What Does Developmental Potential Look Like in Highly Gifted Adults?

Part 4 Dabrowski Level III

References and discussion for this series are in Part 5.

Dabrowski Level III

There are four subjects who fit the description of Dabrowski’s Level III, and three are highlighted here.

Personality Transformation: Inner conflict, hierarchy of values, positive maladjustments, inferiority toward one’s ideals, feelings of guilt and shame, independent thinker, moral framework believed but inconsistently applied.

A categorization of Level III

Personality Transformation, required subjects to give evidence that they could open themselves up to the possibility that not only could their lives be different, but they could be different. Life is not about someone else giving us the answers, even if those answers are good. Values and goals must come from inside the person for emotional self-actualization to occur. The first steps involve the realization that no one else can give anyone else their purpose or their life’s course. When that realization occurs to the adult, it can be unsettling…