Existential Depression in Gifted Individuals

http://www.giftedbooks.com/authorarticles.asp?id=7

by hhm • 19 years ago

31 32 19 years ago

bmaier• 19 years ago

>>When their intensity is combined with multi-potentiality, these youngsters become particularly frustrated with the existential limitations of space and time. There simply aren't enough hours in the day to develop all of the talents that many of these children have. Making choices among the possibilities is indeed arbitrary; there is no "ultimately right" choice. Even choosing a vocation can be difficult if one is trying to make a career decision between essentially equal passion, talents and potential in violin, neurology, theoretical mathematics and international relations.

I'm curious how others have dealt with this. When faced with seemingly equal career and life decisions how to you go about choosing what vocation or path to pursue.

Does anyone have any specific methods?

mgummelt• 19 years ago

I flipped a coin to choose which college to go to.

I actually ended up going to the school that lost the coin flip, however.

curi10• 19 years ago

Don't do any of them, and instead learn how to do things faster and learn faster.

Then get bored a lot... ;)

corentin• 19 years ago

Up to now, I trusted my guts and went without much thought to the path with the best profits/effort ratio (that is, I usually chose the easiest, satisfying enough path). The good thing is that you avoid analysis paralysis (by not thinking too much) and prevent a lot of effort (as a kid, I used to be guilty of being lazy but today I understand that hard work is overrated anyway). On the other hand, you can end up in a dead end. So, from now, I continue to move through small steps (I don't believe in bold moves) but I also "look deeper in the tree"; I think about the next step as well when I look at a path, to avoid being trapped in a dead end (of course, I learned to do this because I ended up in a dead end recently). I have a vague idea of a few ultimate goals I'd like to achieve, but not a crystal clear vision so they're rather irrelevant to my small steps. But it's OK as long as the decisions I make lead to better opportunities.

maurycy2• 19 years ago

Reminds me http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3503877302082311448

kingnothing• 19 years ago

I read this almost a year ago, although it was posted on a different site. It's a pretty good read.

curi10• 19 years ago

He advised parents to lie to their children about hugs :(

Someone should tell him (and the rest of the world) that immortality is coming.

It's sort of funny that he says these gifted children will question traditions, and then wants to help them via the rather arbitrary touch=comfort tradition.

He also says essentially: they don't fit in, but help them feel like they do. Why not tell them that fitting in isn't such a great thing anyway, and they shouldn't feel bad about being better?

jey4• 19 years ago

"It's sort of funny that he says these gifted children will question traditions, and then wants to help them via the rather arbitrary touch=comfort tradition."

I doubt it's arbitrary. It seems to be, as the article said, "a fundamental and instinctual aspect of existence". A lot of stuff is just built into us, and touch=comfort is a prime candidate for one of those things that's hard-wired into us. I doubt it's a culturally acquired/transmitted trait.

curi10• 19 years ago

High level human personalities aren't hardwired. They are many layers of interpretation above any hardwiring. It's like imagining that which assembly language is under your Ruby makes a difference to which programs you can write.

DanielBMarkham2• 19 years ago

Best book for a gifted existential crisis? "Man's search for meaning." I wish I had read it as a teenager.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning

hhm2• 19 years ago

I read it. I'm not sure it's very specific about gifted existential crisis, or about existential crisis at all...

DanielBMarkham2• 19 years ago

You don't think Frankl tackles head-on the meaning of existence? I mean, he's the father of logotherapy, which, as Wiki describes it, is "a type of Existential Analysis that focuses on a 'will to meaning' as opposed to Adler's Nietzschian doctrine of 'will to power' or Freud's of 'will to pleasure;'."

Can't get much more specific about dealing with existential crises than that, right?

steveplace• 19 years ago

What's the point in reading this... everything gets Dugg in the end...

mynameishere• 19 years ago

Existentialists should stay true to their natures.

http://madelyn.utahunderground.net/links/jeanpaulsatrecookbo...

tel• 19 years ago

I think the book he wrote is even more interesting. My ex-girlfriend was exceedingly smart, but in her young life did poorly being judged as ADD and Dyslexic. I got the opposite treatment with gifted programs and expanded curricula. When we compared symptoms, though, we were generally the same.

I wonder how many children in "special" education should actually be in gifted education...

MagicFingers• 19 years ago

Scarey place to be. did anyone read this by a cibermole? Burnt-out programmers:: Existential Depression - the biggest threat to your brand? www.intrench.com

Existential Depression in Gifted Individuals

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