The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius(tm)

This book is the most important book that I have ever read besides the Bible. I need to repeat that - This book is the most amazing book that I have ever read besides the Bible.As a child I was treated badly and bullied by my peers because of my intelligence. As a result, I tried to hide my gifts from the other kids. I set out to attain the "Perfect C" in a failed attempt to win the approval of my classmates. I did not know that this behavior is a common trait among the Gifted. I tried to project to others that I was just like everybody else, and I told myself that everyone else was just like me. This was a lie and I believed my own lie. My teachers tried to tell me that I was smart, but I didn't want to hear it because in my mind, being "smart" was a one way ticket to "outcastville".The lie to myself persisted into adulthood. So I have lived my first 50 years in turmoil and feeling that I was unbalanced in almost every aspect of my life. All of the counselors that I sought could not give me any insight to my struggles. This left me frustrated and disillusioned with the psychiatric community. Again, I did not know that this was a common experience among the Gifted. The reason for this is that the psychiatrists did not realize that my brain functions differently. I used to think that my gifts were my curses. I used to pray, "God, please take these curses from me."The funny thing is that my children are EXTREMELY gifted, world class artists. Yet, I never recognized the gifting that is within me. Strange how that works. Even within an engineering community I was constantly being belittled by jealous peers - and I believed their jabs even though I was the one coming up with the creative ideas.Several months ago I went through a moment of crisis. Debrowski might call this a moment of "Positive Disintegration". I began to seek out "what was wrong with me". What I found shocked me to my core. I began reading on sengifted.org and other web sites. I found that, indeed, I was a Gifted Adult. I read about Debrowski and others that had done research on how the Gifted mind worked. I read about the OE's and how they worked (I didn't believe them at first). I read everything that I could get my hands on and I still wanted to know more. So I ordered the Gifted Adult by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen and began reading in earnest.Mary-Elaine Jacobsen's book is AMAZING! It seemed like every word was a description of ME. Mary-Elaine Jacobsen takes the reader through a process of self-discovery. Then she will help you to heal the old wounds. Finally, she places you on a path to an uncharted future full of endless possibility and excitement. She helps uncover the "Natural Optimist" that is buried within the Gifted Adult (I was extremely depressed and without hope before picking up this book). The book is full of grace and healing. She is also very clear to point out that Gifted Adults are not better than others - we are just different. We hear things, see things, and smell things that other people don't experience. Our brains are running around inside our heads connecting new dots that nobody else has ever noticed. We observe our world through different lenses.I have read the book through from cover-to-cover. And now I'm reading through it again to find the buried nuggets - each page is full of them. The only criticism of the book would be on page 107 where she makes a math error. It's kind of funny actually to have a book written to Gifted Adults that makes a math error. She forgot to divide by three. lol. But I'm sure that EVERY reader will be able to see the humor there. :-)But I digress... Mary-Elaine says, "Everyday Geniuses spend the first part of their lives trying to be who they are and meeting with disapproval. The second part is spent pretending to be someone they are not in order to fit in. And, if they are determined and lucky, they can spend the third part chipping away at the rock of that created false self and moving closer to being the authentic individuals they were uniquely destined to be." (page 20).I now have a new tool for life. I have a new perspective. I am on the road to a new me. There is no turning back! I don't know what I am going to do with my new-found self, but the future is a wealth of endless possibilities. Thinking that my gifts were curses, I used to ask God to take them away. Now I see myself as God created me to be. Now my prayer is, "Dear Lord, thank you so much for making me so unique!"This is not a "feel good" book. This is a book with real solutions to real problems that the Gifted Adult has to face every day.So, Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, if you ever read my review, I just want to say, "Thank You Thank You Thank You" from the bottom of my heart. Your book is a life changer, and I will be eternally grateful.

É um livro bom.De meio do livro para a frente, torna-se chato.A primeira parte do livro tem informação útil e relevante.

I've read every book I can find on giftedness (not focused on children.) Many are good at explaining how gifted people are different and the effects of those differences, but this book goes farther, explaining what to do to help yourself adjust to the pain of being different. It opened my eyes like never before, inspiring me, and gave me a hope I haven't had in my 55 years on Earth. Well written and easy to understand.My eternal thanks to Ms. Jacobsen, for saving not only my sanity, but my life.

Right in the first chapter my BS detector started going off. This author wastes no time in throwing decades of validated IQ test research out the window and replacing it with wishy-washy unsubstantiated garbage like multiple intelligences.Then she states that “proof” of the reader’s giftedness is in her “evolutionary” questionnaire. Fearing the worst, I jumped ahead to it and found a list of Barnum Effect questions. A couple of examples: “I’m a champion and seeker of universal truth” and “I have an insatiable curiosity.” I’m going to go out on a limb and say no one’s sitting around thinking, ‘You know, I’m more of a deeply incurious person who prefers grand delusions.’Real talk here: I’ve been trying to work through some deeply limiting behaviors and beliefs, usually why people turn to self-help books as a last ditch effort. Telling everyone they’re a genius and insisting they’re frustrated because the world is suppressing that obvious genius isn’t helpful.Also, a warning: If you’re failing to get along with others and it seems like everyone is out to get you, that could be anything from autism to paranoia to past trauma. It’s not because you’re too smart and talented for everybody else. That’s often just a lie the ego tells itself.EDIT: I revised this one-star review to three stars. While the use of the term “gifted” in this book is broad to the point of uselessness, I have found value in this book by flipping around to certain topics and reading the specific advice. At the end of the day, the book was written by a gifted adult counselor, and that’s a type of professional that’s hard or impossible for many of us to find in person. Even if you reject a definition of giftedness existing as separate from IQ levels, the book does cover traits, life problems and the overall existential questions the conventional gifted also experience. Finding this all written for adults specifically has been meaningful.

As a gifted adult myself, this book has helped me understand many aspects of the process of becoming a conscious gifted adult. I've ordered this book for the second time, to share it with a close friend of mine. Instead of being study literature (like 'How the gifted brain learns', which, for other purposes, is another excellent read - mostly if you are teaching or coaching gifted people), the book is mostly full of 'aha-moments' and reads quite easily. I discovered a kind of trajectory in the book, where I naturally found my 'spot'; so there's three 'parts' regarding past, now and future hidden in the book.The first part is mostly recognizing and reframing the past. It describes cases, including the auther herself at some point, about the process from being full of perceptions about yourself (all the typical elements of gifted people are translated into negative views, mostly how non-gifted people perceive the gifted) until realizing how these elements many of us got to dislike or hate in their lives can be qualities.The second part, including the Evolutionary Intelligence model, contains some tools to get more insight into your personal development needs. This felt for me as the 'now'.Also, the author describes how she got to do work that connects directly to her soul calling, or life mission, or personal passion as you will. A life-changing insight for me, which I found also in other books, is that with the current world-wide crisis it is no wonder that more gifted and talented people are being born. Finding our way, creating coaching and therapy for gifted people (and recognizing all the misdiagnosis going on, because of ADHD and other mental disorders in DSM-IV but no good, 'official' literature on giftedness and its effects) but also transforming our educational systems and training human resource departments at big companies, is essential to help the planet in her process. For me this is the future, I don't feel I have the role that connects exactly to this, but the call is getting stronger. So, since they say 'patience is a virtue', I train myself in taking my time. Not everything has to be finished yesterday? Aha! ;-)