There’s an easy answer and a much harder one.
We’ll give you the quick and easy explanation of Dabrowski’s idea of positive maladjustment. Then we’ll talk about all that goes into truly learning to answer this question.
Katherine knew she was uncommon. When she turned to the Internet to find people like her, they told her that was because a personality like hers did not belong in a female body.
Then she happened upon an alternative perspective—one that her fellow uncommon women should have been making clearer to her all along.
You asked. We answered. What is this thing we named our magazine after, and what are the first and second factors? And why is this concept from Kazimierz Dabrowski’s theory of positive disintegration so much more important than his more well-known construct of overexcitability?
Michael Piechowski shares why he’s updated the way he thinks about Dabrowski’s levels of development.
We chat with Michael Piechowski about his work on the theory of positive disintegration and finding people whose lives show the theory in action.
We’re used to talking about theory of positive disintegration at an individual level, but what about at the level of a country? Laura Stavinoha looks at the pandemic as an instance of disintegration and explores what it will take to reintegrate an entire society at a higher level.
In this deep dive into the dynamisms of Dabrowski’s level IV in Marie Curie’s life, Krystyna Laycraft shows us just what the third factor is all about.
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.
After China sent Max into a spiral of positive disintegration, his return to the United States—and to crisis—ensured his moral transformation.
