May 23 • 58M

Mental Health Awareness

Join hosts Emma Nicholson and Chris Wells for Episode 34

May 23

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Appears in this episode

Dr. Chris Wells

Emma Nicholson

What can be positive about disintegration? Join us for an exploration of positive disintegration through conversation and shared stories. It’s a framework for understanding a variety of intense experiences that often look and feel like mental illness, but which can also be viewed as building blocks for creating an authentic personality.

**Content warning**: Please be aware that this episode contains sensitive topics such as addiction, death, suicide, and trauma.

In episode 34, Chris and Emma talked about mental health. The episode is a part of SENG’s outreach efforts for Mental Health Awareness Month. We discussed the theory of positive disintegration as an invaluable tool for reframing our personal beliefs.

How can big emotions be helpful in your development and not a sign of mental illness? We talk about our experiences with difficult emotions and tough times, and how the theory of positive disintegration offered us a new way to see ourselves as “not broken.” We also discuss how Dąbrowski’s invaluable work is contrary to what we see on mental health websites—and how the theory’s absence (and the lack of information about neurodiversity) in mental health spaces could be robbing people of essential tools to help themselves. We’re left with the ultimate question of how we can make positive disintegration more visible in mental health spaces, where it can be of real benefit.

Also, in this episode, Chris shared about the loss of her friend and mentor, Dr. Frank Falk, who was our guest in episode five. Frank was a social psychologist and statistician who worked closely with Chris for the past several years as they studied Dąbrowski’s theory together in depth.

Frank will be deeply missed, and we dedicate this episode to his memory.

Links from this episode:

SENG website (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted)

Obituary for R. Frank Falk, Ph.D.

Episode 5: Researching Overexcitability with Frank Falk

The Origins and Conceptual Evolution of Overexcitability by Wells & Falk (ResearchGate)

Advanced Development Journal (via GDC website)

The Primary Importance of the Inner Experience of Giftedness by Chris Wells (ResearchGate)

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast with Abbie VanMeter

Resources from the Dabrowski Center

Peace Pilgrim’s book can be acquired free of charge

Social links and other info: