After a turbulent journey as a seeker, writer Chris Van Camp discovered Dabrowski's Positive Disintegration Theory. It was an Aha-erlebnis, a gamechanger. As a result of years of intense study and correspondence with Dabrowski specialists, she finally wrote the book she had wanted to read herself when Dabrowski changed her life. In doing so, she focuses on the tools the 21st-century reader can use to begin a self-examination. She explains, through autobiographical sketches, how all the elements were already woven into her personal world. How she was already living the theory. And… How her ‘pain archive' became her treasure trove.

It is a courageous book – which she dedicated to her daughter – about autonomy and non-conformism, about personal development and deep-seated empathy, but also about the driving force of emotions and the importance of quest.

A positive story that can expose for many the fascinating, intense journey they have been on for years unsuspecting and mislabeled. This talk offers inspiration to respectfully assist others in their quest and guide them in their self-exploration.

Sometimes, when I see you fighting not to fall apart,

devoid of the sense of so much emotional turbulence,

bathed in existential suffering,

Then I can’t help but whisper lovingly to you:

Crash baby crash.

I am with you in that rain of a thousand shards.

I know the eye of the hurricane.

Share my confidence

That you will soon be on your own

emerges again from those shards of grit.

Even truer, even closer

With the person you always wanted to be.

Enjoy after yet another storm

intense of your ability

To crawl out of your old skin.

After that, are you on dry land forever?

No, fortunately not.

The dry is also but

an overcrowded desert

That can never be your potting soil.

Van Camp was introduced to the TPD by keynote speaker Lotte van Lith at Novilo in Utrecht. Followed additional psychology courses as a free student at the Free University of Brussels and conducted a lively correspondence with Dabrowski specialists. The study never stops.

Since two years Chris Van Camp is also a popular stand-up on the comedy circuit in Prague and Antwerp. Life never stops starting over.

Belgian writer Chris Van Camp (b. 1963) prefers to sum up her life as, “she did everything you can do writing with impunity. That's pretty much her track record, too. She created magazines, series and books. She gained fame with her critical columns and sharp theatrical monologues. She always battles hypocrisy in everything she does. When she discovered the work of Kazimierz Dabrowski, the book that proliferated on her crooked pedigree for decades finally took shape. In “Kissed by Dabrowski” (published in Dutch in 2020, not yet published in English), she simultaneously tells the story of the slow death of her very elderly mother and her TPD aha-erlebnis. This autobiographical book was warmly received and nominated for the Flemish debut prize. Through corona-lockdowns, the book took a curious route: Van Camp gave open-air readings in 44 gardens. At the request of many readers but especially for her daughter, Chris wrote Crash Baby Crash two years later. Again animated theatrical performances followed this time in theaters.