Self-Actualisation

"Self-actualizing" human beings are people who enjoy life to the full. They are adapted to life within a culture but are unspoiled in the process of acculturation. They place no unrealistic or neurotic demands on reality, perceiving it clearly and accepting it for what it is. They do not feel threatened by the unknown and are free from superstitions. Without shame, guilt or anxiety, they accept their own nature and that of others. They accept human nature, seeing it for what it is and not as they would prefer it to be. They feel uncomfortable when they see discrepancies in people"s natures. They have a distinct quality of detachment and strong sense of privacy.
Resisting cultural influences, they are autonomous and independent. With a genuine desire to help others, they identify with humanity and are democratic in their thinking. They prefer a few profound friendships to many superficial ones. They have a philosophical and unhostile sense of humour. They will intentionally hurt another only when it is good for that person. They are in short altogether.

Alfred Gockel: Beyond Square IV

The self-actualized human being has "the wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy, however stale these experiences may have become to others. Thus for such a person, any sunset may be as beautiful as the first one, any flower may be of breath-taking loveliness, even after he has seen a million flowers. They frequently experience such ecstatic moments of clear perception of reality, for which Maslow coined the term "peak-experience." They are deeply and essentially spontaneous and non-conforming. "…they have impulses. They work, they try, and they are ambitious, even though in an unusual sense.
For them motivation is just character growth, character expression, maturation, and development; in a word, self actualization." He called this type of motivation "Being-motivation" and "meta-motivation" in contrast to the control of so-called "deficiency motivation" of "ordinary mankind." As a result of meta-motivation and the clear perception of reality, self-actualizing people show "in one way or another a special kind of creativeness or originality or inventiveness… (similar to that of) …unspoiled children… (which seems to be) …a fundamental characteristic of common human nature — a potentiality given to all human beings at birth" and lost by many people during the process of enculturation.

"Problem centered" rather than "means centered," self-actualizing people are not confused by means and ends, by problems and methods in scientific investigation. "Problem centered" rather than "ego centered" they see the problem and solutions as they are rather than as they would like them to be.
Significantly, they perceive many so-called "problems" as merely pseudoproblems resulting from an ego-centered mental process which dichotomizes and distorts reality. For the self-actualizing person, false dichotomies are resolved, "the polarities disappear, and many oppositions thought to be intrinsic merge and coalesce with each other to form unities." The list of false dichotomies includes "reason-emotion," "mystic-realistic," and "self-society."

From Richard Lowry "Abraham Maslow: An Intellectual Portrait."

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Wessam Adib from UAE originaly Egypt wrote on Sunday, July 12, 2009 18:30

Hello! First thanks for the information of the German web site of Tyros 2. I downloaded the extra styles. Second I couldn't help but read your "self-actualizing" article. I strangely identified my self with it! didn't know the term though. I'm 40 years old and just brought a keyboard and taking piano lessons and enjoying my life to the fulless — Well, working towards it and almost there and that's my slogan: I'm free, I'm free from culture, I'm free from hindering beliefs, I'm free like a bird, I'm free... any way thanks and God bless you!