8 SUPER POWER OR SUPER

PROBLEM

When I first began my journey to understand high sensa-

tion-seekers, I honestly wondered what was wrong with them.

People who threw themselves off of buildings and out of airplanes,

chose the most unusual thing on the menu, and would pick a topic

of conversation that they knew would cause conflict? Who does

that?

Could Freud be right? Maybe Thanatos was stronger in high

sensation-seekers and created an unruly, pandemonium-loving per-

sonality. Was sensation-seeking some kind of death wish? Were

high sensation-seekers simply lackadaisical about the beauty and

fragility of life? Were theyactuallychaos junkies or adrenaline

addicts? Or was high sensation-seeking a neurological impairment

that makes people want to BASE jump or rollerblade downhill in

city traffic or try ever more challenging, even poisonous exotic

foods? I was baffled. It seemed, at the time, that what they really

sought was chaos.

For a low sensation-seeker like me, initially it was difficult

to intuitively understand the point of the activities that high sensa-

tion-seekers engaged in with such gusto. I even had more than a few

of my psychologist colleagues suggest that perhaps past trauma

contributed to their current “rash” behavior. However, after read-

ing hundreds of pages of research, logging hundreds more hours

interviewing high sensation-seekers, and observing them engage in

their seemingly outlandish activities, a more complex picture

began to come into focus.

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