In episode 84, Chris and Emma returned after a break, and this episode marks a change. We dropped into the conversation without a guest, an intro, or any of the usual formalities—just the two of us talking about positive maladjustment in the way we are living it right now.

We talk about lived experience as the ground from which this theory makes sense, and why understanding it means having gone through something, not just having read about it. The conversation moves through Chris’s recent return to a decade of correspondence, the difference between learning a theory and recognizing yourself in it, and what it means to treat empathy and perspective-taking as skills built across a lifetime rather than fixed traits.

We are also honest about why the format is changing. We are moving away from guests and toward conversations about our own experiences with the theory—the practices that have served us, the ones that have not, and the ways our understanding has continued to develop. This is a period of reconfiguring and realigning with who we really are. It is going to be messy for a while. We ask listeners to bear with us as we do this work out loud.

Links from this episode

Emma’s DC2022 session (YouTube)

Origins paper Chris mentioned (PDF)

What Autopsychotherapy Is

Ep. 83: Voices at the Margins

Adults with Overexcitabilities (Facebook group)

PDA: Resistance and Resilience with Chris Wells and Marni Kammersell

Connect with us

* Positive Disintegration on Substack

* Visit the Dabrowski Center website

* Facebook

* Instagram

* The Positive Disintegration YouTube Channel

* Adults with Overexcitabilities group on Facebook

* The Tragic Gift blog by Emma

* Email us at [email protected]

* Please consider donating to the Dabrowski Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

* Find Positive Disintegration Merch

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