Presentation Speakers
Sharing innovative research, practical applications, and diverse perspectives inspired by Dabrowski’s Theory.
Presentation 1A
Enes Cakir, United States
A Neurological Approach to the Theory of Positive Disintegration
Abstract
This presentation proposes a neurological approach to Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration by interpreting inner conflict, disintegration, sensitivity, and higher development through the framework of contemporary network neuroscience. Recent research on large-scale brain networks allows positive disintegration to be grounded in empirical neurological mechanisms, especially through Menon’s triple-network model, which emphasizes the dynamic interaction of the Default Mode Network, Central Executive Network, and Salience Network (Menon, 2011).
Within this framework, inner conflict can be understood as a functional imbalance among these networks. The disintegration of inherited psychological patterns corresponds to the destabilization of prior connectivity patterns, creating the possibility for higher reorganization. Network imaging increasingly shows how such conflict appears neurologically: depression as DMN dominance in self-referential rumination (Sheline et al., 2009; Hamilton et al., 2015; Kaiser et al., 2015); anxiety as salience-network hyperactivation with weakened executive regulation (Etkin & Wager, 2007; Sylvester et al., 2012); and psychosis as disrupted salience gating alongside DMN hyperconnectivity (Whitfield-Gabrieli et al., 2009; Palaniyappan & Liddle, 2012). These findings suggest that disintegration may have an identifiable network-level signature.
Creativity research further clarifies the neurological basis of higher development. Beaty et al. (2018) showed that creative ability depends on cooperation among networks that are usually anti-correlated, while Chen et al. (2025) suggests that optimal creativity requires balanced dynamic switching rather than maximal instability. Sensitivity provides the linking variable between vulnerability and development: sensitive individuals show network patterns associated with emotional reactivity, creativity, and susceptibility to both illness and growth (Acevedo et al., 2014, 2018; Liu et al., 2026; Belsky &
Pluess, 2009).
The key implication is that mental illness, creativity, and sensitivity may be understood not as separate phenomena but as related expressions of developmental instability. This implication is grounded in the neurological research and utilizes Dabrowski's framework as a vehicle to describe human psychological development.
Bio
Enes Cakir is an independent researcher affiliated with JustDane in Madison, Wisconsin. A computer scientist by training, he now writes at the intersection of neurology, psychology, religious studies, and theories of self-transformation. His research explores how experiences of crisis, disintegration, and inner conflict may become catalysts for development, creativity, and the reorganization of the self. He is particularly interested in how these questions relate to incarceration and re-entry.
Presentation 1B
Christine Aylin, B.A., B.S.W., R.S.W., Canada
Multilevelness, the Virtues Project, and Growing Empathy in the Healthcare Profession
Abstract
Dabrowski (n.d.) wrote that education is to a large extent "ahierarchical…since it is accomplished through the external milieu, with a large neglect of the developmental potentials, and inner milieu” and that “it is only reasonable to conclude that the product of such a system will lack an appreciation of multilevel experience, creativity and the developmental potentials expressed in anxiety and conflict”(p. 24). In the field of healthcare, evidence suggests a measurable decline in empathy during medical training, particularly during clinically intensive phases of education, with important implications for patient care and professional development (Hojat et al., 2009; Razi et al., 2023). In parallel, professional identity formation is increasingly understood as a complex, longitudinal developmental process shaped by both formal and informal learning environments, including emotionally charged clinical encounters, role modelling, and the hidden curriculum (Cruess et al., 2014; Lönn et al., 2023; Wald, 2015). A proposed study in a northern Alberta medical training site seeks to evaluate whether integrating the Virtues Project (a strengths-based educational framework that promotes intentional reflection on universal human virtues and supports ethical communication, relational awareness,compassionate practice, and reflective presence) into interprofessional learning environments enhances empathy, resilience, reflective capacity, emotional awareness, and professional identity formation among undergraduate medical learners. This presentation will demonstrate how something as simple as the ongoing practice of the five strategies of the Virtues Project, has the potential to maintain our commitment to ideals, in the face of the complex, multi-levelled experience of developing a professional identity that maintains and strengthens empathy.
Bio
Christine was a social worker for more than 30 years, and through this work was awarded the Building Community Partnerships Award in 2008 by the Canadian Mental Health Association. For 20 of those years, she worked as a psychiatric social worker in an acute care psychiatric unit. A Virtues Project Facilitator since 2002, she has presented over 95 workshops to local, provincial, national, and international participants. In 2014 she received the designation of Virtues Project Master Facilitator and was appointed chair of the Virtues Project International Trauma Healing committee. In 2023 she was conferred the Queen’s Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal (Alberta) for her work in mental health and addictions, and mentorship of social work students, which included teaching the incredible value of The Virtues Project™.
Presentation 1C
Sandra A. Ham, United States
Considerations for Using Dabrowski’s Theory in Catholic Mental Health Ministries
Abstract
The purpose of the session is to begin a discussion with researchers and practitioners about how to introduce the theory into a new area of mental health practice. Dabrowski’s theory has roots in Augustine of Hippo’s autobiographical Confessions from the fourth century. Confessions was the source of Catholic psychology for more than a millennium. But today the Catholic Church regards mental health as it is defined by the DSM-V. Since 2023, Catholic mental health ministries (CMHM) have been established at the diocesan and parish levels in order to make mental health a priority within the church in the U.S. CMHM does not use traditional Catholic psychology from Augustine or TPD, and so the ministries’ practitioners may have a bias in favor of conventional mental health practice. Yet, the ministries could serve Catholics better if TPD was introduced into them. This conference session is intended to present the history of the connection between TPD and traditional Catholic psychology and issues from the Catholic perspective around introducing TPD into CMHM. The desired discussions during the conference sessions are about reasons for introducing the theory into these ministries, and issues arising from it. The implications are that careful introduction of TPD into CMHM has the potential to significantly expand the use of TPD in a new area, religious settings.
Bio
Sandra A. Ham is a Web Designer and Consultant based in Buffalo, NY. She specializes in helping Catholic parishes strategically communicate their value online and attract non-Catholic visitors. She has 25 years of experience in public health and medicine doing interdisciplinary epidemiological and biostatistical research, which at times, included strategic planning for public health agencies in government and the field of physical activity and public health. She has degrees in mechanical engineering (Kettering), nutrition (Cornell), and Divinity (University of Chicago).
(Co-Author) George T. Hole, Ph.D., is an Independent Scholar and Philosophical Counselor based in Buffalo, NY. He taught philosophy at Buffalo State University for over 40 years and was awarded the title SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor. Over the years, he authored journal articles on Plato, popular culture, and teaching philosophy. He has also studied and practiced Zen Buddhism and taught Tai Chi. He has conducted a variety of workshops using his philosophical counseling methodology, Mindful Inquiry, to address negative emotions and anxiety. In addition, he has conducted several Socratic Dialogues on Being True to Yourself.
Presentation 2A
Leixie Gya, United States
The Alchemy of Inner Conflict: Bridging Positive Disintegration and Buddhist Mind Training
Abstract
In the context of intense sensitivity, inner conflict is often pathologized as a failure of the self. However, Kazimierz Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD) and the Mahayana Buddhist tradition of Lojong (Mind Training) offer a radical reframing: crisis is not a breakdown, but a necessary breakthrough. This keynote, "The Alchemy of Inner Conflict," explores the profound resonance between these two systems of psychological and spiritual transmutation.
The presentation opens by drawing a parallel between Dabrowski's first level of development, primary integration, and the Buddhist concept of samsara, both describing a state in which behavior is governed by social conditioning and biological instinct rather than conscious self-direction. From this foundation, the experience of dukkha, or existential unsatisfactoriness, is reframed through the lens of positive disintegration. Rather than treating the sensitive individual's inner disquietude as a symptom of dysfunction, it is recognized as a meaningful developmental signal pointing toward growth. The Five Overexcitabilities are examined as the primary substrate for developmental growth, with selected Lojong principles, such as the instruction to see everything as a dream, offering a contemplative framework for engaging heightened perception without being destabilized by it. Central to this journey is the dynamism of Subject-Object in Oneself. By bridging the practice of watching the mind with the discipline of "driving all blames into one," we transition from being victims of experience to empowered observers of our internal landscape. Ultimately, we connect the TPD Personality Ideal with the Bodhisattva path, illustrating how secondary integration (Level V) culminates in Bodhicitta, a life of perfect alignment dedicated to the service of others. Attendees will gain a synthesized framework for navigating disintegration, discovering that internal friction is the essential catalyst for their highest integration.
Presentation 2B
Glenn Groulx, MDE, Canada
Using Journaling to Facilitate the Third Factor: Fostering Learner Autonomy in Non-Formal Settings
Abstract
This workshop will explore strategies mentors can facilitate solo, self-reflective journaling strategies that apply the principles of the theory of positive disintegration. How can mentors foster learner autonomy in non-formal learning settings and cultivate critical self-reflection, promote self-efficacy and foster self-determination? How can self-reflective journaling contribute to the third factor? Which non-formal assessment strategies foster learner confidence and strengthen their voices to express ideas and opinions and enhance empathy?
Bio
I am passionate about encouraging and supporting adults' personal voices as they engage in non-formal journaling as a lifelong learner.
I completed my Master’s degree in Distance Education from Athabasca University (AU) in 2010. My focus was on academic blogging. I prepared a summary portfolio exploring the use of blogs for academic purposes.
My interest in facilitating autonomous written expression was really sparked while maintaining my own academic blog at the AU as a student and Research Assistant.
I am keenly interested in Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration as it applies to developing the dynamism of the third factor. My focus of the presentation is on exploring journaling strategies that promote autonomous self-determined learning.
Since 2020, I have been teaching courses at Coast Mountain College in Northwest BC as an Instructor in various departments: Professor of English, Business Communications, Communications for Education Assistants, and English for Adult Upgrading.
Presentation 2C
Sabrina Menasria, France
From Overexcitability to M.A.D. Skills: Transforming Intensity into Organizational and Societal Value for Innovation and Change
Abstract
This presentation explores how overexcitabilities can be reframed from a developmental challenge into a critical resource for navigating today’s social, economic, digital, and geopolitical turbulence. In a world shaped by uncertainty, artificial intelligence and accelerated transformation, we need people able to perceive weak signals, connect distant ideas, question dominant narratives, and act with emotional depth and cognitive intensity.
Drawing on Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration, I will examine overexcitability as a force that can disrupt conformity, deepen self-awareness, and generate higher levels of creativity, ethics, and social contribution. The presentation will connect psychomotor, sensual, imaginational, intellectual, and emotional overexcitabilities to what I call M.A.D Skills in my book : capacities that Make A Difference in environments where “linear thinking” is no longer sufficient.
The lens will be both societal and organizational, grounded in my expertise, research, and fieldwork with major international groups on neurodiversity, atypical profiles, leadership, and transformation. I will show how intense individuals, although often misunderstood or under-recognized in normative settings, can identify dysfunctions before others, challenge blind spots, and open new possibilities for innovation and adaptive change.
Key questions will guide the discussion: What if intensity is not a problem, but an early warning system that drives change? What conditions allow intense minds to move beyond misunderstanding and contribute fully to collective intelligence?
The core implication is both practical and societal: when overexcitabilities are understood through Dąbrowski’s developmental framework, they become a powerful lens for building the world of tomorrow. This presentation invites the audience to embrace a vision of human potential capable of preparing institutions for crises, complexity, and the emerging ethical challenges of the AI era.
Bio
Sabrina Menasria is a speaker, author, and founder of Singularity Talent, a purpose-driven organization dedicated to neurodiversity and singular talents. With 17 years of experience in the luxury industry, including leadership roles at L’Oréal, Shiseido, Coty, and CHANEL, where she served as Global Head of Data, she brings a rare combination of business, leadership, and human transformation expertise.
Identified as neurodivergent and gifted in 2008, Sabrina has built a distinctive body of work at the intersection of neurodiversity, overexcitabilities and innovation. Her approach reframes atypical profiles not merely through accommodation, but through potential, contribution, and what she calls M.A.D Skills: the capacities that Make A Difference in complex environments.
She is the author of Intenses: Les 7 clefs de la réalisation de soi* and Manager les mad skills: Libérez le potentiel de la neurodiversité en entreprise**, published by Pearson. Drawing on her extensive corporate expertise, she offers practical insights into how intense and neurodivergent minds can become powerful drivers of creativity, adaptability, and organizational value.
Recognized as “Woman of the Year in Business Analytics” by the University of California, Berkeley, Sabrina is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review and a sought-after lecturer and keynote speaker. Through her research, writing, and fieldwork with major international groups, she advocates for a deeper understanding of neurodiversity, one that connects singular talents with enhanced collective intelligence and societal transformation.
Presentation 3A
Amanda J. Harper, BMus(Ed), GCertPubSectMgmnt, GCertResearch, GDipSocSci(Psych), MEd(Hons)(Gifted), PhD, Australia
Through the Dabrowski lens: Parallels between Multilevel Development, Sternberg’s T-ACCEL model of giftedness and his Trilogy of Moral Intelligence
Abstract
This presentation presents parallels between the core principle of Multilevel Development as described in Dąbrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD) and Robert J Sternberg’s 2024 T-ACCEL model of giftedness and his Trilogy Theory of Moral Intelligence (2025).
The analysis identifies five structural parallels. First, Dąbrowski's Third Factor — the autonomous inner drive to evaluate and reconstruct the self against higher ideals — maps closely onto Sternberg's concept of self-transformation and the Process part of the Trilogy Theory of Moral Intelligence, both representing the volitional engine of development. Second, Dąbrowski's higher levels of multilevel development, particularly Levels IV and V, characterized by other-directed empathy and subordination of self to universal values, correspond directly to Sternberg's other-transformational dimension and the T-ACCEL vision of the active, concerned, ethical citizenleader. Third, Dąbrowski's lower levels of unilevel integration, driven by social conformity and biological impulse, constitute a structural analogue to Sternberg's transactional giftedness. Fourth, Overexcitabilities and developmental potential in TPD represent the affective and intellectual raw material that T-ACCEL's pedagogical model must cultivate and direct. Fifth, Both frameworks insist that talent deployed without wisdom and ethical grounding represents an incomplete, potentially regressive, developmental outcome.
These convergences suggest that integrating TPD with T-ACCEL offers educators and theorists a richer, developmentally grounded language for conceptualising the formation of gifted individuals as moral agents committed to societal transformation.
Bio
Dr Amanda J. Harper (BMus(Ed), GCertPubSectMgmnt, GCertResearch, GDipSocSci(Psych), MEd(Hons)(Gifted), PhD) taught in schools, worked in regional gifted education, and coordinated Enterprise Learning across Tasmania, before moving into academia. Amanda coordinated the Bachelor of Philosophy, a companion degree for gifted students at UTAS for over a decade, and previously taught Gifted Education at UNE. Amanda’s PhD examined the place of gifted education pedagogy in undergraduate healthcare, focusing on the development of empathy and Dąbrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration, for which she received the 2018 John Geake Outstanding Thesis Award. More recently Amanda contributed to the Palgrave Handbook of Transformational Giftedness for Education, has written a family history text, and been called upon as a local history expert for the UK’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, and is a Musical Theatre judge for the Theatre Council of Tasmania.
Presentation 3B
Peri Henderson, Canada
Dabrowski’s TPD from a Tenth Grader’s Perspective
Abstract
In my 20-minute presentation, I will outline my understanding of Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration and my lived experience in applying it. As a gifted learner, I am learning how to use my tendencies toward perfectionism, anxiety and overwhelm as opportunities for understanding who I am and how I can better express my unique self. As a homeschooled, independent thinker, I am learning how to be my authentic self in a world in which others don't usually share my point of view. As a young person, I believe I can give a unique perspective on some common struggles of today's youth, how the theory can be applied to those struggles, and how parents and practitioners can help a struggling young person.
Bio
I am a tenth grade student and believe I have a unique opportunity to bring light to a personal perspective about Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD). I was introduced to this theory by Janneke Frank and it has helped me make sense of my life so far (good, bad and otherwise) and provided tools to help me face challenges and opportunities going forward. For example, my brother's death, which was initially terrifying and painful, slowly created a time of peace and reflection where I was able to grow and mature without even realizing it. This tragedy became purposeful and changed me for the better resulting in greater maturity, a love and desire for learning and enrichment, and a higher purpose in my life. Because I had never felt true sorrow before his death, I had also never felt true joy. After my brother's death, I was able to experience and live joyfully in a way I would never have been able to without having the contrast of sorrow in my life. Learning about Dabrowski's theory enabled me to understand this tragedy fully and pull the good from it. My brother's death is a prime example of TPD in my own life and a small sample of the topics I will cover. My presentation is centered around highlighting a personal perspective of teenage life and how Dabrowski's theory can be applied to it.
Presentation 3C
Lisa Chesters-Mazza, MA, MSC, United States
Molding and Shaping with Plato: An Educator’s Journey with Gifted Student
Abstract
The focus of this presentation is to demonstrate how middle school gifted literacy curriculum can be aligned to support moral development, specifically students who will or have entered multilevel development. In middle school literacy class, Plato’s allegories can be studied as overlays to curriculum units (specifically and in this order: Allegory of the Ring from The Republic, Allegory of the Chariot from Phaedrus, and Allegory of the Cave from The Republic). This overlay can allow for students to enjoy the allegories on their own (focusing on morality), as well as make connections with other texts read in
class (again, with the lens of morality). For those students who have already started multilevel development, these allegories can help provide a vehicle to discuss complex philosophical/psychological conflicts students may be having regarding morality, which also may provide a more concrete foundation from which to draw strength during future times of internal conflict (or growth).
Discussion Questions Posed: Are the three Plato allegories a useful method to outright teach about Dabrowski levels (not middle school, but perhaps college-level students)? Do you think the Allegory of the Cave prisoner who leaves the "false-reality" cave in search of a new reality is similar to those at Level 5 who risk their lives to show others their understanding of reality (MLK, Gandhi, etc.)? If so, does the Allegory of the Cave’s prisoner (at Level 5) have any moral obligation to those still in the cave?
Bio
Lisa Chesters-Mazza currently teaches literacy at The Avery Coonley School, a PK-8 private school for gifted children in the Chicago area, where she also taught before starting a family. While away from the classroom, she founded Write Educational Resources, Inc., prototyping and managing curriculum and assessment projects for major publishers. She earned her BA and MA in English from DePaul University (2000) and an MEd in Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Arlington (2012). After discovering Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration in 2009 and attending a conference in 2010, she continued to study its applications in gifted education.
Presentation 4A
Agnieszka Muchacka-Cymerma, PhD., Poland
From Crisis to Transformation: Applying Positive Disintegration Theory to Narrative Research on Teacher Development
Abstract
This presentation explores the application of Kazimierz Dąbrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD) to qualitative narrative research on teacher crisis. Drawing on narrative interviews with teachers, students, and parents
conducted in different educational and cultural contexts, the study examines how professional crisis can be understood not merely as burnout, stress, or professional failure, but as a potentially developmental process. The aim is to demonstrate how TPD can serve as a conceptual framework for interpreting teachers’ experiences of crisis and personal transformation.
Relationship to Dąbrowski’s Theory. The study represents an original pedagogical application of TPD. Teachers’ narratives were analyzed through the lens of developmental dynamisms described by Dąbrowski, including inner conflict, positive maladjustment, authenticity, self-awareness, moral reflection, and self-directed development. Particular attention was given to identifying narrative markers that may indicate movement from disintegration toward transformation.
Perspective: Pedagogical. The presentation is situated within the pedagogical perspective of TPD, focusing on teacher development, authenticity in educational practice, and the role of values in professional life. It addresses how educational environments may either inhibit or support developmental processes in teachers and how teacher crises can influence the broader culture of schools and classrooms.
Key Findings and Implications. The analysis resulted in the identification of three trajectories of teacher crisis: stabilization, oscillation, and transformation. Findings suggest that crisis may become a catalyst for value reorganization, professional identity reconstruction, and greater authenticity in educational practice. The presentation raises the question of whether TPD can provide a useful framework not only for understanding individual teacher development but also for interpreting deeper crises within contemporary education.
Bio
Agnieszka Muchacka-Cymerman PhD, is an Associate Professor at Humanitas University, Institute of Psychology. Her earlier research focused on adolescent attachment, cyber-aggression, coping strategies, and the influence of family and school environments on socio-emotional development. Building on these studies, her current work examines teachers’ crises and professional development through Kazimierz Dąbrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration. Using narrative interviews with teachers, students, and parents, she explores how school environments, relationships, and educational culture may contribute to crisis, but also support authenticity, value reorganization, and positive transformation in teachers and contemporary education.
Presentation 4B
Carlyn Neek, BA, BScOT, Canada
Toward a Life Worth Living: Occupation, Values, and the Path of Becoming
Abstract
What does it look like when a life partially falls apart, and how does a person find their way not back to themself but forward? This presentation explores occupational reflection as a practice of values clarification during periods of positive disintegration, drawing on Ann Wilcock's framework of Doing, Being, Belonging, and Becoming as an occupational parallel to Dąbrowski's multilevel development.
In occupational therapy, "occupation" extends far beyond job or task. It encompasses everything a person does and, more importantly, everything they find meaningful in doing. When the structure of daily occupation collapses or transforms under pressure, the result can look like disorder. Through a Dąbrowskian lens, it may instead signal the beginning of a deeper reorganization around values and the emerging personality ideal.
The presenter will share her own experience of positive disintegration while navigating perimenopause, parenting 2E teens through illness, rebellion, and uncertainty, pandemic-era relational strain, and a shifting professional identity. What began as personal survival became a structured professional approach: using reflection on their doing to help others clarify what matters most during their own periods of painful disintegration and growth.
This presentation argues that occupation is not incidental to the values development Dąbrowski describes. It is the medium through which what matters most becomes visible. Participants will leave with a concrete framework for occupational reflection applicable across therapeutic, educational, and personal contexts.
Bio
Carlyn Neek is an occupational therapist, coach, educator, and podcast host based in Calgary, Alberta. She holds dual practices in adult mental health OT and professional development coaching and mentorship for therapy practice owners, and teaches entrepreneurial thinking to masters OT students at the University of Alberta. A late-diagnosed, twice-exceptional adult and parent of two 2E young adults, Carlyn brings lived experience and professional depth to questions of identity, meaning, and becoming. Her work integrates ACT principles with occupational science to support sustainable, values-aligned living. She is the creator of the ACTivate Vitality Personal Development Planner and Program, hosts The BRAVE OT Podcast, and has spent the last decade exploring what it means to build a life genuinely worth living.
Presentation 4C
Paul McGaffey, BFA, PhD., Canada
Wired Weird: Reshaping overexcitabilities
Abstract
My presentation will fit with the Congress's interest in psychotherapy consistent with TPD - improving mental health. When I met Dr. Dabrowski and went to his first couple of presentations at the U of A, he was clearly committed to improving mental health. This commitment was also highly visible in his charmingly titled "greetings Psycho neurotics" filmed by my friends at FilmWest Associates.
Bio
Paul McGaffey worked with the theory of positive disintegration team from 1967 to 1971 at Doctor Dabrowski's surprising personal invitation. With Marlene Rankel, he focussed on application of TPD in psychotherapy. For the next 45 years, opposed by norm-based psychologists & psychiatrists, Paul strove to apply Dr Dabrowski's discipline of getting out of the way of overexcitable clients discovering their joy.
Presentation 5A
Susan Picard, B.Ed., M.A., Ph.D., Canada
What the Theory of Positive Disintegration Can Teach Us About Inclusion
Abstract
Classrooms striving for inclusion are faced with mounting expectations of what it means to be inclusive. This presentation will share a study that set out to challenge psychological theories that frequently underlie conventional classroom practices that aim to support inclusion. 24 high school students identified as gifted and two learning support teachers were introduced to Kazimierz Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration. A spectrum of educational techniques were employed to introduce and assess an understanding of the theory. The 4D cycle of appreciative inquiry (discovery, dream, design, and destiny), then supported participants in applying the theory in the classroom to see whether it offered potential pathways for individual and collective change. As a result the participants’ gained a new understanding of the role of emotions in development. It enabled them to make recommendations to enhance their own, and the experience of others within inclusive spaces.
Bio
In 2021, Susan received the Chancellor’s Gold Medal at Nipissing University for her outstanding doctoral work, culminating in her dissertation: Re-envisioning Spaces Striving for Inclusion Through the Theory of Positive Disintegration. She has since published academic articles on aspects of Dabrowski’s theory relating to grief, motherhood, and radical kinship. At past congresses, she explored different aspects of TPD through presentations that included songwriting, curriculum development, creativity, interactive models and puppet plays. Proud mother of two creative and independent daughters, she is a career educator who has worked in a variety of roles and settings.
Presentation 5B
Chris Van Camp, Belgium
Dabrowski in the 21st Century: Positive Disintegration as a Framework for Understanding the Future – and Protecting our Humanity
Abstract
This presentation explores a central question: how should we move forward with Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration in the 21st century? Rather than approaching it solely as a theory of individual psychological development, the presentation examines its relevance as a framework for understanding a rapidly changing world.
In a time marked by simultaneous psychological, social, political, technological, and existential crises, many characteristics of disintegration appear increasingly visible at the collective level: declining trust in institutions, identity conflicts, rising ambivalence, polarization, and a growing longing for authenticity. This raises an important question: can Positive Disintegration help us understand not only personal transformation, but also societal change?
The presentation will explore how Dabrowski’s concepts may offer insight into contemporary challenges such as the medicalization of psychological suffering, increasing conformity, and the rise of artificial intelligence in a world where trust in human developmental potential appears to be diminishing. Particular attention will be given to the tension between pathology and development, and to the possibility that many experiences currently labeled as dysfunction may, in some cases, reflect developmental processes.
Questions explored include:
· Can today’s global crises be understood as collective Positive Disintegration?
· How do individual and societal transformation relate?
· How do we distinguish developmental crisis from pathology?
· Can society support multilevel development in a culture of conformity?
· How can we identify and support people already “living” the theory without knowing its language?
The presentation concludes with a call to action: how can we make Dabrowski’s work more visible, accessible, and practically relevant for the challenges of our time?
Bio
Chris Van Camp is a Belgian author, cultural entrepreneur, and former internet pioneer whose work explores personal transformation. She is the author of several books, including The Kiss of Dąbrowski and Crash Baby Crash, published in both Dutch and English.
Drawing on her own life experiences, Van Camp developed a longstanding interest in Kazimierz Dąbrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration as a framework for understanding psychological growth, existential crisis, and human development. Her work focuses on the relationship between lived experience and theory, and on how personal and societal crises can become catalysts for authenticity, autonomy, and higher development.
In addition to her literary work, she has been involved in innovative educational initiatives supporting alternative learning pathways for young gifted people.
Van Camp is a passionate advocate for bringing Dąbrowski’s theory to a wider audience, as a powerful framework for understanding the psychological and societal challenges of the twenty-first century.
Presentation 5C
Anita Pindiur, MSc United Staets
Multilevelness, the Virtues Project, and Growing Empathy in the Healthcare Profession
Abstract
Navigating hidden disorders of substance and gambling use disorders in a complex world. Exploring how trauma leads to anxiety manifests in use disorders, substance and gambling. How the recovery individual stabilizes and transforms into authentic being. Individuals who experience childhood trauma and crisis often experience substance and/or gambling use disorders. Use disorders manifest in individuals due to risk factors such as genetics, environment, unique brain chemistry/psychology, and social factors. Enhanced by societal acceptability and accessibility of the substance or
gambling. Those individuals who recognize their use as harmful and engage in the journey of recovery find transformation in their humanity becoming whole, stable, and driven individuals. Focus particularly on younger individuals who find recovery and focus on the change they can be in the world through positive disintegration. Individuals who embrace looking within identify their lack of drive, distracted and devalued by use disorders, find/develop their personality that allows for a life free of substance/gambling use, and focuses on becoming a new, healed individual whose mission is to help others who are suffering. Many persons affected by use disorder are gifted but can’t reach their full potential as their identity is not developed. Going beyond their pain, and suffering of past trauma, to reinvent and become the person they choose to be.
Bio
Anita Pindiur is the Executive Director of the Way Back Inn and has been with the Way Back Inn since 2002. Anita graduated from Loyola University for her undergraduate and Benedictine University for her Master's of Science in Clinical Psychology. Anita is involved with many boards, committees and task forces, advocating for treatment and recovery for those affected by use disorders.