Short abstract:

This presentation focuses on the circulation of knowledge about adult’s giftedness in France. I discuss the diffusion of that concept, how it operates a syncretism between clinical and neurocognitive concepts and how its popularization is a result of the evolution of mental health organization.

Long abstract:

This presentation explains how “gifted adult” (I.Q above 130) became a concept used in a therapeutic context. The concept of “gifted adult” has become more and more used in popular psychology since 2008 in France. Self-help books and clinical psychologists point out that giftedness is linked with personality traits (like sensitivity or empathy) and a different cognitive organization which can lead to difficulties or unsuitability. Within a few years, “gifted adult” became an important concept describing people in specific psychological needs. Based on a dataset of a corpus analysis of thirteen books about adult’s giftedness, an analysis of twelve interviews with gifted adults and an ethnography of online groups of gifted adults, I show that:

(i) Conceptions about adult giftedness are the extension of a French mobilization of gifted children’s parents. While this mobilization aims at getting school adjustments for the diagnosed child, for adults the diagnosis is used by therapists in a clinical context for people feeling unsuitable.

(ii) The conceptualization of giftedness as a clinical object always operates a syncretism between clinical and neurocognitive knowledge: if the “gifted brain” is often discussed in books as well as in interviews, clinical aspects (like suffering or feeling of unsuitability) are the main constituent of the discourses centered around giftedness.

(iii) The popularization of adult’s giftedness is also a result of the evolution of the mental health organization in France: the diagnostic conditions are in line with the mutations of the professional organization and a new conceptual framework in psychiatry.