The Drama of the Gifted Child Excerpt 5 (Blinkist)

Blink 3

Many gifted children have high expectations of themselves, and grow up to suffer from depression. We've all heard of great composers, writers or artists who were unbelievably creative, but suffered from depression throughout their lives. How could people who are so successful be so unhappy?

Brilliant people often have feelings of grandiosity. Their sense of their own importance and value is what propels them to create. However, grandiosity is the first sign of a repressed childhood. And it's usually coupled with depression.

That's because such children typically have parents who demand a lot from them, so they demand more from themselves, too. And thus go on to do more than the average person. Such children strive for greatness, and earn their self worth from it.

However, they inevitably reach a point where they can't climb any higher, and there's only one direction they can go - down.

And when they fall, they tend to fall hard.

Straight into a deep, dark depression.

In 1954 researchers examined the backgrounds of a group of people who suffered from manic depression. They found that manic depression patients had generally been under great pressure as children and were often neglected by their parents if they failed.

But failure is unavoidable, especially in adulthood. So their emotions spiraled out of control. Depression is ultimately another result of repressed emotion. Depression sets in when the inner child, who was never accepted in his own right, realises that he can't buy love with achievements anymore.

If people with repressed emotions don't work through their childhood issues, they often spiral further and further into depression as they get older. Some even attempt suicide. And if adults with unresolved childhood problems have children of their own, they pass their trauma onto the next generation and the cycle continues.