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Source ISBN: 9780722538968

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2014 ISBN: 9780007384778

Version: 2021-03-18

Dedication

To Irene Bernardicou Pettit, Ph.D.

– being both poet and peasant,

she knew how to plant this seed

and tend it until it blossomed.

To Art, who especially loves the

flowers – one more love we

share.

Epigraph

I believe in aristocracy, though—if that is the right word, and if a democrat may use it. Not an aristocracy of power … but … of the sensitive, the considerate.… Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. Thousands of them perish in obscurity, a few are great names. They are sensitive for others as well as themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure …

E. M. Forster, “What I Believe,”

in Two Cheers for Democracy

Are You Highly Sensitive? A Self-Test

1 The Facts About Being Highly Sensitive: A (Wrong) Sense of Being Flawed

2 Digging Deeper: Understanding Your Trait for All That It Is

3 General Health and Lifestyle for HSPs: Loving and Learning From Your Infant/Body Self

4 Reframing Your Childhood and Adolescence: Learning to Parent Yourself