Do
you know that gifted people have unique psychological problems? As someone who is enthusiastic about clinical
psychologist, I work with many gifted people, many of whom do not believe they
are gifted, but they still have the psychological issues that are common to people
in this population.
Having
studied about the psychological issues that gifted people are more likely to
have, I think there is a need to educate people around this topic, just in case
you fall into this group or know other who are and are struggling with these
problems. Studies have shown that these issues are directly related to the
personality structures that gifted people tend to have that are necessarily a
function of their Intelligence Quotient (IQ). A good reference material on this subject
matter is a study by Francis Heylighen titled as the same as this article.
Gifted
people often have the tendency to question authority.
They
ask embarrassing questions because they want to know the details they should
not ask about.
And
they are non-conforming. This can lead to sense of alienation. Feeling out of
step with others.
This
coupled with the tendency to have unusual ideas and thinking about things from
multiple and different angles that people do not typically go into can lead to
social isolation.
But,
gifted people also tend to be highly sensitive, empathic and highly
compassionate.
They
can also have really strong moral convictions and be a seeker of an ultimate
truth.
Now
imagine having that set of characteristic and not actually realizing that everyone
does not share the same attributes as you do. And when you do, you feel lost.
