3 February 2024
The upshot of that four-paragraph explanation is that our degree of conscious awareness is perhaps the most fundamental choice human beings make. And possibly the most consequential. We shall return to some implications of this point below.
A little more than a century after the demise of Heraclitus, Aristotle (384-322 BCE), in On the Soul, described life, or the capacity for human motion, as directed toward full actualization of potential (Shiffman, 2011; Barnes, 1995). An example of this is the surface orientation of plant leaves, at right angles to incoming sunlight, to optimize the photosynthetic process for the benefit and growth of the overall tree, shrub, or plant. Healthy, well-spirited (eudaimonic) human beings also seek to maximize their potential toward self-actualization, an argument not only supported by Aristotle, but also by Maslow (1968), Rogers (1961), Frankl (2014), and Csikszentmihalyi (1993).
On the Soul details various living things and compares their respective types of motion. While other living plants and animals can have their self-actualization slowed or ended by disease, droughts, or violent death, only humans develop the self-doubt to foster fractures in the self, to avoid those people, places, and activities that might promote full personal potentiation.
Self-actualization is defined here (and in the Definitions section of this book) as: “n. the complete realization of that of which one is capable, involving maximum development of abilities and full involvement in and appreciation for life, particularly as manifest in peak experiences. The term is associated especially with Abraham Maslow, who viewed the process of striving toward full potential as fundamental yet obtainable only after the basic needs of physical survival, safety, love and belongingness, and esteem are fulfilled. Also called self-realization” (American Psychological Association, 2024).
That definition seems unrealistic in that a self-actualizer’s arrival at that optimal state requires “…the complete realization of that of which one is capable…” If that were true, the self-actualizer would have no further need of goals, work, or ambition. From the accounts provided by Maslow, Csikszentmihalyi, and Gardner (1993) quite the opposite is the actual reality. By Maslow’s standard, self-actualization is more a state of self-, other-, and life-awareness permitting and catalyzing a unity between the actualizer’s self-conception and of that person’s helpful purpose within the greater whole. In short, it is a state of being and consciousness more than a set of achievements, though getting there undoubtedly requires achievement in a few personally significant realms.
My sense is that I have met very few self-actualized people. That said, it is important to state that those I deem most probably able to reach self-actualization are those who, in recovery from addiction and trauma, see life with newly awakened souls. Which takes the focus back to Aristotle’s earlier claim about good habituation being a precondition of flourishing. What Aristotle probably saw was what those delivering therapy see: self-thwarting behaviours based on unexamined pain or avoidance. As proposed earlier, if therapy is re-habituation toward fuller potential, Aristotle’s point stands: our innate human nature directs us toward actualization.
Ethically, Aristotle was the father of virtue ethics:*
Virtue ethics is a broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences. A virtue ethicist is likely to give you this kind of moral advice: ‘Act as a virtuous person would act in your situation.’
Most virtue ethics theories take their inspiration from Aristotle who declared that a virtuous person is someone who has ideal character traits. These traits derive from natural internal tendencies, but need to be nurtured; however, once established, they will become stable. For example, a virtuous person is someone who is kind across many situations over a lifetime because that is her character and not because she wants to maximize utility or gain favors or simply do her duty. Unlike deontological and consequentialist theories, theories of virtue ethics do not aim primarily to identify universal principles that can be applied in any moral situation. And virtue ethics theories deal with wider questions—“How should I live?” and “What is the good life?” and “What are proper family and social values?”. (Athanassoulis, 2024, paragraphs 1-2)
As a sectional summary, the critical points here are natural internal tendencies, choice, and character. If we are unable to make choices that better our selves, character is an unnecessary concept as is psychotherapy. Those concepts would be unnecessary because improvement, indeed, conscious movement, requires voluntary action i.e. we must choose to act and then follow through with that action in order to improve our characters, abilities, or the many other conditions life brings. Both Aristotle and Heraclitus were supportive of this position. With some conditions, the Stoics were also supportive of voluntary movement toward the good.
To be continued next week.
Dan Chalykoff is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). He works at CMHA-Hamilton and Healing Pathways Counselling, Oakville, where his focus is clients with addiction, trauma, burnout, and major life changes. He writes to increase (and share) his own evolving understanding of ideas. Since 2017, he has facilitated two voluntary weekly group meetings of SMART Recovery. Please email him (danchalykoff@hotmail.com) to be added to or removed from the Bcc’d emailing list.
References
American Psychological Association. (2023 26 June). APA Dictionary of Psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/self-actualization
Athanassoulis, N. (2024, 2 February). Virtue Ethics. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Barnes, J. (Ed.). (1995). The complete works of Aristotle: The revised Oxford translation. Princeton University Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1993). The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium. HarperPerennial Modern Classics.
Frankl, V.E. (2014). The will to meaning: Foundations and applications of logotherapy. Plume Books, Penguin Group.
Gardner, H. (1993). Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. Basic Books.
Maslow, A. H., (1968). Toward a psychology of being, Second Edition. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Shiffman, M. (Tr.) (2011). Aristotle: De Anima. Hackett Publishing Company Inc.
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