"Dr. Jacobsen has done her homework and added her own creative insights to synthesize the key characteristics and dynamics of gifted adults. Everyone interested in maximizing intelligence, creativity, or productivity will want to read this book. There are useful tools and illustrations for removing roadblocks and making the most of talent—whether in the workplace, in the classroom, or at home. Exceptional adults will recognize themselves in the pages of this book. She takes readers beyond the myths and stereotypes about talent and genius. Her emphasis on the personality traits of giftedness is bound to spark controversy and add momentum to the ongoing debate about what it means to be gifted. Dr. Jacobsen unabashedly confronts our culture's constant attempts to beat down creative spirit and uncommon intelligence. She makes a cogent argument for why keeping potentiality under wraps is dangerous."

- Maureen Neihart, Psy.D.,
former member Board of Directors for the National Association for Gifted Children,
Advisory Board member and contributind editor for the Roeper Review,
contributing editor to Gifted Child Quarterly and The Journal for Secondary Gifted Education

A Revolutionary Guide

In The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide for Identifying and Mastering Your Exceptional Gifts, Dr. Mary-Elaine Jacobsen offers a new freedom to America's 20-million gifted adults whose most fundamental traits -- Intensity, Complexity, and Drive -- are frequently misidentified as liabilities instead of their greatest assets. In this groundbreaking work about the psychology and personality of gifted adults, Jacobsen challenges our most basic assumptions about what it means to be smart.

Jacobsen, a psychologist who specializes in working with unidentified gifted adults and adolescents, believes that Everyday Geniuses—i.e. liberated gifted adults—are the most under-identified group of potential achievers in our society.  The vast majority of them have never been properly identified as gifted. Initially, nearly all of them resist the notion of being "gifted", and with good reason given the widespread misconceptions and stereotypes. Gifted people typically water down their abilities: "I may be smart and creative and I'm a hard worker, but that's nothing special."  They nearly always exclude themselves from the gifted group and point to the proverbial "others"—the famous prodigies—as the ones who are truly gifted.

Contrary to popular belief, the number one obstacle for gifted adults is self doubt. In fact, no matter how confident they look on the outside, research shows that other people nearly always think more highly of them than they do of themselves. Indeed, they are their own worst critics.  That's why this book shows them how to turn upside-down judgments of them right side up by offering them new ways to respond to old criticisms like:

• You're so sensitive!
• You worry about everything.
• You'd better slow down.
• Do you have to do everything the hard way?
• Can't you just stick with one thing?
• Stop being such a perfectionist!
• Where do you get all those wild ideas?

Everyday Geniuses are the idea people all around us—millions of them in every corner of our society. They are intense, endlessly inquisitive individuals who are exceptional problem finders as well as creative problem solvers.  Extremely energetic, they can be totally absorbed in projects or constantly switching gears. Gifted adults stand out because they are hard-wired to experience the world in fundamentally different ways from those around them. They are like finely tuned radar systems that pick up everything.  Highly sensitive to stimuli that others may never notice, many people blame them for being touchy over-reactors. However, it is this same heightened awareness that tweaks their built-in sense of the ideal, which in turn drives them to be the truth-tellers who dare to question the status quo and give progress a forward push.

Over-emphasis on IQ is out of date because IQ alone leaves out the critical personality factors. Besides, even though most people believe they know their IQ, the vast majority of them have never actually been tested!  Jacobsen offers an in-depth personality-type profile reminiscent of the Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram that is far richer than standard intelligence tests, to help you or the unidentified Everyday Genius™ in your life, rate themselves and your potential for evolutionary intelligence.

She also offers the practical guidance the Everyday Genius™ so desperately needs to eliminate self-sabotage and low self-esteem, to put an end to procrastination, under-achieving, and dumbing down to fit in, and to solve relationship problems that so often result from misunderstandings between the gifted and those around them.  Equally important is the advice she gives those who live and work with the Everyday Genius, including critical insights for parents of gifted children, on how to recognize and enjoy the human dynamo in their midst.

By discovering that the so-called "excesses" of their complex personalities are in truth the foundations of excellence, Everyday Geniuses finally understand that what they've been told is "wrong" with them is actually what's "right" about them.  Readers will echo what Dr. Jacobsen's clients exclaim: "This changes everything!"   They learn to value and manage their differences, develop new strategies for being authentic, more successful and more fulfilled in their daily lives.  Instead of running away from their differences they come back to the original meaning of "genius"—a guiding inner force—and learn to trust themselves from the inside out. Then, and only then, can Everyday Geniuses stop being defensive and start living out their dreams.

For too long, the gifted have had to go through life lost in a culture that has no way to understand, much less support them. And, like the unsuspecting swan in the Ugly Duckling story, without a new way to see why they are different, the happiness and invaluable contributions of millions of Everyday Geniuses will be locked down by faulty assumptions and painful conformity.

Finally, there is The Gifted Adult, the guidebook that helps them identify and accept their personalities and abilities, nurture their creative spirits, and sets them free to fully develop their potential and apply their exceptional gifts!

"Combining an academic approach as a former teacher as well as her personal experience as a mother of gifted children, clinical psychologist Mary-Elaine Jacobsen creates a mental geography for Everyday Genius® that is accessible to millions of adults. Using scientific research in the psychological literature as a basis, together with case studies as examples, and metaphors to enhance reflectiveness, Jacobsen has managed to provide usable mechanisms for personal validation and to expand our options for self-actualization."

 - Ruthan Brodsky, Editor of the Roeper Review, a journal on gifted education

©1999 by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen and Everyday Genius® is a registered trademark of Mary-Elaine Jacobsen.
For more informtion visit and register at the International Society for Gifted Adults & Advocates.