An Interview with Giuseppe Corrente on Positive Disintegration Theory (Part Five)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/06/15
Abstract
Dr. Giuseppe Corrente is a Computer Science teacher at Torino University. He earned a Ph.D. in Science and High Technology – Computer Science in 2013 at Torino University. He has contributed to the World Intelligence Network’s publication Phenomenon. He discusses: overexcitability; Positive Disintegration theory; “gifted” as a term; Positive Disintegration; partial underachievers; main figures advancing Positive Disintegration theory; competing theories in contradistinction to Positive Disintegration theory; and a gifted educational system orientation focus on Positive Disintegration theory to advance more positive experiences for the gifted youth.
Keywords: gifted, Giuseppe Corrente, IQ, Italy, Positive Disintegration Theory.
An Interview with Giuseppe Corrente on Positive Disintegration Theory (Part Five)[1],[2]*
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*
1. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Now, one certain trait among many of the gifted, if defined in a standard psychometric sense, is the phenomenon of overexcitability. In that, these individuals remain stuck on overdrive. Or if not much of the time, if a subject of deep interest to them, then they can become extremely focused and excited by the topic so as to exhibit overexcitability characteristics in the pursuit of mastery of the discipline. Something can happen with a surface negative and a subterranean positive. The gifted and talented can become excited beyond capacity to handle it. They collapse, fall apart, break away, and slither into a corner. Positive Dsintegration theory posits something akin to a creative destruction of self. The breaking down and apart is part and parcel of the becoming part of the wider framework of the evolution of self to higher levels of coherence, understanding. How is Positive Disintegration theory important for understanding the condition of life for many gifted and talented individuals?
Giuseppe Corrente: Gifted and talented people are often special for something since their birth. It can be for a particular sensibility or for an artistic talent or for high IQ that represents intellectual over-excitability, or for some other feature. This, together environmental conditions and mutual interaction with it, can be the cause of a strong psychological crisis, but also the source of a stronger ‘rebirth’. This matter is studied in Positive Disintegration.
2. Jacobsen: Why is Positive Disintegration theory important, period?
Corrente: Because, if associated with high innate abilities, can transform a crisis period in the beginning of a growth, at the end also a spiritual growth, instead of the beginning of the end.
3. Jacobsen: Is the term gifted outmoded or relevant still here?
Corrente: When we consider Positive Disintegration theory we must consider not only people with high IQ but also persons with other features that could make those persons too susceptible of crisis periods, but also adapt to view these as an opportunity, a real opportunity to become real more and more aware and precious, for himself and for the whole society. In ’60 as now.
4. Jacobsen: How can Positive Disintegration not only help understand the condition of the gifted, but also not in other ways?
Corrente: The common way to view anxiety, a sense of nullity, in worst cases the desire to end with all killing himself, is as a mental illness symptom, a sign of disease in the better case; only with Positive Disintegration when it’s possible it is viewed as a almost necessary step with which few special individuals have the opportunity to go towards a more full level of existence, a more aware way of living and to explicate their own talents in an individual, unique way and in the same time becoming potentially a guide for the society.
5. Jacobsen: What makes partial underachievers important to consider in the case of Positive Disintegration and Gifted Coaching? I suspect this might mean the cases in which the gifted individual had negative disintegration, as this seems like a logical (behavioural-psychological) complement in the opposite direction as positive disintegration as posited in the theoretical framework of Positive Disintegration theory.
Corrente: Partial underachievers may take inspiration from the Positive Disintegration theory with the aim to see and review their life and their failures as a sign of a wrong reaction to inner and external difficulties and so begin to be fully aware of their rich inner world and of their great potentialities.
6. Jacobsen: Who have been the main figures in the advancement of Positive Disintegration theory?
Corrente: Dabrowski. He was a psychologist and developed his theory in years ’60. He was also like a guru for the small group of his theory’s followers. It is a theory applicable to few cases, in a field, the psychology of gifted and talented, that regards as target to a little percentage of population, so it is not as popular as one could expect reading or studying some pieces of theory, that seems very profound and significant.
7. Jacobsen: What are competing theories in contradistinction to Positive Disintegration theory?
Corrente: Perhaps for more common aspects Positive Psychology founded by Maslow; I am not a psychologist or an expert, but in my opinion Positive Disintegration has no rivals, I think no other theory exists that gives a so whole picture of what can be the tormented unique path that a genius generally does becoming who he is.
8. Jacobsen: How could a gifted educational system orientation focus on Positive Disintegration theory to advance more positive experiences for the gifted youth?
Corrente: Positive Disintegration should be surely in the toolbox of psychologists that work with gifted and talented youth, together with other theories and clinical practices. It is also a self-educational way. A gifted person can study it with the aim to empower himself and his own self-knowledge. A precious matter that each gifted or talented person needs to have in his cultural baggage.
Appendix I: Footnotes
[1] Ph.D. (2013), Science and High Technology – Computer Science, Torino University.
[2] Individual Publication Date: June 15, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/corrente-five; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2020: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.
*High range testing (HRT) should be taken with honest skepticism grounded in the limited empirical development of the field at present, even in spite of honest and sincere efforts. If a higher general intelligence score, then the greater the variability in, and margin of error in, the general intelligence scores because of the greater rarity in the population.
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