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Chapter 1 Introduction to High Sensitivity

With these pages the authors hope that you will be able to identify the traits of high sensitivity as well as the psychological consequences. In this book you will find valuable experiences, studies, and scientific bases.

The experiences of highly sensitive people are without a doubt very useful examples to increase awareness among those interested in high sensitivity, for the importance of going to professionals specialized in this subject, whether psychologists, counsellors, pediatricians, and psychiatrists trained in High Sensitivity who will be able to offer solutions to the problems that may arise.

The reader should keep in mind that being highly sensitive is not similar to having a disorder, although it may be accompanied by certain difficulties which must be addressed properly.

Becoming aware of the existence of the High Sensitivity Trait among the people around us is as important as knowing who to turn to when we want or need solutions.

1.1. Defining High Sensitivity.

While the highly sensitive person is currently considered to possess an underlying innate trait, based on several characteristics that encompass a special cognitive ability to process information, awareness of subtle stimuli, emotional reactivity and easily over-stimulated, this concept has changed over time.

It should be noted that it has not been until the emergence of psychology as a science in which knowledge about the cognitive characteristics of the person begins to be studied and systematized.

Once knowledge evolved it began to be concerned with the particular cases not present throughout the entire population, while knowledge about psychopathology evolved and it was effectively intervened.

One of the best-known advances was the emergence of the concept of IQ, a measure of the ability to resolve a series of tests, designed and prepared by psychologists, which follow strict control standards, established by psychometry so that the results are valid and reliable for the population to which they are applied.

It can predict the level of academic success, and thus also the professional future of the students, long before they are able to be aware of their skills; it is also used in staff selection, to find the ideal candidate for the position, who does not have to be the best qualified, nor the one with the most experience.

While the IQ has been equated to the very concept of intelligence, it has been questioned over time, understanding that it is not a unitary thing but that there are various intelligences such as spatial intelligence, verbal intelligence, mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, …

The evolution of the concept of intelligence has allowed to analyze different aspects of the human being that until then had not been contemplated such as the least or the greatest stimuli processing capacity.

Thus, during the first half of the twentieth century Dabrowski (1948) developed the Theory of Emotional Development to explain qualitatively different levels of human development, which he called The Theory of Positive Disintegration.

This theory tries to explain certain differentiating cognitive characteristics, such as hypersensitivity or the high level of concentration and abstraction demonstrated by certain people, establishing five levels: primary integration, one level disintegration, spontaneous multilevel disintegration, organized multilevel disintegration, and finally secondary integration.

The concept of over-excitability which refers to the inherited trait continues to be used from this theory, therefor the greater the over-excitability the greater the capacity and the power of development.

The author indicates that over-excitability can be seen in five areas: psychomotor, emotional, intellectual, sensitive, and imaginative, that is to say, these are the areas where it could stand out.