Elaine Aron

Clinical and Research Psychologist, Theorist of High Sensitivity (1944 –)

Elaine Aron was born in the United States in 1944 and earned her doctorate in clinical psychology. Beginning her professional career as a Jungian analyst, Aron conducted research focused on personality psychology and individual differences. Her personal experiences and clinical observations led her to undertake a systematic investigation of a temperamental trait often misunderstood in society.Aron's core scientific breakthrough was the identification and conceptualization of an innate temperamental trait she termed 'High Sensitivity' or the 'Highly Sensitive Person' (HSP), which affects approximately twenty percent of the population. Her seminal 1996 work, 'The Highly Sensitive Person', framed this trait not as a weakness or pathology, but as a neurobiological difference characterized by deep processing, overstimulation, and emotional reactivity. She proposed that this trait carries an evolutionary advantage, functioning as a 'pause-to-check' strategy that notices environmental subtleties.Elaine Aron's work has introduced a new dimension to temperament research within psychology and prompted a significant paradigm shift in clinical practice. The concept of 'High Sensitivity' has transcended popular psychology and self-help literature to become a validated psychological construct considered in academic research and therapeutic approaches. By facilitating self-understanding and the normalization of internal experiences for millions, Aron has heightened societal awareness and contributed to the re-evaluation of sensitivity as a strength.

Elaine Aron — alıntılar

• “Calling our talent for the soul/spirit life something weak or only born from fear or from a need to be comforted is about the same as saying fish swim because they are too weak to walk, have some pitiful need to be in the water, and are just plain old afraid to fly.”
• “Shyness is the fear others are not going to like or approve of us. That makes it a response to a situation. It is a certain state, not an always-present trait. Shyness, even chronic shyness, is not inherited. Sensitivity is.”
• “Without HSPs in positions at the top in a society or organization, the warrior types tend to make impulsive decisions that lack intuition, use power and force abusively, and fail to take into account history and future trends.”
• “In the first twenty years we are given our curriculum. In the next twenty we study it.”
• “If someone caring for you became angry or dangerous, the conscious mind buried that information as too awful to acknowledge, even while your unconscious developed a deeply mistrustful attitude.”
• “While you go out into the world unconsciously seeking that long-desired security, without extensive experience with what you seek, you often repeat the same old mistakes, choosing again and again the same familiar sort of person who makes you feel insecure.”
• “Jung knew the prejudice in Western culture against the introverted. He could tolerate it when it came from the extraverted. But he felt that the introverted who undervalue themselves are truly doing the world a disservice.”
• “We HSPs do a great disservice to ourselves and others when we think of ourselves as weak compared to the warrior. Our strength is different, but frequently it is more powerful.”
• “Part of maturing into wisdom is transferring more and more of your sense of security from the tangible to the intangible containers.”
• “Envy can wake us up to one of two truths: We want something and better do something about it while we still can, or we want something and just cannot have it.”
• “It is very hard for us to see that the most spiritual thing might be to be less spiritual, the most insightful psychological stance might be to dwell less on our psychological insights.”
• “If the growing conditions are very poor, the leaves, flowers, and seeds barely appear. Likewise, as a child, you did not expose your sensitivity if your survival required different behavior.”
• “Kagan’s conclusion is that persons with the trait of sensitivity or inhibitedness are a special breed. They are genetically quite different, although still utterly human, just as bloodhounds and border collies are quite different, although both are still definitely dogs.”
• “Indeed, accepting the loneliness that goes with giftedness may be the most freeing, empowering step of all.”
• “Maybe we do not need Prozac. Maybe we need respect!”
• “Like the fire department, we HSPs mostly respond to false alarms.”
• “HSPs can reduce all rules of etiquette to a four-word rule: Minimize the other’s overarousal. (Or to two words: Be kind.)”
• “Unless devotion is given to the thing which must prove false in the end, the thing that is true in the end cannot enter.”
• “Today sacred spaces are quickly made mundane. They require great privacy and care if they are to survive.”
• “Like a plant, the kind of seed that goes into the ground—your innate temperament—is only part of the story. The quality of soil, water, and sun also deeply affects the grown plant that is now you.”
• “Being highly sensitive does not at all rule out being, in your own way, a tenacious survivor.”
• “For HSPs, the toughest task of all may have nothing to do with renouncing the world but involve going out and being immersed in it.”
• “HSPs prefer the good feeling of being very conscious, very human, even if what we are conscious of is not always cause for rejoicing.”
• “Actually, unfair as it is, the difficult aspects of any temperament are displayed more when the home environment is sound.”
• “Another, equally important part of growing up is no longer pretending we will be able to do absolutely everything. Life is short and filled with limits and responsibilities.”

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