The degree of psychological growth, development, and self-actualization seen in one’s behavior.One’s attitude toward oneself (self-perception).He based his criteria on Jahoda (1958), who outlined her basic criteria: Our understanding of mental health had to be based on criteria reflecting positive aspects of behavior and development. Dabrowski said it didn’t make sense to him to limit diagnosis to only a list of problems or symptoms. He went on to describe what he saw as the factors that were related to this latter group-what we would call today posttraumatic growth.Īs I mentioned, my professor said the theory fell under the umbrella of what we now call positive psychology. And he discovered a third small group, who experienced major crises and who seemed to emerge the better for it. But he found the biggest group to be resilient, able to bounce back to their initial pre-crisis level of functioning. Of course, he found that some people who faced apparently impossible situations would be overcome and unable to recover-what we would call today posttraumatic stress disorder. Although the government closely monitored his activities in the 1950s, he went on to observe exemplars of personality development to understand the factors contributing to growth.īased on his observations, Dabrowski discovered that those who seemed to have had achieved the most growth as autonomous individuals also seemed to have had experienced severe and sometimes repeated personal crises in their lives. He could find no psychological theory that could explain this broad continuum of human behavior and set about to develop one. He said that his experiences during the war showed him both the lowest behaviors humans were capable of, as well as the highest. Later, when Stalin took over Poland, Dabrowski and his wife were held in prison for 18 months, where he was tortured. ![]() Sadly, he was caught up in World War II and imprisoned by the Germans several times. In the 1930s he began developing mental health programs in Poland with the financial help of The Rockefeller Foundation. He went on to complete studies in psychology and become a psychiatrist under some of the most famous professors of the day in Europe. These images stayed with Dabrowski as he worked on his Masters in philosophy and studied the levels of reality presented by Plato, as well as the works of the major philosophers, such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.ĭabrowski wanted to be a professional musician, but during his studies his best friend committed suicide and Dabrowski decided to devote his life to understanding psychology. After the battle he walked among the dead soldiers and said he was struck that some had frightened looks of horror on their faces, while others looked calm and peaceful. In World War I, a major battle took place near the town Dabrowski lived in. Dabrowski had a challenging life, and his personal experiences shaped his studies and, later, his theory. The theory was developed by a Polish psychiatrist and psychologist, Kazimierz Dąbrowski (1902–1980). What could be positive about disintegrating? Right away, I was interested in digging deeper. The very name of the theory-the theory of positive disintegration-is confusing. After studying it, I realized how prescient it was, and I introduce it here. He warned us that it wouldn’t make sense of first. It was important, he said, because it was a forerunner to the approach of positive psychology. At the end of the course, the professor said he was going to introduce one last theory that was unknown and quite complicated. When I studied psychology in university, one of my favorite courses explored theories of personality. 11th Biennial International Meaning Conference 2021.Newsletter: Positive Living in Difficult Times.Existential Positive Psychology Bulletin. ![]() Research Institute on Flourishing and Suffering (RIFS).Existential Positive Psychology (PP 2.0).
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