"He [Abraham Maslow] first sought* to rectify the growing 'misunderstanding of self-actualization as a static, 'perfect' state in which all human problems are transcended, and in which people 'live happily ever after' in a superhuman state of serenity or ecstasy. This is empirically not so.' Rather, he insisted, self-actualization is 'a development of personality which frees the person from the deficiency of growth, and from the neurotic...problems of life, so that he is able to face, endure, and grapple with the 'real,' problems [of] the human condition.'"
-- The Right to Be Human: A Biography of Abraham Maslow, Edward Hoffman, 1988, p. 256-257.
* in "Critique of Self-Actualization. I. Some Dangers of Being-cognition" in Journal of Individual Psychology 15 (1959), 24.
No comments:
Post a Comment