traits of high potentials
The Advent of Overheating Brains
Throughout history, there have always been vibrant characters who left their mark on humanity. Seen as geniuses by some and as utterly insane or eccentric by others, certain human figures have never failed to evoke strong reactions. Known as high potential, gifted, or, more recently, as the easily recognizable 'zebra', these individuals share one trait: an overheating brain. While their significant intellectual differences are apparent, it's overly simplistic to focus solely on intelligence and superior abilities associated with the gifted. It's crucial not to tell a gifted person they're much smarter than others - they might react strongly. Instead, acknowledge their different operating mode. It's also vital to understand that these terms encompass more than just logical and reflective abilities.
Jeanne Siaud-Facchin, a psychologist from Avignon, began to democratize the term 'zebra' to describe these unique minds after working with many intellectually gifted children. Her 2008 bestseller "Too Intelligent to be Happy, The Gifted Adult" significantly influenced the consideration and care of these distinct children, teenagers, and adults. Beyond intellectual abilities, zebras are highly sensitive, perceptive, and have a detailed view of society and the world around them.
A Closer Look at the Brain
What happens in a brain that operates at breakneck speed? Neurological tests on high or very high potential individuals reveal different brain activation zones than most people. Gifted brains process information faster and use more brain areas simultaneously. This is known as 'arborescent' thinking, where the analytical left brain and the artistic right brain work together more efficiently and balanced. For a high-potential brain, processing information isn't straightforward; it leads to a cascade of related thoughts.
For example, I once spoke with a young man who, when looking at a kitchen tile, thought about its density, color accuracy under the lighting, its manufacturing process, the factory and machinery used, and whether any cracks were due to its making or an impact. This is how a zebra's mind works, analyzing every possibility that comes to mind, unlike someone without this trait who might simply comment on the tile's appearance.
A Connection to the Universe
Gifted individuals often show a keen interest in the universe, driven by their arborescent thinking. The universe, with its endless mysteries and unanswered questions, matches the cognitive appetite of a gifted mind. Similarly, gifted children often have a strong interest in dinosaurs. If you have a gifted child, consider indulging their fascination with dinosaur trading cards.
Hyperesthesia: Extraordinary Sensitivity
Zebras aren't just intellectually different; they experience heightened sensory reactions. This hyperesthesia makes them extremely sensitive to their surroundings:
Sight: A simple glance at a landscape allows them to quickly note color range, building placements, wind presence, and overall lighting.
Smell: Gifted individuals often detect subtle odors around them.
Taste: They can often identify the spices and ingredients in a meal.
Touch: Highly responsive to touch, zebras can express welcome or rejection through tactile interactions.
Hearing: They deeply feel the power of music but can find repetitive noises or construction sounds unbearable.
Suitable Professions
Their sensory hypersensitivity naturally guides gifted individuals towards artistic, creative, sensory, and psychological professions. Think beyond the stereotype of gifted people being good with numbers. Careers like musician, geologist, artist, psychologist, physiotherapist, landscape designer, and designer are more fitting.
Blending into Injustice
Gifted individuals also possess hyper empathy, enabling them to quickly assess and aid others emotionally. This trait makes them suited for psychology or alternative and holistic medicine fields. However, their directness and inability to lie, driven by a strong sense of justice, can sometimes clash with societal norms.
Nuances to Consider
It's crucial to note that labeling someone as high-potential or gifted is not about setting them apart. Other neurological and behavioral typologies align with high-potential traits, including those with Asperger's and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). IQ tests like WAIS and WISC reveal only a fraction of a gifted brain's developmental iceberg. The real question is how to classify and treat these unique minds without succumbing to a systematic normative approach or the pharmaceutical industry's influence, as seen in the DSM's often depersonalized and disconnected therapeutic approach.
high potential characteristics
Very Clear Differences
Many high intellectual potential (HPI) individuals wonder if they are truly different from others. This question is legitimate, considering their value system. Lying is nonsensical to them, and self-deception would be the worst betrayal of their alignment. However, in a society that conditions and rewards standardization, differences are not just unwelcome; they are often rejected.
Yet, the reality is strikingly clear in HPI profiles, including hypersensitive, zebra, or gifted individuals. Social pressure, incredibly intense and daily, gradually pushes HPI individuals to lose themselves in a world that does not resonate with them, speaks a different language, and often forces them to forget who they are. These differences exist, and even amid saturation and depressive states, they may mistakenly believe their traits are common and suspect mental issues. However, a mad person does not consider themselves mad; they think they are normal, and its others who are mad. The mere act of questioning one's sanity is proof of sanity.
To help HPIs recognize and embrace their true selves, affirming they are neither mad nor disabled, and to appreciate their deep connection to the world, here is a comprehensive list of HPI characteristics:
Intolerable relationship with injustice
Honesty / Inability to lie
Joy in others' happiness
Prioritizing the common good over personal interests
Distant relationship with money (earning enough to stop worrying about it)
Arborescent thinking
Social saturation (funneling / verbal and/or behavioral blockages)
Prone to depression / significant disconnect from the world
Incomprehension of the surrounding world (absurdities, intolerance, egocentrism)
Feeling of madness, being misunderstood
Days of great enthusiasm and deep depression (mistaken diagnosis: bipolarity)
Issues with alcohol, drugs to feel closer to others, to think less.
Hyper lucidity (depends on maturity level) / Hyper logic
Hypersensitivity
Hyper empathy
Hyperesthesia (5 senses + 6th: intuition)
Hyperconnectivity to the world, surroundings, others, everything
Quick scanning of new acquaintances
Strong attraction to beauty, fluidity, harmony, coherence
Frequent wonderment
Child-like purity
Incorruptibility
Highly developed curiosity
Rapid boredom
Difficulty integrating into groups
Questioning adult life, meaning of adulthood
Hyper fatigability
Viewing sleep as unnecessary, superfluous, a waste of time
Striving for excellence, perfection, accuracy
Quest for impossible perfection <> relationship with the impossibility of lying (perfect or nothing)
Impostor Syndrome (feeling merely adequate, even among the best)
Not considering oneself highly intelligent, just different and pragmatic, logical
Questioning death
Existential questions, the meaning of life, a grand universal project
Interest in history, Egypt, world wars, prehistory as a child
Questions about the universe, space, infinity
Struggles with the educational system / bored
Issues with hierarchy / authority
For a more precise understanding of HPI profiles, it's essential to delve into more detail. Although "high intellectual potential" is the most appropriate term, it subdivides into three distinct categories:
Dysfunctional HPI: Characterized by an emotional dysfunction, often stemming from a cold, distant, and low-communication family background. These individuals are brilliant and precise in their habits, prioritizing logic over sentimentality and often perceived as closed-off or intimidating. Example: Mr. Spock from Star Trek.
Functional HPI ("Zebra"): Identified by Jeanne-Siaud Facchin's term "zebra." These individuals effortlessly switch between various domains, interested in a vast array of subjects but not delving deeply into any. Often not fond of mathematics, they need others, thriving on sharing, interacting, and seeing joy in others. They constantly connect everything around them, seeking knowledge, understanding, mastery, sharing, discussion, debate, and emotional experiences.
Deviant HPI: Perhaps the most problematic, characterized by a pivotal shift in late adolescence to early adulthood. This period is crucial, especially for HPIs, due to their intense emotional charge. If this emotional charge is not expressed properly, everything changes. The identity established by default, not desire, leads to a truncated identity, remaining stuck in an adolescent state. These individuals are self-centered, narcissistic, negative-focused, have difficulty with self-reflection, live in denial, and feel elevated by others' suffering.
In the HPI sphere, Dysfunctional HPIs are rare, offering ultra-pragmatic expertise in a world they emotionally detach from. Functional HPIs, nourished daily by knowledge and interactions, are vital for breaking chains, evolving systems, and refusing confinement and standardization. Deviant HPIs, unfortunately growing in number, cultivate and spread their malaise, requiring caution due to their cunning nature.
