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Old 09-27-2006, 06:27 AM   #1
coberst
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Default A Means for Self-Actualizing

A Means for Self Actualization

Abraham Maslow defined a hierarchy of needs to be:
1) Biological and Physiological (water, food, shelter, air, sex, etc.)
2) Safety (security, law and order, stability, etc.)
3) Belonging and love (family, affection, community, etc.)
4) Esteem (self-esteem, independence, prestige, achievement, etc.)
5) Self-Actualization (self-fulfillment, personal growth, realizing personal potential, etc.)

This hierarchy makes us conscious of the obvious fact that we did not fret about the absence of self-esteem if we did not already have security nor did we worry about security if we did not have water to drink or air to breath.

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming ..."

I think that the area in which Western society fails most egregiously is in the matter of an intellectual life after schooling. We have a marvelous brain that goes into the attic after schooling is complete and is brought out only occasionally on the job or when we try to play bridge or chess.

It appears to me that the fundamental problem faced by most Western democracies is a lack of intellectual sophistication of the total population. Our colleges and universities have prepared young people to become good producers and consumers. The college graduate has a large specialized database that allows that individual to quickly enter the corporate world as a useful cog in the machine. The results display themselves in our thriving high standard of living, high technology corporate driven life styles.

We are excellent at instrumental rationality and deficient at developing the rationality and understanding required for determining normative values. It seems to me that our societies are not prepared intellectually for the demanding task ahead. The only solution seems to be a change that will significantly increase the intellectual sophistication of the society as a whole. We need a rising tide of intellectual sophistication and Self-Actualization might be the way for our adults to add an intellectual life to their acquisitions.

Maslow learned to distinguish “special talent creativeness” from “self-actualizing (SA) creativeness”,
which springs more directly from the personality, and showed itself in the ordinary affairs of daily life. This is all potentiality given to most people at birth and is generally lost or buried or inhibited, as the person becomes more acculturated. These self-actualizing humans “do not neglect the unknown, or deny it, or run away from it or try to make believe it is really known…They do not cling to the familiar, nor is their quest for the truth a catastrophic need for certainty, safety, definiteness, and order.”

The creativity of self-actualizing individuals is a derivative of their “greater wholeness and integration”. SA creativeness stress first the personality, individuality, character and attitude rather than accomplishments. Character traits, the habits of behavior, such as boldness, courage, freedom, spontaneity, perspicuity, integration, and self-acceptance express itself in the creative life. “It is emitted like sunshine.”

What means do we have to consciously help us to become self-actualizing adults? I think that self-actualization can best come through self-learning (autodidactic).

I would like to introduce a concept that perhaps many have not given consideration. I would like to introduce post-schooling scholarship. I do not use the word ‘scholarship’ to mean some form of education stipend. I mean ‘scholarship’ as tailor-made learning. The individual creates her or his own learning in a process of developing a Self-Actualizing person.

I think we have placed scholarship on a too lofty pedestal and in doing so we have placed it beyond reach or consideration. I want to suggest that middle class scholarship is something that we all should consider as a friend to be embraced as our own.

The development of an economic middle class is the hallmark of success in any mature nation. I think it is possible that the development of a scholarly middle class could represent a similar development in the life of democracy of a nation. We might express the concept as middle class scholarship or post-schooling scholarship.

I think that post-schooling scholarship is a means to self-actualization. If you do not find this to be a means for self-actualization what means would you suggest?
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Old 09-27-2006, 09:49 PM   #2
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

I think I'm scared of the real world because I don't want to lose using my mind. I know I don't have the experience and hence knowledge about this, but I've certainly thought about this before, just not in so many words.
I don't want to grow up, to become an adult, because then we don't have the time to self-actualize. I did so many extra-curricular activities as a kid, and I always wanted to do more. What do I do now? Nothing much. Well, I rant on the occasional forum.

I'm not so much going to answer your question, but thrash at your ideological dreams. As much as I'd love to see myself and others become self-actualized, as I said again, I see adulthood almost definitively as NOT being that, whereas as kids, we're allowed and encouraged to be that way. As adults, there're other responsibilities one must have, and unless self-actualization to you means paying the bills, organizing your life and raising kids, then I just don't see a whole lotta time there for it. I view the responsibility of adulthood as a thorn in the side of my self-actualization, and I haven't really even entered it yet. Perhaps if I lived in a world where the middle class weren't dwindling away, and I wouldn't feel like I'd have to constantly fight to keep myself afloat and climb a long ladder in order to self-actualize only a small part of me, while ignoring other parts of me which are screaming to get attention, maybe then I could see adulthood as a place where I'd be able to self-actualize.
I certainly know that my own self-actualization involves learning and teaching myself.
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Old 09-27-2006, 10:22 PM   #3
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

I think that part of the problem is that life is incredibly demanding nowadays. Families are forced to send both parents into the work place in order to survive, often times with one or more parent taking two jobs.

That doesn't leave a lot of time for anything other than making money. I know that back when I was working, I'd get home and simply be drained. I didn't have the desire to do anything other than veg out for awhile while my mind unwound from the day's stresses.

Basically, realizing self-actualization is something that someone has to do on their own. I don't mean that in the sense that it must soley be an individual endeavor (wife/husband is often someone you more or less have to take along for the ride if you want to keep them around), but that society isn't going to initiate it for you like ours does with public schooling or what have you.

Taking up hobbies that utilize the side of your brain you don't often get to use in your daily life is very healthy, I think. Essential, even, if one doesn't want to experience a mid-life crisis.
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Old 09-27-2006, 10:27 PM   #4
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Families wouldn't be forced to send 2 parents out to work if that family were middle class instead of becoming poor.

I've already experienced crisis, quite possibly from failure to be able to continue self-actualizing.
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Old 09-27-2006, 10:36 PM   #5
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Well, Cav, not really anymore. My brother and his wife both have to work a full time job right now more or less to get by. They have a baby and an apartment and then just the usual car payment type stuff. Living is just really expensive anymore.

Actually, I take that back. They just moved in with her parents (dad is friggin' loaded so their house is enormous) because my brother is going to go full time med school to become a doctor. They are only going to be able to get by through help of family. A lot of people don't have that option either because their parents hate them, they hate their parents, or their folks simply can't afford to keep them around, and probably a myriad of other reasons.
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Old 09-28-2006, 07:55 PM   #6
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Which is exactly my point. Hard-working people should have enough to do more than just squeeze by. I don't care if you're the garbage truck driver. There's absolutely no reason why it should be necessary to do things like find free care for your child because both you and your spouse have to work just in order to have a home and food. I've heard from multiple people that the cost of living has increased, but that lower-end salaries are not increasing with it. Just look at minimum wage. It's barely adequate. Middle class is shrinking and hard-working people are living below the poverty line. Well, in canada and the states. This is wrong.
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Old 09-28-2006, 08:31 PM   #7
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

OH, so you are saying that there really isn't a middle class?

I thought you meant more along the lines of if that family was middle class, they'd be fine.

I think I get what you mean now.
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Old 09-28-2006, 09:24 PM   #8
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Yes, that middle class doesn't exist very much anymore, that people like your brother and his family who would've been middle class 30 years ago with the work they're probably doing, aren't middle class in the here and now. Like me, I if I weren't living at home, I would be essentially living from paycheck to paycheck. This is not middle class.

Last edited by Cavernio; 09-28-2006 at 09:26 PM..
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Old 09-29-2006, 12:00 AM   #9
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Going to talk about something said in the first post and that's it.

People don't use their brains after schooling, this is false. There are MANY jobs that require people to use their brains after schooling (assuming you mean after high school/4 year college)

Doctor/Surgeon: 7 years in post high school education, +5 for specialties and has to learn new technologies all the time.

Scientific researcher: on the forefront of science, has to use their brain to its full extent every day or they're out of a job.

Teachers: Maybe not in every subject, but in many subjects they have to keep up, such as math, english and science. English they keep up with literature and read many papers meaning that they have to excersize their brain grading, math becaues well, it's math and that is pretty much proven to exercise your brain, and science because science involves math. I'm talking at a high school or college level, not elementary school.

Entrepreneur: Obviously people who are starting their own business put a huge amount of thought into the ways they run the business for success and optimal profits.

Accountant: Math again.

Lawyer: Researching cases and formulating complex arguements requires constant brain use.

Engineer: Has to do lots of problem solving and calculations.

Computer programmer: Has to learn new programming languages to keep updated.

Architects: Has to use the creative facility of their brain aswell as making lots of measurements.

I'm sure I'm missing out on quite a few too, just because there are jobs that require no mental work, does not mean that most jobs allow us to throw out our brain. Although not everyone can be an engineer or a doctor, there are many other career options that people who have the brain to begin with can keep using it.

Obviously if you have no mathematical skills, no language skills, no joy for sciences, then what is wrong with putting your brain away after college? Chances are it wasn't being fully utilized in the first place, it's not going to make much of a difference.

If you actually made this post and didn't just copy it from somewhere (I don't know if you did, I'm not accusing, it just seems like it could have been pasted from a magazine or something.) then I'd love for you to explain why you think that everyone puts their brain to rest after school.

Also, people who are smart will use their mind regardless of their profession, and it will generally enhance their performance (or quality of life if they are not working). For example, my dad works in management at a company, this could be a real do nothing job, except if he treated it like that instead of using his brain on the job he'd still be an assistant supervisor instead of in upper management.
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Old 09-29-2006, 05:01 AM   #10
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Hr2

You are correct people "use their brain" on the job. I am thinking about using our brain for things other than our job or our day to day problems. I am thinking about developing an intellectual life.


Hobbies are ways in which many individuals express their individuality. Those matters that excite an individual interest and curiosity are those very things that allow the individual him or her to self-understanding and also for others to understand them. Interests define individuality and help to provide meaning to life. We all look for some ideology, philosophy or religion to provide meaning to life.

When examining psychosis the psychiatrist advises either the establishment of an interpersonal evolvement or for finding interests and perhaps new patterns of thought. Many of us find that our work provides that means for identity and personal fulfillment.

None of us have discovered our full potentialities or have fully explored in depth those we have discovered. Self-development and self-expression are relatively new ideas in human history. The arts are one means for this self-expression. The artist may find drawing or constructing sculptures as a means for self-discovery. The self-learner may find essay writing of equal importance. Consciousness of individuality was first become a possibility in the middle Ages. The Renaissance and further the Reformation enhanced the development of individual identification.

As technology developed there grew a further enhancement of the perception of the individual. It was in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1674 that the word “self” took on the present modern meaning of “a permanent subject of successive and varying states of consciousness”. “Self” as an instance of compounds with other words appeared over this period of time. Self-knowledge (1613), self-examination (1647). Self-interest (1649).

The word “individual” moved from the indivisible and collective to the divisible and distinctive. In this we see the development of an understanding of self-consciousness thus illustrating the dramatic change taking place in our developing understanding of the self as a distinct subject not just a cipher in a community. This was part of the Renaissance.

I recommend that each of us develop the hobby of an intellectual life. We could add to our regular routine the development of an invigorating intellectual life wherein we sought disinterested knowledge; knowledge that is not for the purpose of some immediate need but something that stirs our curiosity, which we seek to understand for the simple reason that we feel a need to understand a particular domain of knowledge.
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Old 09-29-2006, 03:38 PM   #11
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Stop saying about a million things unrelated to the topic at hand, I'm not reading them. Being concise is part of an effective arguement.

Want people to start doing something "intelligent" outside of work? Easy, instead of simply teaching kids to read in school, develop a system to help kids find books that they enjoy and have them read them. Instead of having to do evil reports on them, just have simple writes to prove the kids read the book, have the actual reading the main task and not the book report afterwards. This takes the "bad" out of reading and will mean that more kids and teens will read books. Reading is a great activity that uses the mind, sure not everyone is going to be able to get through that big Russian novel, but if everyone finds what they like, then reading is great.

Also, not everyone is interested in an intellectual life and that is perfectly ok. There are many people who would say that adults need to spend more time exercising and playing sports, and need to worry less about their jobs and hobbies. It is all up to the individual, I believe that some schooling changes could make a positive difference overall. However, it is ultimately up to the individual, if they do not enjoy it then WHY should they do it? I would like to know that, I don't see any reason for doing intellectual activities outside of your job. I do them because well, I think they're fun. I don't play sports outside of gym class, but other people do because they think they're fun.

I really don't see where you are going with this.

ps. your posts are very ****ty and annoying, trying to be smart by posting these half assed and half witted essays ends up making you look like a pretentious ****tool, and not like the smart person you're failing at looking like. Please god, if it can be said in one sentence don't write 10.
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Old 09-29-2006, 08:38 PM   #12
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Quote:
I recommend that each of us develop the hobby of an intellectual
Ideal but unrealistic.


I won't believe for a minute people are born equally, or that we will ever be equal. People arn't born with the same brains. People arn't born into the same families with the same environments. It would be impossible for this to ever be fullfilled. (unless you want to contemplate artificial intelligence integrated into us XD)


But I think there should be more of a cultural emphasis on intellectualism. As a society, especially in the youth, indirectly relating to what hr2 was saying, there is no emphasis on intelligence anymore.



School is uninteresting. The purpose of school is not to learn but to push capitalism in a practical but uneffective way that is almost antilearning in the way it is presented to the students.

The system is severely flawed and inevitably governed by the media. This paired with little to no emphasis in both the home and from the media to become an intellect, there are few and far between.

And I wouldn't expect this tread to magically change anytime soon, either >.> The population is becoming fat and stupid. The average IQ is dropping, the average weight is going up, and it becoming ever more difficult at the elite levels, such as university, to succeed.

Quote:
ps. your posts are very ****ty and annoying, trying to be smart by posting these half assed and half witted essays ends up making you look like a pretentious ****tool, and not like the smart person you're failing at looking like. Please god, if it can be said in one sentence don't write 10.
unnecessary.
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Old 09-30-2006, 08:06 AM   #13
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

We live in a culture of ‘sound bites’ and ‘bumper stickers’. But in a world of complex ideas these just fail to ‘cut the mustard’.

This gets to what I mean by intellectual sophistication. All of these matters are very complex and they are very important. When we depend upon our childhood conceptions we make a serious error.

When I was a child I thought as a child, but now I am a man and must learn to think like a man. An intellectual sophisticated man or woman has taken their childhood concepts and have remolded them in to a form suitable to the thinking of a sophisticated woman or man.
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Old 09-30-2006, 04:03 PM   #14
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

Ignorance is bliss.

The internet is making its own media, and as long as it remains free, then this seems an ideal time for changes to happen.

I don't know why people are always thinking that the world's going to hell in a handbag. Why do people always see society as getting worse and never better? I'm not convinced of that, even though I see many parts of it as getting worse.

School can easily be a learning experience if you make it one.

Detailing a history of something is hardly a waste of space. However, saying self-development is something fairly new in human history, I don't believe that for a minute. Art is found as far back as the earliest humans found.

If I were to knock out something about schoolwork, it would be the test about the book, not the book report. The book report is the thing which makes you think about it and which teaches you how to write also. Also, there's nothing wrong with making kids read something they may not like. It's called expanding your horizons. How else can one learn to know what they do or don't like if one's not exposed to it? The book report is a reason to explain why you didn't like it, or why you liked it, etc. I can see the poor teacher, reading each and every book each of their students has chosen, and then making individual tests about it. Not feasible.

Does anyone know anyone who doesn't think doing intellectual activities is fun?
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Old 10-1-2006, 03:39 AM   #15
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

coberst has made my least favorite posters list, stop saying random things that don't relate to anything.

Actually, it's not the fault of the schools, it's the fault of the economic structure of the country.

The smartest people make the least money (I don't mean the least, or necessarily the smartest, but I'm speaking in extremes to make a point). You look at scientists, my mother was an organic chemist working dilligently in research for 10-15 years, making about $60-70,000 a year for graduating second in her class in chemistry and having a masters in organic chemistry. If you look other professions you can make much more. In business being in upper management will make you easily over $200,000 a year, while being at the top may make you millions. In law you can make hundreds of thousands as a good lawyer, or millions as a sleazy one. There is simply not enough reason to go into science.

I personally LOVE chemistry, but why would I ever go into chemistry? It's worthless field to anyone who likes money. Which is why I plan on going into medicine, if I don't make it there, obviously business or finance (if I can't have science and money, I may aswell have money)

Having an intellectual lifestyle does not matter, it should only matter if you enjoy it. Everyone should be given the chance to enjoy it, and continue it at their own choice, but I believe that there are people who will never enjoy it no matter what, we (people who enjoy things that are stimulating of the mind) have to realize that not everyone gets the bliss you do from it, some people would rather spend their time gossiping or playing sports. What you consider unneccessary and a waste of time, they consider essential to their happiness.

The problem is that only a certain amount of people are cut out to be intellectuals, and others simply don't work. You can take someone stupid and force them to do lots of intellectual type activities, and he won't be any better to be around than someone stupid who just wants to gossip and watch Jerry Springer. And someone smart who just wants to gossip and watch Jerry Springer is probably more interesting to converse with them someone stupid who tries to be intelligent.
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Old 10-2-2006, 12:35 PM   #16
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Default Re: A Means for Self-Actualizing

The only reason people like money is so that they can do/have something with their money. I'd prefer to do something which I like which also happens to give me money, not do something I don't particularly like so that the rest of the time I can spend it on things I do like. 60-70$ is far from bad money. Your mom is also a woman, and was probably making less money because of that, especially since you used past tense there. My time is more important to me than any money. But to each their own.
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Old 10-2-2006, 04:23 PM   #17
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