I am shaken, not broken: a creative excursion into Greta Thunberg’s positive disintegration and transformational giftedness

Balanced research and practice

Many professionals working in the gifted field resonate with Dabrowski’s theory of positive disintegration (TPD). For some, it remains an elusive theory. In this workshop we will dive into the personality development of the world-renowned climate activist Greta Thunberg. By connecting her (auto)biography and aspects of her personality (growth) to perspectives proposed by Dabrowski, both the complexity of (Thunberg’s) giftedness and the TPD may come alive. Participants will be creatively challenged to examine how Thunberg’s conflicts and talents, and the external factors shaping her development are dynamically interconnected and related to her profound leadership. Participants will also be invited to reflect upon professional and personal examples of positive disintegration, evaluate critically and emotionally the experiences that may be part of such a development and how to facilitate and inspire others in both meaningful and stressful existential processes. With the increasing climate crisis, such attention to transformational giftedness (Sternberg) is crucial.