Today's soundtrack is The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: While We're At It.
This afternoon, I'm reading the third chapter of A.H. Maslow's The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, "Self-Actualizing and Beyond."
Maslow says that the beginnings of his study into what self-actualizing is began when he wanted to find out what made two of his teachers so remarkable. He started taking notes on their traits, and realised that there were some common characteristics between the two people - they were the same "type" of person. They were people who were above the average.
Self-actualizing people, says Maslow, are "involved in a cause [...] outside of themselves" (p. 42). They devote their lives to the "ultimate values [...] of being" (p. 42): "Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Wholeness, Dichotomy-transcendence, Aliveness, Uniqueness, Perfection, Necessity, Completion, Justice, Order, Simplicity, Richness, Effortlessness, Playfulness, Self-sufficiency" (p. 129, each item the heading of an explanation about it on that page).
People who have not met their soul's need to achieve these ultimate values will suffer "metapathologies--the sicknesses of the soul" (p. 43).
"When in doubt, be honest rather than not."
There are eight behaviours involved with self-actualization.
The first is "experiencing fully, vividly, selflessly, with full concentration and total absorption" (p. 44).
Second, we must repeatedly choose between "a progression choice and a regression choice" (p. 44).
Third, we must recognize ourselves as a being who already exists; we are independent and must make our own choices and our own statements.
Fourth, take responsibility when responsibility is yours and, "when in doubt, be honest" (p. 45).
Fifth, be consistent in making choices and in being honest, so that you can self-assuredly make statements that are true and honest, even if it makes you "different, unpopular, nonconformist" (p. 46).
Sixth, use your intelligence. Find your possibilities and limits. Find what you are devoted to do and become the best at it.
Seventh, set yourself up to be more likely to achieve peak experiences by not pursuing something that you are not good at or interested in, recognizing your limits, etc.
Eighth, practice breaking through your own defenses. Practice being honest with yourself about what you are or aren't talented in, or driven to do. Be honest with yourself if you are very good at doing something that scares you.
One of the defenses that we must break down Maslow calls "desacralizing" (p. 47) - protecting oneself by removing the sanctity of things. To self-actualize, we must practice "resacralizing" (p. 48) - to see things the way the poets do, the way that we did before we were jaded by hypocrites.
So we can see that self-actualization is not a milestone, but a road we travel.
How can a counselor foster his client's self-actualization? They must be like an older brother, for "[t]he older brother is the loving person who takes responsibility[; he] knows more; he's lived longer, but he is not qualitatively different, and he is not in another realm of discourse" (p. 49). It must take the Taoist route of letting a person uncover the things that need to be changed. Only then should the counselor guide the person along the path to self-actualizing. Along that path are such steps as "[l]earning to break through one's repressions, to know one's self, to hear the impulse voices, to uncover the triumphant nature, to reach knowledge, insight, and the truth" (p. 51).
