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The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius(tm) by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen
pika_berry's review
2.0
Utter trash.
If you enjoy reading about arbitrary magical concepts like Mandated Missions and Evolutionary Moments, by all means go ahead. I still suspect this book is a parody, or an undercover pamphlet for Scientology.
The advice is disappointing too. It makes all the usual pop psychology / self help mistakes like telling the reader to “just do XYZ”. (Jordon Peterson does this too if you’re curious — “be honest”.)
Psychology doesn’t work this way. You can’t just tell someone to “do XYZ” and they magically change their mind and all problems are gone. I would have expected someone with a career in the field to know better (but academics usually are not very good at this kind of thing anyways so...).
The book can be summed down to three lines:
- you’re different so be aware of it
- practice emotional intelligence
- keep doing your own shit
If you enjoy reading about arbitrary magical concepts like Mandated Missions and Evolutionary Moments, by all means go ahead. I still suspect this book is a parody, or an undercover pamphlet for Scientology.
The advice is disappointing too. It makes all the usual pop psychology / self help mistakes like telling the reader to “just do XYZ”. (Jordon Peterson does this too if you’re curious — “be honest”.)
Psychology doesn’t work this way. You can’t just tell someone to “do XYZ” and they magically change their mind and all problems are gone. I would have expected someone with a career in the field to know better (but academics usually are not very good at this kind of thing anyways so...).
The book can be summed down to three lines:
- you’re different so be aware of it
- practice emotional intelligence
- keep doing your own shit
clardyparty's review
5.0
SHE NAILED ME. This book is about me, in almost every way - good and bad.
Though a gifted adult, I've often made a mess of my life. Dr Jacobsen explains why and offers practical tips to help me from making the same mistakes I've made over and over, despite knowing better.
Parts of this book are repetitive, but maybe that's a good thing. I apparently need to hear the message multiple times.
A good read for those of us who have difficulty understanding why the rest of the world isn't like us.
Though a gifted adult, I've often made a mess of my life. Dr Jacobsen explains why and offers practical tips to help me from making the same mistakes I've made over and over, despite knowing better.
Parts of this book are repetitive, but maybe that's a good thing. I apparently need to hear the message multiple times.
A good read for those of us who have difficulty understanding why the rest of the world isn't like us.
readings_musings2002's review
informative
slow-paced
5.0
The last section of this book is indispensable!
amcloughlin's review
4.0
Taught me a lot about myself. As pretentious as it feels to identify with something involving the word 'gifted,' this book clarified a great number of things I'd noticed but not had the words to express.
laprimanerda's review
2.0
This book could have been 1/3 of its total size. While there is some really great insight, it tends to get buried under inordinate amounts of anecdotes, seemingly endless repetition, and a little bit of preachiness surrounding her concept of a "mandated mission." The last of these was disclosed as not being a religious concept, however it sounded just like one in practice, even using the phrase "from the Divine" a few times.
eandrews80's review
4.0
If you were labeled a Gifted Child -- like I was -- you probably grew up into a Gifted Adult who didn't give much thought to how your personality, psychology, thought processes, and interpersonal relationships might be affected by this. Some of this book got to be a little too self-help, touchy-feely save the world for me, but parts of the book, particularly the first half, are fascinating.
acsinger's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. Not my favorite book on giftedness but it did have some valuable insights and information. Sometimes it got a lil mystic for my liking and some things I didn't fully agree with, but on the whole there were good nuggets of wisdom in here.