Today is the anniversary of ‘The Gifted Interview’, which I created in February 2020. It’s been a year in which men and women shared their vision of Giftedness and their life experiences with you. I invite you to find them all in this retrospective interview. Thanks to Fabrice, Sophie, Christian, Cécile, Alonso, Lara, Aléxis, Cévany, José, Catherine, Hervé, Fanny, Thibault, Aliénor, Robert, Ema, Pierre, Audrey, Guillaume who made this happy adventure possible!
.IF I COULD CHOOSE, WOULD I STILL BE GIFTED?
“It is difficult to answer this question because there are so many facets to being gifted, both positive and negative.
I would like to be gifted when I want to be gifted (laughs)”. – Audrey Bouquet
.WHAT (MY OWN) GIFTEDNESS MEANS TO ME
“As far as I’m concerned, this translates into a constantly boiling brain, ideas every five minutes, alert sensors and constant anticipation, the reconstitution of stories from bits and pieces, the ‘sick’ need to solve problems encountered and perceived, the vision of invisible links and synergies, the perception of hidden intentions, a mixture of black and offbeat British humour, chronic impatience…”. – Hervé Ferro
.IF I HAD TO CHOOSE AN IMAGE OR A KEYWORD THAT SUMS UP WHAT GIFTEDNESS MEANS
“The image would be ‘fireworks’. It’s the power of emotions. There is movement, organised chaos, colours by the thousand, sound and notes, the dazzling of the senses. (…)” – Aliénor Rouffet
.HOW LONG HAVE I KNOWN ABOUT IT?
“For a little more than one year. So very, very late and it could have been never as it’s the last thing I could have thought about myself.” – Fanny Vella
.WHAT PHASES HAVE I GONE THROUGH SINCE MY DISCOVERY?
“Prostrate, curious, refusal of the subject, curious again, dubious, persevering in the deepening of the subject, then it is the light at the end of the tunnel, an opportunity to be seized to finally reach one’s potential, to make the revolution and what one wants without ever again devaluing oneself and doubting oneself!” – Lara Smith
.HOW DO I EXPLAIN IT TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD OF IT?
“Not to believe what I’m proposing to him.her.
To avoid certain books which, whether we like it or not, act as suggestions. Allow yourself, a priori, to question the idea that is proposed to you as a reader. Do I want to read a book that explicitly proposes a link between (HPI, HQI, gifted, intelligence…) and (suffering, too much, difficulty, loneliness…)? Personally, not really. The risk is, in my opinion, to embrace (most often unconsciously) the whole “clinical” picture that has just been proposed, on top of that at an identity level.
The concepts of intelligence are ill-defined, the very measure of this intelligence is ill-defined, the limit of this measure is ill-defined (…)” – José Colleatte
.THE REMARK WHICH BLEW ME AWAY MOST WHEN I TALKED ABOUT IT
“If you want to tell us you’re brilliant, we already know.” – Robert
.HOW IT CHANGED MY LIFE (TO KNOW IT)
“I have never experienced it as well as since I accepted it. Understanding for me is essential. Accepting my giftedness has made me understand so many things. I have gained 20 years of psychoanalysis that I would never do.” – Robert
.WHAT I HAVE ALLOWED MYSELF TO DO EVER SINCE
“Observe my own mechanisms and rectify when necessary. To adapt better to people, environments and situations. To dare to do so. Dare to speak out again and no longer try to fit into the mould at all costs, because in the end, it doesn’t make sense. There is a multitude of moulds and we don’t all have to fit into the same one. On the contrary! Diversity is the key to human richness and collaboration”. – Aliénor Rouffet
.WHAT IT CREATES TO OTHERS WHEN I TALK ABOUT IT
“The subject is not appeased because it sends people back to the image they have of themselves and their real or supposed limitations. It hurts egos, touches on identity. So jealousy, fears and fascination over mistaken collective beliefs. And sometimes real curiosity. By exposing yourself, you pay the price.” – Christian Charlier
.WHAT IRRITATES ME WITH GIFTEDNESS
“Now that I know and understand myself better, I don’t have anything to be angry about.” – Guillaume Macczak
.WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO EMPHASIZE ABOUT GIFTEDNESS
“The wealth and creativity is a well of intelligence and creation without depth or at least very deep, and I find it to be one of the most beautiful beauties.” – Alexis Crépel
.WHAT I PERSONALLY FIND TO BE THE MOST DIFFICULT
“One life won’t be enough to embody all my dreams.” – Ema Perey
.WHAT I PERSONALLY LOVE
“Let it be fireworks in my head!!!! With for example the thirst to learn and what is linked to intellectual hyperexcitability! Extreme sensations and emotions!
More importantly and in a deeper way, these slightly ecstatic states when I feel I’m advancing in my quest for meaning, connecting with my creative potential?” – Catherine Régnier
.MY WELLBEING TOOL OR PRACTICE THAT HELPS ME MOST
Take time in the quiet to regenerate. Think positive. – Cécile Bost
.A MISREPRESENTATION THAT I WANT TO CALL INTO QUESTION
“What annoys me about giftedness is, on the one hand, the tearful “I’m gifted, I’m a victim, poor me is awful” that some people agree with, and on the other hand, the unbearable clichés that stick to the subject, such as “a gifted person is a little genius who is super good at maths”. This has to stop…” – Sophie Baron
.WHAT I WANT TO SAY TO GIFTED PEOPLE
“Think about what you can act on and love yourself.” – Alonso Rivas.
.WHAT I WANT TO SAY TO PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT CONCERNED
“Take the time to deconstruct the stereotypes surrounding this subject!” – Cévany
.WHAT I WOULD RECOMMEND TO SOMEONE WHO IS WONDERING
“To do a WAIS/WISC (test) to be sure of it.'”
.THE MISTAKE NOT TO MAKE FOR A GIFTED PERSON
“Being in denial” – Christian Charlier
.MY PROFESSIONAL ADVICE FOR GIFTED
“I think that one characteristic of Gifted people, namely the possibility of being obsessive and totally bewitched by what we’re dealing with, must be handled with great care. Over-investing in professional life can easily lead to burnout, having expectations and aspirations that are equal to our investment (= total) and which will regularly be disappointed by a world that can go slower, less far than we would like. Also, over-investing in professional life can lead us to disinvest in personal life and lead to certain consequences of isolation and loneliness in the long term, for example.
Another point that I think it is useful to stress on this subject is the possibility that a gifted person may throw everything away to completely invest in a new professional field; even if this means not giving enough importance to simpler elements (how to pay the rent in the first place, bills, etc.) and ending up in a precarious situation that is difficult to accept”. – Alexis Crépel
.MY PERSONAL ADVICE FOR GIFTED
“Be yourself from the start, if people leave, you’ll save yourself a lot of adaptation effort.” – Fanny Vella
.A BOOK TO READ ON THE SUBJECT
“Our inner book” – Ema Perey
.MY OPINION ABOUT THE IQ WAIS TEST
“This test enables those who pass it to give legitimacy to being gifted. However, being and living it goes beyond a figure. We do not define ourselves by a place on the Gauss curve.” – Audrey Bouquet
.IS IT A WASTE NOT TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE GIFTED?
“Yeeeeeeesssssss! It is a pre-requisite for personal development because it also means having the keys that will allow understanding and evolution in one’s environment.” – Lara Smith
.WHEN I MEET ANOTHER GIFTED PERSON, DO I RECOGNIZE HIM.HER? BY WHAT?
“Gazes, processing speed, language and thought structure, impatience, reflection, tree structure, humour, social maladjustment or adaptation, magnetic resonance…” – Fabrice Micheau
.WHAT DO GIFTED PEOPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
“No idea. Gifted people are usually lumped together, forgetting that each one has his or her own personality. Also forgetting that a highly / profoundly gifted person (145/150 and over, if we accept that the test is worth something, and to give a benchmark) will have as much trouble connecting with a gifted person at 130 as the latter will have trouble connecting with someone of normal intelligence (100). It is generally accepted that you have difficulty making yourself understood by people who have more or less 20 IQ points with you (cf. Leta S. Hollingworth in particular, who has worked on the subject of very high potential)”. – Cécile Bost
.THE CRUCIAL STEPS NOT TO BE MISSED IN THE JOURNEY OF A GIFTED PERSON?
“Rather a stage to avoid if possible: the one where one considers oneself a gifted specialist just because one is concerned ” – Hervé Ferro
.AN INSPIRATION FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY ABOUT GIFTEDNESS
“Freer educational methods based on the child’s abilities rather than on the willingness to fit into a mould (e.g., the use of a child’s own language) are more likely to be successful. – Thibault
.A WISH FOR THE FUTURE
“A valorisation of intelligences in organisations and schools” – Fabrice Micheau
.THE QUESTION THAT I WAS MISSING BUT THAT I WOULD LIKE TO ANSWER?
“Are you happy now that you know a little better how you operate?
This discovery of my giftedness saved my life 13 years ago. It has eased several personal torments. I am now a new person, and that is priceless.
It has also allowed me to discover extraordinary people who have had, and for some of them still have, great importance in my life today. It’s as if I have gone from silent cinema to 3D cinema” – Pierre Stanghellini
