Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)

[Guest guest]

A letter

from Elaine Aron

See a list of international HSP websites here. Three new sites have been added: Japan, Denmark, and Israel.

Dear Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)

...or anyone raising a highly sensitive child (HSC),

Welcome to this website. Its goal is to introduce you to the trait of

high sensitivity--although the four books I have written and the

newsletter described here will all be more thorough introductions. To

begin, however, do take the self-test.

(If you want to answer the questions that determine if your child is

highly sensitive, click on the Highly Sensitive Child.) In a sense, the

test defines the trait better than anything else.

If you find you are a highly sensitive person, or your child is, then you need to be aware of the following points:

This trait is normal--it is inherited by 15 to 20% of the population,

and indeed the same percentage seems to be present in all higher

animals.Being an HSP means your nervous system is more sensitive to

subtleties. Your sight, hearing, and sense of smell are not necessarily

keener (although they may be). But your brain processes information and

reflects on it more deeply.Being an HSP also means, necessarily, that you are more easily

overstimulated, stressed out, overwhelmed.This trait is not something new I discovered--it has been mislabeled

as shyness (not an inherited trait), introversion (30% of HSPs are

actually extraverts), inhibitedness, fearfulness, and the like. HSPs can

be these, but none of these are the fundamental trait they have

inherited.The reason for these negative misnomers and general lack of research

on the subject is that in this culture being tough and outgoing is the

preferred or ideal personality--not high sensitivity. (Therefore in the

past the research focus has been on sensitivity's potential negative

impact on sociability and boldness, not the phenomenon itself or its

purpose.) This cultural bias affects HSPs as much as their trait affects

them, as I am sure you realize. Even those who loved you probably told

you, "don't be so sensitive," making you feel abnormal when in

fact you could do nothing about it and it is not abnormal at all.

See a list of international HSP websites here.

The book The Highly Sensitive Person

is a general introduction to the topic. It has now sold well over

300,000 in thirty-five printings, including in French, Dutch, Japanese,

Chinese, Portuguese and Greek.

The Highly Sensitive Person's

Workbook can be used alone, without the first book, although its

chapters parallel those in the first book. Its purpose is to help HSPs

integrate their understanding of their trait into their lives. I have

found that HSPs need to spend time reframing their past, getting used to

how to think and talk about themselves, and planning for a life based on a

deeper understanding of their basic nervous system. The Workbook

is designed for that. At the request of many, it also has a long section

on how to run a discussion group for HSPs. The Workbook was

previewed by HSPs who volunteered to give me feedback and as a result is

very user friendly, yet I think deep and thought-provoking.

In May 2000 The Highly Sensitive

Person in Love was published, a blend of my lifelong research

interest in close relationships and in HSPs. My research for this book

indicates that the role of temperament and temperament differences is an

important, sorely neglected topic in relationship counseling and also sex

education.

Some

couples who have read this book have told me that it has literally

saved their relationships, particularly the advice on how to view and

deal with differences in how they think and act, what they like to do,

and what irritates them about the other.

The newest book is The Highly Sensitive Child.

I wrote this book because so many adults were telling me that their

childhoods were excruciatingly difficult, even when their parents had

the best intentions, because no one knew how to raise them. Parents and

teachers told them there were "too sensitive" or "too shy" or "too

intense." My hope is to spare some children unnecessary suffering

because HSCs have a tremendous amount to offer the world. But they do

need special handling.

There are also opportunities to glean smaller bits of "sensitive wisdom" from my newsletter, Comfort Zone.

After many years of publishing on paper (1996-2004), it was time to

stop the costly paper version of it. Now all new articles will be

posted online. We are calling this new feature Comfort Zone ONLINE.

Over the years, the newsletter has become the center of a very special

HSP community, so, we hope this new means of communication will allow

many more people to see what had only been available by subscription in

the paper version of Comfort Zone, as everything at the website

will be FREE. No paper, postage, printing, or subscriptions. Please

join our mailing list by following the link at the bottom of any page

on this website. I will write a new article and post it here once every

three months: February, May, August and November. As soon as new

content is available, everyone who has joined our mailing list will

receive an email notice. Over time an online archive will build up.Back issues of the paper Comfort Zone issues, deeply discounted from the subscription price, are available for purchase through our online store while supplies last. For sample articles and a comprehensive list of the articles in back issues, click the button above.

There is also a 90-minute audio tape by me called

Appreciating the Trait of High Sensitivity, which reviews the basic ideas and answers a number of questions from a lively audience.

References

Elaine N. Aron and Arthur Aron (1997). "Sensory-Processing Sensitivity and Its Relation to Introversion and Emotionality," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 73, No. 2, 345-368.

E. N. Aron (2000). "High Sensitivity as One Source of Fearfulness and Shyness," in Extreme Fear, Shyness, and Social Phobia: Origins, Biological Mechanisms, and Clinical Outcomes. Eds. L. A. Schmidt and J. Schulkin. New York: Oxford University Press,pp. 251-272.

E. N. Aron (1996). "Counseling the Highly Sensitive Person." Counseling and Human Development, 28, 1-7.

E. N. Aron (2004). "The Impact of Temperament on Intimacy and Closeness." In The Handbook of Closeness and Intimacy. Eds. D. Mashek and A. Aron. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Aron, E. N., Aron, A., & Davies, K. (2005). "Adult Shyness: The

Interaction of Temperamental Sensitivity and a Negative Childhood

Environment." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 181-197.

Aron, E. N. (2004). "Revisiting Jung's Concept of Innate Sensitiveness." Journal of Analytical Psychology, 49, 337-367.

E. Aron, The Clinical Implications of Jungs Concept of

Sensitiveness, Journal of Jungian Theory and Practice, 8,2006, 11-43.

Available online at www.junginstitute.org or download the PDF

The three articles titled "Sensory-Processing Sensitivity and Its

Relation to Introversion and Emotionality," "Revisiting Jung's Concept

of Innate Sensitiveness," and "Adult Shyness: The Interaction of

Temperamental Sensitivity and a Negative Childhood Environment" can be

obtained easily online through university libraries, or perhaps from

the websites of the journals themselves. If you are a researcher and

cannot obtain these three online, reprints can be obtained by sending

$5.00 to cover postage to the PO Box address below. We cannot provide

the chapters at all, or the articles to the general public, because we

don't own the copyright. (Reprints of the articles are sent to fellow

researchers as a professional courtesy.)

Media or Researcher Contact Channels

Media contacts

requesting interviews or arranging for possible speaking opportunities,

and researchers seeking contact regarding the concept of high

sensitivity may write to Elaine Aron at:

P. O. Box 460564San Francisco, CA 94146-0564

or fill out the Media/Researcher Contact web form.