Personality Shaping Through Positive Disintegration Processes

by Kazimierz Dąbrowski

FIRST EDITION IN LOVELY CONDITION! For psychologist and psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowski, personality is not a given – it must be consciously created and developed by the individual. In his second English-language book, Personality-Shaping Through Positive Disintegration, published in 1967, Dr. Dabrowski presents a comprehensive treatment of personality that is still relevant, perhaps more so today than when it was first written. Here Dabrowski describes personality’s individual and universal characteristics, the methods involved in shaping it, and case studies of famous personalities (including Augustine and Michelangelo) demonstrating the empirical and normative nature of personality development. Grounded in Dabrowski’s theory of positive disintegration, Personality-Shaping introduces the concepts at the heart of the theory and at the heart of human potential, creativity, social service, inner conflict, mental illness, and personal growth. Dabrowski’s all-embracing perspective is at once a fresh alternative to the one-dimensional theories and trends pervasive in the field of psychology, and a full statement in its own right of all those aspects of human nature too often marginalized, ignored, or denied – a revolutionary and heartfelt product of Dr. Dabrowski’s incisive observations and all-embracing vision.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Kazimierz Dabrowski (September 1, 1902–November 26, 1980) was a psychologist, psychiatrist, educator, and prolific writer, publishing over 30 books and 250 papers in various languages during his lifetime. He received degrees in medicine (University of Geneva, 1929) and psychology (Poznan, 1931), certificates in psychoanalysis (under Wilhelm Stekel in Vienna, 1934) and public health (Harvard University, 1934), and habilitations in children’s psychotherapy (University of Geneva, 1934) and psychiatry (University of Wrocław, 1948), among other honours and achievements. In addition to Stekel, Dabrowski studied under some of the most prominent figures in his field, both in Poland and abroad, including Jean Piaget, Pierre Janet, Édouard Claparède, and Stefan Blachowski. In 1935 he founded the Institute of Mental Hygiene in Warsaw, Poland, which he directed until 1948. Under Nazi occupation, he and his colleagues used the facility to hide Polish resistance soldiers, refugees, doctors and priests involved in the underground movement. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942. In 1950, the communist authorities arrested him and his wife, and he was incarcerated for 18 months. After his release, strict restraints were placed on his activities until he was declared ‘rehabilitated’ in 1956. Throughout his career he taught and lectured at many universities around the world, including a professorship in experimental psychology at Warsaw in 1956 and, from 1964 on, the position of Professor and Director of Clinical Research and Internship at the University of Alberta. He also served as Visiting Professor at Laval University in Quebec from 1968. He passed away in Warsaw in 1980 after suffering a heart attack in 1979.

Reviews

[Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dabrowski was way ahead of his time. Even if he'd written this book today, he'd still be ahead of his time. I've never read a more complete, expansive, insightful, and deep exploration of human nature and the potential of human development. Highly recommended.

[Jeffery Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books you read that defies some of the myths society kind of instills in you nowadays, this one being the norm that ‘mental breakdowns are bad’ and that ‘freaking out and being anxious means you are not normal, and need a therapist.’

Dabrowski kind of flips that idea of contemporary ‘pathology’ in its head; we need breakdowns, stress, and decomposition, in order to grow. Something needs to die for something new to grow, to start, and to thrive. It is impossible, otherwise.

Anything I find that questions my beliefs, and convincingly so, is a 5 in my books. Dabrowski does so wonderfully.

[Marco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about the process of growing through major crises. It expounds in details how this process may occur, what personality types are more prone to it and even explores how this process took place with many outstanding people.

The problem of the book is just that it's too convoluted at times, so even a subject as this that's of major interest to me became dull often.

A much more fluid book expounding on a similar idea is Emmy Gut's Productive And Unproductive Depression: Success Or Failure Of A Vital Process.

Still a worthwhile read.

[L · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started well, before positively disintegrating into a whole lot of babble.

[Taliarochminska · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most thought-provoking books I've read,

in the book Kazimierz declares that internal conflict, neurosis, depression and other difficulties of mind, could in fact be rational evolutionary mechanisms - allowing us to develop higher forms of self-awareness and self-fulfillment in a long term

[Matthew Samuels · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was quite excited to read this, having heard quite a lot about it in other books. Unfortunately, although I finished it, I found it unsatisfying and incredibly difficult to read. I'm from a relatively academic background, but it's dense and very hard to decipher.

The basic premise is that what we think of as 'personality' isn't personality - personality is what a more enlightened person has when they transform themselves and move to being a more constructive, socially-minded person in support of society (and this in itself bothers me, because what of harmful societies? Dabrowski seems to gloss over this and assume that all mature societies breed enlightened, only-positive personalities). This personality is only reached through disintegration, the process whereby old (self-serving) instincts are done away with, and the person rises up into a new figure. The process isn't entirely painless, and can be caused by trauma, or result in depression etc.

There are some examples of people who have developed personality (Michaelangelo etc.) and that's basically it.

Tl/dr - training montages are a thing, personalities are only made of positive attributes, developing them is hard and traumatic.

All of this within 238 incredibly dense, virtually unreadable prose.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars: I have mixed but strong feelings on this book. I was obsessed with Dabrowski when I first came across his theories in high school. Unlike the individual-focused, biomedical, limited model of mental health and mental health advocacy I had seen up to that point, Dabrowski contextualized his theories within a sociological lens and with awareness of the wider world and its pressures, and he thought about how "overexcitability" and the sensitivity/vulnerability of mental health difficulties might allow for personal growth and a commitment to deep morals and justice.

And yet, he reifies intelligence and personality/personhood hierarchy so much, with all the biases inherent in those models. There's still an emphasis on individual genius that ignores community building and community commitment, beyond the superficial nature of one mentor relationship. And his theory doesn't make a lot of room for neurodivergence, when a lot of times he's actually just talking around "high-functioning" autism without really reckoning with what that means.

[Pondering · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read with plenty of applicable application (not all scientists create doable dos) based on research and observation.

Move over Freud. Dabrowski is the man.

His thought about the need for an "organizing factor" was life-altering for me.

My only caveat would be that he leaves out the Hope and Strengthener we have at the call of His name, while we positively disintegrate.

Even the concept that there is a good way and a poor way in crisis points to an inborn morality that must come from somewhere. Or Someone.

[Markus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the idea that many mental health issue, like depression, anxiety, etc, are actually necessary for the development of oneself. It is in contrast to nowadays so common tendency to tread such issues with medication, since according to the theory of possitive disintegration we have to go through it because it is part of the development of the human mind.

[#DÏ4B7Ø Chinnamasta-Bhairav]

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[Luke Scalone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Dabrowski is onto something here, but his approach leaves a lot to be desired.

His starting point is the observation that many of us experience dark moments in life where we do not sit well with ourselves. We feel a gulf between who we are and who we could be, and this leads to total despair. Dabrowski calls this disintegration.

Under Dabrowski’s system, everyone experiences a first disintegration while maturing in the teenage years (or potentially earlier), and we reintegrate around the norms and values of the society in which we live. But, for some people, who Dabrowski argues are the gifted few, they realize at some point in adulthood that the societal norms and values are baseless and they disintegrate once more. When this happens, there are four options: suicide, psychosis, reintegration at the first level, or a novel integration based around an individual hierarchy of values. This latter is effectively self actualization. It is immensely hard to reach, and Dabrowski argues that most who disintegrate a second time experience reintegration at the primary level.

He points to a number of prominent individuals, like Kierkegaard, Michelangelo, and Augustine, who experienced the “darkness of the soul” and came out better on the other side. He adds that self education on the process improves outcomes.

For all intents and purposes, I think he’s right. But, I do not think the secondary integration is something limited to a gifted few. Anyone can do it with enough willpower, drive, and self-reflection.

It’s hard work, and I feel like I’m in the thick of it now. Dabrowski helped me make sense of what I’m going through, and it does seem to map on to what others discuss (for instance, Lacan’s subjective destitution). I found it resonated with my own life.

Still, Dabrowski‘s writing style is DENSE, so the book was a slog.

[Pwyllugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely interesting concepts but it was very meandering in my opinion.

[Chanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once upon a time I would have loved a book like this. Today, it just felt too remote from real life and real growth.

[Elvira Tsvetanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy read but the theory inside is remarkable. I feel I should have started with Sal Mendaglio's book on it, though.

[Cuddly Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professional and delicate work for introducing the development of personality.

[John A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am now a massive fan and follower of Kazimierz Dabrowski. This work is intense, and has so many great details involving the entire system and dynamics that go into personality development. The development of lower instincts into high more culturally and morally rich forms that provide the potential and drive for human evolution on a cultural and psychic scale.

This man will be in my arsenal of ideas until the day I die.