High Cognitive Minds

When cartoonist Scott Adams lost his voice to a condition called Spasmodic Dysphonia, he was told that it wasn't reversible-no improvement was to be expected, and no cure. Botox injections can help a bit but their effect is temporary and is somewhat harmful in itself. There were conditions under which Adams could speak, oddly enough, but everyday communication was impossible.

Unlike the majority of people who accept a medical prognosis, Adams decided to see what he could do for himself. "My theory was that the part of my brain responsible for normal speech was still intact, but for some reason had become disconnected from the neural pathways to my vocal cords. (That’s consistent with any expert’s best guess of what’s happening with Spasmodic Dysphonia. It’s somewhat mysterious.) And so I reasoned that there was some way to remap that connection. All I needed to do was find the type of speaking or context most similar – but still different enough – from normal speech that still worked. Once I could speak in that slightly different context, I would continue to close the gap between the different-context speech and normal speech until my neural pathways remapped."

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I don't usually write about emotional issues of the gifted, but I rediscovered this article recently and appreciated that its somewhat different slant would be helpful, particularly for parents of gifted children.  Fostering Adult Giftedness

"Frequently parents and teachers express concerns about fostering growth in gifted children while dealing with the often painful process of coming to terms with their own giftedness and potential.

"It is difficult -- a sort of developmental double-whammy -- to go through your own developmental phases while at the same time teaching, guiding, and/or parenting gifted children."

Author Sharon Lind discusses five methods for recognizing and developing adult giftedness. The first is acknowledging your gifts, and one of the ways to do this is to compare them with those of people you believe to be gifted.
She also stresses the importance of nurturing the development of your personal identity rather than denying or hiding it.

She suggests that you identify your specific overexcitabilities, as Dabrowski defined them, then work to take advantage of their strengths, and cope with whatever problems they tend to cause. Finally, she discusses coping skills, including recognizing and dealing with stress, and learning effective communication skills.

Anyone who is interested in the subject of childhood precocity and adult achievement should read the full article discussing a talk by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink. It's by far the best summary of the subject that I've come across.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2026

"The fall from childhood greatness to a middling state of “simply okay” is, Gladwell suggested, a recurring theme when the cherished notion of precocity is subjected to real scrutiny.

“ 'I think we take it as an article of faith in our society that great ability in any given field is invariably manifested early on, that to be precocious at something is important because it’s a predictor of future success,” Gladwell said. “But is that really true? And what is the evidence for it? And what exactly is the meaning and value of mastering a particular skill very early on in your life?' ”

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If any of my readers think they detect a strong streak of cynicism in my posts, they're right. I suffer from a sort of intellectual schizophrenia in which despair, cynicism, and apathy battle with hope and the determination to make a difference, however small, before I exit this life. I'm well aware that the kind of writing I do and the subjects I cover will appeal to a minute fraction of all those who stumble across this blog. So why do I write?

I don't have a great deal of faith in the future of humanity. I do have a strong belief that the people best able to deal with the realities and complexities of modern life, and help ameliorate some of the worst problems, will be found among the most intelligent and imaginative among us. But the obstacles to using one's mind as it should be used are many, and the most significant one is the near-total lack of the necessary education. Nobody taught me the many subjects with which I've developed a reasonable speaking acquaintance, or the one in which I consider myself fairly expert. Nobody taught me logic, the use of scientific thinking, the need for objectivity and impartiality, or respect for facts and rationality. I learned all of these on my own, over many years, with a lot of trial and error and backtracking from dead ends. And the questions never leave my mind: why was I forced to spend so much time learning for myself what should have been part of my formal education? Why should so much of my life have been taken up in the quest for the knowledge I needed that actually putting it to use comes at the very end of my life, when enthusiasm is hard to come by, and the necessary energy is so often insufficient?

So I write just in case I can strike a spark in one or two minds. Maybe because of something they read here a very few will be inspired to fill the gaps in their education and self-knowledge, and find in themselves the ability to do something really worthwhile—before they're too old and tired. The subtitle of Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World, one of my favorite books, is "Science as a Candle in the Dark." There are fewer candles every year, and we are left mostly with sputtering matches constantly in danger of going out forever. I have very little faith in the usefulness of any effort, but I'll probably keep striking matches until there aren't any more to strike.