The Ghetto Savants: January 2009

7th European Congress of Community Psychology -Paris 2009!
They make great house guests.

Clinical Definition of Ghetto Savant

Ghetto Savant, sometimes abbreviated as ghettosavantism, is not a recognized medical diagnosis, but community psychologist Blaine Teamer defines it as a rare condition in which persons with environmental disorders (like being poor and/or from the ghetto) have one or more areas of expertise, ability or brilliance that causes a global paradigm shift and is in deep contrast with the individual's overall limitations (like being poor and/or from the ghetto). Teamer says the condition can be genetic, but can also be acquired, and coexists with other developmental disabilities such as being "too anything” (too fierce, too fly, too fab) or any dis-ease that occurs before (pre-natal) during (peri-natal) or after birth (post-natal), or even later in childhood or adult life.