Paul Pearsall, Ph.D. on The Beethoven Factor

The Beethoven Factor is "SIG - Stress Induced Growth.”

Like the composer, there are persons for whom adversity is a stimulus for personal growth and creativity. Also like Beethoven, they aren't "super humans."

Like all of us, they are flawed beings, but something within and about them allows them to construe their lives with an upward psychological trajectory even when things seem at their worst.

They are not just naive blind optimists. They are "benefit finders" who can discover growth where many others see only disaster.

From interview by Steve Kayser
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