|
Maslow early noted his impression that "impulsivity, the unrestrained expression of any whim, the direct seeking for 'kicks' and for non-social and purely private pleasures...is often mislabelled self-actualization."[28] In this sense, "self-actualization" is little more than what Eric Berne described as the game of '"Self-Expression"...based on the dogma "Feelings are Good"'.[29] Broader criticism from within humanistic psychology of the concept of self-actualization includes the danger that 'emphasis on the actualizing tendency...can lead to a highly positive view of the human being but one which is strangely non-relational'.[30] According to Fritz Perls there is also the risk of confusing "self-actualizing and self-image actualizing...the curse of the ideal."[31] By conflating "the virtue of self-actualization and the reality of self-actualization,"[32] the latter becomes merely another measuring rod for the "topdog" - the nagging conscience: "You tell me to do things. You tell me to be - real. You tell me to be self-actualized...I don't have to be that good!"[33] Barry Stevens remarks: "Abe 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."[34] According to Paul Vitz, this may be connected with the charge that "Rogers and Maslow both transform self-actualization from a descriptive notion into a moral norm.";[35] although if it is indeed as good a reality as they purport, then a certain eagerness in their communication is understandable. In general during the early twenty-first-century, "the usefulness of the concepts of self and self-actualization continue to attract discussion and debate."[36] Also, there may be a common feeling that the possibility of ‘self-actualization’ is reserved for those people who have been lucky in life and don’t have to struggle for their day-to-day survival in a dead-end job. Notwithstanding, Maslow (2011) suggested that it was very much about the attitude the individual brought to his/her life that might be the crucial catalyst for where one’s life and self-growth goes. There are many examples of when people have been in basically the same circumstances, but have turned out very differently, which might indicate that attitude can have an enormous bearing upon one's fate; however, there is always the question: what IS it that makes attitude different from person to person? |
About us|Jobs|Help|Disclaimer|Advertising services|Contact us|Sign in|Website map|Search|
GMT+8, 2015-9-11 21:55 , Processed in 0.149942 second(s), 16 queries .
