When we recorded episode 1 of the podcast, trying to answer the question, “What is positive disintegration?” felt excruciating. While I knew before recording that Emma and I would be helping new listeners understand the theory of positive disintegration, I wasn’t well-prepared with notes or a script because I wanted our conversation to sound natural. I realized how difficult it is to explain the theory in a nutshell on the fly.
It’s not easy to explain the theory of positive disintegration because it’s conceptually rich, profound, and complex. It helps make sense of experiences that often feel like suffering and can be interpreted as mental illness. Usually, the introduction to this theory comes from one of its constructs, such as overexcitability, or through a connection with either adult giftedness or gifted education.
About a year ago, we began slowly creating transcripts for our episodes. When we finished the first one, I realized that while episode 1 wasn’t terrible, I still said things that weren’t quite right or how I’d want to explain them now, with more time and experience under my belt.
Now, we’re offering a newsletter, and it gives us room to say more about the theory of positive disintegration and its many connections with giftedness, neurodivergence, and mental health.
Who was Kazimierz Dąbrowski?
Kazimierz Dąbrowski, MD, PhD, was a Polish physician and psychologist who lived from 1902 to 1980. He survived both World Wars in Poland, and his theory was shaped by his lived experiences, clinical practice, and the research he managed to do despite living through war, communism, and imprisonment.
Dąbrowski’s early work focused on nervousness and suffering. The thesis for his medical degree in 1929 from the University of Geneva (in French) was about the psychological conditions of suicide. He wrote about “The Psychological Bases of Self-Mutilation” for his doctorate in psychology from the University of Poznań (now Adam Mickiewicz University)1.
He perceived a connection between psychological tension, inner conflict, and intensity of experience that he framed much more positively than his contemporaries. He took the broad construct of nervousness, or overexcitability, and differentiated it into four types, later adding a fifth type. This aspect of his work is perhaps the most well-known in modern times.
His theory was developed during the 1930s, and early outlines were published in Polish in the 1940s. He published textbooks first on child psychiatry and mental hygiene, and the first books on positive disintegration were published in 1964 in Polish and English. As mentioned in Interesting Quotes, Vol. 4, the first paper he published on the theory outside of Poland was in 1959 in Annales Medico-Psychologiques.
Dr. Dąbrowski emigrated to Canada in the 1960s and split time between the University of Alberta and Laval University as a visiting professor at both schools. Until he died in 1980, he also continued spending time in Poland and worked tirelessly to disseminate his theory.
Two Foundations of the Theory
The central concepts of the theory are multilevelness and developmental potential.
This quote from Dąbrowski (1975) helps make sense of what “multilevelness” means:
“The world of external and internal phenomena began to form itself in my experience as a world of values arranged in a hierarchy of levels. Values appeared to represent different levels. The span between the levels of a given phenomenon became by far more significant than the content of the term defining the phenomenon. Each level covered a distinctly different range of a given phenomenon. Thus, empathy appeared as something different from primitive syntony, primitive immobilizing fear as something totally different from, and unrelated to, existential fear, brutal and wild laughter as something different and unrelated to a subtle smile manifesting depth of inner experience in respect to others and to oneself. It was striking that these disparate manifestations of behavior never coexisted in the same individual. Existential fears, obsessions, and depressions turned out to be unrelated to egocentric fears, obsessions, and depressions.”
You can read the whole foreword containing this excerpt on the Dąbrowski Center website.
In his theory, Dąbrowski outlined five levels of development, which he saw as encompassing the entire range of humanity. He identified two kinds of developmental processes: unilevel and multilevel. Unilevel process is without a hierarchy of values and presents either as an integration or disintegration. The multilevel process begins with the emergence of a hierarchy of values, experienced as a vertical split in which one becomes aware of the higher and lower in oneself. There are two types of multilevel disintegrations as well as what he called secondary integration.
Again, this is only a nutshell overview. Trust that there will be more to come on these different processes and constructs.
Developmental potential consists of the overexcitabilities, special talents and abilities, and the capacity for inner transformation, or dynamisms. Dąbrowski believed that the course of one’s development and potential for inner transformation depended on the strength of one's developmental potential.
Overexcitability is an old term that predates the theory of positive disintegration, and it means heightened responsiveness to stimuli in both the inner and outer worlds. The five types include psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, imaginational, and emotional.
The following definition is from the chapter by Dr. Michael M. Piechowski that first introduced overexcitability to the field of gifted education:
“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.” (Piechowski, 1979, pp. 28-29)
In Interesting Quotes, Volume 1, I shared an excerpt about overexcitability from Dąbrowski’s 1972 book Psychoneurosis Is Not an Illness:
“Each form of overexcitability points to a higher than average sensitivity of its receptors. As a result a person endowed with different forms of overexcitability reacts with surprise, puzzlement to many things, he collides with things, persons and events, which in turn brings him astonishment and disquietude. One could say that one who manifests a given form of overexcitability, and especially one who manifests several forms of overexcitability, sees reality in a different, stronger and more multisided manner. Reality for such an individual ceases to be indifferent but affects him deeply and leaves long-lasting impressions. Enhanced excitability is thus a means for more frequent interactions and a wider range of experiencing.” (Dabrowski, 1972, p. 7)
If you want more details about the construct of overexcitability and the evolution of developmental potential over time in Dąbrowski’s work, read the paper I wrote with Dr. Frank Falk about “The Origins and Conceptual Evolution of Overexcitability.”
Episode 2 of the podcast discusses the five types of overexcitability and their manifestations.
Emma has made a series of videos about the overexcitabilities, which you can watch on YouTube.
What is Positive Disintegration?
Positive disintegration involves the breakdown of one’s personality structure and experience of reality as a prelude to creating a more authentic personality. But it’s important to acknowledge that the process of disintegration is not always positive, and it doesn’t necessarily lead to inner transformation and growth.
This process of disintegration can happen repeatedly throughout the lifespan, and it can be profoundly uncomfortable and include symptoms that look and feel like mental illness, such as anxiety, depression, and existential angst. The theory reframes these symptoms as positive because they indicate the growth process and movement from unconscious, automatic living to an authentic and self-chosen ideal.
We can tell what direction disintegration is going in by the dynamisms we identify. Inner transformations occur thanks to the shaping of personality by dynamisms, which are the dynamic forces of development. There are unilevel and multilevel dynamisms, as well as “continuing” dynamisms that are present across multiple levels of development.
Here is the “Constellations of Dynamisms” diagram that Michael Piechowski drew in the 1970s. The shaded areas of these spindles represent tension, with the darkest areas indicating the highest tension. Note that no dynamisms are present in Level I except for External Conflict and Temperamental Syntony. This diagram is from Dąbrowski’s (1996) book Multilevelness of Emotional and Instinctive Functions.
Click here for a PDF containing short descriptions of the dynamisms extracted from Dąbrowski’s (1977) Theory of Levels of Emotional Development, Volume 1.
I promise to work on writing posts addressing the constructs from the theory. In the meantime, you can watch this video of Emma discussing the dynamisms on YouTube.
Do We Start at Level I?
One aspect of the theory that can be very challenging to wrap one’s head around is the fact that the theory of positive disintegration is “non-ontogenetic,” meaning that it’s not an automatic developmental process that naturally unfolds and everyone experiences. We don’t all begin at Level I and progress through levels similar to what you’d find in Piaget's or Erikson’s stage theories.
Piechowski (2008) has encouraged us to think of the levels as different types of development, which helps us move away from thinking in terms of a stepwise progression:
“The complexity of Dabrowski’s theory should not be underestimated (see Table 3.4). Personal growth is much like scaling a mountain rather than a sequential unfolding of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Imagining personal growth as ascent of a mountain, with all of the peril, tests of courage, and perseverance, suggests that not everyone has the strength, endurance, and determination to go far; few manage to reach the summit. Also, not everyone is interested in climbing and may prefer to remain in the valley. Some may not even be aware of the mountain. The endowment for how far in scaling the figurative mountain an individual can go constitutes developmental potential. An endowment for multilevel development signifies that a person starts already a significant distance up the slope. A person with limited potential starts in the valley and does not reach far.” (p. 64)
Not everyone experiences positive disintegration, although if they do, it’s likely during a challenging developmental period (e.g., puberty, menopause) or due to what feels like a shocking or traumatic event. We may experience moments of sudden dynamic insight that cause us to suddenly see the world and our lives in a completely different way. There are many different paths to disintegration.
The majority of individuals live their lives in a unilevel process. While it’s possible to experience unilevel and multilevel disintegrations simultaneously, the unilevel process doesn’t naturally convert into a multilevel one.
What now?
If you’ve been through positive disintegration, or you’re going through one now, and the theory helps make sense of your life, you may want to connect with other people who understand.
Emma and I have groups on Facebook, which is where people tend to find us. You can connect with us on social media in multiple places: Emma’s Adults with Overexcitabilities YouTube Channel and Adults with Overexcitabilities Facebook Group.
We have the Dabrowski Center and Positive Disintegration Podcast Facebook group.
Emma writes a blog called Tragic Gift.
You can find us on Instagram:
Positive Disintegration Podcast
You can connect with us on Facebook:
Positive Disintegration Podcast
This post was meant to be an introduction to the theory of positive disintegration. It occurred to me that it might help to point out where you can go for more in our existing work with the podcast.
As I mentioned earlier, Emma and I first tackled the “What is Positive Disintegration?” question in episode 1 of the podcast. (Transcript)
Episode 2 includes a discussion of the overexcitabilities. (Transcript)
Episode 3 includes background on Dr. Dąbrowski and his influences. (Transcript)
Episode 5 features a conversation about researching overexcitabilities. (Transcript)
Episode 17 and Episode 19 have more on the levels of development.
Episode 30 has a helpful discussion on overexcitabilities in light of neurodivergence and giftedness.
References
Dabrowski, C. (1937). Psychological bases of self-mutilation. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 19, 1-104.
Dabrowski, K. (1972). Psychoneurosis is not an illness: Neuroses and psychoneuroses from the perspective of positive disintegration. Gryf Publications.
Dabrowski, K. (1977). Theory of levels of emotional development. Volume 1. Multilevelness and positive disintegration. Dabor Science Publications.
Dąbrowski, K. (1996). Multilevelness of emotional and instinctive functions. Part 1: Theory and description of levels of behavior. Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego.
Dombrowski, C. (1929). Les conditions psychologiques du suicide. [Unpublished doctoral thesis]. University of Geneva.
Piechowski, M. M. (1975). A theoretical and empirical approach to the study of development. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 92, 231-297.
Piechowski, M. M. (1979). Developmental potential. In N. Colangelo & R. T. Zaffrann (Eds.), New voices in counseling the gifted (pp. 25-57). Kendall Hunt.
Piechowski, M. M. (2008). Discovering Dąbrowski’s theory. In S. Mendaglio (Ed.), Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration (pp. 41-77). Great Potential Press.
Do you know someone who might benefit from our work? Please consider sharing with friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else who might benefit from learning about Positive Disintegration.
The document I’ve linked to is an English translation published in 1937. The original version in Polish from 1934 is unavailable.