Lady Gaga identifies herself as a feminist, and says, “I find that men get away with saying a lot in this business, and that women get away with saying very little. “In my opinion, women need and want someone to look up to that they feel have the full sense of who they are, and [...]
Playing most of his screen characters, Will Smith exudes assurance and confidence, but he admits, “I still doubt myself every single day. What people believe is my self-confidence is actually my reaction to fear.” [From my post Gifted and talented but with insecurity and low self esteem, and a longer quote in the post The [...]
There are many distorted ideas about creators – including these: “Artists must be poor and sacrifice their well-being for their art.” “Artists are ‘bad’ at marketing.” “Artists should accept the solitary life and find solutions on their own.” “You can’t be a mother and a successful artist.” “Artists are right-brained and aren’t very good at [...]
“I can be very hard on myself. I convince myself that I’m fooling people. Or, I convince myself that people like the book for the wrong reasons.” Jonathan Safran Foer – about his novel Everything Is Illuminated, which made The New York Times best-seller list. He also commented, “The writing itself is no big deal. [...]
Researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi notes creative people are especially complex. “Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude.” Personality characteristics he describes include: * Humble and proud, both painfully self-doubting and wildly self-confident. * May defy gender stereotypes, and are likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the [...]
In her Foreword to the book “Enjoying the Gift of Being Uncommon” by Willem Kuipers, Linda Silverman of the Gifted Development Center writes: The vast majority of gifted adults are never identified. Even those who were tested as children and placed in gifted programs often believe that their giftedness disappeared by the time they reached [...]
Healthy criticism can help refine our creative talents and projects, enabling our pursuit of excellence. But when criticism is based on excessive perfectionism or an unrealistic self concept, it can be destructive and self-limiting, eroding our creative assurance and vitality. In one of his podcast series, creativity coach and psychologist Eric Maisel declares, “Criticism is [...]
“I find mimicking and accents and makeup the easiest kind of acting to do… “You can turn me into a woman, give me some heels, I can do that. I can find the voice, etc. “But just sit me on the sofa? If I’m acting at all in those scenes, it unravels the movie that [...]
In a recent Marie Clare article, Are You Too Sensitive?, Helen Kirwan-Taylor discusses her process of self-discovery related to her own highly sensitive personality. Once upon a time, HSPs might have been written off as shy or even neurotic, but Aron [Elaine Aron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person] believes these labels are demeaning and inaccurate. [...]
Do you hold yourself back in order to get along, make others feel good, or for other reasons? Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, Psy.D. – author of The Gifted Adult – notes, “There are millions of unidentified individuals of high potential lost within the fabric of a society that seems to have issued an edict against knowing oneself, [...]
Talking about the topic of her movie “Marie Antoinette,” director Sofia Coppola once commented, “You’re considered superficial and silly if you are interested in fashion, but I think you can be substantial and still be interested in frivolity.” One way many talented people can be self-critical is to judge their wide-ranging serial interests as superficial [...]
When I was a child, and even through graduate school, I thought people were going to find out I was a fraud. I thought other talented people were doing better, achieving more and having more fun doing it, and I still tend to compare myself unfavorably with others on a daily basis. In her book, Emotional Intensity [...]
“I realized that acting smart or talented in school made me sound like a geek or nerd. So I remodeled myself as an airhead.” Yoky Matsuoka – robotics pioneer, prosthetics visionary, and a leading researcher in neurobotics. [From post The airhead mask and self-limiting – dealing with self sabotage.] Are geeks getting more ‘respectable’ or [...]
What are some of the considerations that lead sensitive and gifted adults to take psychiatric medications? What are some of the reasons people stop taking medications?? What are the alternatives? My inner life, and sometimes my outer life, is painful/chaotic/confusing. The DSM symptoms list for certain mental illnesses seem to fit me so I must [...]
What makes creative and highly sensitive people accept, and even welcome, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder or other mental illness? Are psychiatrists equipped to recognize and support creativity, high sensitivity and giftedness? Who determines where creative intensity ends and mental illness begins? Do medications put our creativity and sensitivity at risk? Over a year and [...]
“I think being different, being against the grain of society, is the greatest thing in the world.” That’s actor Elijah Wood (“Lord of the Rings”), quoted in my post Exceptional and out of bounds – eccentrics and society. Being unusual and eccentric may be easier for some people. It may not be so easy for [...]
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Site author: Douglas Eby, M.A./Psychology, is a writer and researcher on the psychology of creative expression and personal growth, especially for high ability adults. He is publisher of the Talent Development Resources series of sites.
