The Gifted Adult

A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius

By: Mary-Elaine Jacobsen PsyD

Narrated by: Rosemary Benson

Are you relentlessly curious and creative, always willing to rock the boat in order to get things done...extremely energetic and focused, yet constantly switching gears...intensely sensitive, able to intuit subtly charged situations and decipher others' feeling? If these traits sound familiar, then you may be an Everyday Genius - an ordinary person of unusual vision who breaks the mold and isn't afraid to push progress forward....

As thought-provoking as Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, psychologist Mary-Elaine Jacobsen's The Gifted Adult draws on a wide range of groundbreaking research and her own clinical experience to show America's 20 million gifted adults how to identify and free their extraordinary potential. The Gifted Adult presents the first practical tool for rating your Evolutionary Intelligence Quotient through an in-depth personality-type profile.

Demystifying what it means to be a gifted adult, this book offers practical guidance for eliminating self-sabotage and underachievement, helping Everyday Geniuses and those who know, love, and work with them to understand and support the exceptional gifts inherent in these unique personality traits.

©1999 Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, Psy.D. (P)2020 Tantor

A great guide for the lifted adult

I loved how the book touches on every part of your life, explained a lot of things that I was not clear on. I loved it!

Written for the Gifted

This book is written by a gifted individual, for gifted individuals. If you are not gifted and are looking to understand gifted individuals, understanding this text will require you to expand your thinking past your current stereotypes and beliefs. This book is very validating for those of us who are gifted. You'll easily see yourself in the examples, and the advice given validates our way of thinking and being versus attempting to fit us into a mold acceptable by others. Great read.

I feel heard!!

Amazing analysis. Excellent ability at explaination, confirmation, validation, and advice within. This will definitely be a reread!

A book to inspire

I always knew I was “different” but I tended to see my difference as problematic rather than a profound strength.

This book explains everything so clearly and has shown me why I’ve succeeded as I have in spite of the odds. Now that I’m at a midlife crisis point I feel guided and inspired to reach my potential. I’m incredibly grateful to the author.

Excellent narration as well!

Maybe worth a listen.

The author seems to be one of us. She seems to understand some of our, fairly unique, problems living in a world consisting of relatively normal people. However, the author seems pompous and agenda driven. It can, at times, seem insulting.

The author seems to think extemely superior people feel a need to achieve great things in the view of society and to validate that they are special and not misfits due to their being broken.

Think about it. If you're vastly different you really don't fit in. When you're young you eventually see that you are becomming increasingly different from your peers. Eventually they begin to notice. Your interests aren't there's but you want to fit in. You're human, thus gregarious.

You're in for a bumpy ride until you figure it all out.

What I did was read books on psychology, philosophy and religions of the world to try to grasp what was going on. I had no one around to confide in as they didn't think like I did and couldn't understand. But you can find books and use your own, very functional brain to figure it out.

You'll learn, hell you're brilliant. Just the sooner you realize you're not broken. In fact, the problem is you work way better than anyone else you're apt to encounter. Yep, it can get pretty lonely. Dig into those books and the internet.

Study your environment and camouflage yourself.

Realize that You live in a world of billions of people and maybe, a few million are like you. Don't seek peers to socialize with, the odds are small that you will find them.

Use books and the internet to exercise your higher mind through studying the works of kindred spirits, past, present and future.

However, your daily reality is that You live in a world of people whose development, compared to yours, are mostly like young adults and children to a normal adult. You can enjoy them, they are people too.

Realize that your gifts ARE gifts. Use them to pursue joy for yourself and others. Camouflage is your friend. Like with rare precious even magical material gifts, it's not wise to prove you have them and show them off. Use them to give good times, lend assistance to others and to enjoy yourself. Why is this way of life any less desireable than extreme achievement in business, technology, the arts or other "normally accepted" yardsticks of "Greatness"? It's wiser, and more fun, to give and take joy and lend and receive personal assistance in your own little neck of the woods than to push for world fame and validation.

For the Gifted Adult

Compared to other books on gifted psychology and the gifted personality profile, this book provides a compelling narrative and easy-to-grasp paradigm without getting overly scientific. All in all, it's a genuinely accessible and helpful read.

I Finally Get It!!!

This book has explained, in a kind way, what is "wrong" with me. I have inadvertently triggered people my entire life and I never knew why or how to fix myself. I have enjoyed listening to this book so much that I plan on listening to it again. I also plan to purchase a print edition so that I can bookmark sections that pertain to specific challenges and solutions. I can't thank this author enough for giving me a new outlook on life, work, and relationships! 10 out of 10 recommend.

Lacks meat

If you try hard, you will notice the message behind the words, but generally this book can be described as rambling.

This Book Insults the Reader's Intellect

Authors like Dr. Jacobsen unfortunately are little credit to their profession. She often steps into the territory of a demagogue with this book. This occurs most often in Jacobsen's desire lay out self created parables and vague, ambiguous truisms. I got through maybe 4-5 hours of this but had to stop.

It reads more like a branding opportunity. The writing style is presumptuous, prescriptive, ingratiating and cloying.

Here's some truly meaningless and hollow phrases:

"liberation founded on authenticity" -self help bs

"as you elevate your souls frequency" - did science jump out the window on this?

"everyday geniuses" - self negating, ingratiating, innaccurate. Geniuses are exceptional by definition. Not everyday or common place.

"False self vs true self" - further self help bs with no research backing

For a book that often references the "Revolutionary" it's simply another self help book recycling the same tropes and tactics of the previous. Glad I got my audible credit back.

Social Darwinist BS

as a fellow "gifted" individual who studies giftedness from a sociological point of view, this book makes me nauseous. it could be lifted straight out of the 1890s, or the late 1940s... aka the height of the American Eugenics Movement. Read the novel Earth Abides and you will see the argument for all its teleological, wealthy white supremacy as the "savior" civilization building race. i gave up after 4 hours of the book. the gifted are not the evolutionary destiny of humanity deserving of liberation from the slowpokes. we have specific cognitive skills that allow us to perceive the world in different ways. if you find meaning in that ability, good for you. that doesnt mean being treated poorly and developing mental health problems means liberation in the guise of taking on the hero's cape, deserving of great destiny as some sort of plato's wisdom kings.

i gave it two stars because the narrator deserves better than this.