It's a combination of being raised by a non-HSP mother who thought I was flawed because I was sensitive, AND apparently a tendency among some type 4s to feel inherently flawed. At my age, I no longer believe that I'm inherently flawed, but as a kid I definitely thought there might be something wrong with me. The HSP in Love book describes an HSP with a preoccupied attachment as feeling insecure about their own worthiness but feeling good about others who seem "wonderful" and "better" than the HSP. This is caused by an inconsistent caregiver--completely unavilable at some times, intrusively overinvolved at other times--who was responding to her own needs, not the child's, so is never really available to the child.
