Kazimierz Dąbrowski
Kazimierz Dąbrowski | |
---|---|
Positive Disintegration | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Psychiatry, Psychology, Medicine |
Institutions | Institute of Mental Hygiene |
Thesis | Les Conditions Psychologique du Suicide (1929) |
Doctoral advisor | François Naville |
Kazimierz Dąbrowski (1 September 1902 in Klarów – 26 November 1980 in Warsaw) was a Polish psychologist, psychiatrist, and physician. He is known for his theory of "positive disintegration" as a mechanism in personality development. He was also a poet who used the pen name "Paul Cienin, Paweł Cienin".[1]
Biography
Kazimierz Dąbrowski was born into a Catholic family on a country estate near
Around 1930 he had married for the first time. The marriage was short-lived as his wife died of
In 1937 when he returned to Poland he opened an Institute for Mental Hygiene inspired by the movement in the USA and offered courses in the field. In 1940 Dąbrowski married for a second time. With his wife, Eugenia also a psychologist, he had two daughters. The marriage lasted to his death in Warsaw in 1980.
In 1942 Dąbrowski was arrested by the
On his return in 1949 he was accredited as a clinical psychologist by the
Career
Dąbrowski developed the theory of positive disintegration,[4] which attempts to describe how personality development can progress as a result of accumulated difficult experiences. "Disintegration" refers to the abandonment of clusters of prior sensitivities and attitudes, based on learning from these events and perceptions. The resulting shift, if there is one, may be regarded as positive when the process has moved the personality to an increased capacity to contain such experiences and gain new perspectives.
Dąbrowski had a lifelong dedication to the field of psychology. He established a rehabilitation centre in Zagórze (near Warsaw) for patients who suffered mental disorders after experiencing difficult life situations. Research at the facility supplied him with observations and data that helped shape his concepts.[citation needed]
Concepts
Dąbrowski developed the theory of positive disintegration from a number of assumptions and concepts. His approach is philosophically based on Plato, reflecting his bias towards essence — an individual's essence is a critical determinant of his or her developmental course in life. Dąbrowski was also influenced by the
Dąbrowski's concept of positive disintegration should not be confused with the Jungian concepts of "De-integration and re-integration" coined by his British contemporary, Michael Fordham. Although they may appear somewhat analogous, they are based on different personality hypotheses and there is no evidence they knew about each other.[5][6]
Observations on giftedness
In an appendix to Dąbrowski (1967), results of investigations conducted in 1962 with Polish youth are reported.[7] Specifically, "a group of gifted children and young people aged 8 to 23" were examined (p. 251). Of the 80 young people studied, 30 were "intellectually gifted" and 50 were from "drama, ballet, or art schools" (p. 251). Dąbrowski found that every one of the children displayed what he called his factor of overexcitability, OE, "which constituted the foundation for the emergence of neurotic and psychoneurotic sets. Moreover, it turned out that these children also showed sets of nervousness, neurosis, and psychoneurosis of various kinds and intensities, from light vegetative symptoms, or anxiety symptoms, to distinctly and highly intensive psychasthenic or hysterical sets" (p. 253). Dąbrowski asked why these children should display such "states of nervousness or psychoneurosis" and suggested that it was due to the presence of OE (p. 255). "Probably the cause is more than average sensitivity which not only permits one to achieve outstanding results in learning and work, but at the same time increases the number of points sensitive to all experiences that may accelerate anomalous reactions revealing themselves in psychoneurotic sets" (p. 255).
Dąbrowski's posited association between OE and "giftedness" appears to be supported in other research, conducted primarily by Michael Piechowski and his colleagues.[8][9][10] It appears that at the least OE is a marker of potential for giftedness/creativity. OEs can help teachers and others spot a gifted person.[11] Dąbrowski's basic message is that giftedness might be disproportionately associated with a process of positive disintegration and personality growth.[12]
Main works
- Nerwowość dzieci i młodzieży (1935) (Nervousness of children and adolescents)
- Społeczno-wychowawcza psychiatria dziecięca (1959) (Socio-educational child psychiatry)
- O dezintegracji pozytywnej (1964) (About positive disintegration)
- Positive Disintegration (1964)
- Personality-Shaping through Positive Disintegration (1967)
- Mental Growth through Positive Disintegration (1970)
- Psychoneurosis Is Not an Illness (1972)
- Existential Thoughts and Aphorisms (1972) (as Paul Cienin)
- Fragments from the Diary of a Madman (1972) (as Pawel Cienin ) poetry collection
- Myśli i aforyzmy egzystencjalne (1972) (as Paweł Cienin) (Thoughts and existential aphorisms)
- The Dynamics of Concepts (1973)
- Trud istnienia (1975) (The Effort to exist)
- Dezintegracja pozytywna (1979) (Positive Disintegration)
- W poszukiwaniu zdrowia psychicznego (1989) (In Search of Mental Health)
References
- ^ The surname is a play on the word "cień", meaning "shade" or "shadow" in Polish
- PMID 18560478. The term "mental hygiene" has been superseded by "mental health"
- ^ Battaglia, Marjorie Kaminski, Doctoral Thesis on Positive Disintegration for Virginia State University, 2002
- ^ Tillier, Bill (26 October 1995). "A thorough presentation of the Theory of Positive Disintegration". Retrieved 19 April 2018.
- ^ Fordham, Michael. (1969). "Children as Individuals", London: Hodder and Stoughton, SBN 340 02396 1. pp. 93–110.
- PMID 6618994.
- ISBN 978-0692427491.
- ^ Lysy and Piechowski 1983
- ^ Piechowski 1986
- ^ Piechowski and Miller 1995
- ^ Winebrenner, S., & Brulles, D. (2012). Teaching gifted kids in today's class- room: Strategies and techniques every teacher can use. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing.
- )
Bibliography
- R. Zaborowski, Kazimierz Dąbrowski – l’homme et son œuvre in: Annales du Centre Scientifique à Paris de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences 9, 2006, pp. 105–122 [1]
- DEZINTEGRACJA.PL - the Polish website dedicated to Kazimierz Dąbrowski and his Theory of Positive Disintegration
- Kobierzycki, Tadeusz. 'Kazimierz Dąbrowski' - biography in English, Heksis 1/3 (22-24) 2000 [2]
- Quarterly Heksis, Issue 1/2010 dedicated Kazimierz Dąbrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration - http://www.heksis.com
- Be Greeted; a poem written by Dąbrowski.
- A. A. Zych, Higiena psychiczna w Polsce. Słownik biograficzny. (Mental Hygiene in Poland. Biographical Dictionary), Wrocław: Wyd. Nauk. DSW, 2013, pp. 60–67.
- Dąbrowski, K. (1964). Positive Disintegration. Maurice Bassett, 2016
- Tillier, William. Personality Development through Positive Disintegration: The Work of Kazimierz Dabrowski. Maurice Bassett, 2018