2008_Piechowski_Discovering Dabrowski’s Theory

Piechowski recounts his collaboration with Dąbrowski beginning in 1967, the development of the theory’s formal structure, and the content analysis method he devised to identify dynamisms and overexcitabilities in autobiographical material. The chapter traces the empirical tests that emerged from the multilevelness research project, the correspondence between Maslow’s self-actualization and Level IV, the conserving/transforming distinction, and a reconsidered view of primary integration as reflecting social conditions rather than personality structure. Piechowski also argues that unilevel growth deserves greater respect, drawing on Women’s Ways of Knowing, and notes the existence of rare individuals who function at advanced levels without undergoing positive disintegration.