The Self victorious: Personal strengths, chance, and co-incidence.

Models of talent development and outstanding achievement emphasize as one of the necessary conditions a strongly supportive environment. Historic and contemporary cases are presented as exceptions to this rule. Examination of these cases shows that personal strengths of the individual are the key factor in overcoming deficiencies in environmental support. This makes the self the centerpiece of the scenario of talent development. Of the four models examined here, Feldman's and Piirto's give more weight to the whole individual than do Tannenbaum's and Gagne's. Attributes of the self-will, entelechy, striving for autonomy and self-realization suggest areas of inquiry in further development of these models.

The importance of a strongly supportive environment for the achievement of excellence has received considerable attention (Albert, 1994; Amabile, 1994; Bloom, 1985; Feldman, 1986; Simonton, 1994a; Tannenbaum, 1991). Achieving excellence despite obstacles presented by an unfavorable environment has received less attention, at least in models of talent development.

Several models have attempted to identify the set of conditions necessary to produce excellence, outstanding achievement, or the starburst of a prodigy. These models are so persuasive that it is easy to overlook the existence of notable exceptions. The purpose of this paper is to examine cases in which outstanding achievement was attained despite deficiencies in one of the allegedly necessary conditions: a supportive environment.

Four models of talent development will be examined: Tannenbaum's psychosocial filigree of factors, Feldman's co-incidence, Gagne's differentiated model, and Piirto's pyramid.

Tannenbaum's Model

Tannenbaum's (1983, 1991) psychological model is a five-pointed star whose arms represent clusters of factors necessary to produce excellence: general intelligence (G), special aptitudes (A), nonintellective traits and attributes (NI), environment (E), and chance (CH). Each of the five clusters must operate at least at threshold level. If any one of the clusters falls short, the star crumples because each factor can exercise veto power; this means the star loses an arm and disintegrates--no excellence, only streaks of incomplete and unrealizable potential. For instance, lack of motivation or crippling self-doubt (in the NI cluster) will defeat the other four, just as the absence of a lucky break (lack of opportunity-the CH cluster), will thwart the career of a talented musician, writer, or actor. The essential minimum for any of the five clusters of factors is not the same for each talent domain. For example, a comedian's quick wit requires a high level of intelligence which is not necessarily of the same level, or kind, required for reading a score and conducting a symphony orchestra. Excellence arises in the center where all the factors converge.

In a new version of his sea star model, Tannenbaum (1997) makes a distinction between static and dynamic subfactors. Assessment of the individual by standardized tests, comparison with group norms, descriptive categories of socioeconomic status and ethnicity, all those descriptive, actuarial, and demographic variables are soulless static subfactors. The interactions of individuals and life situations--the shaping influences, the distinctive styles of problem-solving, the people and institutions around them, and ways of responding to chance opportunities--are the pith of life, the dynamic subfactors. This revision of Tannenbaum's model moves it closer to Feldman's which has been dynamic from its inception.

Feldman's Co-Incidence

Feldman (1986) designed his model to account for the appearance of great talent, such as a prodigy, in the matrix of a domain, culture, and human evolution. Above all, Feldman's approach emphasizes developmental history. Complementary forces must come together to center on the critical individual or a breakthrough achievement. To underline their fine synchronization, he called the convergence of these forces co-incidence. These forces operate in time frames of increasing scope: individual development; the history of the field at the point when the individual enters it; the broader time frame of history and culture in regard to whether an extraordinary talent fits or not (e.g., a violin prodigy has a far better chance in Korea or Israel than in Turkestan or Libya); and the broadest time frame of the evolution of human creativity and culture. For the mind's eye, Feldman (1988, p. 273, Figure 11.1) produced the image of an amusement park ride in which developmental forces--individual, social, historic, and those specific to a domain--travel through the struts and spokes holding the pods. The ride revolves around a hub, the pods undulate up and down communicating with different planes and different time frames. "The center, or locus of intersection of the forces, is the whole individual person, and the surrounding pods represent the various other forces contributing to the dynamic developmental calculus" (Feldman, 1988, pp. 275-276). The interactions are fluid, interweaving, and transforming in the development of the individual as well as in the evolution of a domain, culture, and humankind. The pivotal individual in the center is not just a receiver acted upon by the forces, but also summons them to draw in people and resources to leave an imprint on his field (talent domain). Putting the individual in the center saves us from seeing great achievements as an outcome automatically determined by the necessary conditions. Instead, the person's initiative, styles, choices, will, and psychological makeup come to the fore.

Gagne's and Piirto's Models

There have been other studies examining the necessary conditions for quick ascent on the ladder of success and recognition. Bloom (1985) and his coworkers described the child-centered family and the succession of teachers needed to develop a talent to the highest degree. Gagne (1991, 1995) constructed a model of talent production in which intrapersonal and environmental catalysts (including chance) facilitate the development of talents and abilities. In his model, natural abilities are the raw material, operated upon by the catalysts, subsequently transmuted into a refined talent. With the focus on how talent is produced, the individual, reduced to the role of a catalyst, disappears behind the talent. Gagne's scheme overlaps with Tannenbaum's clusters but arranges them as a process of turning raw material into recognized talent. Giftedness overlaps with general intelligence and special aptitudes, intrapersonal catalysts equal nonintellective factors, and environmental catalysts equal environmental factors.

Piirto (1994) proposed a model of talent formation picturing a fantastic landscape in which sits a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid specific talent domains draw strength from the larger midsection of intellectual competence (IQ), necessary for a talent to flourish. The midsection draws its strength from the large base of personality attributes. Multiple "suns" (influences) of home, school, gender differences, culture, and chance send their rays to the pyramid. Piirto's model includes the factor clusters in Tannenbaum's model but ascribes them different positions of influence. Personality attributes are more fundamental than intellectual competence, which in turn is a prerequisite for different talent domains, very high for some and not so high for others. Making personal attributes the base agrees with Feldman's emphasis that in the center of the revolving and undulating field of forces is the whole person.

Comparing the models, Feldman's is constructed on a large, evolutionary and dynamic scale, while Tannenbaum's, Gagne's and Piirto's describe more local conditions, those necessary for achieving excellence in the life of a single individual. The talent in question may be big or small. Both Piirto and Feldman give the individual the greater weight. Personal strengths are at the foundation of Piirto's pyramid; the whole individual is the center of Feldman's developmental and evolutionary image of large scope.

The models include intrapersonal strengths of motivation, drive, and determination. Tannenbaum adds metalearning, a way of figuring out the rules of the game in novel situations, and overexcitabilities, responsible for an individual's heightened intensity of experiencing and acting. The models exhibit some parallels in regard to general intelligence and talents or special aptitudes. However, Feldman stresses not only exceptional talent but also individual development. Exceptional insight, discovery, or a shattering realization of gaps in knowledge, precipitate inner changes in the individual. His or her own work and the response it evokes has, for better or worse, a transforming effect on the person.

The contribution of the environment has been, perhaps, the most studied aspect of talent formation (e.g., Albert, 1980a, 1980b; Silverman & Keamey, 1989). Learning opportunities and challenges must follow in sequence. Both Bloom's (1985) and Feldman's (1986) studies stress the importance of moving to a more expert teacher when the skills of one level have been mastered. Master teachers tend to be very expensive, often live far away, sometimes on another continent. The family must have the dedication and the resources to support the education of the child's (or children's) outstanding abilities, and must be able to weather the stress of making tough decisions when other children in the family must receive far less.

Tannenbaum pointed out that many notable exceptions exist to the environmental conditions deemed essential for talent to unfold. Outstanding achievement can be attained despite growing up in an emotionally conflicted family (Goertzel, Goertzel, & Goertzel, 1978; Simonton, 1994b). These exceptions are not accounted for by current models. They do not say what other forces come into play when some of the required conditions are in short supply or are clearly negative. Hence the question: How do those who succeed against these odds do it? What can overcome the essential deficiency--the veto--of a cluster of factors? And what kind of essential deficiency can be overcome? Certainly not lack of general intelligence or the aptitudes that form a talent. Neither can it be a deficiency in intrapersonal strengths.

Four historical cases and 13 contemporary ones are presented to illustrate how strong environmental odds are overcome by the sheer magnitude of a person's inner strengths. The current models do not account for these exceptions, but they do describe the synergistic effect of opportunity (chance) and a person's readiness to seize it. Whether pure chance is operating at random, or as luck favoring the individual who is prepared, can only be decided for each case individually. Readiness to act when opportunities arise poses an interesting question. It involves an ability to recognize an opportunity, to have the flexibility to switch gears if necessary, and the confidence that one can rise to the challenge. Readiness should be counted as a personal strength. It is suggestive of Feldman's concept of timing, but more as personal timing. Another factor is a powerful will, which is very prominent in many cases, and is a fundamental personal strength. But a will that is deliberate needs to be distinguished from a will that is driven.

While the models were developed to account for outstanding, visible, and recognizable achievement, the contemporary lives of highly gifted women show remarkable achievement but without the icing of fame and recognition. Their achievement lies in the depth of fulfillment and self-actualization. Achievement of excellence has often been harder for women than for men because not often is there support for their education and career goals. Highly gifted men who succeeded despite an unfavorable environment are many, for example, George Washington Carver, Malcolm X, Bill Clinton, Jack London, Arthur Rimbaud, Franz Kafka, Tennessee Williams, and countless other writers.

Mary Henrietta Kingsley (1862-1900)

On November 30, 1895, Mary Kingsley returned to England from her second trip to the west coast of equatorial Africa where she collected insects, fish, lizards, snakes and other zoological specimens, explored the native customs and culture, and climbed Mount Cameroon (13, 370 feet), the first, and for a long time, the only woman to have performed this feat. Disembarking from the ship she was met by a journalist eager to interview her. Her adventures and brushes with death, her courage and bravery, were known from newspaper stories. She traveled all over Britain to speak before various assemblies and learned societies. On one occasion her talk was read by a man, while she sat as if mute, because that particular learned society did not allow women in their midst. Her outspoken views on colonial policy in Africa made her an important voice in British colonial politics of the time. Her first book, Travels in West Africa, Congo Francais, Corsico, and Cameroons, was a best seller and a highly respected source on native West African society, culture, and beliefs (Frank, 1986).

Mary's childhood and adolescence were spent in isolation. Her brother, four years younger, was more in her care than a playmate. Mary's father was a highly gifted man who obtained his M.D. at the precocious age of 20. Rather than practice medicine, he accompanied British aristocrats on extended expeditions to distant lands. He left shortly after Mary was born and did not return until a year later.

Mary's mother led a shadowy existence. She only ventured out to help her neighbors when they were in need. From the age of 5, Mary helped to keep the house in order. When Mary was 10, her mother became chronically depressed. Dr. Kingsley was away for three years of travel. Mary's brother was sent to school but Mary never received any formal education except to learn German because Dr. Kingsley wanted his daughter to assist him in his research.

Mary spent her time absorbing the content of her father's much outdated texts. In her adolescence she developed a passion for chemistry, but was not allowed to carry out any experiments. She said that her father's books were

on alchemy and the rest obsolete.

After most carefully getting up all

the information they could give

me, I happened on a gentleman

who knew modern chemistry and

tried my information on him. He

said he had not heard anything so

ridiculous in years, and recommended

that I should be placed in

a museum as a compendium for

exploded chemical theories, which

hurt my feelings very much and I

cried bitterly at not being taught

things (Frank, 1986, p. 37).

As devastated as she was she collected herself and received a more up to date practical book, Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties, and the magazine English Mechanic which became her companion and instructor between the ages of 16 and 20. Then help came from a neighbor, an electrical engineer who delighted in Mary's curiosity and quick intelligence. He taught her physics. The vivid accounts of exotic lands in her father's letters fired Mary's imagination with the desire to see the tropics.

When her brother was ready to start college, the family moved to Cambridge and there Dr. Kingsley kept contact with scientific friends. Mary, then 22, was included in these gatherings and was soon prized for her mind. She also found friends but her bedridden mother demanded constant attention. After a stroke, Mrs. Kingsley was partially paralyzed, helpless, and died two years later in 1892. Her husband survived her by three months only. Mary Kingsley was nearly 30 years old and burning to start her travels but as a woman steeped in familial duty ("the religion I was brought up in") she was subservient to her younger brother. Only when he finally left for the Far East was she free to go. She went to the Canary Islands where she studied local trade and learned about the risks and dangers of life in the tropics. Her goal was West Africa, "the deadliest spot on earth" (Frank, p. 128).

She made meticulous preparations for her trip. In 1893 she went to Germany to take a brief course in nursing. She decided to go to Africa alone, as a trader rather than as an explorer with a long caravan of porters. Being a trader would bring her into direct contact with the natives and allow her to learn their customs and beliefs. Fetish--African religious beliefs--was her chief interest. Mary Kingsley was one of the pioneer ethnographers open to the mind of the native people. Rather than see them as morally degenerate, then the prevalent view, she argued that as individuals and as members of a well adapted society, they did not show the ills of modem urban life that drive people into poverty, dipsomania, murder, and insanity.

Her first sojourn in Africa lasted 6 months, her second 11 months. On March 5, 1900, she left, for the third time, on a troop carrier for South Africa to care for typhoid patients. She died on June 3, aged 37, and was buried with military honors.

Mary Kingsley was endowed with exceptional intelligence. She educated and reeducated herself and carefully planned her expeditions. She had extraordinary energy. Her idea of being a trader, of going alone among the natives, paddling the African canoe in crocodile infested waters, testify to her remarkable resourcefulness. Her drive, great imagination and "coruscating wit", sensitivity to beauty, and passion in her pursuit of knowledge, were her other personal strengths. In Africa she found her spiritual home. Thus the conditions of intelligence, special aptitudes (mechanics, writing, organization of her expeditions, physical skills and endurance, lecturing, and publishing), and personal strengths were present.

The environment of Mary's childhood and adolescence was deficient in a number of ways. Her father was absent, her mother chronically depressed. Mary was denied formal education. In those lone years, she drew sustenance from her father's letters, from the memory of his brief returns home, and from his gradual recognition of her abilities. This testifies to the power of her mind to keep his presence and image alive through the long years of his absence, and to her self-sustaining avidity for learning.

Chance, or timing, also played a major role in her life. Her parents died when she was 30 freeing her to follow her desire to explore the tropics. Eventually she was able to satisfy her ambition of being accepted in the exclusively male world of science. This has to be appreciated in the light of her acute sense of inadequacy as a self-taught person. She never had the reassuring sanction of examinations, mentors, and diplomas which are the normal way of earning acceptance in the scientific community. Had her parents lived for many more years, or if her brother had no inclination to travel, Mary Kingsley would have remained in servitude to the family hearth and never made the significant contributions that she did. Note, too, that her scientific career lasted less than 7 years.

Bertha Pappenheim: Freud's "Anna O" (1859-1936)

In 1954 West Germany issued a postage stamp to honor Bertha Pappenheim as one of the "Helpers of Humanity". After her death in 1936, Martin Buber wrote in his tribute: "There are people of spirit and there are people of passion. Rarer still are the people of spirit and passion. But rarest of all is passionate spirit. Bertha Pappenheim was a woman with just such a spirit" (Freeman, 1972, p. 173). Cora Berliner, a leading Jewish educator and a member of the board of the League of Jewish Women which Bertha Pappenheim founded, wrote: "She fought only about things that were involved directly with her ultimate aims. She could lash out without mercy at what she saw as indifference, weakness, or untruthfulness... she never misused the fight for small or personal reasons." And further: "She loved people and needed them, but she did not permit herself to escape the educational task to which she felt called" (Freeman, 1972 p. 175).

Margarethe Susman, a poet, and her tutor in Greek philosophy, knew Bertha Pappenheim in the last decade of her life. She said:

Her personality, her life were

from the beginning to the end a

single flaming protest against the

religious and moral dissolution of

the time in which she lived. In the

middle of all the uprooted, wavering,

and tumbling lives in our

world, she stood erect and always

progressed. For she possessed the

highest gift that can be bestowed

on a person, particularly those living

in the chaos of enormous

upheavals: a way. And this way

was also a road for others. She led

the way, pointing out the goals.

She was gifted with great strength

and the capacity to bring order to

lives, to arrange them, to lead and

to train people... This delicate

woman took on the world. (Freeman,

p. 176)

At the age of 21, Bertha Pappenheim began volunteer work at a girls' orphanage. Later, after much persuasion, she became the director. She stayed on for 12 years. From a place of custodial care the orphanage became a home and a school.

[She] looked upon the orphans...

as growing girls whose capacity to

think, to learn, and enjoy the

beauty that existed in the world,

could be developed and enhanced

by their experiences there. Thus,

in addition to training the girls to

be efficient in housework... she

started kindergarten classes for

the little girls and classes in history,

geography, art appreciation,

and music, including weekly

singing lessons for the older ones

(Freeman, 1972, p. 70).

When Bertha discovered Mary Wollstonecraft's passionate argument for allowing women access to education, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (first published in 1792), she translated it into German and published it under the name of P. Berthold. For the rest of her life she pressed for education for women.

Bertha Pappenheim became deeply engaged in the struggle against white slavery of girls who were sold to rich Jewish merchants in Eastern Europe and the Near East. She traveled to Galicia, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Jerusalem, and Egypt to learn first hand the conditions of these young women's lives and to buy out those she could. She became such an authority on slave market operations that in 1910 she was invited to speak at the International Congress to Fight White Slave Traffic. She said, "to know wrong and to remain quiet is to share the guilt" (Freeman, 1972, p. 101). But Jewish leaders refused to cooperate.

She resigned from the orphanage in 1906 to raise funds for a new institution. The Home for Wayward Girls and Illegitimate Babies was a shelter for pregnant young women, some of them prostitutes. Like Mother Teresa today, Bertha Pappenheim was opposed to abortion and promoted adoption instead. Abortion violated her deep reverence for life (Freeman, 1972, p. 147).

Bertha Pappenheim became an excellent administrator and a skilled fund raiser. The Home started as two houses 3-stories high. During World War I she succeeded in building a third house for children under 6, a fourth for 6 to 16 year olds, and a fifth as an infirmary and living quarters for the staff. The Home grew its own vegetables and fruit but wartime shortages forced Bertha Pappenheim to beg wealthy Jews for flour and sugar.

What was the developmental trajectory behind her extraordinary accomplishments? Bertha Pappenheim was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Vienna with a distinguished lineage going back several hundred years. She was educated in a private Catholic high school. She was fluent in English, French, and Italian. She resented the fact that her younger brother went on to study law while she was denied any further education. In the strictly orthodox tradition she was expected to get married and bear sons.

Bertha Pappenheim was attractive, highly intelligent, endowed with a strong will, great imagination and intense emotionality (Ellenberger, 1972). She had a lively sense of humor. Despite an active social life, riding horses, doing needlework, and charming young men, she did not marry. She was passionately attached to her father. When he fell ill, she spent many exhausting nights at his bedside. Out of the fear that her father might die she developed morbid hallucinations. Dr. Josef Breuer, a celebrated physician, was called in. For a year and a half he conducted hypnotic sessions to enable her to disclose her thoughts and feelings which gradually alleviated her symptoms. It was she who gave this method the name "the talking cure." When Freud listened to Breuer describing the case, later known as Anna O., psychoanalysis was born. But she was not cured. Bertha Pappenheim was later placed in a sanitarium. She suffered a severe neuralgia for which she received morphine and became addicted to it.

In 1888 she moved with her widowed mother to Frankfurt. There was no trace of her previous afflictions and they were never mentioned again. Only when years later the physician at the Home for Wayward Girls suggested that an emotionally disturbed girl be placed in psychoanalysis, Bertha Pappenheim exclaimed, "Never! Not as long as I am alive!" (Freeman, 1972, p. 150).

Bertha Pappenheim's achievements are staggering. Her special aptitudes lay in education, organization, personnel training and management, administration, fund raising, languages, speaking, and writing. Through the force of her character she awakened people's conscience and their sense of social and individual responsibility. Thus, she excelled in the interpersonal and the intrapersonal domains.

Her personal strengths were formidable: unflagging energy and will unhampered by her delicate constitution, a selfless dedication to helping those mistreated and abandoned by society. The vividness and richness of her hallucinations during her earlier mental illness indicate an extraordinary imagination. Her love of philosophy, which she pursued into old age, as well as her ability to categorize and enumerate long lists of her symptoms and occasions when they occurred, are evidence of uncommon intellectual powers.

As far as environmental factors are concerned, they were not fully met. Although she had the security of her class and wealth, she was denied education because she was expected to be a wife and a mother. That role she chose not to take, but this was not her only line of resistance. In her youth she was opposed to religion. To please her father, she followed the rites outwardly, but religion, in the words of her physician, "played a role in her life only as an object of silent struggles and silent opposition" (Ellenberger, 1972). As evidenced by the many prayers among her poems, in her adult life she became a deeply religious person. Between her youth and adulthood a profound change took place; of how it occurred there is no record.

The unsolved mystery of her life is how she overcame her hallucinations, her double personality, and her morphine addiction; that she did is evidence of remarkable inner resources. Although her case is not unique--Ellenberger (1972) cites other examples of "prominent hysterical women of that time" who faced similar obstacles to their ambitions of independent and professional life-Anna O.'s inner transformation into the humanitarian Bertha Pappenheim is extraordinary.

The element of chance also played a role in her life. She volunteered at the orphanage for several years and later stepped in for the ailing director. Her whole career was an on-the-job training as an administrator, educator, and social worker. She just kept getting better at it and kept expanding her sphere of influence. No less remarkable was her energetic involvement in the women's movement. More remarkably, she carried on without compromise, her idealistic philanthropic philosophy.

The opportunity first presented by the orphanage was probably not of a unique, one-time-only variety. It could have come about in a number of ways because there were other women who were interested in politics and were active in welfare and feminism. But the ability to suddenly and radically shift one's life onto a completely new course is uncommon. One woman who knew her well said:

It meant a complete change in her

life. With generous devotion and

with complete renunciation of her

former way of living--she had been

spoiled in Vienna in every way,

leading there the life of a daughter

of the wealthy--she fulfilled the

multifaceted demands in a field of

work that up to then had been alien

to her. (Freeman, p. 178)

To balance her life she cultivated beauty by collecting embroideries, miniatures, china, and artistic glassware.

Never Married Women: Gifted, Self-Actualizing, and Invisible

Witzel's (1991) study supplies contemporary cases of outstanding achievement without the environmental support stipulated by models of talent development. As an added twist these women are single, a status equated by many with lack of fulfillment. Kerr (1985), on the basis of a follow-up study of a group of gifted girls who graduated from a highly accelerated program, concluded that despite their achievements, those who remained single were not happy. They were the "Lone Achievers." Men are understood to be fulfilled in their work and their accomplishments. For married men, families are a support taken for granted. Single great men rely on mothers, sisters, or housekeepers who serve them. If a woman strikes out on the path of achievement and eminence, it is believed--and sometimes required--that she must dedicate herself to her career and forsake her desire for motherhood and family (Mockros, 1997). Family and motherhood are generally thought to be more essential to a woman's sense of fulfillment and happiness than to a man's. Can a gifted woman be outstanding and fulfilled despite being single? Yes, Kerr's findings notwithstanding, Witzel's women are happy.

Witzel's sample of 25 women was nominated on the basis of the following criteria: never married, without children, white, heterosexual, living alone, no less than 35 years old, and who were also well liked and well thought of by the persons nominating them. The women turned out to have very high education. All but one had graduate degrees: 9 had a Master's degree, 7 had two Master's degrees, 6 had a Ph.D., one an LL.D., one was an M.D. This makes 1.48 graduate degrees per woman in the study (those with a Ph.D. also had a Master's degree first, hence a total of 22 Master's). They came from blue collar, farming, and lower middle class backgrounds as well as from middle and upper class. Ten of the women supported themselves and paid for their undergraduate and graduate education either entirely on their own or with help of loans and scholarships, eight received limited support from their families or other sources.

In regard to emotional background the sample was split between 12 women who came from accepting and emotionally supportive families and 13 from conflictual families in which the daughter was seen primarily in terms of what she could do for her parents. Two families had destructive histories of physical and emotional abuse. Since turmoil in the family is a source of developmental vulnerabilities and handicaps, it is interesting to see what level of outward success these women achieved (see Table 1).

WITZEL'S NEVER MARRIED WOMEN

                    Family of Origin

             Exemplary                              2
             Supportive                            10
             Conflictual                           11
             Destructive                            2

Education and Occupations of Women from
 Conflictual and Destructive Families

Ph.D.     College Dean
Ph.D.     Acting Dean
Ph.D.     Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D.     School Principal
M.D.      Surgeon
M.A.      Manager of a printing and design business
M.A.      School teacher for 15 years; new career: graphic design
M.A.      School teacher; new career: real estate
M.A.      Director of recreational therapy
M.A.      Journalist and writer on nutrition
M.A.      Organizational consultant, own business
M.S.W.    Social worker
B.A.      Accountant, still working at the age of 83

                    Characteristic Themes

1. High energy level
2. Drive for autonomy, competence, and the development
   of their own powers (high self-efficacy)
3. Patterns of growth: Setting goals and responding
   to opportunities and help offered
4. Sense of self: High self-esteem and a
   deeply satisfying way of life
5. The ability to let go of relationships
   and experiences without devaluing
6. Altruism

Table 1 (Witzel, 1991)

Analyzing recurrent themes in the lives of these women, Witzel found a fuller picture of their talents and their self-actualizing personalities. Of the ten themes identified by Witzel, six are of particular interest to the subject of personal strengths and the role of chance.

High energy level. These women exhibit clearly focused energy in all their undertakings. They proved to be highly productive on their jobs, continued their education, engaged in volunteer activities of altruistic nature, and still had time to spend with their relatives and friends. One woman who taught English at a college was asked to organize education for inmates of a nearby prison. This became a half-time administrative position. The project turned out to be so demanding that one year later she was totally exhausted. When she complained, the college president called her a whiner. At the end of the second year she left and returned to full time teaching. To do what she was doing as a half-time coordinator, a man was hired, full time, with an assistant, also full time, and two full time secretaries. Count and you will see she was doing the work of eight!

Drive for autonomy, competence, and the development of their own powers. This drive was strong in all 25. It is all the more significant because half the sample had to overcome serious obstacles in their lives. They had to provide their own encouragement and find the resources outside their families. Striving for autonomy can be seen as expression of entelechy--a vital force directing a person's life to realize one's essence, to become all that the self is capable of becoming (Lovecky, 1986). Even stronger examples of a sense of self developed very early, and defended against hostile assaults, have been described by Rubin (1996).

Patterns of growth: Readiness to capitalize on opportunities and help offered. The majority (19 out of 25) knew how to take advantage of opportunities-not rank opportunism but rather the self-actualizing ability to let their lives evolve naturally. They described the gradual unfolding of their talents as "walking through doors that others opened for them," or as one woman put it, "a series of fortuitous stumbles." Rubin (1996) described people who transcended the past of abuse and yet were able to benefit from help offered by others when such help came within their reach. Rubin called it a quality of adoptability.

Sense of self: High self-esteem and a deeply satisfying way of life. These women have high self-esteem but for the majority developing a strong sense of self was a slow and arduous process, particularly for those who came from unsupportive families. Most of the women (10 out of 13) with a history of conflict in their families sought the help of psychotherapy and benefited from it.

Even if all these women were holding high status positions, or achieved fame, this could not reveal these women's deeply satisfying way of life. This surprising finding is the direct result of the initial criterion for inclusion in the study: to be well liked and well thought of by the referral source. This opens a new slant on the way we look at what is being achieved. On the one hand we have the outward achievement--recognized by experts and subsequent generations as being significant and of enduring value, and on the other hand the inward achievement: the quality and integrity of a person's life in which self-actualization becomes self-realization. In these women we find not only outstanding success despite initial lack of support but also self-realization.

The ability to let go of relationships and experiences without devaluing. Maslow (1970, p. 175) described a characteristic of self-actualizing people that is often misunderstood. It is the capacity to end something abruptly, and to do this without "any observable pangs whatsoever," a relationship or situation that turned sour, or, to recover "so quickly from the death of people close to them as to seem heartless." Recognizing the inevitable enables one to recover quickly from painful events and losses, a response that may appear uncanny and cold. Because self-actualizing people experience things more vividly and intensely they can live through them more fully. The experience is thus more readily completed.

Witzel found that 17 of the 25 women strongly presented this characteristic. They were remarkably free to let go and move on. The same was true of transitional vocations-many have made shifts to entirely new careers. Despite their outstanding competence they were paid less than men. They recognized it as crass exploitation but did not hold bitter feelings. Rather, when the time was right they moved on.

Altruism. Witzel's women are distinctly altruistic. They give of themselves to serve individuals and communities. One woman established a business in order to create seed money for community projects to help women, children, and elderly discarded by "the system." Others started programs of literacy or economic assistance. Thus, again, they meet Maslow's criteria of Gemeinschaftsgefuhl, "a genuine desire to help the human race," and Problem Centering, having "some mission in life, some task to fulfill, some problem outside themselves which enlists much of their energies... In general these tasks are nonpersonal or unselfish, concerned rather with the good of mankind in general, or of a nation in general, or of a few individuals in the subject's family" (Maslow, 1970, pp. 165 and 159-160). Rubin's life histories of people who transcended childhoods of abuse show all of them working for the good of the larger family of mankind.

Until Witzel's research, these highly gifted, self-actualizing women were unknown in the field of adult development and giftedness. They were invisible. The degree of their invisibility and the difficulty of others to accept their lives as fulfilled without a husband, is perhaps best demonstrated by the final question of Witzel's examining committee: "But why didn't they... marry?"

Attributes of the Self: Will, Striving for Autonomy, and Self-realization

The lives of the women described above, as well as those of Eleanor Roosevelt and Leta Stetter Hollingworth (Piechowski, 1992; 1993; Piechowski & Tyska, 1982), illustrate that outstanding achievement can occur when one of the factors--a strongly supportive environment--considered essential by various models is deficient. These cases histories illustrate a number of factors operating in these lives.

Extraordinary personal strengths can overcome deficiencies of environmental support. Models of talent development differ in their emphasis on the role of the conditions necessary for outstanding achievement. Tannenbaum's model treats all factors equally. Gagne's reduces the individual to a catalyst. Piirto's places personal attributes and strengths at the foundation. Feldman's puts the critical individual at the center. In these models personal strengths of initiative, passion, determination, and will operate together with environmental support. When that support is lacking the attainment of excellence is blocked. However, the cases presented here demonstrate that personal strengths sometimes have more power than the environment. For instance, Leta Hollingworth, despite traumatic adolescence, went a long way on small doses of encouragement from her high school and college teachers.

There are many bright adolescents today who cope with difficult lives in dangerous environments and who are in great need of support and encouragement. What keeps them going and believing that they can find a better life are their personal strengths of intelligence, ability to fight back, humor, ability to look on the bright side, ability to forgive, self-reliance, tenacity and perseverance. What works against them is their tough persona and uneven school performance (Peterson, 1997). They are an instance of talented youth who may either overcome the deficiencies of their environment or succumb to them.

Overexcitabilities--modes of experiencing that nourish, enrich, empower, and amplify talent--are part of the makeup of gifted people. They come in five dimensions: high level of energy, capacity for sensual delight, fertile imagination, a questioning and searching mind, and intense feelings and emotions (Piechowski, 1979). They are strongly manifested in the historical cases (Table 2). Although they were not directly assessed, they are also evident in Witzel's women.

THE STRENGTH OF OVEREXCITABILITIES AND WILL

P                         S    T     M     E           Will

Mary Kingsley            +++   ++    +++   +++   ++    driven
Bertha Pappenheim        ++    ++    ++    +++   +++   deliberate
Leta Hollingworth        ++    ++    +++   +++   ++    deliberate
Eleanor Roosevelt        +++   +     ++    +++   +++   deliberate

P = psychomotor, S = sensual, T = intellectual, M = imaginational, E = emotional

                  DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS

Early loss of parent              Eleanor Roosevelt,
                                  Leta Hollingworth
Absentee parent sustained         Eleanor Roosevelt,
 in imagination                    Mary Kingsley
Traumatic adolescence             Leta Hollingworth
Mental illness                    Bertha Pappenheim

Table 2

Mary Kingsley and Eleanor Roosevelt both had absentee fathers whose image they maintained in their fantasy, feeding it with the content of letters and cherished memories. A parent's absence creates a deep emotional void. Those endowed with vivid imagination and intense emotions are able to fill that void with life-like images of the missing parent. This high degree of sustained visualization is fired by overexcitability, a sign of strong developmental potential (Piechowski, 1986).

Will and Entelechy. Will is a fundamental personal strength. William James (1890) devoted considerable attention to understanding types of will. Will as a construct all but disappeared from the psychological lexicon replaced by goal-directedness, inner locus of control, drive, decision-making and other terms that form the vocabulary of motivation. None of these speak to the idea of will as a deliberate and sustained effort in face of obstacles. This kind of will operated in the lives of Eleanor Roosevelt, Bertha Pappenheim, and Leta Hollingworth and many of Witzel's women. Only Mary Kingsley appears to have been driven. Maslow (1970) included will as one of the distinct characteristics of self-actualizing people. Assagioli (1965, 1973) emphasized will as the central faculty of the self.

The self of the gifted seeks expression by striving for autonomy and self-realization. In this process, will is the self's most essential instrument. Will, rather than drive, can be recognized in the sustained effort in face of obstacles to fulfilling one's mission. Lovecky (1986) posited as an attribute of the self of the gifted entelechy, a vital force directing a person's life. It could be interpreted as an inner referent guiding the will. In a study of highly gifted adolescents who have gone through depression, Jackson (1995) found such an inner referent guiding them in their search for truth and knowledge. The young people used expressions like "some higher thing in me" or "sometimes it's me, sometimes it's a greater thing."

Making luck work. Readiness to benefit from help offered by others emerged as a distinct personal strength. This includes readiness to seize opportunities, or even to create them. This makes chance, or luck, work. Rather than trying to succeed by competing with others, most of these women applied their energies to helping others--a singularly noncompetitive field of action. Readiness indicates a prepared mind, or, more accurately, a prepared person.

Caring and connectedness--the open field of altruism. Helping and serving others is always an open field. Bertha Pappenheim and Eleanor Roosevelt are prime examples. Mary Kingsley devoted much of her energy to defending the natives of West Africa against taxation they did not understand and against the prejudice that they were morally degenerate. She also served friends and relations in sickness or difficulties. This makes her scholarly achievement all the more remarkable. Leta Hollingworth served the cause of women and highly gifted children.

The women in Witzel's study had professional jobs but did not see themselves in competitive careers. Volunteer work and service to others were essential to their well-being. Their lives meet Maslow's criteria of self-actualization (Maslow, 1970). Their zest for life, venturesomeness, intelligence and professional success were not the result of their education or socioeconomic origins but of personal qualities. The characteristic themes of their lives (Table 1) show the personal strengths that enabled these women to overcome lack of support and encouragement in their emotional and intellectual development.

The self in transformation. Investigations of talent development tend toward outward success, fame, eminence, and greatness, thereby overshadowing high level of attainment in the intrapersonal domain. Inner transformation may be viewed as a creative process: the self as the object of discovery and creation. (For studies of moral exemplars and lives in transformation, see Colby & Damon, 1992; DeBenedetti, 1988; Everett, 1989; Piechowski, 1993, Sinetar, 1986). The measure of inner transformation is found in the person's lack of ego-involvement and deepening of inner peace.

Coda

In science, the study of anomalies leads to reevaluation of models and theories. In the study of talent formation, exceptional achievement that does not conform to current models opens a host of new questions. Consequently, I find myself unable to tie things neatly at the end. The complexity of extraordinary lives does not permit it.

In what direction do the current models of talent development and outstanding achievement need to evolve? The central role of personal strengths and inner resources of the individual calls for more emphasis on the self. Of the four models, Piirto's lends itself more readily to accommodating the variability in each of the necessary conditions; Feldman's stresses that great achievement is always an expression of individuality. Drivenness needs to be distinguished from deliberate application of will. The concept of entelechy deserves more study to see how it relates to the will and high level of energy. It is significant that fulfilling and self-actualizing lives are by their very nature connected and altruistic.

(1) I wish to thank Dr. David Henry Feldman for helpful discussions of this complex subject.

REFERENCES

Albert, R. S. (1980a). Family positions and the attainment of eminence. Gifted Child Quarterly, 24, 87-95.

Albert, R. S. (1980b). Exceptionally gifted boys and their parents. Gifted Child Quarterly, 24, 174-179.

Albert, R. S. (1994). The contribution of early family history to the achievement of eminence. In N. Colangelo, S. G. Assouline, & D. L. Ambroson (Eds.) Talent Development. Vol. 2 (pp. 311-360). Dayton, OH: Ohio Psychology Press.

Amabile, T., Phillips, E., & Collins, M. A. (1994). Person and environment in talent development: The case of creativity. In N. Colangelo, S. G. Assouline, & D. L. Ambroson (Eds.) Talent Development. Vol. 2 (pp. 265-280) Dayton, OH: Ohio Psychology Press.

Assagioli, R. (1965). Psychosynthesis. New York: Viking.

Assagioli, R. (1973). The act of will. New York: Viking.

Bloom, B. S. (1985) (Ed.). Developing talent in young people. New York: Ballantine.

Colby, A., & Damon, W. (1992). Some do care: Contemporary lives of moral commitment. New York: Free Press.

DeBenedetti, C. (1986). Peace heroes in twentieth century America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Ellenberger, H. F. (1972). The story of "Anna O": A critical review with new data. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 8, 267-279.

Everett, M. (1989). Breaking Ranks. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.

Feldman, D. H., with Goldsmith, L. (1986). Nature's gambit. New York: Basic Books.

Feldman, D. H. (1988). Creativity, dreams, insights, and transformation. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.) The nature of creativity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Frank, K. (1986). A voyager out: The life of Mary Kingsley. New York: Ivy Books.

Freeman, L. (1972). The story of Anna O. New York: Walker.

Gagne, F. (1991). Toward a differentiated model of giftedness and talent. In N. Colangelo & G. A. Davis (Eds.) Handbook of gifted education (pp. 65-80). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Gagne, F. (1995). From giftedness to talent: a developmental model and its impact on the language of the field. Roeper Review, 18, 103-111.

Gardner, H. (1993). Creating minds. New York: Basic Books.

Goertzel, M. G., Goertzel, V. & Goertzel, T. G. (1978). 300 eminent personalities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Jackson, P. S. (1995). Bright star: Black sky. Origins and manifestations of the depressed state in the lived experience of the gifted adolescent. M.A. thesis. Vermont College of Norwich University, Northfield, VT.

Kerr, B. (1985). Smart girls, gifted women. Columbus, OH: Ohio Psychology.

Lovecky, D. (1986). Can you hear the flowers singing? Issues for gifted adults. Journal of Counseling and Development, 64, 572-575.

Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personality. Second edition. New York: Harper & Row.

Mockros, C. A. (1997). The social context of extraordi-nary individuals. Advanced Development, 7, 19-38.

Peterson, J. S. (1997). Bright, tough, and resilient-and not in a gifted program. Journal for Secondary Gifted Education, 8, 121-136.

Piechowski, M. M. (1979). Developmental potential. In N. Colangelo & R. T. Zaffrann (Eds.) New Voices in counseling the gifted (pp. 25-57). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Piechowski, M. M. (1986). The concept of developmental potential. Roeper Review, 8, 190-197.

Piechowski, M. M. (1990). The heart of Leta S. Hollingworth. Roeper Review, 12, 228-234.

Piechowski, M. M. (1992). Inner growth and transformation in the life of Eleanor Roosevelt. Advanced Development, 2, 35-53.

Piechowski, M. M. (1993). Is inner transformation a creative process? Creativity Research Journal, 6, 89-98.

Piechowski, M. M., & Tyska, C. A. (1982). Self-actualization profile of Eleanor Roosevelt, a presumed nontranscender. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 105, 95-153.

Piirto, J. (1994). Talented children and adults. New York: Merrill.

Rubin, L. (1996). The transcendent child. New York: Harper.

Silverman, L. K., & Kearney, K. (1989). Parents of the extraordinarily gifted. Advanced Development, 1, 41-56.

Simonton, D. K. (1994a). Genius and giftedness: Parallels and discrepancies. In N. Colangelo, S. G. Assouline, & L. D. Ambroson (Eds.)Talent development. Vol. 2 (pp. 39-82). Dayton, OH: Ohio Psychology Press.

Simonton, D. K. (1994b). Greatness. New York: Guilford.

Sinetar, M. (1986). Ordinary people as monks and mystics. New York: Paulist Press.

Tannenbaum, A. J. (1983). Gifted children. New York: Macmillan.

Tannenbaum, A. H. (1991). The social psychology of giftedness. In N. Colangelo & G. A. Davis (Eds.) Handbook of Gifted Education (pp. 27-44). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Tannenbaum, A. H. (1997). The meaning and making of giftedness. In N. Colangelo & G. A. Davis (Eds.) Handbook of Gifted Education. Second edition (pp. 27-42). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Witzel, J. E. (1991). Lives of successful never-married women: Myths and realities. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Michael M. Piechowski is a professor of Education and Psychology at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin.