I've started reading Dąbrowski's Positive Disintegration and so far would like to suggest that anyone who's found this thread useful to check it out.
Researching all of the above and putting it together has been very useful for gaining better (more objective and less judgmental) self observations.
What I have kept in mind is things like self calming and using self compassion as a band aid for just running on automatic so as to never actually face myself or change.
And I've slipped into this a bit - fortunately it fails in the long term when it comes to self calming.
Dąbrowski's work seems to be the next step - now you are more aware and less identified with all these little i's running around, have a large collection of self observation 'snapshots' and tools for relating to the many i's,
what can be done with the inner conflict seeing them generates?
The main thing I've noticed so far is what Dąbrowski terms 'over excitability' could be applied to everyone who identifies with being 'a highly sensitive person' and who most likely found the tools in this thread useful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Disintegration
Development potential[edit]
Advanced development is often seen in people who exhibit strong developmental potential ("DP"). Developmental potential represents a constellation of genetic features, expressed and mediated through environmental interaction. Many factors are incorporated in developmental potential but three major aspects are highlighted: overexcitability (OE), specific abilities and talents, and a strong drive toward autonomous growth, a feature Dąbrowski called the "third factor."
Overexcitability
The most evident aspect of developmental potential is overexcitability (OE), a heightened physiological experience of stimuli resulting from increased neuronal sensitivities. The greater the OE, the more intense are the day-to-day experiences of life. Dąbrowski outlined five forms of OE: psychomotor, sensual, imaginational, intellectual and emotional. These overexcitabilities, especially the latter three, often cause a person to experience daily life more intensely and to feel the extremes of the joys and sorrows of life profoundly. Dąbrowski studied human exemplars and found that heightened overexcitability was a key part of their developmental and life experience. These people are steered and driven by their value "rudder", their sense of emotional OE. Combined with imaginational and intellectual OE, these people have a powerful perception of the world.[1]
Although based in the nervous system, overexcitabilities come to be expressed psychologically through the development of structures that reflect the emerging autonomous self. The most important of these conceptualizations are dynamisms: biological or mental forces that control behavior and its development. Instincts, drives and intellectual processes combined with emotions are dynamisms.[2] With advanced development, dynamisms increasingly reflect movement toward autonomy.
Abilities and talents
The second arm of developmental potential, specific abilities and talents, tends to serve the person's developmental level. As outlined, people at lower levels use talents to support egocentric goals or to climb the social and corporate ladders. At higher levels, specific talents and abilities become an important force as they are channeled by the person's value hierarchy into expressing and achieving the person's vision of his or her ideal personality and his or her view of how the world ought to be.
The third factor
The third aspect of developmental potential, which is simply referred to as 'the third factor', is a drive toward individual growth and autonomy. The third factor is critical as it applies one's talents and creativity toward autonomous expression, and second, it provides motivation to strive for more and to try to imagine and achieve goals currently beyond one's grasp. Dąbrowski was clear to differentiate third factor from free will. He felt that free will did not go far enough in capturing the motivating aspects that he attributed to third factor. For example, an individual can exercise free will and show little motivation to grow or change as an individual. Third factor specifically describes a motivation—a motivation to become one's self. This motivation is often so strong that in some situations we can observe that one needs to develop oneself and that in so doing, it places one at great peril. This feeling of "I've gotta be me" especially when it is "at any cost" and especially when it is expressed as a strong motivator for self-growth is beyond the usual conceptualization ascribed to free will.
A person whose DP is high enough will generally undergo disintegration, despite any external social or family efforts to prevent it. A person whose DP is low will generally not undergo disintegration (or positive personality growth) even in a conducive environment.
The notion that some people have an innate potential for development that is determined by a higher sensitivity or overexcitability (analogous to the first aspect of DP) and by a related tendency to develop individual differences and autonomy from the group (analogous to the third aspect of DP) was independently developed by Elaine Aron (see Highly sensitive person).[3] (although it should be noted that Aron's approach is substantially different from Dąbrowski's.)
Developmental Obstacles[edit]
Dąbrowski called OE "a tragic gift" to reflect that the road of the person with strong OE is not a smooth or easy one. Potentials to experience great highs are also potentials to experience great lows. Similarly, potentials to express great creativity hold the likelihood of experiencing a great deal of personal conflict and stress. This stress both drives development and is a result of developmental conflicts, both intrapsychic and social. Suicide is a significant risk in the acute phases of this stress. The isolation often experienced by these people heightens the risk of self-harm. {Along with other forms of 'mental disease' all the way up to psychosis}
Dąbrowski advocated autopsychotherapy, educating the person about OEs and the disintegrative process to give him or her a context within which to understand intense feelings and needs. Dąbrowski suggested giving people support in their efforts to develop and find their own self-expression. Children and adults with high DP have to find and walk their own path, often at the expense of fitting in with their social peers and even with their families. At the core of autopsychotherapy is the awareness that no one can show anyone else the "right" path. Everyone has to find their own path for themselves. As Joseph Campbell described the knights on the Grail Quest: If a path exists in the forest, don't follow it, for though it took someone else to the Grail, it will not take you there, because it is not your path.
I'm not sure the above 'everyone has to find their own path' fits exactly.
It's most likely similar to the keto diet in terms of the Work - their are guidelines and hard boundaries, but each person needs to learn to tailor it to themselves through their own understanding of the material.
If all of these things can help you network and face shocks in a Work context (without shutting down or falling to pieces), observe reality more clearly (both internal and external), develop conscience, network/share, and ultimately just 'DO what is in front of you to do' then it's useful osit. If those are your aims whilst reading Dąbrowski's work then I think that provides the guidelines and boundaries.
