Near the end of a profile of Bill and Hillary Clinton in The American Scholar ("The Clintons Up Close" by Jane Warwick Yoder and Edwin M. Yoder Jr.) appears the intriguing paragraph:

Psychologist John Gartner, in his persuasive book In Search of Bill Clinton (2008), applies the term "hypomanic temperament" to Bill Clinton. I read the book with the eye of a Clinton friend but also with the eye of a practicing psychotherapist. The term "hypomanic" doesn't sound flattering, but Gartner considers it a positive quality—useful in describing one who is exuberant, garrulous, quick thinking, a risk taker, occasionally overzealous with the opposite sex. He doesn't regard this cast of temperament as a personality or character disorder. Brains are sometimes wired this way.

Official symptoms of Hypomania, according to the DSM are:

• inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
• decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)
• more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
• flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
• distractibility (i.e., attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli)
• increase in goal-directed activity (at work, at school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation
• excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g., engaging in unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments)

Hypomania came to mind a few days ago when a young fellow sat down next to me on the Metro and started talking. He sketched out his life in a cheery torrent of words: divorced earlier this week, eager for change in his life, frustrated by the need to "turn down the volume" on his intelligence around most people, excited about the future. He displayed a girlfriend's photo on his cellphone, which he dropped and picked up. He gave me his business card. Throwing caution off of the train, I gave him mine. The divorce, I suggested gave him a "Get Out of Jail Free" card good for the next month (at least). Maybe he should do something outrageous — travel, hike the Appalachian Trail, go back to school for a new degree?

Hypomanic? He sure acted that way. And though self-assessment is fuzzy-rough, many hypomanic characteristics sound like they could describe, uh, me. So some dear friends have hinted, delicately, at times. (But "hypersexuality"? Only in my dreams!)

(cf. Strengthsfinder (2008-01-24), Hogan Development Survey (2010-04-18), ...) - ^z - 2012-10-28