Overexcitability in actors

What is it about?

Overexcitability (OE) is a key term used in the Theory of Positive Disintegration by Kazimierz Dąbrowski (1964). The author distinguished 5 types of OE (psychomotor, sensual, imaginational, intellectual, and emotional) and showed that they are correlated with outstanding talents and creativity. Dąbrowski (1964) believed that OE may be responsible for emotional imbalance, adaptation difficulties, and mental disorders in some artistically and intellectually-gifted individuals. The aim of this study was to explore whether there are any differences in OE between artistically-talented individuals (here actors, n = 40) and the control group (n = 30). We found differences in OE between the study groups: Actors scored significantly higher on sensual, imaginational, emotional, and psychomotor OEs compared to the control group.

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Why is it important?

It is important to know the overexcitability (OE) profile of the actors. According to current scientific reports, emotional and imaginational overexcitability may coexist with adaptational difficulties among artists. It was found that actors stand out from the general population in terms of their scores for emotional and imaginational OE, whose role as a predictor of pathological levels of anxiety, shame and depression has already been shown in previous studies.