High Cognitive Minds

I just came across an article about the difficulties of growing up gifted and, as usual, found that it was a series of hits and misses. Elaine Aron, the author of several popular books on the highly sensitive person, is a Jungian and a clinical psychologist. Both are powerful filters, and the article demonstrates the limitations of both.

The article was an outcome of her learning about the sudden and unforeseen suicide of a gifted boy in early adolescence. Much of what she has to say is fairly general, and well worth reading, though I do think that her Jungian outlook is less than valuable in considering the problems of the gifted. What caught me up short was that, after talking about mood swings and the many sources of such mood shifts in adolescence, she said "One certain factor in the case of the suicide of this gifted boy was that he was too young to have much experience with sudden mood shifts in the direction of the unbearable emotions I’ve also written about in this issue."

Not only is she wrong; she's dangerously wrong. She perpetuates the idea that mood swings aren't a problem until mid or late adolescence, and adds to that her lack of awareness that the more highly gifted a child is the earlier she may experience feelings of deep despair, anger, loneliness, and depression. There have been suicides among pre-teens, though not many, as far as I know, and it's no longer that rare for young gifted children to require therapy, counseling, or even medication.

Depth of feelings is often a concomitant of depth of understanding. Highly gifted children are usually keen observers and quite capable of drawing conclusions about their observations. But they aren't capable of dealing with the emotions that such observations arouse in them. The literature is full of examples of children who have expressed serious concerns about war, violence, the environment, and other problems that they have no way to influence. The combination of awareness and powerlessness is a potential trigger for negative feelings and for self-harm, at any age.

Growing Up Gifted Is Not Easy - Elaine Aron, PhD