Kazimierz Dabrowski refers to his view of personality development as the theory of Positive disintegration.
He regards symptoms of anxiety, psychoneurosis, and even some symptoms of psychosis as the signs of the Disintegration stage of this evolution, and therefore not always pathological..
Dabrowski feels that no growth takes place without previous disintegration.
He regards personality as primarily developing through dissatisfaction with, and fragmentation of, the existing psychic structure--a period of disintegration--and finally a secondary integration at a higher level.
Dabrowski postulates a developmental instinct--that is, a tendency of man to evolve from lower to higher levels of personality.
Integration is the opposite: evolution, psychic health, and adequate adaptation, both within the self and to the environment.
In general, Disintegration refers to involution, psychopathology, and retrogression to a lower level of psychic functioning.
Anxiety, psychoneurosis, and psychosis are symptoms of disintegration.
He defines Disintegration as disharmony within the individual and in his adaptation to the external environment.
Kazimierz Dabrowski refers to his view of personality development as the theory of Positive disintegration
