Abraham Maslow is the leading figure in the tradition of humanistic psychology and the modern Positive Psychology movement owes a huge debt to his theories. His 'Hierarchy of Needs' remains widely recognized and used. Nonetheless, the layperson knows surprisingly little about the pinnacle Maslow wants us to aspire to- Self-Actualization. Maslow's portrait is detailed and complex. Maslow describes the good life as one directed towards self-actualization, the pinnacle need. Self-actualization occurs when you maximize your potential, doing the best that you are capable of doing.
Maslow studied individuals whom he believed to be self-actualized, including Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein, to derive the common characteristics of the self-actualized person. Here are a selection of the most important characteristics, from his book Motivation and Personality :.
They are not threatened or afraid of it; instead, they accept it, are comfortable with it and are often attracted by it. They do not cling to the familiar. Maslow quotes Einstein:. She perceives herself as she is, and not as she would prefer herself to be.
With a high level of self-acceptance, she lacks defensiveness, pose or artificiality. Eventually, shortcomings come to be seen not as shortcomings at all, but simply as neutral personal characteristics. Nonetheless, while self-actualized people are accepting of shortcomings that are immutable, they do feel ashamed or regretful about changeable deficits and bad habits.
Our subjects are somewhat more likely to appreciate for its own sake, and in an absolute way, the doing itself; they can often enjoy for its, own sake the getting to some place as well as the arriving. Our social instincts can lead us to adopt models of desire that might not serve our interests. High Culture. Winner takes all, losers die, and participants have no choice but to play. Up Next. The Present.
There are two main types of sexual fantasies. One, however, is more destructive than the other. A certain degree of humility is required to demonstrate such an attitude, as well as the proclivity to judge people more by their character and less by their status and racial characteristics. The line that divides right from wrong, evil from good and moral from immoral can oftentimes be quite vague.
Our ability to make sane decisions when we orient ourselves through every social ecosystem is predicated upon our capacity to understand the importance of that vagueness. Nothing is absolute and many truths can be rebutted. Self-actualized people understand that well and try to act as if their life is designed around that idea. In general, they are fixed on ends rather than on means, and means are quite definitely subordinated to these ends.
Humor is a very debatable topic because humor, most of the time, is directed towards someone and this can implicitly communicate a level of hostility towards that someone. For self-actualized people things are quite straightforward:. It may also be called the humor of the real because it consists in large part in poking fun at human beings in general when they are foolish, or forget their place in the universe, or try to be big when they are actually small.
This can take the form of poking fun at themselves, but this is not done in any masochistic or clownlike way. Probably Lincoln never made a joke that hurt anybody else; it is also likely that many or even most of his jokes had something to say, had a function beyond just producing a laugh. They often seemed to be education in a more palatable form, akin to parables or fables. There is no limit to the degree one can engage in creative work. Creativity has an axiomatic character and that can help push through any mental barrier the thinking human may face.
In this sense, there can be creative shoemakers or carpenters or clerks. Whatever one does can be done with a certain attitude, a certain spirit that arises out of the nature of the character of the person performing the act.
One can even see creatively as the child does. The idea of enculturation is akin to the idea of groupthink. Maslow tries to shape the type of thinking that self-actualized people have maintained in order to not allow cultural imperatives to define their reality. Cultural influence does have pros and cons and, therefore, Maslow argues that in a world that attempts to impose certain norms upon us, it is the duty of self-actualized people to question those norms.
Maslow attempted to portray the archetype of the self-actualized person by collecting an amalgamation of characteristics exhibited by people he considered to be the perfect representation of this archetype.
As far as I am concerned, this constitutes a problem, for he relied on a very narrow group of people in order to create an all-encompassing narrative that can make his case sound epistemologically solid. Indeed, figures like Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein are celebrated by the whole of society as individuals that achieved remarkable things and whose personality and attributes we usually define as exemplary.
In the grand scheme of things, the possibility that such characteristics can be attained by anyone seems utopian to say the least. To dwell within the boundaries of this utopian pursuit is to inhabit a space whose intellectual topography is modeled almost entirely from ambitious assertions and the purpose of these assertions is to reinvent the meaning of our lives.
The person who wants to be self-actualized believes that he is worthy of self-actualization. And it is so because he makes it so. Our constitution is fluid and it is this fluidity that allows us to constantly innovate in the way we approach our relationship with ourselves and with each other. Ontological questions grow our appetite for life and through an interplay between the known and the unknown we will always define our mode of being and become more enamored with the machinations of the cosmos.
It is this interplay that will define if and when we can all reach this fascinating state that is self-actualization. When you want to discover the right path towards self-actualization, a simple daily action plan can create monumental changes in your life.
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