Level IV: Organized Multilevel Disintegration

Transcending Labels An Interview with Scott Barry Kaufman

Scott Barry Kaufman knows a lot about the labels bright, quirky people often stick upon themselves. In this interview with Third Factor’s editor in chief, he suggests we might be missing something much more important.

To the Far Side of the Earth and Back Disintegration and Reintegration as an Expat, Part II

After China sent Max into a spiral of positive disintegration, his return to the United States—and to crisis—ensured his moral transformation.

Dabrowski’s Dynamisms: Subject-Object in Oneself

Dynamisms are the heart of the theory of positive disintegration. But what exactly did Dabrowski mean by that abstruse term, “subject-object in oneself?” Our editor explains this powerful process.

Life in the Rainforest: Sensitivity, Intensity, and Giftedness An Interview with Psychotherapist Paula Prober

Paula Prober coined the term “rainforest mind” to describe those gifted, complex individuals she works with as a psychotherapist. And though having a rainforest mind may be uncommon, rainforest minds generally have some commonalities, as she explained when she sat down with us.

Maturing Through Creativity: A Conceptual Model of Creativity Development in Young People

How does creativity contribute to adolescents’ psychosocial growth? Here Krystyna Laycraft shares her doctoral research on the subject and shows why the theory of positive disintegration is particularly relevant to the highly creative.

Self-Creation After Chaos An Interview with Lotte van Lith

Chaos around her and intensity within her led the teenage Lotte van Lith to an eating disorder. Now, having recovered and reintegrated, she helps gifted people express their intensity with self-compassion—and let loose their incredible creativity in the process.

Creativity as a Collective Activity

For fellowship to be right, there must be organization within diversity; clarity in purpose within the strength of diversity. Then does fellowship lead to order. —I Ching After eight years living abroad in Canada, I returned to my native Poland to establish a high school in Warsaw—a process of creation that ultimately led its […]

Order Out of Chaos Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Positive Disintegration

Krystyna C. Laycraft brings her training in physics and psychology together to show how chaos theory and the theory of positive disintegration are essentially talking about the same process.

The Positive Disintegration of Robert F. Kennedy, Part II: The Courage to Reintegrate

After his brother’s assassination, Robert Kennedy faced a disintegration. Though it was brutal, it was also a positive one, demonstrating the power of overexcitability when fueled by high-level courage. Bobby’s ill-fated campaign ultimately showed glimmers of level V, the highest level of personal development.

An Introduction to Dabrowski’s Levels and Dynamisms

Dabrowski’s hierarchy of levels is one of the most well-known aspects of his theory of positive disintegration. But what’s really going on in those levels? And what are those “dynamism” things, anyway? The editors of Third Factor Magazine explain the basics here.