Archive for September, 2007

Gifted adults – Product and process: outer creation and inner life

Is IQ relevant?
High ability in children is typically evaluated by cognitive performance. That may be convenient for schools and college entrance gatekeepers, but is IQ relevant for adults as a measure of potential contribution – or life satisfaction?
Certainly there are job performance and achievement measures such as Academy Awards, Nobel Prizes and MacArthur fellowships, but [...]

Creativity and madness: High ability and schizophrenia

Elyn Saks: defying the predictions
Elyn Saks is a college valedictorian, Oxford scholar, Yale law student, USC legal professor – and a person with schizophrenia.
The university press release “USC law professor battles schizophrenia” declares, “However ironic, the life of Saks’ mind has been her salvation. Even as her brain attacks her with fear and hallucinations, it [...]

Gifted adult development: Is high ability a pass to success and eminence?

“The natural trajectory of giftedness in childhood is not a six-figure salary, perfect happiness, and a guaranteed place in Who’s Who.”
An alternative ideal of gifted development
That is a comment by Dr. Linda Silverman, director of the Gifted Development Center [site], who goes on to describe an ideal of adult development, beyond the awards won as [...]

Gifted, talented: Nicole Kidman on her rich inner life

Flying close to the flame
Nicole Kidman has talked about many personal qualities and experiences that relate to being a gifted and talented person with multiple abilities.
“You live with a lot of complicated emotions as an actor, and they whirl around you and create havoc at times. And yet, as an actor you’re consciously and unconsciously [...]

Celebrating giftedness: You may be gifted – get over it

Not settling for underachievement
We may not have realized all or even many of the promises of our identity as a gifted kid, and through circumstance or suppression left talents unmanifested or unspoken.
But that doesn’t mean we have lost that aspect of who we are.
You can learn more about the traits that gifted people have, and [...]

Gifted adults: Dr. Jane Piirto wins MERF Lifetime Achievement Award

The Mensa Education & Research Foundation announces that it has presented Dr. Jane M. Piirto of Ashland, Ohio, with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
“When deciding who should be honored with the Award, we look for someone who has had an incredible impact on the intellectual community through his or her work in research, theory or other [...]