In episode 86, Chris and Emma mark five years of Positive Disintegration. On September 24, 2021, Chris wrote in their journal that they were starting a podcast with Emma that might finally help them connect a broader audience with Dabrowski’s theory. Five years later to the day, they recorded together in person at Emma’s home in the Illawarra.

For the anniversary, Chris fed our past transcripts and notes into Claude to generate reflection questions. This first session ran about two hours, so it’s split into two parts, and a second session follows, for four in-person episodes in all.

We start with the trip (the Royal Botanic Garden, a seafood platter with James, the mournful ravens, and a first taste of Vegemite in “toddler mode”) before getting into the questions:

* What “finally” meant, and why dialogue turned out to be what we both needed

* Building trust, including why Chris needed to know early on that Emma wasn’t transphobic

* Podcast mojo, the theory as a tether, and our decision to stop having guests

* Who actually showed up, from the 2024 Congress to a stranger in an Iowa convenience store

* Persona or authenticity, or why we tidy up a little for company

* What we’ve held back, and the balance between truth, values, and relationships

Part 2 is coming next.

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Connect with us

* Positive Disintegration on Substack

* Visit the Dabrowski Center website

* Facebook

* Instagram

* The Positive Disintegration YouTube Channel

* Adults with Overexcitabilities group on Facebook

* The Tragic Gift blog by Emma

* Email us at positivedisintegration.pod@gmail.com

* Please consider donating to the Dabrowski Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

* Find Positive Disintegration Merch

If you enjoyed this episode on Apple or Spotify, please remember to click on the stars and leave a rating or write a review. Thank you!

In episode 84, Chris and Emma returned after a break, and this episode marks a change. We dropped into the conversation without a guest, an intro, or any of the usual formalities—just the two of us talking about positive maladjustment in the way we are living it right now.

We talk about lived experience as the ground from which this theory makes sense, and why understanding it means having gone through something, not just having read about it. The conversation moves through Chris’s recent return to a decade of correspondence, the difference between learning a theory and recognizing yourself in it, and what it means to treat empathy and perspective-taking as skills built across a lifetime rather than fixed traits.

We are also honest about why the format is changing. We are moving away from guests and toward conversations about our own experiences with the theory—the practices that have served us, the ones that have not, and the ways our understanding has continued to develop. This is a period of reconfiguring and realigning with who we really are. It is going to be messy for a while. We ask listeners to bear with us as we do this work out loud.

Links from this episode

Emma’s DC2022 session (YouTube)

Origins paper Chris mentioned (PDF)

What Autopsychotherapy Is

Ep. 83: Voices at the Margins

Adults with Overexcitabilities (Facebook group)

PDA: Resistance and Resilience with Chris Wells and Marni Kammersell

Connect with us

* Positive Disintegration on Substack

* Visit the Dabrowski Center website

* Facebook

* Instagram

* The Positive Disintegration YouTube Channel

* Adults with Overexcitabilities group on Facebook

* The Tragic Gift blog by Emma

* Email us at positivedisintegration.pod@gmail.com

* Please consider donating to the Dabrowski Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

* Find Positive Disintegration Merch

If you enjoyed this episode on Apple or Spotify, please remember to click on the stars and leave a rating or write a review. Thank you!