The “Discovery” of HSP

From “The Highly Sensitive Person” – Elaine Aron

Let me start with some history. First, I did not intend to write a self-help book. I explain this because some have imagined that I was just looking for a new angle to write a flashy book that would catch the public’s attention. Far from it. I began with some personal curiosity about the term after it had been applied to me by a psychotherapist. I read what I could find—almost nothing— about “sensitivity,” even though the term was often used in case descriptions. It was as though this lack was saying, “Of course we all know what sensitive means.”

Next, I did some interviews, with about forty people who thought they might be sensitive. Then my husband and I designed a self-report measure of it and began to study a little more deeply. The local newspaper got wind of it and published an article titled “Born to Be Mild” in the Sunday Lifestyle section, with a big photo of us. The response was huge. People were writing and calling me (pre-Internet), wanting to know more. So I finally agreed to do a lecture at the local library. It was standing room only, and many people were turned away. What was happening here?

To be obliging, I held a few courses in my living room, mostly listening to people giving good advice to each other, with me taking notes. Being an introvert, I did not want to do these courses anymore, so someone suggested I write a book. It was not easy finding a publisher. All the big ones either said, “Every one’s sensitive—no news here,” or “Not enough are highly sensitive—the market’s too small for us.” But the book did find a home, and meanwhile, our research on the subject progressed—not for the book, but for the sake of understanding this big thing I had by the tail.

Psychologists have asked me (and I’m sure more only thought but didn’t ask), “How could you have discovered an entirely new trait?” The answer is that sensitivity is not new at all but just difficult to observe by watching how people behave, which is usually how psychology proceeds. Hence, psychologists and people in general were coming up with names for it that were close but not quite on it, such as shyness, inhibitedness, or introversion. It is especially hard for others to observe our trait because it really means observing our not “behaving,” at least at first. Hence, assumptions were often made that we are anxious generally, or simply afraid of people, or don’t like them. Hardly. As I say in the book, 30 percent of HSPs are extraverts!

Further, we are so responsive to our environments that we can be somewhat like chameleons when around others, doing whatever it takes to fit in. All I “discovered” was a better term for the trait, and that meant a better understanding of it, because I happened to be in the position of being both a curious scientist and a highly sensitive person who could know this experience from the inside. (It also helped that my husband, not an HSP, is a consummate researcher.)