It doesn’t always work out that way.

In her Unwrapping the Gifted post “Multipotentiality,” K-12 gifted education specialist Tamara Fisher quotes Bryant (a pseudonym), a graduating senior who lists his possible future careers as “applied psychologist, scientific psychologist, college teacher, philosophy, mathematics, architect, engineer.”

He says, “I find it difficult to choose between careers because I fear how large the choice is. Having many options available is pleasant, but to determine what I will do for many years to come is scary.”

Fisher notes, “Multipotentiality is the state of having many exceptional talents, any one or more of which could make for a great career for that person.

“Gifted children often (though of course not always) have multipotentiality. Their advanced intellectual abilities and their intense curiosity make them prime candidates for excelling in multiple areas. This can be both a blessing and a curse.

“On the bright side, they have many realistic options for future careers. But on the downside, some of them will struggle mightily trying to decide which choice to make.”

Fisher adds that having “so many great possible outcomes can be a source of debilitating stress.”

Too many options

In her post Multipotentiality: When High Ability Leads to Too Many Options, Lisa Rivero describes Jason, a college junior, who “is trying to decide what to do after graduation. He is leaning strongly toward graduate school but is unsure of whether he wants to stay in the United States or study abroad. An honors student at a liberal arts university, he has taken a wide variety of courses–from chemistry and calculus to philosophy and political science–and he has gotten As in all of them.

“While he knows he is fortunate to have so many options available, he also sometimes panics that he will make the wrong choice and end up in a job he doesn’t like. If he gets a Ph.D. in political science, will he be tracked into being a college professor? If he pursues a master’s program in economics, will he regret not continuing with political science? And what about all of those classical languages he has studied? Were they just a waste of time?”

She adds, “This frustration can continue past adolescence as adults with multipotentiality may find themselves drifting from job to job, unable to settle in any spot long enough to know if it would satisfy over the long term, feeling that their lives and careers are a hodge-podge of failed attempts.”

Too little challenge?

In the case of Jason, Rivero writes, “Rather than indicating that he is equally good at everything, his college career thus far might instead be an indication that he is not being challenged at a level to show relative passions and aptitudes. Perhaps he would continue to thrive and be engaged in graduate-level math but find post-college classical languages more frustrating and less interesting.

“Alternatively, he might excel in a job that allows him to use his knowledge of Latin and Greek and Sanskrit but find that his interest in political science wanes once it becomes more specialized or practical. In addition, his temperament may determine whether the pursuit of research, teaching, or field work is the most comfortable fit.

RIvero explains, “The authors of the Journal of Counseling Psychology article describe this good fit as ‘optimal adjustment’ – a match between personal abilities, personal preferences, and requirements and rewards from the workplace environment.”

Parts of this article were adapted from Lisa Rivero’s book A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Teens: Living with Intense and Creative Adolescents. [The image is also from the article.]

And that can be true for adults too. Of course many people are able to realize multiple talents.

In my Psych Central post Amber Benson on Writing: Creating is Kind of Intoxicating, I wrote about actor Amber Benson (Tara on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) who also has multiple credits as a novelist and screenwriter, director and producer.

Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was often referred to as a renaissance man.

An obituary noted, “In addition to his photography, film work and poetry, he composed a symphony, sonatas, concertos, film scores, and wrote novels, instructional photography manuals, essays and three memoirs.” (From my post Being “scattered” and proud of it.)

But having advanced potential and exceptional capabilities in many talent areas also means, almost by definition, you are underachieving: you can’t do everything.

One of the pleasures of my life has been pursuing serial interests in often radically different fields: being a research assistant in genetics and later in left/right brain wave research; a visual effects camera operator, and multiple other jobs and pursuits.

But one of the ‘costs’ has been a life unmoored to any career, and many periods of anxiety and self-doubt.

Thankfully this series of sites I have created is not only creatively rewarding, but also of some value to other people.

Related:

Underutilized talents, too many aptitudes

The Too Many Aptitudes Problem, by Hank Pfeffer
“Most people have about four or five strong talents… Most jobs require about four or five. As many as 10% of the population has double that number of aptitudes… There is evidence that people with too many aptitudes (TMAs) are less likely to obtain advanced education and/or succeed in a career than those with an average number of talents.”

Adult underachievement – not living up to our high potential
In a very real sense, everyone may be called “underachieving” regardless of whether they are gifted or not. One short definition is “Performance below potential.”

Are you a scanner personality? Maybe all you need is a good enough job.
Barbara Sher writes about and leads retreats for Scanners – “also known as renaissance men and women, eclectic experts, happy amateurs and delighted dilettantes.”

Book: Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement
- by Kenneth W. Christian, PhD.

Related post: Adult Underachievement: Kenneth Christian, Ph.D. on living up to the “gifted” label – or not

~~~~

Book: Developing Multiple Talents – The personal side of creative expression
- by me, Douglas Eby
“Part book about creativity, part compendium of useful tidbits, quotations and research, and part annotated bibliography, this is a wildly useful and highly entertaining resource.” – Stephanie S. Tolan, fiction writer and consultant on the needs of the gifted.

~~~~

Program / ebook: Renaissance Business – “Specifically for the Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur”
Author Emilie Wapnick notes, “My resume reads like it belongs to ten different people. Music, film, web design, law, business, personal development, writing, dance, sexuality, education– all of these are or have been interests of mine. They come and go (and sometimes come again).

Video: A Disturbing Trend in the Blogosphere…
“Why are all these successful multipotentialite entrepreneurs telling us to “pick one thing” when they themselves USED their diverse background to build their business?!”

Related: The Productivity for Multipotentialites Course – “Ah, isn’t it lovely having so many different interests? Being a multipotentialite is wonderful, except when it comes to actually getting all of those great projects done.”

Productivity for Multipotentialites is “a complete productivity system for multipotentialites. Throughout the classes, you will be introduced to a number of practices and rituals to help you integrate all of your passions into your life, without the stress.”

~~

But this is, after all, a fictional character and a commercial.

In real life, do people with multiple talents realize their abilities as readily and fully as they want?

Tina Fey herself is certainly multitalented.

She is a writer, screenwriter, comedian, actress, and producer.

The Mommy Track’d blog enthuses, “Tina Fey must have the secret. It’s not easy to juggle a high-flying career, a marriage and a three-year-old daughter all at once. But Fey’s doing it and doing it pretty well. She’s married with a toddler and gets up to go to work every day, writes the show or at least part of it, and then also stars in the program. Somehow she makes it work. One of her Emmys was for writing, the other for her acting.”

In an interview, Fey said, “I don’t think you should limit yourself. The sky is the limit. Your dreams and goals are only as big as you make them. It literally is a full time job juggling all three positions [acting , writing, producing 30 Rock]. Aside from my job, I’m a full-time mommy too.”

Photo: Tina Fey Hard At Work – from post A Mother’s Prayer for Her Child By Tina Fey, by Melody Godfred – with quotes from Tina Fey’s book Bossypants – including these:

“Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.

“What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.

“May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.”

Achievement and self-realization aren’t assured

A high level of achievement and fulfillment is not automatic or assured for all gifted and talented adults.

Probably most high ability, multitalented people struggle with multiple inner and outer concerns that can slow or stop achievement.

Author Marylou Kelly Streznewski says in her book Gifted Grownups, “For too long society has believed that if you aren’t president of General Motors, you aren’t gifted. If the estimates of the researchers are correct, and between 3% and 5% of the population is gifted, then we are talking about several million people.

“What the interviews [in the book] revealed was that a gifted person of multiple talents may not be as fortunate as a multitalented Bill Bradley (Rhodes scholar, basketball star, senator, author). He or she may be struggling through a series of false starts into careers and college majors, trying desperately to find the one that clicks.”

[From my post Growing up exceptional: “There are large numbers of frustrated gifted adults.”]

Realizing you are exceptional

A therapist and head of a private adult school, Mary Rocamora has found “Simply knowing one is gifted often opens a floodgate of energy. Clients who came to therapy with established gifted identities were characteristically passionate, intense, and unafraid to unleash the shadow side of their personality.”

From her article Counseling Issues with Recognized and Unrecognized Gifted Adults – which is, she notes, “based on my own experience over the last 13 years counseling multi-talented performers, writers, metaphysicians, and people who were clearly gifted in self-transformation. I have worked extensively with two types of gifted clients: those who knew they were gifted and were highly self-actualizing in their field, and those whose giftedness was unrecognized, masked, under-utilized, or thwarted in some way.”

One way to learn more about your real talents is to find and engage your passions.

Chris and Janet Attwood write on their site The Passion Test: “People who are passionate work harder, do better work and more motivated than those who aren’t. Needless to say they also enjoy their work more.

“Who do you think has the greatest opportunity to prosper when times are tough? The person who hates their work and has to drag themselves to work every day, or the person who loves what they’re doing and can hardly wait to get to it?”

The photo is Gordon Parks (1912-2006), often referred to as a renaissance man: film work, poetry, photography, music, novels, and more.

In their articles on the Scanner personality and Renaissance Souls, Barbara Sher and Margaret Lobenstine write about “bringing a passionate attention” to a variety of interests, simultaneously or serially.

Multitalented doesn’t mean you have to do it all at once, all the time.

And there are many factors that can encourage or inhibit talents.

In her article Common Misconceptions About the Gifted, Mary Rocamora notes “the term ‘gifted’ refers to individuals who, in addition to high intelligence, share personality traits such as perfectionism, introversion, intensity, sensitivity, idealism, and overexcitability.

She writes, “As Abraham Maslow noted, giftedness can manifest in a myriad of ways, although we don’t typically reward our gifted auto mechanics and gifted homemakers. Another misconception is that ability automatically leads to high achievement, that compelling talent will overcome all obstacles.

“As children, many of us heard inspiring stories about eminent men and women who did just that. However, the reality is that there are both circumstantial and psychological factors that can adversely affect the actualization of the gifted.

“Poverty, ethnicity, opportunity, lack of understanding about the nature of giftedness in the family, and being female are circumstances that can impede talent development.”

Adult eminence

Ellen Winner, PhD says, “We cannot assume a link between early giftedness, no matter how extreme, and adult eminence. The factors that predict the course of a life are multiple and interacting. Over and above level of ability, important roles are played by personality, motivation, the family environment, opportunity, and chance.”

From her book: Gifted Children : Myths and Realities.

Viggo Mortensen

In addition to his work as an actor in movies (Witness, The Lord of the Rings, A History of Violence, and many others), Viggo Mortensen is a writer, musician, poet, photographer and painter with exhibitions at art galleries around the world.

He founded independent publishing house Perceval Press with partner Pilar Perez to publish his books and CDs, plus works of other lesser-known authors, including a book speaking out against the war in Iraq.

From my post Viggo Mortensen: “Why just one thing?”

One of his quotes I really like: “Photography, painting or poetry – those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things, they are my way of communicating.”

That is among many other quotes from multitalented writers, actors and other creative people, as well as creativity researchers and psychologists, that I have included in my book Developing Multiple Talents: The personal side of creative expression.

[Link goes to book site, with multiple reviews, and a sign up form to get a free excerpt.]

Also see my listing of Books for the Creative Mind.

There are many other examples of people who can inspire us, showing that we can overcome obstacles and contribute our talents to this great journey of life.

~~

“The natural trajectory of giftedness in childhood is not a six-figure salary, perfect happiness, and a guaranteed place in Who’s Who.”
Linda Silverman – in her book Counseling the Gifted and Talented.

In her keynote address The Universal Experience of Being Out-of-Sync, Linda Silverman, Ph.D. argues that giftedness should not be defined as simply high achievement in school or recognized accomplishment in adult life.

“The fact is that achievement is very much a function of opportunity (Hollingworth, 1926), and greater opportunities for success are available to those who have greater financial resources.

“Achievement, particularly recognized individual achievement, is culturally determined. In some cultures, individuals shun individual recognition; instead, they value moral courage or collective prosperity for generations to come, and use their gifts for the good of the group.

“Another way of understanding giftedness is to see it as developmental advancement.

“In every culture, there are children who develop at a faster pace from early childhood on, are inquisitive to a greater degree than their agemates, generalize concepts earlier than their peers, demonstrate advanced verbal or spatial capacities at an early age, have superb memories, grasp abstract concepts, love to learn, have a sophisticated sense of humor, prefer complexity, are extraordinarily insightful, have a passion for justice, are profoundly aware, and experience life with great intensity.

“While these traits may or may not propel the individual to world renown, they appear to correlate with moral sensitivity in childhood and ethical development in adult life.

“Their sensitivity, intensity, awareness, and moral courage set these individuals apart from others throughout the lifespan.

“In some societies these characteristics are applauded while in others they are punished.”

On the Gifted Development Center page about the Advanced Development Journal there is a brief overview:

Are you an undetected gifted adult who needs more information on adult giftedness?

As a gifted adult, you may know you are different but not realize why.

Many gifted people experience:

* a sense of humor and creativity few others understand
* a sense of alienation and loneliness
* outrage at moral breaches that the rest of the world seems to take for granted
* being out-of-step and on a separate path

When you were a child, how many of the following characteristics were descriptive of you:

* Were you advanced in your development of speaking, reading, or other skills in early childhood?
* Were you fascinated with words or ideas?
* Did you ask a lot of questions?
* Did you have an unusual perspective of things and events?
* Were you a good problem solver?
* Did you have a good memory?
* Were you exceptionally sensitive?
* Did you have a great sense of humor?
* Were you insightful?
* Were you perfectionistic?
* Were you intense?
* Did you collect things and organize your collections?
* Were you a rapid learner?
* Did you show compassion for others?
* Did you enjoy older playmates and the company of adults?
* Were you argumentative?
* Did you have a large vocabulary?
* Did you have a creative imagination?
* Were you an avid reader?
* Did you have a wide range of interests?
* Did you like puzzles, mazes or numbers?
* Did you have a great deal of energy?
* Did you have a long attention span?

If many of these characteristics fit you, you are probably a gifted adult.

~~~

Achievement / Underachievement

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the book Outliers: The Story of Success, thinks people become outstanding – “outliers” on the upper end of intelligence, ability and achievement curves – only through many hours of concentrated effort.

See video in my High Ability site post Outliers and developing exceptional abilities.

A webinar by SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted): “Understanding and Treating Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Underachievement in Gifted Children, Adolescents and Young Adults” – presented by Jerald Grobman, M.D. – noted many social and emotional issues that may compromise the realization of advanced potential.

See a video excerpt from the webinar in my post Adult underachievement – not living up to our high potential.

[Photo from Davidson Institute for Talent Development / Young Scholars page]

gifted adults, gifted adult information, gifted adult personality, psychology of giftedness, high ability, high aptitude, advanced development

As profiled in a Today Show bio, “She made the jump to college at age 10. And by age 14, Sabur was earning a bachelor’s of science degree in applied mathematics summa cum laude from Stony Brook University — the youngest female in U.S. history to do so.

“Her education continued at Drexel University, where she earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering.

“Sabur has taken up teaching math and physics courses at Southern University in New Orleans. She has been playing clarinet with orchestras since her solo debut at age 11.”

[From article posted on www.aliasabur.com]

In an interview in 2005, Sabur said talked about her achievement attitude: “Things have been not exactly smooth along the way, but that’s how it is when you do something that no one else has really done before… not honestly so much with the actual work and the class work and practicing and performing, but with everything else along the way.

“I mean, there are a lot of people who told me that I couldn’t do what I’ve done. And if I had listened to them, then I wouldn’t have done any of it.

“I would say that if you have a goal, you should fix it in your mind and not let anything stop you on the way. Because no matter what you try to do, people will tell you that you can’t or you shouldn’t. And especially for other girls, who are really discouraged in the sciences, that you can be just as good at it or better than boys.

“You can’t let people bring you down. That’s basically all there is to it.”

[CNN SUNDAY MORNING April 17, 2005]

Related book: Child Prodigies From Around the World Vol. 2 Including Prodigies Of Medicine, Humanities, and Psychology, Biographies, Education, Other Little Known Facts From the Early 1700s Until Present Time.

~~

“I must have been crazy to have donned so many hats.”

Many multitalented people feel inspired and energized to pursue multiple creative projects, often at the same time. One potential downside is physical and emotional burnout.

Jennifer Westfeldt wrote, produced and acted in “Kissing Jessica Stein” and “Ira & Abby.” For her new movie “Friends With Kids,” she not only wrote the screenplay, acted and produced, she also directed the “two-year, round-the-clock endeavor” as a Los Angeles Times article describes it – not an uncommonly demanding schedule for movies.

“I must have been crazy to have donned so many hats,” Westfeldt said. “It made good sense for me to direct it, since I was involved in every aspect anyway. But I’m not sure I’d ever do it again.”

The burned-out house is a pithy metaphor for our condition when we are suffering burnout.

It’s a ‘system breakdown’ I have experienced a number of times over the past couple of years…

In her stimulating post “How to Deal with Multipotentialite Burnout,” Wapnick articulates how we may go “too far” in pushing the boundaries of our capacities to keep achieving.

“It’s a collapse. Complete mental exhaustion. While most people experience burnout from time to time, multipotentialites are prone to hitting this point more frequently and more intensely. It makes sense, considering how passionately curious we are, and how easy it is for us to lose ourselves in our projects.”

Continued: Multiple Talents, Multiple Passions, Burnout

~~

A good friend of mine could be the next Martha Stewart. In fact, let’s call her Martha.

Martha loves to cook and does it beautifully.

Guests that she entertains for dinner wow at the presentation, rejoice throughout the meal, and are somewhat embarrassed when it’s their turn to invite her over.

Martha is equally talented at home design. Her own home is both harmonious and stylish, and she’s the go-to person for anyone in her group of friends who needs advice on décor.

Having studied fashion, she can also help just about any lady plan a make-over, including hair, make-up or clothing style.

As if her skill set wasn’t complete enough already, she’s also the funniest person I know (and I know a lot of people!).

It’s great to have a friend like Martha around. But it’s a real shame to see her go to the same federal office day after day so she can send emails, make photocopies, stamp paperwork, and align numbers in the right columns.

Continued: Multi-Talented but Under-Challenged?

~~

One of the key concepts of Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski, MD, PhD (1902 – 1980) is that individuals with strong “overexcitabilities” are good candidates for higher level development.

Stephanie Tolan, a writer and advocate for extremely bright children, notes the original Polish word for psychiatrist Dabrowski’s concept of overexcitabilities or excitabilities can be translated more literally as “superstimulatabilities.”

See more in my post Intensity of the imagination: Precious and Phoebe in Wonderland.

Video: “Does your brain ever get tired?” – Boston detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon, left) to medical examiner Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander), in Rizzoli & Isles (Season 2 Episode 15, “Burning Down the House,” Dec 26 2011) – the TV series based on the books by physician Tess Gerritsen.

Here are some quotes by writer Stephen King, and actors Amanda Bynes and Sandra Bullock about having “teeming brains” – comments that seem to me are about the experience.

Stephen King has said:

“I’ve taken off two months, three months at a time, and, by the end, I get really squirrelly.

“My night life, my dream life, gets extremely populated and crazed. It’s as though something in there is running all the time.”

Actor Amanda Bynes, talking about going to college, once said:

“I have such a busy mind and it’s really hard for me to do one thing at a time. … It’s hard for me to sit still.”

Sandra Bullock has commented:

“I am a big ball of high energy and organization and structure. I’m controlling, and I want everything orderly, and I need lists. My mind goes a mile a minute.”

These Excitabilities are considered to occur in five areas: psychomotor, intellectual, imaginational, emotional and sensual. Many writers and educators consider the concept to be particularly relevant for gifted and talented people.

The title for this post (and video) is partly a reference to the book My Teeming Brain: Creativity in Creative Writers, by Jane Piirto, Ph.D., who notes in her article Themes in the Lives of Successful U.S. Adult Creative Writers, that her book title comes from the poet Keats who knew the experience well, writing in a sonnet about his “fears that I may cease to be / before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain…”

See more in my post: Pumping our teeming brain.

Giftedness consultant Lesley Sword describes Overexcitabilities as “an abundance of physical, sensual, creative, intellectual and emotional energy that can result in creative endeavours as well as advanced emotional and ethical development in adulthood. Overexcitabilities feed, enrich, empower and amplify talent.”

From her article Overexcitabilities in Gifted Children.

A resource book on this topic is Living With Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and the Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults, by Susan Daniels, PhD and Michael M. Piechowski, PhD.

[Also see my High Ability site post Excitabilities and Gifted People – an intro by Susan Daniels with a video excerpt from a webinar by SENG presented by Dr. Daniels: “Understanding Overexcitabilities – The Joys and the Challenges.”]

The authors explain, “Overexcitability is a translation of the Polish word which means ‘superstimulatability.’ (It should have been called superexcitability.) … Another way of looking at is of being spirited – ‘more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent, energetic’…It would be hard to find a person of talent who shows little evidence of any of the five overexcitabilities.”

But they also note that many people may not welcome such traits: “Unfortunately, the stronger these overexcitabilities are, the less peers and teachers welcome them.”

From my post The psychology of creativity: performers and excitabilities.

The above three paragraphs are also in the “Intensity” chapter of my book “Developing Multiple Talents – The personal side of creative expression”
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~~~

Rooney Mara

Lisbeth Salander is one of the most intriguing and powerful characters in literature, and both Rooney Mara in the new movie of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Noomi Rapace in the 2009 Danish version, bring to life a richly complex and dynamic young woman.

The “extra intelligent and intense” of my title is a reference to the book: Enjoying the Gift of Being Uncommon: Extra Intelligent, Intense, and Effective, by Willem Kuipers.

In her article (a guest post on my High Ability site) 3 Things To Learn From The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – A Gifted Trauma Survivor, psychotherapist Lisa Erickson writes about the connections of this character with gifted teens and adults, noting that “Lisbeth Salander is the fictional heroine of Steig Larsson’s trilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

“As the heroine, Lisbeth Salander embodies certain characteristics of giftedness, and these characteristics help her survive terrible, long-term physical, sexual and emotional abuse.”

Rooney Mara studied at George Washington University for a year, then transferred to New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she studied psychology, international social policy, and nonprofits. [Wikipedia]

She uses her intelligence and other personal qualities in making her character so compelling, and comments about Lisbeth:

“The thing that I found most interesting was that she could be as off-putting as she is, but at the same time she’s also quite innocent and childlike. She’s this genius and she’s brilliant, but at the same time she’s kind of naive and emotionally stunted. So I think that sort of makes her very unpredictable; you don’t really know what you’re going to get, what’s going to pop out of her.”

Much has been written in reviews about her ‘goth’ appearance in the movie, but Mara thinks “She’s not a badass, she’s not a punk. I hate it when people call her a punk or goth, because to me that’s just the antithesis of what she is.

“I think in order to be punk or goth, you have to be part of a group or part of a subculture, and her whole thing is that she never wants to draw attention to herself. She dresses the way she does because society has constantly, throughout her entire life, told her that she’s worthless.”

She notes how personal for her this role is: “It would probably be smarter of me as an actor to pretend that I don’t relate to her and that I’m completely different than her, but that’s just not true. I would certainly come off as a much better actor if I did that, but the truth is that I do really relate to her.”

From Rooney Mara: Lisbeth Salander Of ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ More Than Just A Role by Jordan Zakarin, TheHuffingtonPost.com

The interviewer above refers to Mara as “naturally shy” – perhaps one of the qualities she relates to in the character.

Rooney Mara

In another interview, Mara was asked if she liked Lisbeth.

“I do really like her. I think most people really like her. I also think part of the reason she’s so great is that you don’t always agree with what she does yet you still like her. I think that’s really why she’s so interesting.”

[Would Lisbeth like you?]

“I don’t know. I feel like if we were stuck in a room together not a lot would happen. We’re both shy and quiet and not very good communicators.”

[From Rooney Mara Interviews with Boston Globe.]

Both tough and vulnerable

Mara also has said of Lisbeth: “She is described as an anorexic waif. At the same time, she has this superhuman strength. She looks quite tough. But she’s quite vulnerable.

“She’s this brilliant hacker and wise beyond her years, and at the same time, she’s emotionally stunted at 12 years old and naive in a lot of ways. She is full of all these contradictions. And we never wanted to make her just this angry and violent person.”

[From 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo': An Interview With Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, and David Fincher, by Louise Roug, Newsweek Magazine.]

Obsessive and perfectionistic

Mara thinks she and Lisbeth are “very similar in a lot of different ways. We’re both obsessive and perfectionists. We’re both contrarians. Neither of us likes to be controlled. I’m someone who overthinks everything and really needs to investigate every part of something before I’m ready to do it in front of other people, and he [her director David Fincher] really allows for that. That’s the part of me I think is very similar to Salander.” [From The Contenders: Rooney Mara's 'Tattoo' studies, By Sam Adams, Special to the Los Angeles Times.]

Complexity, paradox

As portrayed by both of these outstanding actors – Rooney Mara and Noomi Rapace – Lisbeth Salander also reminds me of some of the writing of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced me-high chick-sent-me-high-ee) – one of the major creativity researchers on personality and creative expression.

In one of my Creative Mind articles, I include a quote of his:

“If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude.

“Like the color white that includes all colors, they tend to bring together the entire range of human possibilities within themselves. Creativity allows for paradox, light, shadow, inconsistency, even chaos –and creative people experience both extremes with equal intensity.”

From my post The Complexity of the Creative Personality.

~ ~

“I liked him. He was kind of skinny and wiry and full of energy.” Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, about meeting Steve Jobs in 1969.

“Jobs doesn’t sit through much of anything; one of the ways he dominates is through sheer movement.” Joe Nocera

The bio ‘Steve Jobs’ has topped Amazon’s list of 10 best-selling books of 2011.

Listening to author Walter Isaacson in his interview with Charlie Rose, one of his comments that caught my attention was this [paraphrased]:

The deep emotionalism surprised me. He’d be talking and I looked up and there were tears… He was talking about the ad campaign ‘Here’s to the Crazy Ones’ and he got very emotional.

[See my post The Apple “Think Different” campaign - includes the TV commercial.]

Video: excerpt of Charlie Rose interview of Walter Isaacson (10/25/11). See the longer interview at CharlieRose.com.

Here is a quote from Isaacson’s new bio of Steve Jobs, by Joe Nocera, then a writer for Esquire, describing Jobs’ intensity at a NeXT computer staff meeting:

“It’s not quite right to say that he is sitting through this staff meeting because Jobs doesn’t sit through much of anything; one of the ways he dominates is through sheer movement.

“One moment he’s kneeling in his chair, the next minute he’s slouching in it; the next he has leaped out of his chair entirely and is scribbling on the blackboard directly behind him.

“He is full of mannerisms. He bites his nails. He stares with unnerving earnestness at whoever is speaking. His hands, which are slightly and inexplicably yellow, are in constant motion.”

These references sound like the unusually intense levels of emotional, physical and other capacities that Polish clinician and theorist Kazimierz Dabrowski detailed in his theory of personality development, and termed Overexcitability.

He particularly addressed high ability, gifted and talented people, and said, “Almost 97 percent of the highly creative suffer from different kinds of overexcitabilities, neuroses, and psychoneuroses. So, neurotics and psychoneurotics are a mine of social treasure.”

More stimulatable

Stephanie Tolan, a writer and advocate for extremely bright children, notes the original Polish terms overexcitabilities or excitabilities can be translated more literally as “superstimulatabilities.”

She summarizes, “It’s a stimulus-response difference from the norms. It means that in these five areas a person reacts more strongly than normal for a longer period than normal to a stimulus that may be very small. It involves not just psychological factors but central nervous system sensitivity.”

She describes the Psychomotor form of Overexcitability or Excitability: “This is often thought to mean that the person needs lots of movement and athletic activity, but it can also refer to the issue of having trouble smoothing out the mind’s activities for sleeping. Lots of physical energy and movement, fast talking, lots of gestures, sometimes nervous tics.”

From her page Dabrowski’s Over-excitabilities – A Layman’s Explanation.

Sharon Lind, a gifted education and parenting consultant, notes in her article Overexcitability and the gifted, “A small amount of definitive research and a great deal of naturalistic observation have led to the belief that intensity, sensitivity and overexcitability are primary characteristics of the highly gifted.”

“Often when overexcitability is discussed examples and concerns are mostly negative. Remember that being overexcitable also brings with it great joy, astonishment, beauty, compassion, and creativity. Perhaps the most important thing is to acknowledge and relish the uniqueness of an overexcitable child or adult.”

Also see a longer discussion of the topic by Casey on her Raising Smart Girls blog: Overexcitabilities and the gifted – Living With Intensity

See quotes by her about J.D. Salinger “searching relentlessly” for peace in my post What do you do with your intensity?

Being intense is not always positive.

Casey refers to one of the reference books on the subject: Living with Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and the Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults.

The Amazon summary notes: “Gifted children and adults are often misunderstood. Their excitement is viewed as excessive, their high energy as hyperactivity, their persistence as nagging, their imagination as not paying attention, their passion as being disruptive, their strong emotions and sensitivity as immaturity, their creativity and self-directedness as oppositional.”

Also see much more on the Dabrowski page listed at the bottom.

The iconic 1984 Macintosh commercial conceived by Chiat/Day and directed by Ridley Scott was nationally aired on television only once – during the 3rd quarter of the 1984 Super Bowl football game.

Creative Obsession

The photo above (by Norman Seeff) is Jobs with the original 1984 Macintosh, which was not made to be opened by the owner, but Isaacson says Jobs thought the main circuit board looked ugly, that the chips were not arrayed nicely, so it had to be re-manufactured. One of his staff noted that no one would see it; Steve said “But we will know.”

Attention to even “invisible details” is often part of the obsessive perfectionism – or, from another vantage point, passion for excellence – that drives many major filmmakers, too.

One example is James Cameron (the Terminator series, Aliens, Titanic and many others), whose attention to detail for his movie Avatar included employing a university linguistics professor to create a functioning language for the tribe of blue aliens on Pandora.

But one of the dark sides of obsession for Cameron and others can be engaging in negatively perfectionistic behavior, or being a destructive workaholic.

Both were also reportedly aspects of Jobs’ life and achievement.

Of course, as with most behavior, there is no absolute border between productive and pathological.

Therapist and creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD notes in his article In Praise of Positive Obsessions that clinicians may define “obsession” as an intrusive thought, recurrent, unwanted, and inappropriate.

Maisel writes, “Defined this way, it is obviously always unwelcome. But suppose a person is caught up thinking day and night about her current painting or about the direction she wants to take her art?”

From my post Creative Obsession

Passion

In her post Do You “Believe Beyond Reason?” (on her blog – see her site), creativity coach Jenna Avery notes that “passion” is an over-used and often bland idea, and it should be something much more.”

She writes, ‘Let’s start asking, “What do you BELIEVE BEYOND REASON?” What do you believe in so deeply, so permanently, so passionately that you can hardly keep yourself in your skin because you are exploding with joy when you consider it?’

Isn’t that what we want to feel as creators?

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Book: Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson.

Audiobook:  Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, Narrated by Dylan Baker, Walter Isaacson.

My sites on ‘central nervous system sensitivity’: Highly Sensitive // Highly Sensitive / Facebook

Related pages, posts

Dabrowski / advanced development

Dabrowski Excitabilities – Michael Jackson

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The ‘gifted’ label & the pressure to deliver

In his book “Your Own Worst Enemy..” psychologist Kenneth W. Christian, PhD delineates some of the most prominent patterns of thinking and behavior he has found that may lead to undermining and underachievement as adults.

He notes, “Without explicit demands and support, being labeled ‘bright’ or ‘gifted’ is akin to being conferred an aristocratic lineage — a heritage that exists independently of what you do with it.

“The difference is that the labels ‘bright’ and ‘gifted’ come with implicit demands, and when appropriate explicit demands are lacking, the labels sit there like ticking bombs.

“On the one hand, these labels tell you that merely being bright or talented is enough, but on the other hand, the longer you go being praised for talent alone, the more anxious you become about the time when you will be required to deliver.”

Hanging on to a limiting self-concept

Another aspect is how our identity and self concept informs personal development:

“We can be particularly resistant to change when it threatens to alter what we believe about ourselves…”

Continued: Adult Underachievement: Kenneth Christian, Ph.D. on living up to the “gifted” label – or not

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