OVEREXCITABILITY

“Sensual overexcitability is expressed in heightened experiencing of sensory pleasures and in seeking sensual outlets for inner tensions” (p. 33).

INTELLECTUAL OVEREXCITABILITY

“The manifestations of intellectual overexcitability are associated with an intensified and accelerated activity of the mind. Its strongest expressions have more to do with striving for understanding, probing the unknown and love of truth than with learning per se and academic achievement. Conceived in these terms, intellectual overexcitability is the least common among the five forms of psychic overexcitability (Dabrowski, 1959).” (p. 34)

IMAGINATIONAL OVEREXCITABILITY

“The presence of imaginational overexcitability can be inferred from frequent distraction, wandering attention, and daydreaming. These occur as a consequence of free play of the imagination. Here, too, belong illusions, animistic thinking, expressive image and metaphor, invention, and fantasy. Strong emotional experience and tension become expressed through imaginational overexcitability as dramatization, animistic thinking, mixing of truth and fiction, strong visual recall and visualization in general, vivid dreams and nightmares, and fears of the unknown (a combination of emotional and imaginational overexcitability).” (pp. 35-36)

EMOTIONAL OVEREXCITABILITY

"Among the five forms of psychic overexcitability, the manifestations of emotional overexcitability are the most numerous. They include certain characteristic and easily recognizable somatic expressions, extremes of feeling, inhibition, strong affective memory, concern with death, anxieties, fears, feelings of guilt, depressive and suicidal moods. But the largest variety are "relationship feelings," that is, an intensified quality of human relationships, exclusive bonds of friendship and love, difficulties in adjustment to new places, loneliness, feelings toward self, concern for others and their feelings.

This list is neither final nor complete. My main purpose here is to stress the intensity, richness and high degree of differentiation of interpersonal feeling is the main stuff of individual development from a lower to a higher level. It involves not only caring but also self-scrutiny; not only a sense of joy but also the sense of responsibility; not only affection but also compassion and patience. Emotional overexcitability is also a major ingredient of creative potential. Hence, the great significance of emotional overexcitability in assessing the type and the direction of an individual's psychological growth and in assessing developmental potential.” (p. 38)

At the end of the section on emotional overexcitability, Michael adds thoughts on the developmental implications of this type:

“Many of the above examples will seem common, in fact so common that it might be hard to conceive what constitutes over and above in emotional overexcitability. For one, many of the quotations show that such reactions are more intense, richer and deeper and more frequent in persons endowed emotionally. Secondly, they are either related to or themselves represent developmental dynamisms described by Dabrowski's theory. This is partly discussed in Ogburn-Colangelo's chapter in this book.

The emotional aspect of human development usually is either taken for granted or is looked upon as a source of interference with efficiency, productivity, and the social order in general. People are expected to have appropriate emotions at times of misfortune and personal loss, but self-doubt, maladjustment, existential despair are considered handicaps. Yet, it is this kind of feeling that is a function of emotional overexcitability, and within the frame of Dabrowski's theory, such feeling has its logical and developmentally significant place. Consequently, low degree or absence of emotional overexcitability is the most serious curtailment of a person's developmental potential.” (p. 45)

This chapter has many rich examples of overexcitability—more than I can capture well in a post. Please download the chapter and make time to read it because one of Michael’s gifts is bringing constructs to life with case material.

There’s even more in the last pages of the chapter, including a section called “On Being Emotional, Creative, and Moral.” I thought this was a paragraph worth sharing:

The morally gifted do not need to fully represent the level of self-actualization demanded by Dabrowski's theory, but the strength of their emotional overexcitability and of the developmental dynamisms that move them in the direction of self-actualization, is the guarantee of their higher moral discernment. It might be worth mentioning that Dabrowski's theory identifies the conditions that must be present in a person's psychological makeup if moral actions are to match moral beliefs. The major link exists in those dynamisms and feelings which are part of self-examination and of making judgment on oneself. (Piechowski, 1979, p. 51)

We can see the connection between emotional overexcitability and the emotionally-charged dynamisms of Level III.

In the final section of the chapter, Michael wrote about imagination. He drew from the work of Dr. Susanne K. Langer:

“Many arts are visual, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, film. But many other kinds of art are either entirely nonvisual, such as music, or do not depend on vision, such as poetry, literature and drama (which can be very effective on the radio). Yet, according to Langer (1953, 1958, 1967) all art is engaged in the creation of an image of “the dynamics of subjective experience, the pattern of vitality, sentience, feeling, and emotion.” Such a view of art matches well the repeated findings (Dellas and Gaier, 1970; MacKinnon, 1962) that creative people have preference for dynamic and vital forms (called in a more technical and stultifying jargon, “preference for cognitive complexity and asymmetry”). But the image need not always be visual!

A work of art presents rather than represents a form of feeling and the artist is an expert in the knowledge of human subjectivity. The work of the artist then is not self-expression but the articulation of the patterns of human experience. These patterns are distinct qualities, and a quality of experience is something felt. This can be readily grasped in the way a smell, taste, or sight can evoke distant memories of childhood or places and events left behind long time ago. (Piechowski, 1979, p. 53)

Langer’s work was at the heart of a paper Michael published in 1981 that he considers his favorite called The Logical and the Empirical Form of Feeling.

Thank you for joining me for another Interesting Quotes post. I’ll return with more of Michael’s work soon in the next installment.

1. Piechowski, M.M. (1979). Developmental potential. In N. Colangelo & R. T. Zaffrann (Eds.), New voices in counseling the gifted (pp. 25-57). Kendall Hunt.

2. Silverman, L.K. (2009). My love affair with Dabrowski’s theory: A personal odyssey. Roeper Review, 31, 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783190902993912