These quotes capture the heart of Dąbrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration. Through the constant creation of himself, though the development of the inner psychic milieu and development of discriminating power with respect to both the inner and outer milieus-an individual goes through ever higher levels of 'neuroses' and at the same time through ever higher levels of universal development of his personality" (Dąbrowski, 1972, p. One of the main mechanisms of this process is a continual sense of looking into oneself as if from outside, followed by a conscious affirmation or negation of conditions and values in both the internal and external environments. This occurs through a process of an education of oneself and of an inner psychic transformation. Thus the person finds a 'cure' for himself, not in the sense of a rehabilitation but rather in the sense of reaching a higher level than the one at which he was prior to disintegration.
This is a process in which the individual himself becomes an active agent in his disintegration, and even breakdown. They are expressive of a drive for psychic autonomy, especially moral autonomy, through transformation of a more or less primitively integrated structure. "Psychoneuroses 'especially those of a higher level' provide an opportunity to 'take one's life in one's own hands'. According to our theory accelerated psychic development is actually impossible without transition through processes of nervousness and psychoneuroses, without external and internal conflicts, without maladjustment to actual conditions in order to achieve adjustment to a higher level of values (to what 'ought to be'), and without conflicts with lower level realities as a result of spontaneous or deliberate choice to strengthen the bond with reality of higher level" (Dąbrowski, 1972, p. "Intense psychoneurotic processes are especially characteristic of accelerated development in its course towards the formation of personality. Given a definition of mental health as the development of the personality, we can say that all individuals who present active development in the direction of a higher level of personality (including most psychoneurotic patients) are mentally healthy" (Dąbrowski, 1964, p. Almost as a rule, these factors are related to increased mental excitability, depressions, dissatisfaction with oneself, feelings of inferiority and guilt, states of anxiety, inhibitions, and ambivalences-all symptoms which the psychiatrist tends to label psychoneurotic. "The propensity for changing one's internal environment and the ability to influence positively the external environment indicate the capacity of the individual to develop.
Personality as defined here appears at the level of secondary integration" (Dąbrowski, 1972, p. "Personality: A self-aware, self-chosen, self-affirmed, and self-determined unity of essential individual psychic qualities.
#CANADIAN MANSION BECOMES DISINTEGRATION ARCHIVE#
The page, started in 1995, is an archive of Dąbrowski's English and Polish works.Ī.
Anyone interested in this description of advanced personality development will find a complete bibliography of Dąbrowski's works and works related to the theory. This webpage introduces and explores Kazimierz Dąbrowski's theory of positive disintegration.
‼ A master webpage of Dąbrowski's English works.