Self-actualization

Self-actualization is a term that has been used in various psychology theories, often in different ways. The term was originally introduced by the organismic theorist Kurt Goldstein for the motive to realize one's full potential: 'the tendency to actualize itself as fully as possible is the basic drive ... the drive of self-actualization.' Carl Rogers similarly wrote of 'the curative force in psychotherapy – man's tendency to actualize himself, to become his potentialities ... to express and activate all the capacities of the organism.'As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed – an organized, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the 'I' or the 'me', together with the values attached to these concepts.Maslow was unhappy with what happened with many people when they read what he wrote about 'self-actualizing people'. What they did with it was very strange. I have received a fair number of letters saying 'I am a self-actualized person'. Maslow said that he must have left something out. Fritz (Perls) put it in. He saw that most people actualized a self-concept. This is not self-actualizing. Self-actualization is a term that has been used in various psychology theories, often in different ways. The term was originally introduced by the organismic theorist Kurt Goldstein for the motive to realize one's full potential: 'the tendency to actualize itself as fully as possible is the basic drive ... the drive of self-actualization.' Carl Rogers similarly wrote of 'the curative force in psychotherapy – man's tendency to actualize himself, to become his potentialities ... to express and activate all the capacities of the organism.' The concept was brought most fully to prominence in Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory as the final level of psychological development that can be achieved when all basic and mental needs are essentially fulfilled and the 'actualization' of the full personal potential takes place. Maslow defined self-actualization to be 'the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.' Maslow used the term self-actualization to describe a desire, not a driving force, that could lead to realizing one's capabilities. He did not feel that self-actualization determined one's life; rather, he felt that it gave the individual a desire, or motivation to achieve budding ambitions. Maslow's usage of the term is now popular in modern psychology when discussing personality from the humanistic approach. A basic definition from a typical college textbook defines self-actualization according to Maslow simply as 'the full realization of one's potential' and of one's 'true self.' Classical Adlerian psychotherapy also promotes this level of psychological development by utilizing the foundation of a 12-stage therapeutic model to realistically satisfy the basic needs. This then leads to an advanced stage of 'meta-therapy', creative living, and self/other/task-actualization. Gestalt therapy, acknowledging that 'Kurt Goldstein first introduced the concept of the organism as a whole,' which is built on the assumption that 'every individual, every plant, every animal has only one inborn goal – to actualize itself as it is.' Kurt Goldstein's book, The Organism: A Holistic Approach to Biology Derived from Pathological Data in Man (1939), presented self-actualization as 'the tendency to actualize, as much as possible, individual capacities' in the world. The tendency toward self-actualization is 'the only drive by which the life of an organism is determined.' However, for Goldstein self-actualization cannot be understood as a kind of goal to be reached sometime in the future. At any moment, the organism has the fundamental tendency to actualize all its capacities and its whole potential, as it is present in that exact moment, under the given circumstances. Under the influence of Goldstein, Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchical theory of human motivation in Motivation and Personality (1954). Carl Rogers used the term 'self-actualization' to describe something distinct from the concept developed by Maslow: the actualization of the individual's sense of 'self.' In Rogers' theory of person-centered therapy, self-actualization is the ongoing process of maintaining and enhancing the individual's self-concept through reflection, reinterpretation of experience, allowing the individual to recover, develop, change, and grow. Self-actualization is a subset of the overall organismic actualizing tendency, and begins with the infant learning to differentiate what is 'self' and what is 'other' within its 'total perceptual field,' as their full self-awareness gradually crystallizes. Interactions with significant others are key to the process of self-actualization:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0} The process of self-actualization is continuous as the individual matures into a socially competent, interdependent autonomy, and is ongoing throughout the life-cycle. When there is sufficient tension between the individual's sense of self and their experience, a psychopathological state of incongruence can arise, according to Rogers, 'individuals are culturally conditioned, rewarded, reinforced, for behaviors which are in fact perversions of the natural directions of the unitary actualizing tendency.' In Rogers' theory self-actualization is not the end-point; it is the process that can, in conducive circumstances (in particular the presence of positive self-regard and the empathic understanding of others), lead to the individual becoming more 'fully-functioning.' Abraham Maslow's book, Motivation and Personality (1954), started a philosophical revolution out of which grew humanistic psychology. This changed the view of human nature from a negative point of view - man is a conditioned or tension reducing organism - to a more positive view in which man is motivated to realize his full potential, which is reflected in his hierarchy of needs and in his theory of Self-actualization. Self-actualization is at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and is described as becoming ''fully human' ... maturity or self-actualization.' It's considered a part of Humanistic psychology, which is one of several methods used in psychology for studying, understanding, and evaluating personality. The humanistic approach was developed because other approaches, such as the psychodynamic approach made famous by Sigmund Freud, focused on unhealthy individuals that exhibited disturbed behavior; whereas the humanistic approach focuses on healthy, motivated people and tries to determine how they define the self while maximizing their potential. Stemming from this branch of psychology is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, people have lower order needs that in general must be fulfilled before high order needs can be satisfied: 'five sets of needs – physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, and finally self-actualization'. Theoretically, once these needs are met, an individual is primed for self-actualization. However, Maslow later suggested that there are two more phases an individual must progress through before self-actualization can take place. These include 'the cognitive needs,' where a person will desire knowledge and an understanding of the world around them, 'the aesthetic needs,' which include a need for 'symmetry, order, and beauty.' Once all these needs have been satisfied, the final stage of Maslow's hierarchy – self actualization – can take place. Maslow also added a further step beyond self-actualization, which is self-transcendence. Self transcendence occurs at the 'very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness.' Maslow's writings are used as inspirational resources. The key to Maslow's writings is understanding that there are no quick routes to self-actualization: rather it is predicated on the individual having their lower deficiency needs met. Once a person has moved through feeling and believing that they are deficient, they naturally seek to grow into who they are, i.e. self-actualization. Elsewhere, however, Maslow (2011) and Carl Rogers (1980) both suggested necessary attitudes and/or attributes that need to be inside an individual as a pre-requisite for self-actualization. Among these are a real wish to be themselves, to be fully human, to fulfill themselves, and to be completely alive, as well as a willingness to risk being vulnerable and to uncover more 'painful' aspects in order to learn about/grow through and integrate these parts of themselves (this has parallels with Jung's slightly similar concept of individuation). Although their studies were initially biologically centered (or focused around the more ordinary, psychological self-nature), both Maslow (2011) and Rogers (1980) became more open to 'spirituality' and grew to accept a more open and 'spiritual' conception of man before the end of their lives. Also, there have been many similarities and cross-references between various spiritual schools or groups (particularly Eastern spiritual ways) in the past 40 years. Sri Ramana Maharshi's description, that complete and spiritual self-realization is characterized by 'being' (sat), 'consciousness' (chit) and 'bliss' (ananda), can be seen as a reflection of humanistic thinking; the experience of a self-actualizing person partakes in these things to some degree: 'beingness', 'awareness', and 'meaningful happiness', even if one can go further than self-actualization into self-transcendence.