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The Process of Self-Realization—From the Humanist Psychology Perspective

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4 Reasons Self-Realization is the Key to Unlocking Your Best Life

Woman in a forest displaying self-realization

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Rapid Transformational Hypnotherapy for Abundance

The reality is, life can be overwhelming. It’s easy to get caught up in the constant pressure of who you should be and what you should do. But amidst all the noise, there’s a powerful concept that can help you find clarity and direction—it’s called self-realization.

To get into the essence of it, Jon Butcher , co-founder of Lifebook and co-trainer of the Mindvalley Quest of the same name, encourages you to ask yourself, “ What kind of a life do you want to live, and what kind of a person gets a life like that? ”

It’s like taking off a pair of dirty glasses and seeing the world in a new light. And it’s with this clarity of who you are and what you want that you can live a more fulfilling life.

What Is Self-Realization?

“Realization” is when one is fully aware of something. And in the case of “self-realization,” it’s when you’re tapped into your authentic self as well as your purpose in life.

Think of Neo from The Matrix . He comes into self-awareness as he lets go of his limiting beliefs and realizes his unique “gift” to stand up against the machines.

But this concept isn’t just for the movies. It can be found in both eastern and western philosophies.

In eastern religions, self-realization is deeply woven into their belief systems. In Hinduism, for example, the concept is viewed as the knowledge of one’s true self that goes beyond illusions and material things. And in Buddhism, it’s an awakening to true reality.

The self-realization definition in western philosophy, on the other hand, is all about:

Reaching one’s full potential,
Cultivating your self-identity and purpose, and
Contributing to the greater good of mankind and society.

While they’re not the same thing, both philosophies have the same goal in mind when it comes to self-realization. And that goal is a peaceful, fulfilled life—a life of virtue and abundance.

Self-realization vs. self-actualization

Self-realization and self-actualization are concepts that often get mixed up. Let’s take a look at a side-by-side comparison of their differences.


Definition	The process of becoming aware of and understanding your true self	The process of striving towards and and fulfillment
Focus	Understanding and accepting who you are	Becoming the best version of you to achieve your true potential
Aspect	Often involves a spiritual or philosophical aspect	Often involves practical goals and achievements
Outcome	Increased self-awareness and understanding	Personal growth and fulfillment
Examples	Recognizing patterns of negative self-talk and limiting beliefs, understanding and accepting your strengths and weaknesses	Pursuing career success, achieving , and improving relationships

It goes without saying, both concepts are essential for personal growth and fulfillment. However, while self-actualization can help with external factors for a wonderful life, it first takes a good look inward with self-realization to truly achieve it.

As Jon says, “ The life you get is going to be the result of the choices you make and the actions you take. ”

Examples of Self-Realization in Life

Self-realization is about rising above your limiting beliefs and going through the stages of personal transformation . Here are a few examples of it in life:

With career. You may have felt pressured to pursue a certain career path because of societal expectations of family pressure. However, you realize that your true passion lies elsewhere, and you decide to make a change. For example, Vishen , the founder of Mindvalley, was always taught that his career choices were to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer (fun fact: he decided to study engineering). He, as you may already know, decided to teach meditation and founded Mindvalley.
With relationships. You may have experienced being in an unhealthy relationship. But you realize you deserve better and choose to, instead, focus on your own well-being. This is what Katherine Woodward Thomas , the author of best-selling Conscious Uncoupling and trainer of the Mindvalley Quest with the same name, went through in her previous relationship. She and her husband amicably split up but practiced the intention of being kind and generous toward each other.
With well-being. You may have learned that material wealth equals happiness, leaving you wondering, “ What should I do with my life? ” But with reflection and understanding, you realize that true happiness comes from meaningful relationships and experiences. Take Jon Butcher , for instance. Before he founded Lifebook with his wife, Missy, he was struggling with anxiety and stress, to the point where he couldn’t leave his own house. They both weren’t happy with the way their life was going, so they decided “ to live a life that was uniquely [theirs]. ”

Self-realization is essentially a journey of self-discovery. Every stop offers you a new perspective and a chance to appreciate all that is around you.

Why Is Self-Realization Important?

It comes as no surprise that those who’re connected to their inner selves and the world around them are more resilient. In fact, one study looking at how this concept helps in the face of adversity found that those who were more aware of their true selves showed “ better health profiles .”

What’s more, it has a huge impact on all twelve areas of life, which are defined in Lifebook created by Jon and Missy. Here are a few benefits that it offers:

1. Higher confidence and self-esteem

Self-realization is about making connections on a deep, meaningful level—both with your inner self and with the world around you. It’s like unplugging yourself from “the matrix” and seeing the world for what it truly is.

This connection allows you to rise above your worries, fears, and feelings of unworthiness. And just like Neo, it allows you to be the best you can be.

2. A sharper focus

Self-realization aligns your actions with your deepest values and ideals. This heightened awareness can help you create impactful goal statements , which you can pursue with more drive and focus.

There’s also the ability to identify and remove toxic influences from your life, which then frees up space for positive experiences and relationships. It’s like having a laser-sharp focus on what truly matters to you and having the confidence and determination to make it happen.

Think of it like Neo after he learns to see beyond the illusion—he becomes unstoppable. And so can you.

3. Not being controlled by emotions

Fear, anxiety, and loneliness are just a few emotions that can hold you back. But when you reach a state of self-realization, you aren’t at their mercy.

This concept teaches you how to observe, face, and overcome thoughts and feelings as they arise. And as a result, you learn how to control your emotions better.

4. Acceptance

As someone who’s self-realized, you become more open and accepting. You allow yourself to communicate freely and authentically, not only to yourself but also to those around you.

There’s no “ one size fits all ,” as Jon always says. However, when you allow yourself to embrace openness and realness, you build deeper, more meaningful relationships.

Mindvalley member writing in their journal

12 Ways to Develop Self-Realization

Developing self-realization is a crucial part of living a fulfilled and meaningful life. By understanding your true self and purpose, you can achieve a higher level of self-awareness and great potential.

Here are twelve ways you can tap into your authenticity, with insights taken from Jon in Mindvalley’s Lifebook Quest.

1. Take care of your health

The Butchers are advocates of taking care of physical health. In fact, it’s the foundational aspect of their Lifebook program.

“ When you understand the relationship that exists between your health and your life, ” Jon explains, “ it leaves you with a choice to make regarding your actions. ”

That means, what you choose to do in the moment can impact your life now or in the future. For example, if you choose to eat sugary foods every day, you know you’ll have short-term satisfaction. However, in the long run, it’ll have a not-so-great effect on your body.

What you can do: Eat mindfully, drink enough water, exercise regularly, and get deep sleep—these are all important to maintain physical health. Not only that but when your actions are done consciously, you’ll realize the things that are good for your body and the things that aren’t.

2. Be aware of your thoughts

The incredible thing about the mind is that your thoughts can shape your reality . The way you think about yourself and the world around you can have a profound impact on your experiences and outcomes.

“ Thinking is the foundation of achieving your extraordinary life, ” says Jon. “ The life you get is going to be the result of the choices you make and the actions you take. ”

What you can do: Journaling allows for self-reflection, helping you to process the events you experience. Additionally, it helps you work through past traumas and gain insight to move forward.

Just remember: negative or limiting beliefs can hold you back from achieving your potential. Positive and empowering ones, on the other hand, can help you reach new heights of success and fulfillment.

3. Embrace your emotions

Emotions are a natural part of the human experience. However, we’re often taught to suppress and ignore them (especially negative ones) rather than acknowledge and accept them.

As Jon says, “ Emotions are body wisdom. ” It can provide valuable information about yourself and your needs. You can use this information to make more conscious and informed decisions.

What you can do: Mindfulness practices, such as deep breathing or kundalini awakening , can help you become more aware of your emotions.

After all, embracing your emotions is a journey that takes time and practice. So be patient and compassionate with yourself as you strive to better understand and accept them.

4. Build good character

“ The process of building a good character can be thought of as stamping your values onto yourself ,” says Jon. He further explains that the quality of your character is “ determined by how deeply engraved your values are onto your sense of self. ”

What you can do: To define the person you want to be and create the life you desire, ask yourself the following questions:

Do you do the things you know you should do?
Do you take care of your duties and responsibilities?
Can you be counted on to make good decisions from a moral perspective?

Additionally, seek feedback from others. It’ll give you an objective view of your strengths and weaknesses, and provide you with the opportunity to embrace those qualities or improve on them.

5. Cultivate a spiritual practice

Spirituality is often seen as a path towards self-realization. It involves a connection to something greater than yourself, whether that is a higher power, the universe, or a collective consciousness.

“ Spirituality is a deeply personal experience ,” Jon explains. “ It goes directly to who and what you are at the deepest possible level, and what you believe about why you’re here .”

It’s not something someone can tell you. Rather, it’s up to you to discover what spirituality means to you.

What you can do: Meditation is one of the more powerful tools for achieving self-realization. And doing it regularly can help you become more aware of your thoughts and emotions, which can help you gain insight into your absolute authenticity.

6. Work on your love relationships

What’s the connection between love relationships and self-realization? A few things, actually:

When you develop a positive relationship with yourself , you start to accept and love yourself for who you are. This self-love can lead to greater self-awareness and a deeper understanding of your values and goals.
When it comes to positive relationships with others , you can learn a lot about yourself by how you interact with them. For example, you can gain awareness of how you communicate, what triggers you emotionally, and patterns in your relationships.

This level of awareness can help you identify areas where you may need to grow and develop, leading to personal growth and self-realization.

What you can do: Research shows that practicing compassion is not only good for your health, but it’s good for the world. When you’re able to understand and share the feelings of others, it can help build deeper connections and create a more supportive environment.

“ The natural state of things is to disorganize and decay, ” says Jon. “ And that will happen to your love relationship if you don’t consciously put energy back into the system. ”

7. Define what kind of parent you want to be

If you’re a parent, you understand the pure joy having children can be. But self-realization isn’t only important for children; it’s also essential for parents.

As they grow, they depend on you for food, clothing, and shelter, according to Jon. What’s more, they also look to you for guidance on what’s important, like values, morals, and a sense of life.

And because you’re responsible and accountable for little humans, your experience as a parent can be a catalyst for personal growth and development.

What you can do: Connecting with other parents can help you gain perspective on your own experiences and beliefs. Consider joining a support group, seeking out a mentor, or getting a certified life coach to help you through your parenting journey.

8. Nurture your social life

“ Creating quality experiences for yourself and the people you love is one of the best things in life, ” says Jon. And with good reason.

In social situations, you’re more than likely to encounter different beliefs, values, and opinions. This can challenge your own assumptions and lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of yourself.

What’s more, it provides the opportunity to learn how to express yourself more effectively, listen actively, and collaborate with others.

What you can do: One of the key factors in building relationships is being open to new connections. Attend events, like the ones at Mindvalley, to find a community that shares the same interests as you.

9. Build financial wellness

Let’s face it, money has the power to make every aspect of your life better. It can give you greater freedom and flexibility to pursue your goals and aspirations.

However, it doesn’t mean you have to be a slave to it; rather, you can learn to work with it. When you’re able to manage your finances responsibly, you develop greater self-control and learn to prioritize your money goals over short-term impulses.

What you can do: Managing your finances often requires being aware of what your values and priorities are. As part of the Lifebook process, Jon encourages you to clear your limiting beliefs around money and set those financial goals for where you want to be.

10. Discover a career path that fulfills you

Careers are such a big part of our lives; we spend a big chunk of our days at work. The reality is, though, that we’re not taught to find a career path we love. Instead, we’re encouraged to join the rat race.

So it comes as no surprise that the number of people quitting is high. As a matter of fact, in November 2021 alone, a record 4.5 millio n Americans left their jobs .

As much as we don’t like to admit it, our careers are important. And pursuing one that aligns with our values and interests can help us develop a sense of purpose and direction in life.

What you can do: “ If you’re connected to what you love (if you know what that is), you might start to look for ways to do it ,” Jon explains. So reflect on your interests and passions, identify your values, assess your skills and strengths, research potential career paths, and network with professionals. And when that’s all said and done, you may just find what you’re looking for.

11. Enhance your quality of life

According to Jon, you’re not going to be able to contribute to the people around you if your life is a mess. However, when you focus on improving all aspects of your life, it’ll ultimately lead to its enhancement.

It’ll provide you with a sense of purpose and meaning. In turn, that can help you develop a stronger sense of self and personal identity.

What you can do: Jon advises you to integrate your quality of life into your financial plan. Why? “ A lot of this ,” he says, “ is going to come down to your ability to be able to afford the things and experiences you want. ”

12. Create a clear life vision

Your life vision is a roadmap to identify and pursue your most meaningful goals and aspirations that are aligned with your core values and passions. So it’s important to create a really clear and compelling one.

If you need inspiration, you can get it from self-realization quotes. They can provide valuable insights, wisdom, and perspective. Here are a few to get you going:

“ Nothing can make you as happy as living a mission-oriented life. ” ― Vishen , founder of Mindvalley
“ The quest for wholeness can never begin on the external level. It is always an inside job. ” ― Dr. Shefali Tsabary , clinical psychologist and trainer of Mindvalley’s Conscious Parenting Mastery Quest
“ Too many people never get what they desire in their life because they never actually claim what they want; they never actually get clear on what they’re asking for so in some ways we have to teach ourselves to dream again. ” ― Regan Hillyer , manifestation teacher and trainer of Mindvalley’s The Art of Manifesting Quest

What you can do: Jon suggests asking yourself this question: If you were able to execute the 11 points above and really make your life vision a reality, what would that look like for you five years from now?

Put the law of assumption to work and assume your life vision is fulfilled. Visualize it and meditate on it. Embrace what it would feel like and send your intentions that way.

Awaken Your True Self

Self-realization is a step towards awakening your true self and living your best life. As Morpheus said in The Matrix , “ I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it. ”

That’s exactly what Mindvalley’s FREE Lifebook Masterclass with Jon and Missy Butcher is all about. Here’s what you’ll be in for:

Identify what you truly want in the 12 areas of your life
Discover what your unique purpose is
Gain the clarity you need if you’re going through a major transition (e.g., divorce, career change, personal loss, and so on)

Lifebook gives you the tools, insights, and support you need to walk through the door of self-realization and unlock your full potential.

As Jon says, “ This world needs more self-responsible people making the world a better place by making themselves better .” And you have the opportunity to do just that.

Welcome in.

Take the next step: enroll for free

Design a Life So Amazing, You’ll Want to Live It Over and Over and Over Again

Discover the 12 categories of the Lifebook system and the four critical questions to ask yourself. Join Jon and Missy Butcher in this free masterclass so you can begin moving towards your dream life. Enroll for free

Tatiana Azman

Jon and Missy Butcher transformed their lives from overworked entrepreneurs to founders of 19 companies and creators of a holistic life design system, Lifebook.

After decades of marriage, they enjoy financial freedom, robust health, and a vibrant romance, splitting their time between multiple homes, including a dream house in Hawaii.

Their turnaround began after Jon suffered a severe anxiety attack, leading them to reject societal norms and redefine success on their own terms.

They organized Jon’s insights into a lifestyle design system that dramatically improved their lives, inspiring them to share their approach through Lifebook , which is now a Quest available at Mindvalley.

How we reviewed this article

Self realization and meaning making in the face of adversity: a eudaimonic approach to human resilience, compassionate mind, healthy body, you might also like.

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A New Integrative Model of the Self

The self emerges as animals model themselves across time and in relationships..

Posted September 30, 2021 | Reviewed by Chloe Williams

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Research and scholarship on the nature of the self have yielded conflicting messages, but a new model helps frame the self in a coherent way.
The model suggests that the self emerges as animals model themselves over time in different contexts and relationships.
The human self consists of a nonverbal experiential self, a narrating ego, and a persona that manages impressions.

The post was co-authored by John Vervaeke and Christopher Mastropietro.

What is the self? Is it the core essence that defines what and who we truly are? Or is it an egoic illusion that we fallaciously cling to and, to be healthy and mature, we must learn to become detached from? Many voices in psychology and education teach us to be our true selves or be true to our core self. And yet other traditions, such as Buddhism, seem to argue that there is no such thing as the self. Research and scholarship on the nature of the self have yielded similar confusions and conflicting messages. Consider the tensions between the following quotes from two well-known psychologists:

"Properly speaking, a man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their head." — William James

"But the concept of the self loses its meaning if a person has multiple selves … the essence of self involves integration of diverse experiences into a unity … In short, unity is one of the defining features of selfhood and identity ." — Roy Baumeister

The self, alongside concepts like behavior, mind, cognition , and consciousness, represents one of the most central but also most elusive concepts in psychology and cognitive science. However, recent work on developing metatheoretical synergies optimistically point to the possibility of a coherent articulation of what the self is in a way that is consistent with the best current research, the focus and concerns of therapists, and the deep existential reflections given by philosophical perspectives that reflect on how we relate to ourselves and our place in the cosmos.

A New Model for Framing the Self

Earlier this year, John Vervaeke produced an educational video series, " The Elusive “I”: On the Nature and Function of the Self ," that tackled these questions and generated a new model for framing the self. The series built from an earlier exploration into the tangled knot of consciousness that blended some of the best metatheories in psychology (i.e., Henriques’ Unified Theory) and cognitive science (i.e., Vervaeke’s Recursive Relevance Realization ) to generate a clear, holistic picture of how subjective conscious experience emerges in the animal-mental plane of existence.

That series identified two broad steps in the evolution of animal consciousness. First, perhaps as early as the Cambrian Explosion some 520 million years ago, there was an integration in the brain of sensory inputs with inner drives that functioned to generate “valence qualia,” which are bodily feeling states like pleasure and pain that guide animals toward and away from valued stimuli. Then, as animals advanced in their capacity to model the environment and their anticipated outcomes, and deliberate based on possible action sequences, a more extended form of subjective consciousness emerged, something we might call “an inner mind’s eye” that arises in a global neuronal workspace. As was described in the series, this inner mind’s eye can be effectively divided into a witness function that frames and indexes specific aspects of attention with a hereness-nowness-togetherness binding that can be called “adverbial qualia,” and the contents of that frame, such as the redness of an apple, which can be called “adjectival qualia.”

A Need to Model the Self Across Time

It turns out that this model of animal consciousness has crucial implications for the emergence of a sense of self. Work in robotics over the past several decades has demonstrated that any complex adaptive system that can move with efficiency must simultaneously model not just the exterior environment but also account for the interior movements and positions of the robot. Put simply, coordinating agent-arena actions require models of both the agent and arena and their dynamic relation. This is true of both robots and animals.

If this fact is coupled to the idea that higher forms of cognition and consciousness allow animals to extend themselves across time and situations, we move from modeling the immediate agent-arena relationship to modeling the agent across many separate arenas that are extended in time. For example, a rat at a choice point in a maze will project itself down the right arm of the maze, and then down the left arm. Crucially, although the rat’s simulation of the two paths will be different, the deliberation requires a consistent model of the self (i.e., the rat is the same, whereas the paths are what differ). This insight gives rise to the claim that as animals engage in deliberation across time, a model of the self that is distinct from the many possible environments is required. The point here is that the jump in cognition and consciousness that allows animals to extend themselves across time also points to the need for a more elaborate model of the self.

Modeling the Self in Relation to Others

The series argued that a second crucial jump would occur as animals became increasingly intertwined in relationships with others. Consider, for example, parental care and the attachments formed with offspring. In such relationships, the caregiver must not only model their own actions and place across time but also model the needs of the other. Moreover, they are in dynamic participatory relation with each other across time. Attachment theory shows how this dance between caregiver and young is enacted and can lead to either a secure relational holding environment or not.

This process of modeling self-in-relation-to-other is framed by Vervaeke by adding “relational” to recursive relevance realization. That is, it is the self-other feedback loop that should be tracked for relevant information. This formulation is directly aligned with Henriques’ Influence Matrix, which maps the process dimensions of the human primate relationship system. Specifically, it suggests that humans intuitively track processes of exchange for indications of having social influence or being valued by others, as well as implications for power/ competition , love/affiliation, and levels of dependency or independence.

Consistent with work from Tomasello, humans have particularly strong capacities among the great apes to track others' perspectives and feelings, and develop a shared attention and intention. Tomasello calls this the intersubjective “we” space that can form as humans sync up with others. Following the logic above, this suggests massive mapping of self across time in relationship to many others and in many contexts. The result is a dynamic picture of the human primate, pre-verbal self that is very consistent with both James’ assertion that the self is a function of the other and Baumeister’s claim that there is a felt sense of unity.

The Justifying Ego

Of course, as humans evolved over the past 200,000 years, we have moved from implicit intersubjective coordination to explicit intersubjectivity, via the emergence of symbolic language and the development of justification systems that function to generate a shared propositional field of what is and ought to be. Henriques’ work on the Unified Theory shows how the problems and processes of justification set the stage for the evolution of the human ego as the mental organ of justification and help explain the relationship between the ego, the primate experiential self, and the persona, which is the public image or face or mask that people project to manage status and maintain favorable impressions.

The diagram below provides a map of the insights generated by the series. It depicts how layers of cognitive modeling emerge that function to generate models of both the world and the “Generalized Me” that models the self across time. It also places that in relationship to human consciousness via the inner mind’s eye that functions as the adverbial qualia framing of the adjectivally experienced properties. On top of that primate self in humans is the justifying ego that manages the “legitimacy of the self” on the culture-person plane of existence.

After elaborating on the cognitive science that grounds the model, the series shifted into the world of clinical psychology and explored how many neurotic conditions can be understood as arising from the conflicts between a core, emotionally charged experiential self, a justifying ego, and a persona on the social stage. Consistent with this frame, both humanistic and psychodynamic approaches are structured to identify these conflicts and bring insight and acceptance in a way that affords a more coherent, integrated identity. The last part of the series shifted to existential concerns, drawing on insights from Kierkegaard and other philosophers to show how the above model of the self is consistent with and can ground and inform intrapersonal and interpersonal dialogical reflections on how we relate to ourselves and our place in the cosmos.

The Elusive "I" Episode 1, Problematizing the Self

The Elusive "I" Episode 2, Problematizing the Self Part II

The Elusive "I" Episode 3, The Social and Developmental Aspects

The Elusive "I" Episode 4, The Self and Recursive Relevance Realization

The Elusive "I" Episode 5, A Naturalistic Account of Self and Personhood

The Elusive "I" Episode 6, Existential Concerns

The Elusive "I" Episode 7, Psychedelic and Mystical Experiences

The Elusive "I" Episode 8, Connecting the Dots with Predictive Processing

The Elusive "I" Episode 9, A Unified Clinical View of the Self

The Elusive "I" Episode 10, The Self, the Ego, and the Persona

The Elusive "I" Episode 11, The Existential-Spiritual Dimension of the Self

The Elusive "I" Episode 12, The Self, Soul and Spirit

Commentary: An "I" for the Elusive I (Bruce Alderman and Layman Pascal; Integral Stage)

Dialogical Reflections on the Elusive I (Vervaeke, Henriques, Mastropietro, Alderman and Pascal)

Gregg Henriques, Ph.D. , is a professor of psychology at James Madison University.

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The Odyssey of Self-Realization: Navigating the Depths of Personal Growth

This essay about the concept of self-actualization in psychology, exploring its significance and implications for personal growth and fulfillment. It highlights the quest for authenticity and purpose, emphasizing the continuous journey of self-discovery and evolution. Through the lens of self-actualization, the essay examines the challenges and opportunities inherent in navigating the complexities of modern life, while underscoring the importance of staying true to oneself amidst external pressures and societal expectations. Ultimately, it emphasizes the transformative potential of self-actualization, inviting readers to embark on their own quest for personal fulfillment and meaning.

How it works

Within the vast expanse of human psychology lies a concept that has captivated the hearts and minds of thinkers throughout the ages: self-actualization. It serves as a beacon of hope and possibility, beckoning individuals to embark on a profound journey of self-discovery and fulfillment. Rooted in the teachings of Abraham Maslow, this notion transcends mere existence, inviting individuals to delve into the depths of their being and unlock the hidden treasures that lie within.

Embarking on the path of self-actualization is akin to setting sail on an epic odyssey, navigating the turbulent waters of the human psyche in search of enlightenment and transformation.

It requires courage, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to personal growth. Along the way, travelers encounter a myriad of challenges and obstacles, each serving as a test of their resolve and determination.

At the heart of self-actualization lies the quest for authenticity, the relentless pursuit of one’s true self amidst a sea of societal expectations and external pressures. Authenticity is not simply about being true to oneself; it is about embracing one’s unique identity and honoring the essence of who we are. This journey of self-discovery involves peeling back the layers of conditioning and conformity to reveal the raw beauty and authenticity that lies beneath.

Self-actualized individuals possess a profound sense of purpose and meaning, driven by a deep-seated desire to make a positive impact on the world around them. They are guided by an inner compass that directs their actions and choices, leading them towards a life of fulfillment and significance. Their lives are characterized by a sense of alignment and congruence, as they strive to live in harmony with their values and beliefs.

Moreover, self-actualization is not a destination but rather a continuous journey of growth and evolution. It is a process of self-discovery and self-creation, where individuals have the opportunity to redefine themselves and their lives according to their deepest desires and aspirations. Along the way, they encounter moments of insight and revelation that serve to illuminate their path and propel them forward on their journey.

In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, the pursuit of self-actualization has taken on new dimensions, shaped by the complexities of modern life and the ever-changing landscape of human experience. The rise of technology and social media has provided unprecedented opportunities for self-expression and self-discovery, allowing individuals to connect with others who share their interests and passions.

However, amidst the distractions and temptations of the digital age, it is easy to lose sight of the deeper truths and higher ideals that underpin the journey towards self-actualization. In a culture that values material success and external validation, it can be challenging to stay true to oneself and remain focused on what truly matters. Yet, it is precisely in times of adversity and uncertainty that the quest for self-actualization takes on greater significance, serving as a guiding light amidst the darkness of doubt and despair.

In conclusion, the journey towards self-actualization is a deeply personal and transformative experience, marked by moments of insight, growth, and self-discovery. It is a journey of exploration and adventure, where individuals have the opportunity to chart their own course and create the life of their dreams. Along the way, they encounter challenges and obstacles that test their strength and resilience, but ultimately serve to deepen their understanding of themselves and their place in the world. As they continue on their odyssey of self-realization, they are guided by the unwavering belief that within each of us lies the potential to become the hero of our own story.

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Self-Actualization In Psychology: Theory, Examples & Characteristics

Ayesh Perera

B.A, MTS, Harvard University

Ayesh Perera, a Harvard graduate, has worked as a researcher in psychology and neuroscience under Dr. Kevin Majeres at Harvard Medical School.

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On This Page:

Self-actualization is the complete realization of one’s potential, and the full development of one’s abilities and appreciation for life. This concept is at the top of the Maslow hierarchy of needs , so not every human being reaches it.

Key Takeaways

Kurt Goldstein, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow are three individuals who have contributed immensely to our understanding of the concept of self-actualization.
The present-day understanding of self-actualization tends to be more aligned with the view of Maslow than with the perspectives of Goldstein or Rogers.
According to Maslow, the internal drive to self-actualize would seldom emerge until more basic needs are met.
Self-actualized people have an acceptance of who they are despite their faults and limitations and experience to drive to be creative in all aspects of their lives.
While self-actualizers hail from a variety of backgrounds and a diversity of occupations, they share notable characteristics in common, such as the ability to cultivate deep and loving relationships with others.

Maslow Hierarchy of needs physiological safety love belonging esteem self actualization in pyramid diagram modern flat style vector design.

Self-actualization (also referred to as self-realization or self-cultivation) can be described as the complete realization of one’s potential as manifest in peak experiences which involve the full development of one’s abilities and appreciation for life (Maslow, 1962).

The attainment of self-actualization involves one’s full involvement in life and the realization of that which one is capable of accomplishing.

Generally, the state of self-actualization is viewed as obtainable only after one’s fundamental needs for survival, safety, love, and self-esteem are met (Maslow, 1943, 1954).

Self-Actualization Theory

Self-actualization theory emphasizes the innate drive of individuals to reach their full potential.

Kurt Goldstein highlighted the holistic nature of self-actualization, encompassing physical, psychological, and social well-being.

Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs, with self-actualization at the highest level, while Rogers focused on the importance of congruence and unconditional positive regard in fostering personal growth.

Kurt Goldstein

Even though the term “self-actualization” is most associated with Abraham Maslow, it was originally introduced by Kurt Goldstein, a physician specializing in psychiatry and neuroanatomy during the early part of the 20th century.

Goldstein (1939, 1940) viewed self-actualization as the ultimate goal of every organism and refers to man”s” desire for self-fulfillment, and the propensity of an individual to become actualized in his potential.

He contended that each human being, plant, and animal has an inborn goal to actualize itself as it is.

Goldstein pointed out that organisms, therefore, behave in accordance with this overarching motivation.

In his book, “The Organism: A Holistic Approach to Biology Derived from Pathological Data in Man”, Goldstein argued that self-actualization involves the tendency to actualize an organism’s individual capacities as much as possible (Goldstein, 2000).

According to Goldstein’s (1940) view, self-actualization was not necessarily a goal to be reached in the future but an organism’s innate propensity to realize its potential at any moment under the given circumstances.

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers described self-actualization as the continuous lifelong process whereby an individual’s self-concept is maintained and enhanced via reflection and the reinterpretation of various experiences, which enable the individual to recover, change and develop (Rogers, 1951).

According to Rogers (1967), the human organism has an underlying “actualizing tendency”, which aims to develop all capacities in ways that maintain or enhance the organism and move it toward autonomy.

According to Rogers, people could only self-actualize if they had a positive self-view (positive self-regard). This can only happen if they have unconditional positive regard from others – if they feel valued and respected without reservation by those around them (especially their parents when they were children).

Self-actualization is only possible if there is congruence between how an individual sees themselves ( self-image ) and their ideal self (the way they want to be or think they should be).

If there is a large gap between these two concepts, negative feelings of self-worth will arise, making it impossible for self-actualization to occur.

Rogers (1967) posits that the structure of the self is a consistent yet fluid pattern of perceptions of oneself that is organized and formed via evaluational interactions.

However, the tension between one’s ideal sense of self and one’s experiences (or self-image) can produce incongruence, a psychopathological state stemming from the perversions of one’s unitary actualizing tendency.

For Rogers (1967), a person who is in the process of self-actualizing, actively exploring potentials and abilities and experiencing a match between real and ideal selves is a fully functioning person.

Becoming a Fully functioning person means “that the individual moves towards “being”, knowingly and acceptingly, the process which he inwardly and actually “is.” He moves away from what he is not, from being a facade.

He is not trying to be more than he is, with the attendant feelings of insecurity or bombastic defensiveness. He is not trying to be less than he is, with the attendant feelings of guilt or self-deprecation.

He is increasingly listening to the deepest recesses of his psychological and emotional being, and finds himself increasingly willing to be, with greater accuracy and depth, that self which he most truly is”.

Fully functioning people are in touch with their own feelings and abilities and are able to trust their innermost urges and intuitions.

To become fully functioning, a person needs unconditional positive regard from others, especially their parents in childhood.

Unconditional positive regard is an attitude of acceptance of others despite their failings.

However, most people don’t perceive the positive regard of others as being unconditional. They tend to think they will only be loved and valued if they meet certain conditions of worth.

These conditions of worth create incongruity within the self between the real self (how the person is) and the ideal self (how they think they should be or want to be).

Abraham Maslow

As did Goldstein, Maslow viewed self-actualization as realizing one’s potential. However, Maslow (1967) described self-actualization more narrowly than Goldstein by applying it solely to human beings—rather than all organisms.

Maslow pointed out that humans have lower-order needs that must be generally met before their higher order needs can be satiated, such as self-actualization. He categorized those needs as follows (Maslow, 1943):

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

1. Basic needs: a. Physiological needs (ex- water, food, warmth and rest). b. Safety needs (ex- safety and security). 2. Psychological needs. a. Belongingness needs (ex- close relationships with loved ones and friends). b. Esteem needs (ex- feeling of accomplishment and prestige). 3. Self-actualization needs (realizing one’s full potential).

Self-actualize is the final stage of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs , so not every human being reaches it.

To Maslow, self-actualization meant the desire for self-fulfillment, or a person’s tendency to be actualized in what he or she is potentially.

Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. For example, one individual may have a strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another, the desire may be expressed economically, academically, or athletically. For others, it may be expressed creatively in paintings, pictures, or inventions.

Maslow further explained that self-actualization involves the intrinsic development of an organism. He contended that self-actualization is more growth-oriented than deficiency-focused (Gleitman, Fridlund, & Riesberg, 2004).

Maslow acknowledged the apparent rarity of self-actualized people and argued that most people are suffering from psychopathology of normality.

Unlike Sigmund Freud , whose psychodynamic approach was focused on unhealthy individuals engaging in disturbing conduct, Maslow was associated with the humanistic approach, which focuses on healthy individuals.

Consequently, Maslow’s perspective is more consistent with a positive view of human nature, which sees individuals as driven to reach their potential. This humanistic perspective markedly differs from the Freudian view of human beings as tension-reducing organisms.

Examples of Self-Actualizations

Examples of self-actualization can vary greatly from person to person as it involves the pursuit of personal growth and fulfillment in line with one’s unique values and aspirations.

Some examples may include:

Pursuing a passion or creative endeavor, such as painting, writing, or playing an instrument.
Setting and achieving meaningful goals that align with personal values and aspirations.
Engaging in acts of kindness and altruism to contribute to the well-being of others.
Seeking personal development through continuous learning and acquiring new skills.
Embracing authenticity and living in alignment with one’s true values and beliefs.
Cultivating meaningful relationships and connections with others based on mutual respect and support.
Engaging in self-reflection and introspection to gain deeper self-awareness and personal insight.
Making choices and decisions that prioritize personal happiness and well-being rather than external validation.
Embracing and accepting oneself fully, including both strengths and weaknesses.
Experiencing moments of flow, where one is fully immersed and engaged in an activity that brings a sense of joy, purpose, and fulfillment.

Moving beyond mere theory and speculation, Maslow identified several individuals he considered to have attained a level of self-actualization (Maslow, 1970).

Noteworthy herein are the diversity of occupations and the variety of the backgrounds which these individuals represent while still meeting the criteria of self-actualization.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865; American President) Albert Einstein (1879- 1955; Theoretical Physicist) Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965; Writer, Humanitarian, Theologian, Organist, Philosopher, and Physician) Aldous Huxley (1894- 1963; Philosopher and Writer) Baruch Spinoza (1632- 1677; Philosopher) Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962; Diplomat and Activist) Jane Addams (1860-1935; Settlement Activist, Sociologist, Public Administrator) Thomas Jefferson (1743- 1826; American President, Architect, Philosopher) William James (1842- 1910; Philosopher and Psychologist)

Characteristics of Self-Actualized Individuals

Abraham Maslow based his theory on case studies of historical figures whom he saw as examples of self-actualized individuals, including Albert Einstein, Ruth Benedict, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Maslow examined the lives of each of these people in order to assess the common qualities that led each to become self-actualized.

Based on Maslow’s description of self-actualizers, one can find several striking similarities that these supposedly self-actualized individuals share in common.

Some of such characteristics which distinguish self-actualized individuals from the rest of humanity are as follows (Maslow, 1954, 1970).

Self-actualized people are accepting of others as well as their own flaws, often with humor and tolerance. Not only do self-actualized people fully accept others, but they are also true to themselves rather than pretending in order to impress others (Talevich, 2017).
Self-actualized people also tend to be independent and resourceful: they are less likely to rely upon external authorities to direct their lives (Martela & Pessi, 2018).
Can cultivate deep and loving relationships with others.
Tendency to exude gratitude and maintain a deep appreciation even for the commonplace blessings in life.
Can often discern between the superficial and the real when judging situations.
Seldom depend upon their environment or culture to form their opinions.
Tendency to view life as a mission that calls them to a purpose beyond themselves.

Critical Evaluation

Despite the popularity of self-actualization as a concept associated with positive psychology and motivation theories, it does not cease to draw criticism.

The Canadian psychiatrist Eric Berne for instance, has called self-actualization the game of self-expression based on the belief that good feelings are to be pursued (Berne, 2016).

Additionally, critics have pointed out that self-actualizing tendencies can lead to a positive but non-relational approach to human beings (Thorne, 1992). Moreover, Fritz Perls has noted that the focus can easily shift from striving to actualize one’s sense of self to merely attempting to build an appearance of self-actualization, which can be misleading (Perls, 1992).

Vitz (1994) has contended that Maslow and Rogers have turned the psychological concept of self-actualization into a moral norm. Finally, the possibility of self-actualization has also come to be seen as a special privilege reserved only for a select few.

In response to these concerns, Maslow has acknowledged that expressions of unrestrained whims and the pursuit of private pleasures have often been mislabeled as self-actualization (Daniels, 2005). Maslow, too, shared the concern that the concept might be misunderstood.

In fact, when many people wrote to Maslow describing themselves as self-actualized persons, Maslow doubted whether he had sufficiently articulated his theory (Steven, 1975).

However, Maslow did not hold that only an elite few could attain the state of self-actualization. On the contrary, he pointed out that often people living in strikingly similar circumstances experience enormously different outcomes in life.

He reasoned that such a reality underscores the importance of attitude as a factor that influences one’s destiny.

Paradoxical narrative of self-actualization

Winston (2018) takes a fresh look at Abraham Maslow’s classic work on self-actualization. She provides a nuanced analysis of the paradoxical nature of self-actualizers’ perceptions of themselves, others, and the world.

Winston dismantles Maslow’s chapter on self-actualization from his seminal Motivation and Personality book and rearranges it to demonstrate the ongoing struggle Maslow faced in describing self-actualizers.

On one hand, he would characterize them in a certain way, only to provide a contradictory example shortly after. For instance, he described them as accepting reality yet noted they display resignation. Or as free from excessive guilt yet not immune to anxiety and self-criticism (Winston, 2018).

On one hand, Maslow portrayed self-actualizers as comfortable with uncertainty, doubt and vagueness. Yet he also stated they are rarely unsure or conflicted (Winston, 2018).

Additionally, he characterized them as capable of fully identifying with, and losing themselves in, close relationships. However, he also noted they retain a certain detachment from loved ones.

Rather than dismissing these opposing descriptions as contradictions or inconsistencies, as some scholars have done, Winston sees them as paradoxes that convey the complexity of psychological health. In her analysis, she uncovers three key paradoxes:

Self-actualizers share common traits yet remain utterly unique individuals.
Their perceptions of themselves, others and the world are simultaneously positive and negative. They have an accurate view of reality as messy rather than black-and-white.
They can accept what cannot change yet have the courage to change what they can, displaying wisdom in discerning the difference (Winston, 2018).

Winston argues that the paradoxical nature of self-actualization illustrates that psychological health entails the contextually appropriate expression of human potentialities, whether viewed as positive or negative.

Her framework challenges approaches that unconditionally promote some potentials while suppressing others. Instead, she advocates examining the conditions under which any given potentiality may be adaptive or maladaptive.

For individualistic cultures only?

The concept of self-actualization, characterized by realizing one’s full potential, is often seen as the pinnacle of psychological development. However, the cultural specificity of self-actualization has been questioned (Itai, 2008).

Specifically, the individualistic focus on developing uniqueness, fulfilling one’s capacities, and prioritizing personal growth over social belonging may not generalize across cultures.

Research suggests self-actualization aligns closely with individualistic values prominent in the West, but not necessarily with the collectivist values of interdependence and social harmony found in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.

Itai Ivtzan (2008) compared 100 British (individualistic culture) and 100 Indian (collectivist culture) participants aged 18-25 on their responses to the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI). The POI measures 12 characteristics seen as central to self-actualization (Shostrom, 1963).

As predicted, the British group scored significantly higher than the Indian group on 10 out of 12 scales, including time competence, inner-directedness, self-actualizing values, feeling reactivity, and self-acceptance.

Ivtzan concluded that the concept of self-actualization, as currently defined, lacks cross-cultural validity. The lower POI scores from the Indian group likely reflect measurement bias rather than truly less self-actualization. Cultures shape the meaning of self-fulfillment in different ways. While the drive to achieve one’s potential is universal, how this manifests likely depends on cultural values.

These findings underscore the need to re-examine concepts like self-actualization through a cross-cultural lens.

Applying Western models globally risks promoting an ethnocentric view of human motivation and adjustment. Future research should explore how self-actualization presents in diverse cultures. Practically, the study also cautions the use of self-actualization theory in multi-cultural organizational contexts.

What is self-actualization?

Self-actualization is a concept in psychology that refers to the process of fulfilling one’s true potential, becoming the best version of oneself, and achieving personal growth, meaning, and fulfillment in various aspects of life.

According to Maslow, what are some of the traits and qualities of self-actualizing individuals?

According to Maslow, self-actualizing individuals exhibit traits and qualities such as autonomy, authenticity, creativity, self-acceptance, a sense of purpose, strong values, peak experiences, and the ability to have meaningful relationships. They strive for personal growth, fulfillment, and reaching their highest potential.

What is the difference between self-actualization and self-transcendence?

Self-actualization refers to fulfilling one’s potential and becoming the best version of oneself, while self-transcendence goes beyond the self and involves connecting to something greater, such as meaning, values, or the well-being of others, to achieve a sense of purpose and fulfillment.

Berne, E. (2016). Games people play the psychology of human relationships . Penguin Life.

Daniels, M. (2005). Shadow, self, spirit: essays in transpersonal psychology (p. 122) . Imprint Academic.

Gleitman, Henry & Fridlund, Alan & Riesberg, Daniel. (2004). Psychology (6th Ed.) . New York: Norton.

Goldstein, K. (1939). The Organism . New York, NY: American Books.

Goldstein, K. (1940). Human Nature . Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press.

Itai, I. (2008). Self actualisation: For individualistic cultures only?. International Journal on Humanistic Ideology , 1 (02), 113-139.

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50 (4), 370-96.

Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personality . New York: Harper and Row.

Maslow, A. H. (1962). Toward a psychology of being . Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company.

Martela, F., & Pessi, A. B. (2018). Significant work is about self-realization and broader purpose: defining the key dimensions of meaningful work . Frontiers in Psychology , 9, 363.

Maslow, A.H. (1970). Motivation and Personality . New York: Harper & Row.

Perls, F. S. (1992). In and out the garbage pail . Gestalt Journal Press.

Rogers, C. (1951). Client-centered. Therapy , 515-520.

Rogers, C. (1963) The Actualizing Tendency in Relation to “Motives” and to Consciousness. In: Jones, M.R., Ed., Nebraska Symposium on Motivation , University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1-24.

Rogers, C. (1967). On becoming a person: a therapist’s view of psychotherapy . London: Constable.

Rogers, C., & Kramer, P. D. (1995). On becoming a person : a therapist’s view of psychotherapy . Houghton Mifflin.

Shostrom, E. L. (1963). Personal orientation inventory.

Stevens, B. (1975). Body work. Gestalt is , 160-191.

Talevich, J. R., Read, S. J., Walsh, D. A., Iyer, R., & Chopra, G. (2017). Toward a comprehensive taxonomy of human motives . PloS one, 12 (2), e0172279.

Thoma, E. (1963). Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Psychosomatics, 4 (2), 122–123.

Thorne, B. (1992). Key figures in counselling and psychotherapy. Carl Rogers. Sage Publications, Inc.

Venter, Henry. (2017). Self-Transcendence: Maslow’s Answer to Cultural Closeness. Journal of Innovation Management, 4 (4), 3-7.

Vitz, P. C. (1994). Psychology as religion: The cult of self-worship . Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Winston, C. N. (2018). To be and not to be: A paradoxical narrative of self-actualization. The Humanistic Psychologist, 46 (2), 159–174. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000082

Drop your worries.

Worry puts a burden on your mind, body, and spirit. They can keep you up all night if you let them. Find comfort in the fact that everything happens for a reason and everything will fall into place at the right time.

During my period of low self-esteem and extreme uncertainty, I relentlessly questioned every aspect of my life. I would go to bed frustrated and upset as I told myself I wasn’t good enough, and that I wished I was like everyone else my age.

By constantly bashing yourself and worrying about every single thing that happens to you, you’re missing out on happiness that you could’ve had all along.

Do not try to please or impress anyone but yourself.

The need to impress, please, and compare ourselves to other people all the time is one of the most common causes of self-loathing. As long as you’re trying to please other people and live up to their expectations, you will not be pleasing yourself.

What I’ve learned is that happiness does not come from pleasing other people. Happiness comes from feeling content with your own life and goals.

Embrace your unique qualities and talents.

Everyone is different. Figure out what you’re good at and what sets you apart from everyone else. Your mission is to create a reason for being here.

Believe in your path.

When you start to figure out what you want in life, there will be obstacles. Do not let anyone or anything discourage you from continuing on. Believe in yourself and believe in your decisions.

Stay positive and keep moving forward.

Take your time.

Life does not come with a rulebook or deadlines for accomplishing certain things. I used to always think that I needed to be at the same level as everyone else my age. Life is not a race or a contest.

Have faith in the fact that you are exactly where you need to be at this very moment in time and as long as you’re content, don’t let anyone convince you that you’re not where you need to be. You be the judge of what you want to change in your life and then do it for you .

Surround yourself with positivity.

Try to limit the amount of time you spend with people who nay-say, judge, or ridicule. Choose to completely surround yourself with positive, inspiring influences. You will feel much happier and better about yourself if you do.

Make a list of sayings or quotes that make you feel encouraged or inspired and keep it where you can see it each day. Try putting the list under your pillow or on your refrigerator door.

The most important thing to remember is that you are worth it, you can go another day, and you can be happy. Life will not throw you anything you cannot handle or overcome.

Once you start to accept and love yourself and your desired path, the smoke will clear and you will breathe easy again. Be kind to yourself and life will be a whole lot brighter.

Photo by QuinnDombrowsky

About Madison Sonnier

Madison is a writer of feelings and lover of animals, music, nature and creativity. You can follow her blog at journeyofasoulsearcher.blogspot.com/ and buy her first eBook through Amazon . She loves making new friends, so be sure to say hi if you like what you see!

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Narrative, Self-Realization, and the Shape of a Life

Open access
Published: 14 April 2018
Volume 21 , pages 371–385, ( 2018 )

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Velleman, MacIntyre, and others have argued for the compositional view that lives can be other than equally good for the person who lives them even though they contain all and only the same moments, and that this is explained by their narrative structure. I argue instead for explanation by self-realization, partly by interpreting Siegfried Sassoon’s exemplary life-narrative. I decide between the two explanations by distinguishing the various features of the radial concept of narrative, and showing, for each, either that self-realization is just as good an account, or that we should prefer the self-realization account, of the composition it is supposed to explain. I conclude that, if the shape of a life matters, it matters because some shapes are self-realizations, not because they are narratives.

Narrative Theory, Intelligibility and the Good Life

Is a Narrative a Something or a Nothing?

Meaning, Understanding and Narrative

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

1 Introduction

In this paper I argue against taking narrative as central to the ‘shape of a life’ phenomenon in value theory, partly by interpreting one exemplary life-narrative, Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of George Sherston ( 1937 ). My aims are: first, to understand the evaluation of temporally-extended human lives as going well or badly. Second, to disambiguate one out of the various putative roles of autobiographical narrative in a cluster of problems about value, the self, and the interpretation of human lives over time. Third, by showing that narrative does not play that particular role, to advance by one step a general project of critique of the use of autobiographical narrative in that cluster of problems. I begin by introducing my central case.

Siegfried Sassoon was born in 1886 into materially comfortable but socially uneasy circumstances: his mother Theresa was from the artistic, socialist, but impeccably establishment Thornycroft family; his father Alfred was a younger son of the Jewish banking and trading dynasty founded in the early nineteenth century, in Baghdad, by Siegfried’s great-grandfather David Sassoon. Siegfried’s parents separated in 1890, and Alfred died of tuberculosis in 1895.

Sassoon moved in aristocratic and artistic circles, but was always aware—and sometimes complicit in—their currents of anti-Semitism and of snobbery about people who had made their money in trade. He was intrusively self-conscious, self-doubting, and partly alien, and he most admired people he saw as singleminded, straightforward, and fully at home.

Sassoon is now remembered as one of the poets and autobiographers of the trenches—alongside Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, Isaac Rosenberg, Edmund Blunden, Edward Thomas Footnote 1 —who helped to define our default understanding of World War I: lions led by donkeys, mud and blood at the Somme, walking in disciplined ranks into machine-gun fire, the absurd death of Edwardian England. Footnote 2

But—unlike Owen, Rosenberg, or Thomas—Sassoon had a long post-war life as a public figure, a poet, and an autobiographer. That last role is my interest here: I focus on Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (first published in 1928), Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (first published in 1930), and Sherston’s Progress (first published in 1936). This slightly-fictionalized autobiographical trilogy is Sassoon’s definitive dramatization of a self-interpretation common to many soldiers: from innocence to experience via war’s baptism of fire . In Sassoon’s telling: from a pre-war idyll of private income, golf and village cricket, horse-riding in hunts and steeplechases, intense friendships with other young men, and privately-printed editions of his sentimental and old-fashioned verse; to the adventure, misery, comradeship, and loss of the trenches, his lightly-touched on heroism (he won a Military Cross), his equivocal revolt against the war, and the wide publication and recognition of realistic and satirical poems like ‘To Any Dead Officer’, ‘Survivors’, and ‘The General’:

‘He’s a cheery old card,’ grunted Harry to Jack As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. * But he did for them both by his plan of attack. (Sassoon 1984 : 69)

And through that experience to a transformed adult selfhood which looks back on pre-war innocence as another life, lived by someone else.

3 The Shape of a Life

The question at stake in the shape of a life debate is: what is the relation between the goodness of moments or parts of a human life and the goodness of the whole temporally-extended life from beginning to end? The goodness this asks about is specifically goodness for the person whose life it is : that particular value which is the object of self-interested concern. Footnote 3 We can get an intuitive handle on it by asking what we want, or what we rationally should want, for those we care about—including ourselves (Feldman 2004 ; Darwall 2002 ).

As David Velleman puts the question about the shape of a life, ‘is the good life just a string of good years?’ (Velleman 2000 : 57). To see why we might think not, here is my version of a popular thought experiment. Consider two lives : Siegfried Sassoon’s life of innocence transformed into experience; and his counterpart Sassoon Siegfried’s life, which is a disordered ‘sprawl of incidents’ (Lessing 1995 : 202), one damn thing after another, with no overall shape or organizing telos. Assume that these two lives instantiate the exact same set of momentary goods and bads: that the only difference between them is the temporal ordering of those moments (compare Brännmark 2001 : 226; Dorsey 2015 : 304–5; O’Neill 2008 : 136, Footnote 4 Slote 1983 : 23–4, Velleman 2000 : 58–9). This is an intuition pump for the thought that we should evaluate these lives differently as wholes, just because of their ‘shape’ over time. We might judge that Siegfried Sassoon’s life goes better overall than Sassoon Siegfried’s, but nothing I say here depends on that particular evaluation. The claim I need is only that lives can be other than equally good even though they contain all and only the same moments. I have no brief here to rank-order particular real or imaginary lives: my concern is the meta-level problem of explaining the relevance of temporal shape.

The conclusion we are supposed to draw from two lives is that overall goodness is not equal to the sum of momentary goods and bads. In evaluation of whole-life goodness, moments are not prior , either because the whole is prior and moments only have a value in that context, Footnote 5 or because they are distinct kinds of evaluation with no relation of priority either way. Footnote 6

Call views that temporal shape matters for evaluation in this way compositional views, and the value-property they pick out composition (I take the term from Brännmark 2001 ). Compositional views of one kind or another are held by Alasdair MacIntyre ( 2007 ), David Velleman ( 2000 ), John O’Neill ( 2008 ), and Michael Slote ( 1983 ). Non-compositional or anti-compositional views—sometimes called additive or summative or time-neutral views—are held by Fred Feldman ( 2004 ), Thomas Nagel ( 1979 ), John Rawls ( 1999 ), and Henry Sidgwick ( 1981 ).

For my purposes here I am going to assume the truth of some compositional view and ask: given that temporal shape matters, why does it? What explains the putative fact that the shape of a life makes a difference to how well it goes for the person whose life it is?

4 Narrative

One popular answer to this question is narrative . Shape matters because how good a person’s life is depends in some way on its being a story and/or on what kind of story it is. Velleman, for example, says that:

Intuitively speaking, the reason why well-being isn’t additive is that how a person is faring at a particular moment is a temporally local matter, whereas the welfare value of a period in his life depends on the global features of that period. More specifically, the value of an extended period depends on the overall order or structure of events—on what might be called their narrative or dramatic relations. (Velleman 2000 : 58)

Velleman then elaborates these relations as events ‘lending and borrowing different meanings in exchange with preceding events’ (Velleman 2000 : 64). John O’Neill, similarly, moves directly from his version of two lives to an appeal to narrative:

The life of Welles Orson goes better than that of Orson Welles. This is true even if all the good moments in the life of Orson Welles are equally as pleasurable as all the good moments in that of Welles Orson and all bad moments are equally as bad so that the total hedonic value is identical. It does so in virtue of the narrative structure of the life. (O’Neill 2008 : 136)

This answer has its attractions: it is tempting to say that what makes the difference between my two lives is that Siegfried Sassoon’s life has a plot , a coherent and satisfying narrative arc held together by connections like causation, foreshadowing, and ironic contrast. Sassoon Siegfried’s life lacks that. The events in Siegfried Sassoon’s life make mutual sense of one another, where Sassoon Siegfried’s life is ‘a sort of Humean froth, a meaningless fluttering on the surface of life’ (Sacks 1986 : 37).

Despite these attractions, I think the narrative answer is a mistake. My plan against it is in three parts: first I define narrative , in order to make space, second, to display some possible non-narrative explanations of composition. Third, I argue against the narrative explanation and for an alternative explanation by self-realization .

A narrative is a generic telling of a connected temporal sequence of particular actions taken by, and particular events which happen to, agents. Footnote 7

These various features need not appear together; many of them are not individually necessary for something’s being a narrative; and several sub-groups of them are sufficient for its being so. This is because narrative is a radial category (Lakoff 1987 ), with clear central or paradigmatic cases—George Eliot’s realist novel Middlemarch ( 1997 ), Antony Beevor’s military history D-Day ( 2010 ), Richard Holmes’s literary biography Shelley ( 1976 )—and chains of similarity and extension, from one of their typical features or another, leading out to cases-by-association and ambiguous cases. Narrativity is therefore a matter of degree, not all-or-nothing, and different cases can be equally narrative in different ways. Or consider narratives of geological processes, or of the formation of the solar system, or of the first few microseconds after the big bang.

So, for example, there are narratives which are not yet generic, because they help to found the genres in which they can later, anachronistically, be placed: consider Frankenstein ’s relation to science fiction. Further out from the centre, there are perhaps agentless narratives. In film, consider Koyaanisqatsi (Reggio 1982 ) or Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (Leckey 1999 ), which merely tell a temporal sequence of visual and auditory events with relations of analogy, contrast, and repetition within a rhythmic structure, and which contain images of human beings, alongside other objects, without representing their agency.

But there are limits to the extent of these chains: not everything is a narrative, because being a telling is a necessary condition of being one. There are no non-artefactual narratives. The existence of a narrative requires the narration of some content to which it refers, and which need not itself be a narrative. We can tell stories about stories—consider One Thousand and One Nights —but not all stories are about stories. Some are about fox-hunting and fighting in the trenches.

The flip-side of that point is that being a temporal sequence of particular actions and events is not sufficient for being a narrative. There are innumerable untold sequences—consider ‘what happened at exactly the grid reference you are at now, in the 24 hours leading up to exactly 1,000 years ago’—which are presumably narratable, but which aren’t narratives until told. Many temporal sequences of actions and events are potential content for narratives, but not yet narratives.

But how about being a telling of an unconnected temporal sequence of particular actions and events ? For example: ‘at 2pm yesterday, a schoolgirl in Amsterdam accidentally left her bag on the tram; at 230pm, the President convened a meeting of her national security advisors; at 3pm, a family of swans drifted lazily across Coniston Water…’. This is in a vague borderland, where is this a narrative? is perhaps an empty question, and we should just say that it has some of the features of paradigmatic narratives but not others. If we need a name for it, we could call it an annal (Carroll 2003 ).

Moving inwards across that borderland, a telling of temporal sequence of particular agents’ actions and events connected such that some of them are explained —the schoolgirl forgot her bag because she was worried that when she got home, mum would be drunk again—is more narrative than my example annal.

Getting closer to the centre, a telling of a temporal sequence of particular agents’ actions and events connected both by explanatory and by literary relations like analogy, echo, poetic justice, etc.—mum isn’t drunk this time, because she’s searching desperately for her own lost bag—is still more clearly narrative than my previous example. I suggested above that one of the attractions of the narrative explanation of composition was that some lives are held together by connections like ‘causation, foreshadowing, and ironic contrast’: we can now see that this list combines two different kinds of connection, the explanatory Footnote 8 and the literary, and that they should be separated.

Back at the centre, a telling of a connected temporal sequence of particular agents’ actions and events which create expectations in its audience about what kinds of further actions and events will follow —mum’s lost bag contained money she was carrying for a local mob-boss; the next scene is an exhausted detective taking one more call five minutes before she’s due to go off shift—has added a generic character (Currie 2004 : chapter 3).

With this account of narrative in hand, we can say that the most strongly narrative explanation of composition is that temporal shape matters because lives are (or can be) generic tellings of a connected temporal sequence of particular actions taken by, and particular events which happen to, agents—and especially the agent whose life we are talking about. Siegfried Sassoon’s life has a different overall goodness from Sassoon Siegfried’s because they are different stories (even though both stories consist in an ordering of the same moments), or perhaps because Sassoon Siegfried’s life fails to be a story at all.

5 Non-narrative Explanations of Composition

Narrative accounts of composition too frequently move directly from an argument that shape over time matters to the further claim that narrative explains why that shape matters, as if that were the only possible explanation, or even as if shape were equivalent to narrative. Having been specific about what a narrative is, and therefore what a narrative explanation for composition would need to be, we can now see both the space for at least four alternative possibilities, and the argumentative gap between shape and narrative explanations of that shape. I don’t mean to claim that the alternatives I canvass here are all of the possibilities, just that they are not narrative explanations, but could explain composition.

First, a way of explaining away composition: taking pleasure. Fred Feldman argues that composition is just a special case of his attitudinal hedonist account of the good life. Attitudinal pleasure is the propositional attitude of taking pleasure in , enjoying , or being pleased by some state of affairs, analogous to hoping for or fearing that state of affairs. It is distinct from sensory pleasure, which is just whatever sensations someone takes pleasure in (this neutralizes the standard anti-hedonist argument that there is no common phenomenology to our various sensory and other pleasures). Attitudinal hedonism is then the view that the good life is the life of attitudinal pleasure (Feldman 2004 : chapter 4). The shape of a life then makes a difference to how well that life goes only when the person whose life it is takes pleasure in that shape (Feldman 2004 : chapter 6). If she doesn’t—if she is unaware of her life’s shape because she is caught up in the quotidian, for example—then that shape makes no difference to how well her life goes for her. It may of course please us, the people who do notice, but that is to our good not hers (and this is one of Feldman’s repeated moves: to argue that the appearance of non-hedonistic value is caused by our illegitimate projection of ourselves and our own attitudes into the thought experiment). The attitude of taking pleasure in is, like narrative telling, intentional —it is about something, it has directedness towards content to which it refers (Searle 1983 )—but it is obviously not a narrative or a narration.

Second, artefactual but non-narrative shape . For example, we can imagine a life with a musical shape, structured by non-causal relations like harmony, contrast, theme and recapitulation, tension and resolution, and balance (these terms will each have to be interpreted more or less metaphorically). A life so shaped could be a performance (if it was so shaped on purpose), but not a narrative, because music is not intentional: it isn’t about anything, it isn’t directed towards content to which it refers, and it is therefore not a telling. Footnote 9

Third, time of life preference . This is Slote’s view against Rawls, Nagel, and others who claim that it is a demand of practical rationality that I maximise my good over my whole life without time-preference (Nagel 1979 , Rawls 1999 ; see further Parfit 1986 : part II). For example, it would be irrational to prefer a small good tomorrow to a larger good next year, bracketing uncertainty. Slote argues against this that it is practically rational to prefer goods occurring in the ‘prime of life’ over even much larger goods in childhood or old age (Slote 1983 : chapter 1). This is an appeal to the culturally-mediated biological structure over time of a life, not to a narrative of that life. We can tell stories about that structure, and frequently do; but that’s just an example of the point already made that many things are potential contents of narratives without themselves being narratives.

Fourth, self-realization , which is my view and which I set out in a separate section, next.

6 Self-Realization

On my self-realization view, temporal shape makes a difference because some shapes are self-realizations and others are failed self-realizations: they map the expression of potential woken and fed by lucky circumstance, or its thwarting. The temporal structure of a human life which governs how well it goes as a whole is analogous to the temporal structure of the life of a tree which governs how well it goes as a whole. For a tree: does it grow from acorn to sapling to spreading ancient oak? Does it wither for lack of water? Is it wired and pruned into a sad, twisted little bonsai? For a human being: does she flower into skilled, independent adulthood? Is she blighted by poverty or illness? Is she constrained and infantilized by a misogynistic culture? For Siegfried Sassoon: is he able to love without shame, or is he compelled by internal and external homophobia to hide and distort his sexuality? Can he reconcile his solitary inwardness with his delight in comradeship and action, or does he remain torn between them? How does his traumatic battlefield education transform him? Again, this possibility appeals to a narratable structure over time, but not to a narrative.

More abstractly, the self-realization account of the good life is that your life goes well for you when, and in the ways that, your particular true self flourishes rather than being undeveloped or crushed or distorted. Equivalently, when, and in the ways that, your latent capacities—both those you have in common with other humans and those which are individual to you—are fully developed and expressed. Equivalently, when your life is a process of successful growth out of your individual potential into actuality. Your life goes badly for you when, and in the ways that, your common and individual capacities are crushed, distorted, or left fallow.

This self-realization account has historical roots in German Romantics including Goethe and Herder; British Romantics including Wordsworth and Coleridge; and American transcendentalists including Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman (Lockridge 1989 ); in Marx (as read by Elster 1989 ); in Nietzsche ( 1997 , 2007 ); in Mill (as read by Clark 2010 ); and in post-Freudian psychologists including Jung, Maslow, and Fromm (Lockridge 1989 : 120–121). In recent professional philosophy, Alan Gewirth ( 1998 ) and David Norton ( 1976 ) have each defended related accounts. Charles Taylor ( 1991 ) has discussed a contemporary ideal of individual self-fulfillment similar to self-realization. But I am developing my own account, not committing myself to any master or tradition.

The self-realization account is clearly similar to perfectionist accounts (Hurka 1993 ) on which you have a good life when you actualize your essential humanity; when you fully develop your latent human capacities and thereby live the life of a human being; when you fully engage in what humans do which makes them what they are. But self-realization is distinct from perfectionism: perfectionism says that the good life is the one in which you realize essential human potential; self-realization says that it is the one in which you realize individual potential, at least some of which will also be common potential in the sense that other individuals’ potentials are similar. That is, different human individuals will both share common human capacities and have their distinctive capacities which are less widely shared or not shared at all. Self-realization for one of us will therefore be in some ways like and in other ways unlike self-realization for others, and the good life for me may be importantly different from the good life for you, or her, or him. Footnote 10

I have offered the first three alternative views canvassed above mostly to make the point that a specifically narrative explanation of composition is only one possibility among several, and that there is therefore an argumentative gap between acceptance of the shape of a life claim and acceptance of a narrative explanation of it. I now move on to argue for self-realization and against narrative.

7 Agents, Temporal Sequences, and Composition

Siegfried’s Sassoon’s innocence to experience life-shape does compositional work to the extent that we evaluate the goodness of his whole life differently from how we evaluate the goodness of Sassoon Siegfried’s whole life. The question I am pursuing is: what explains that fact? In this and the following sections 1 argue for a self-realization answer to it by making use of my radial account of narrative. Once we pull the various conditions of narrativity apart and see how each might be involved in explaining composition, the attraction of a narrative explanation dissolves, and the attraction of a self-realization explanation becomes apparent, in different ways for different conditions. I conclude that we should therefore adopt a self-realization over a narrative account of composition.

Recall, then, that a paradigmatic narrative is a generic telling of a connected temporal sequence of particular actions taken by, and particular events which happen to, agents . What exactly about narrative is supposed to do the compositional work? I shall go through its various features in reverse order.

Is the compositional work done by the fact that narratives involve agents ? No: even assuming that a connection can be found between agency and composition over time, this feature fails to distinguish between narrative and self-realization explanations. Loss of innocence is something that happens to an agent, Siegfried Sassoon, on either account. The appeal to agency therefore offers no support to a distinctively narrative explanation of composition.

In that case, is the compositional work done by the fact that narratives are of connected temporal sequences of actions and events ? It’s tempting immediately to reply ‘no’ again, for the same reason that self-realization equally involves such sequences, and that this feature therefore also fails to distinguish between narrative and self-realization explanations. But that reply is too quick. Paradigmatic narrative connects its temporal sequences not only by explanation, but by what I have called literary relations: analogy, echo, poetic justice, etc. Siegfried Sassoon’s life-narrative connects his careless courage as a rider pre-war with his suicidal courage in the trenches, not only as an explanation of the latter, but through Sassoon-as-narrator’s later ironic grasp of what his innocent pre-war self could not know. Perhaps, then, temporal sequences of actions and events connected by specifically literary relations do the compositional work? Velleman’s ‘lending and borrowing different meanings in exchange with preceding events’ (2000, 64) could be taken as a version of this possibility.

The problem with that thought is that the literary relations are projected by the narrative’s telling , not already there in what the telling is a telling of . Sassoon’s irony is a product of his narration of his story, not something there to be discovered in the content he tells us about. In general, literary relations are secondary qualities, in the relation between narrator and what’s narrated, not in what’s narrated alone. This possibility is therefore a disguised appeal to a different feature of narrative: telling.

8 Telling and Composition

So is telling what’s important here? Is it that Sassoon tells his life-story as innocence to experience that does the compositional work? This is a more promising thought. Several accounts of the good life appeal to the subject’s own judgements or attitudes about her life. Footnote 11 Narrative telling of a life involves a relation to that life; autobiographical narrative telling involves a specifically reflexive relation; and perhaps that relation constitutes the life’s compositional good.

I don’t think this appeal to telling works either, because it conflates two distinct roles which someone could take up with respect to a life: call them the storyteller and the judge . They are alike in being distanced, third-personal stances, even when reflexive. The attention of the autobiographer to her own life involves separation of self from self, turning her attention as subject on her temporally-extended life as object, in the same way as she might turn her attention on a life which is not hers (Pascal 1960 ; Goldie 2012 ). But these roles are importantly distinct: the storyteller gives an account of meaning ; the judge gives an account of goodness, of how well the life goes .

Meaning and good are distinct in three related ways. First, I can have a life which is meaningful and which goes badly for me. I can have a life which is meaningful because it goes badly for me: consider Robert Falcon Scott, or Anne Frank, or anyone whose life stands as a horrible warning. These are highly meaningful lives exactly because they are disasters for those who live them.

Second, meaning and good are relativized differently. The meaning of Siegfried Sassoon’s life is its meaning to someone who tells his story: Sassoon himself, his various biographers including Max Egremont ( 2004 ) and Jean Moorcroft Wilson ( 2013 ), the novelist Pat Barker in her Regeneration ( 1991 ), me in my section introducing him above, or others. But the good of Sassoon’s life is its good for Sassoon himself . Unlike meaning, it is necessarily relativized to the person whose life is good or not. If we talk of the good of Sassoon’s life for someone else —for Robert Graves, say—we are talking about instrumental good—Sassoon’s usefulness to Graves—not the prudential good we were looking for.

Third, and as a result of its distinctive relativization, meaning can be multiple without contradiction , when relativized to different storytellers. There are many myths of Scott of the Antarctic, for example:

In the post-war anomie of the 1920s, Apsley Cherry-Garrard published his memoir of the expedition, The Worst Journey in the World , as a lament for ‘an age in geological time, so many hundreds of years ago, when we were artistic Christians’ … The 1930s saw the expedition’s concern with natural history fashioned into something congruent with Tarka the Otter and rambling in shorts. The 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic , with John Mills as Scott, shaped it as a post-war fable of class integration, apt for the austerity era. The myth had a quiescent period in the 1950s and 1960s, when it held a secure if shrunken position as a perfectly typical subject for a Ladybird book for children. But it metamorphosed, rather than died, on the publication of Roland Huntford’s debunking biography Scott and Amundsen … Huntford denounced Scott from the New Right, as an example of the sclerotic official personality; the playwright Trevor Griffiths, adapting Huntford’s book as a TV drama, attacked Scott from the Left as a representative of privilege and the Establishment bested by a rather democratic, workmanlike set of Scandinavians. (Spufford 1996 : 4-5)

Similarly, Sassoon’s life has meant different things to his various storytellers. Egremont takes Sassoon’s life to illuminate a particular relation to an imaginary country: ‘Sassoon evokes a lost, decent England achieved only in the imagination, perhaps only in the imaginations of those a little outside this county of the heart’ (Egremont 2004 : 524). For Barker, Sassoon is one of various mirrors she holds up to the war and to British war culture. Sassoon himself at different times found different meanings in his own life. His later autobiographical trilogy The Old Century ( 1938 ), The Weald of Youth ( 1942 ), and Siegfried’s Journey ( 1945 ) give different significance to the same actions and events as the earlier Memoirs of George Sherston : Sassoon repudiates his 1917 protest against the conduct of that war in light of his support for war against Nazi Germany, for example.

To be clear, I do not mean to claim that anything goes in meaning-finding, only that the standards which do apply—accuracy and sincerity, say (Williams 2002 )—underdetermine what meanings one can properly find in a life, and that this is not a problem for storytellers. Meaning is happily plural.

The good, in contrast, cannot be multiple without contradiction, because the goodness of a life supervenes on the life: there are no pairs of possible worlds such that both contain Sassoons identical in every way except that one’s life goes badly and the other’s goes well (I don’t mean this claim to imply or require any heavy meta-ethical lifting).

With those distinctions between meaning and good in place: telling does the storyteller’s meaning-finding or meaning-making work, not the judge’s good-evaluative work, including the specific evaluation of compositional good over the whole life. Narrative telling therefore fails to explain composition, although it perhaps does explain meaning.

What about self-realization? My point in this section is that composition is not explained by telling , and is therefore a fortiori not explained by reflexive telling, by telling one’s own story. And I want to generalise that point: one’s whole-life good is not constituted by any reflexive relation to one’s life—not the relation of telling it nor, for example, the relations of enjoying it or endorsing it. Whatever it is that makes my life good or bad as a whole is in the life , not in any attitude or judgement or other relation I take to that life. Composition is a primary not a secondary quality of a life. If that’s right, the explanation of composition will have to appeal to some structure in the life, rather than one projected on to it or constructed in reaction to it. And the self-realization explanation of composition does appeal to such a structure: the growth of the self over time. So, although this doesn’t show that self-realization is the uniquely correct explanation of composition—there may well be other candidate explanations which meet this condition that the structure must be in the life—it does show that self-realization is a better explanation of composition than narrative.

9 Genre and Composition

Finally, does genre explain composition Footnote 12 ? Sassoon’s autobiography belongs to a recognizable genre, the martial disillusionment narrative : it is a preeminent example of a standard twentieth-century way of writing about war experience as the burning away of illusion by battlefield education, also adopted by Ernst Jünger ( 2003 ), Paul Fussell ( 1996 ), Footnote 13 Philip Caputo ( 1996 ), and many others. Footnote 14 Perhaps it’s that generic shape which does the compositional work and makes Siegfried Sassoon’s life more than mere Humean froth.

Again, no: the best of the World War I martial disillusionment narratives, including Sassoon’s, are the successful bringing into genre of unprecedented and at first indescribable experience. They do this partly by using precedent form (Sassoon’s irony is derived from Thomas Hardy’s, for example), but they remake that form to be newly adequate to that new experience of industrialized mass warfare. The experience is prior to the making over into genre.

The point generalizes: battlefield education is one kind of transformative experience. As L. A. Paul ( 2014 , 2015 ) uses the term, a transformative experience is a life-event with two features. First, it is epistemically transformative. Living through a transformative experience provides a kind of knowledge only available by first-personal acquaintance. Only a parent knows what it’s like for her to have a child; only those who have fought know what combat is like for them (the claim is not that nothing can be known third-personally about these and other experiences, it’s that not everything can be known that way). Second, such an experience is personally transformative. I am a different person after becoming a parent; Sassoon is a different person after his baptism of fire.

Paul’s argument is that the fact of transformative experience in human life is a problem for decision theory, because it makes rational expectation impossible. The person facing the decision whether to undergo such an experience—whether to have children, whether to become a soldier, whether to fight—cannot know in advance whether it will be good or bad for her, and therefore cannot make rational plans by trying to maximize the expected value (the probability of an outcome multiplied by its value) of her choices.

I take a different but compatible point from the fact of transformative experience. Sassoon, like many other soldiers, came to understand his own life over time as marked by the transformative experience of combat. His state of innocence is divided from his state of experience by fighting in World War I. That transformative experience is temporally and logically prior to generic narration and to the distinct kind of understanding that generic narration can provide. The experience of combat is an intrinsically first-personal occurrence in time, which one must be present to in order to have it at all. Reporting such experience in a narrative, in contrast, must be later and secondary.

The priority of experience over generic narrative is shown partly by the fact that we can fail adequately to narrate such experience. It is a major artistic achievement when we succeed: compare Sassoon’s success with, for example, David Jones’s interesting failure in In Parenthesis ( 1937 ), which, as Paul Fussell argues, never escapes the precedent mythic forms Jones brings to his attempt to narrate his war experience (Fussell 2000 : chapter 4).

Battlefield education, as one of many kinds of transformative experience, is prior to the generic narration of that experience. And, I now add, transformative experience is one kind of self-realization: one way in which we grow is by transformation. As for telling in the previous section, the compositional work is done in the intrinsic structure of the life, not in something we relationally or reflexively do to it, or some stance we relationally or reflexively take up towards it. We may generically tell the stories of the transformative and other self-realizations which shape our lives, because they are more of the many potential contents for narratives. But we need not in order for that self-realization to happen. Self-realization is therefore, again, a better explanation of composition than is narrative genre.

10 Self-Realization and Composition

Summing up my argument: the narrative explanation for composition is that temporal shape matters because lives are (or can be) generic tellings of a connected temporal sequence of particular actions taken by, and particular events which happen to, agents—in particular the agent whose life we are evaluating. The self-realization explanation is that temporal shape matters because some shapes are self-realizations: they map the expression of potential woken and fed by lucky circumstance (in Sassoon’s and other cases, that waking is jarring and the feeding traumatic). I have compared the two explanations by distinguishing the various features of the radial concept of narrative, and showing, for each, either that self-realization is just as good an account, or that we should prefer the self-realization account, of the composition it is supposed to explain.

Both explanations can appeal to agents and to temporal sequences of causally connected actions and events . Narrative can further appeal to temporal sequences of actions and events connected by literary relations , but literary relations are projected by narrative telling, not in the actions and events themselves, so this is just a disguised appeal to telling . Telling cannot explain compositional value: the appearance that it might is based on a confusion between the storyteller’s finding of unproblematically plural meaning in a life, and the judge’s evaluation of its singular goodness for the person who lives it. Goodness is not relational in the way that telling and meaning-finding require, but is in the structure of the life, and self-realization matches that feature where narrative cannot. Finally, genre cannot explain composition either, because the shape of a life can involve transformative experience , which is necessarily prior to its generic narration. Self-realization again matches that feature where narrative cannot.

I want to emphasize a point about self-realization which this comparison brings out: it is not relational, and therefore not, in particular, reflexive (it’s not a relation a person has to herself because it’s not a relation at all). Someone’s degree of self-realization is a first-order feature of her life, the degree to which it in fact develops and expresses her central potentials. And, since self-realization explains composition, this is also the conclusion we should draw about that kind of value: the shape of a life which matters for the goodness of a life considered as a whole is a first-order fact about that life over time, not anyone’s attitude to, or judgement about, or other relation to, that life. It is therefore, at least in one sense of a multivalent pair of terms, an objective rather than a subjective matter.

So, for Siegfried Sassoon: the innocence to experience shape of his life matters for how well that life went overall because it is the particular and partial way in which Sassoon realized his human and individual potential (assuming, as I have throughout, that Sassoon is right to understand his own life in this way). He could have stayed an innocent and an artistic failure, but the transformative experience of war enabled him to express at least part of his nature.

Where does this leave Sassoon’s and others’ autobiographical narratives? They do not constitute the compositional value of these lives: that’s in the self-realizing structure of the life. But that may leave such narratives an important role in the discovery and understanding of composition: Sassoon’s telling of his own story may reveal to his readers—and to Sassoon himself—an important way in which his life went well for him, despite its hardships and failures.

11 Conclusion

I have argued between the particular and the general. After setting out the shape of a life problem and some possible answers to it, I argued for a self-realization over a narrative explanation of composition in the case of Siegfried Sassoon and of other martial disillusionment narratives. I claim that this conclusion generalizes, and that self-realization, not narrative, explains all cases of composition.

Finally, by making that argument I have advanced, by one step, my most general aim: a project of critique of the use of autobiographical narrative in a cluster of problems about value, the self, and our understanding of human life over time. For all I’ve said here, there is still plenty that autobiography might do to address that cluster. It might be an important means of self-discovery and self-understanding. It might be involved in identity-making self-interpretation, in self-constitution into moral and legal personhood, in learning virtue by remembering and planning, or in reconciling us to our own lives (respectively: Taylor 1989 , Schechtman 1996 , Goldie 2012 , Rosati 2013 ). But I have excluded autobiographical narrative from one interesting role: if the temporal shape of a life makes a difference to how well it goes as a whole, it does not do so because that shape is a narrative. The shape of a life matters because some shapes are self-realizations.

Kendall ( 2013 ) is one of many anthologies of the poetry. The autobiographies, apart from Sassoon’s, include Blunden ( 2000 ) and Graves ( 2000 ).

Anyone who knows Blackadder Goes Forth knows this default. See further Fussell ( 2000 ), Winter ( 1995 ), and, for argument that this picture of the war is largely wrong, Sheffield ( 2001 ).

This value is variously labelled well-being (Griffin 1986 ), welfare (Darwall 2002 ), prudential value (Tiberius 2015 ), quality of life (Nussbaum and Sen 1993 ), what makes someone’s life go best (Parfit 1986 ), what is good for a human being (Kraut 2007 ), or the good life (Carson 2000 ). I will use ‘good’, ‘goodness’, and ‘good life’, and talk of a life’s ‘going well’, ‘going best’, and ‘going better’ (for the person whose life it is), from now on.

I borrow my Siegfried Sassoon/Sassoon Siegfried conceit from O’Neill, whose version of two lives contrasts Orson Welles with Welles Orson.

This is not exactly Alasdair MacIntyre’s view, since he is concerned with the priority over individual actions of the temporally-extended activities and practices of which they are part, not directly with momentary and whole-life goods (2007: chapter 15). But my version is at least MacIntyrean.

This is David Velleman’s view.

My definition differs somewhat from the definitions given by Gregory Currie ( 2010 ) and by Peter Goldie ( 2012 ): Currie is more concerned than I am with the way in which narrative tellings represent their contents by manifesting their makers’ communicative intentions; Goldie focusses on the product of narration (a story) where I focus on the process (a telling). I do not believe that these are significant differences for my purposes.

I don’t mean to commit myself to the view that only causal connections could be explanatory. In particular, even if reasons are not just a variety of cause, agents’ reasons may explain their actions—the President convened a meeting of her national security advisors in order to discuss a crisis in the Middle East. But I can remain neutral on this question: all I need is the claim that the literary relations of an actual action or event do not explain its occurrence (although they may explain the teller of a narrative’s decision to represent those particular actions and events rather than others).

More precisely: music can be about something, but need not be—compare the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, which is about a thunderstorm, with his Thirteenth String Quartet, which has no programmatic content. Or compare the Stan Tracey Quartet’s Under Milk Wood , which is about Llareggub (or perhaps about Dylan Thomas’s poem) with Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way. I find it harder to think of similarly contrasting pieces of rock or pop music, which may suggest that these kinds of music are distinctively—although vaguely—intentional.

Thanks to an anonymous referee for this journal for pointing out the need to make this distinction.

I have already described Feldman’s attitudinal hedonism. We could add L. W. Sumner’s ( 1996 ) authentic life-satisfaction account and second-order desire accounts deriving from Harry Frankfurt (e.g. Frankfurt 2006 ).

This is again a MacIntyrean view, if not exactly MacIntyre’s view.

Fussell’s case is complicated by the fact that he was a brilliant interpreter of others’ war memoirs (Fussell 2000 ) before writing his own.

See Yuval Harari ( 2005 , 2008 ) on the history of this way of making sense of war.

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Clark, S. Narrative, Self-Realization, and the Shape of a Life. Ethic Theory Moral Prac 21 , 371–385 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-018-9885-7

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What Is Self-Actualization? Meaning, Theory + Examples

Today, self-actualization is a bit more widely known, but most psychology students still learn of it as the top level of Maslow’s pyramid.

This article will define self-actualization, review the relevant research on self-actualization, and discuss its relevance to the positive psychology movement and to the average person.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Self-Compassion Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will not only help you increase the compassion and kindness you show yourself but will also give you the tools to help your clients, students, or employees show more compassion to themselves.

This Article Contains:

What is self-actualization a definition, abraham maslow, the theory of self-actualization and the hierarchy of needs, examples of self-actualization, self-actualization and positive psychology, a take-home message.

Although self-actualization is most often associated with Maslow, the term was first coined by Kurt Goldstein. Goldstein characterized self-actualization as an individuation, or process of becoming a “self,” that is holistic (i.e., the individual realizes that one’s self and one’s environment are two pieces of a greater whole) and acts as a primary driving force of behavior in humans (Whitehead, 2017).

Although Goldstein’s concept didn’t get much traction at the time, it was popularized when Maslow adopted it into his theory on the human hierarchy of needs. In his seminal paper about human motivation (in which he first introduced his hierarchy of needs), Maslow discussed self-actualization by stating, “ What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization ” (Maslow, 1943).

Self-actualization has also been described as:

the psychological process aimed at maximizing the use of a person’s abilities and resources. This process may vary from one person to another

(Couture et al., 2007).

In other words, self-actualization can generally be thought of as the full realization of one’s creative, intellectual, and social potential through internal drive (versus for external rewards like money, status, or power).

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As you may already know, Abraham Maslow was a prominent psychologist most known for his contributions to humanistic psychology. His interests in human motivation and self-actualization stemmed from his experiences both early on as a timid child, and later on as a father witnessing the horrors of World War II (Frick, 2000; Hoffman, 2008).

His hierarchy of needs–first introduced over 70 years ago–is still taught as a critical part of motivational psychology. In fact, there is a noticeable overlap between Maslow’s work and the work that underpins positive psychology (Goud, 2008); the emphasis on self-growth and self-development has a decidedly “positive” flavor to it.

Maslow’s idea of self-actualization has far-reaching applications, but it should be considered within the context of his hierarchy of needs.

Maslow felt that human motivation needed to be studied beyond the contemporary scope of behaviorism, as he believed that the study of “[m]otivation should be human-centered rather than animal-centered” (Maslow, 1943).

Maslow first outlined his hierarchy of needs in his seminal 1943 paper on human motivation. He identified five needs:

Physiological
Self-actualization

Physiological needs refer to things that are necessary for survival, such as breathable air, food, and water. Safety needs are things that make you feel healthy (like having health care and knowing your water is clean) and physically safe (like adequate shelter or being in a large group).

Love needs are met through feeling liked, loved, and accepted by others. Esteem is achieved by feeling self-confident and respected by others. Finally, self-actualization needs are met when an individual engages in self-development and personal growth.

Maslow posited that each level of needs must be taken care of before the next one can be met. So, fulfilling one’s physiological needs is a prerequisite to their safety needs being met; one’s safety needs must be met before one’s love needs take priority, and so on. Self-actualization is the highest level, meaning that it can only be fulfilled when one’s physiological, safety, love, and esteem needs are already met.

While it was later acknowledged that there is some flexibility in the order in which these needs can be met (e.g., there are homeless people who have their esteem or self-actualization needs met while going hungry and/or without shelter), it’s generally considered a necessary prerequisite to make sure your more basic needs are being met before trying to achieve self-actualization.

This is an intuitive idea; after all, if you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, you will probably spend your time on figuring that out rather than worrying about whether people respect you as an authority in your field or whether you are spending enough time on developing your skills.

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“[a] musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy”

(Maslow, 1943).

Extrapolating from this quote, we can see self-actualization in examples like:
An artist who has never made a profit on his art, but he still paints because it is fulfilling and makes him happy.
A woman who finds joy in achieving mastery in a niche hobby.
A father who gets a sense of purpose from raising his children to be a positive force in the world.
An employee at a nonprofit who uses her ever-increasing skills to improve the lives of others.

To give some real-world examples of (presumably) self-actualized people, Maslow (1970) also once named a few people who he considered to have reached a level of self-actualization in their lifetimes.

These included:

Abraham Lincoln
Thomas Jefferson
Albert Einstein
Eleanor Roosevelt
Jane Addams
William James
Albert Schweitzer
Aldous Huxley
Baruch Spinoza

In that same book, Maslow also listed a few other potential cases of self-actualization. These included Eugene Debs, Frederick Douglas, Ida Tarbell, Harriet Tubman, George Washington, George Washington Carver, and Walt Whitman.

While all of the above names were public figures in one way or another, it is interesting to note that Maslow listed a wide variety of people, from abolitionists and authors to philosophers, politicians, and poets, meaning that there is no one “type” of person or career that lends itself to self-actualization; anyone can reach self-actualization, and they will do it in their unique way.

A recent study conducted by Krems et al. (2017) explored how non-psychologists viewed self-actualization. The authors found that “ lay perceptions of realizing one’s full potential are linked to the fundamental motive of achieving status and esteem .”

In other words, participants most associated realizing their potential (and the drive to do so) with reaching some level of internally-recognized success (esteem, which is notably on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs itself) and some level of externally-recognized success (status).

This conflicts with Maslow’s (1943) initial separation of status/ esteem and self-actualization; however, the authors point out that “a functional reading” of Maslow’s work, such as the one discussed by Kenrick et al. (2010), indicates that “ many of the behaviors involved in pursuing one’s full potential are linked to status, both directly and indirectly ” (Krems et al., 2017).

This is not to say that self-actualization must be accompanied by external status or accolades, or that external markers of success are necessary for self-actualization to be realized; but, it does underscore the link between success and self-actualization, suggesting that Maslow and Goldstein may have been right in viewing self-actualization as the driving force in our lives.

What even is “Self-Actualization”? – Humanistic Theory

The concept of self-actualization ties into positive psychology through its connection with wellbeing; as you might imagine, those who are considered self-actualized are also generally high in wellbeing.

According to Bernard et al. (2010), the work of another renowned humanistic psychologist, Albert Ellis, indicated that “ self-actualization involves the pursuit of excellence and enjoyment; whichever people choose to desire and emphasize .”

This focus on excellence and enjoyment as a symptom of the realization of potential explains the link between self-actualization and wellbeing; if reaching your full potential is enjoyable and fulfilling, it logically follows that wellbeing will also be positively affected.

Multiple studies within the field of positive psychology have examined self-actualization as a component of wellbeing (Compton, 2001; Kim et al., 2003), suggesting that it’s a topic that is perfectly at home amongst the other popular positive topics.

Another more recent study examined the effects of a positive psychology course on wellbeing and found that college students who took a course on positive psychology reported increased levels of happiness, hope, mindfulness, and self-actualization, providing correlative evidence of at least some sort of relationship between positive psychology and self-actualization (Maybury, 2013).

Aside from wellbeing, one of the main drives behind founding positive psychology was the reinstatement of a “fundamental [misson] of psychology” that Martin Seligman felt had been too long ignored by contemporary psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

This mission that Maslow highlighted was the goal of “nurturing genius;” since nurturing genius can logically be viewed as a precursor (and companion to) self-actualization and reaching one’s potential, this indicates that self-actualization is comfortably nestled within the field of positive psychology.

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While Abraham Maslow’s groundbreaking theory of motivation and hierarchy of needs are still taught today, it can be useful to view self-actualization within the context of the positive psychology movement.

Not only is self-actualization a worthy goal on its own, but it is also a valuable area of inquiry in positive psychology for at least two reasons: it can be viewed as a component of wellbeing, and it can be used as a way to measure the nurturing of genius.

So, what relevance does self-actualization hold for the average person? At the end of the day, realizing one’s potential is a personal endeavor that depends on where your creative, intellectual, or social potential lies.

Once we realize that self-actualization is not about making the most money or achieving the highest status, that it is a desirable state achieved through reaching one’s full personal potential, we open the door of possibility in our own lives.

Self-actualization is about achieving your dreams, which means that it is within your grasp–whether that means becoming a painter, a politician, a philosopher, a teacher, or anything else that sparks your passion.

If you want to take self-actualization to the next step, start with these self-actualization tests and tools to help you self-reflect and understand what self-actualization could mean for you.

As always, we’d love to hear from you in the comments. What does self-actualization mean to you? When do you feel most self-actualized, and what does it feel like? Do you think self-actualization is necessarily linked to wellbeing? If so, is it a vital piece of the wellbeing puzzle or only one of many ways to achieve wellbeing?

Thanks for reading!

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Self Compassion Exercises for free .

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Perhaps aging and matured wisdom through experience may also contribute to self-realization. As described in Erickson’s Theory Stage 8.

Well done, young master Selva. I found your essay both informative and mentally nourishing (although the latter may be due in part from the recent stimulate I took for one of the many illnesses I’m constantly battling on my road to self actualization)

I believe this process of becoming self-realized means a person is developing well grounded self-worth for more unconditional positive regard, which in turn upon experiencing and understanding these intuitive systems (or our full potential) can allow one to learn to leverage these abilities to a much greater degree at will — having more moments of being self-actualized.

For the average person and in terms of self-actualization, this I think can be summarized into three oversimplified practical areas to maintain: stable energy levels through consistency in prioritizing basic self-care, a person wholeheartedly accepting/embracing the moment to be present-minded in openly expressing themselves for meaningful experiences/interactions, and decondition/replace false beliefs and limiting mindsets that hold one back to more unconditional intrinsic aspects of these underlying processes in experiencing the moment.

Essentially, this can be a result from a person having secure high self-esteem, and a high autonomy orientation. These individuals are further along the process of self-realization have become virtuosos in these abilities, actively seeking uncertainty and challenging themselves by leaning into stressors with a growth mindset due to knowing any friction/resistance they experience is proof of progress and change happening within their body in manifesting the embodiment of these virtues they practice reaching ever so closer to these ideals.

I believe Knowledge of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was Necessary for my Transitioning from Child to Adult!

Super article. Yes, personally, Maslow`s Hierarchy of Needs gives me direction since young, leading to becoming a vegan before taking the natural next step embracing Utopianism and even Minimalism (like relating to reducing being materialistic) too, while exploring layering positivity on positivity, and discovering that it displaces negativity entirely when applied fully. There is no end to enjoying and embracing feeling good and whole constantly and spontaneously, as a normal way and quality of life, beyond being a mere exception, also made possible by acknowledging, understanding and resolving the past to open up the present totally as exciting and adventurous being alive and thriving, while putting intelligent and ideal beneficial self interest first and foremost without ever being a slave to anything or anyone. Being one`s own friend results in the ability to be there for another similarly as well, all part of bringing out empathy and the best in ourselves and each other.

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What does Emerson say about self-reliance?

In Emerson's essay “ Self-Reliance ,” he boldly states society (especially today’s politically correct environment) hurts a person’s growth.

Emerson wrote that self-sufficiency gives a person in society the freedom they need to discover their true self and attain their true independence.

Believing that individualism, personal responsibility , and nonconformity were essential to a thriving society. But to get there, Emerson knew that each individual had to work on themselves to achieve this level of individualism.

Today, we see society's breakdowns daily and wonder how we arrived at this state of society. One can see how the basic concepts of self-trust, self-awareness, and self-acceptance have significantly been ignored.

Who published self-reliance?

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the essay, published in 1841 as part of his first volume of collected essays titled "Essays: First Series."

It would go on to be known as Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self Reliance and one of the most well-known pieces of American literature.

The collection was published by James Munroe and Company.

What are the examples of self-reliance?

Examples of self-reliance can be as simple as tying your shoes and as complicated as following your inner voice and not conforming to paths set by society or religion.

Self-reliance can also be seen as getting things done without relying on others, being able to “pull your weight” by paying your bills, and caring for yourself and your family correctly.

Self-reliance involves relying on one's abilities, judgment, and resources to navigate life. Here are more examples of self-reliance seen today:

Entrepreneurship: Starting and running your own business, relying on your skills and determination to succeed.

Financial Independence: Managing your finances responsibly, saving money, and making sound investment decisions to secure your financial future.

Learning and Education: Taking the initiative to educate oneself, whether through formal education, self-directed learning, or acquiring new skills.

Problem-Solving: Tackling challenges independently, finding solutions to problems, and adapting to changing circumstances.

Personal Development: Taking responsibility for personal growth, setting goals, and working towards self-improvement.

Homesteading: Growing your food, raising livestock, or becoming self-sufficient in various aspects of daily life.

DIY Projects: Undertaking do-it-yourself projects, from home repairs to crafting, without relying on external help.

Living Off the Grid: Living independently from public utilities, generating your energy, and sourcing your water.

Decision-Making: Trusting your instincts and making decisions based on your values and beliefs rather than relying solely on external advice.

Crisis Management: Handling emergencies and crises with resilience and resourcefulness without depending on external assistance.

These examples illustrate different facets of self-reliance, emphasizing independence, resourcefulness, and the ability to navigate life autonomously.

What is the purpose of self reliance by Emerson?

In his essay, " Self Reliance, " Emerson's sole purpose is the want for people to avoid conformity. Emerson believed that in order for a man to truly be a man, he was to follow his own conscience and "do his own thing."

Essentially, do what you believe is right instead of blindly following society.

Why is it important to be self reliant?

While getting help from others, including friends and family, can be an essential part of your life and fulfilling. However, help may not always be available, or the assistance you receive may not be what you had hoped for.

It is for this reason that Emerson pushed for self-reliance. If a person were independent, could solve their problems, and fulfill their needs and desires, they would be a more vital member of society.

This can lead to growth in the following areas:

Empowerment: Self-reliance empowers individuals to take control of their lives. It fosters a sense of autonomy and the ability to make decisions independently.

Resilience: Developing self-reliance builds resilience, enabling individuals to bounce back from setbacks and face challenges with greater adaptability.

Personal Growth: Relying on oneself encourages continuous learning and personal growth. It motivates individuals to acquire new skills and knowledge.

Freedom: Self-reliance provides a sense of freedom from external dependencies. It reduces reliance on others for basic needs, decisions, or validation.

Confidence: Achieving goals through one's own efforts boosts confidence and self-esteem. It instills a belief in one's capabilities and strengthens a positive self-image.

Resourcefulness: Being self-reliant encourages resourcefulness. Individuals learn to solve problems creatively, adapt to changing circumstances, and make the most of available resources.

Adaptability: Self-reliant individuals are often more adaptable to change. They can navigate uncertainties with a proactive and positive mindset.

Reduced Stress: Dependence on others can lead to stress and anxiety, especially when waiting for external support. Self-reliance reduces reliance on external factors for emotional well-being.

Personal Responsibility: It promotes a sense of responsibility for one's own life and decisions. Self-reliant individuals are more likely to take ownership of their actions and outcomes.

Goal Achievement: Being self-reliant facilitates the pursuit and achievement of personal and professional goals. It allows individuals to overcome obstacles and stay focused on their objectives.

Overall, self-reliance contributes to personal empowerment, mental resilience, and the ability to lead a fulfilling and purposeful life. While collaboration and support from others are valuable, cultivating a strong sense of self-reliance enhances one's capacity to navigate life's challenges independently.

What did Emerson mean, "Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide"?

According to Emerson, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to you independently, but every person is given a plot of ground to till.

In other words, Emerson believed that a person's main focus in life is to work on oneself, increasing their maturity and intellect, and overcoming insecurities, which will allow a person to be self-reliant to the point where they no longer envy others but measure themselves against how they were the day before.

When we do become self-reliant, we focus on creating rather than imitating. Being someone we are not is just as damaging to the soul as suicide.

Envy is ignorance: Emerson suggests that feeling envious of others is a form of ignorance. Envy often arises from a lack of understanding or appreciation of one's unique qualities and potential. Instead of being envious, individuals should focus on discovering and developing their talents and strengths.

Imitation is suicide: Emerson extends the idea by stating that imitation, or blindly copying others, is a form of self-destruction. He argues that true individuality and personal growth come from expressing one's unique voice and ideas. In this context, imitation is seen as surrendering one's identity and creativity, leading to a kind of "spiritual death."

What are the transcendental elements in Emerson’s self-reliance?

The five predominant elements of Transcendentalism are nonconformity, self-reliance, free thought, confidence, and the importance of nature.

The Transcendentalism movement emerged in New England between 1820 and 1836. It is essential to differentiate this movement from Transcendental Meditation, a distinct practice.

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Transcendentalism is characterized as "an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson." A central tenet of this movement is the belief that individual purity can be 'corrupted' by society.

Are Emerson's writings referenced in pop culture?

Emerson has made it into popular culture. One such example is in the film Next Stop Wonderland released in 1998. The reference is a quote from Emerson's essay on Self Reliance, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

This becomes a running theme in the film as a single woman (Hope Davis ), who is quite familiar with Emerson's writings and showcases several men taking her on dates, attempting to impress her by quoting the famous line, only to botch the line and also giving attribution to the wrong person. One gentleman says confidently it was W.C. Fields, while another matches the quote with Cicero. One goes as far as stating it was Karl Marx!

Why does Emerson say about self confidence?

Content is coming very soon.

Self-Reliance: The Complete Essay

Ne te quaesiveris extra."

Man is his own star; and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Commands all light, all influence, all fate ; Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune Cast the bantling on the rocks, Suckle him with the she-wolf's teat; Wintered with the hawk and fox, Power and speed be hands and feet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. Emerson became one of America's best known and best-loved 19th-century figures. More About Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson Self Reliance Summary

The essay “Self-Reliance,” written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is, by far, his most famous piece of work. Emerson, a Transcendentalist, believed focusing on the purity and goodness of individualism and community with nature was vital for a strong society. Transcendentalists despise the corruption and conformity of human society and institutions. Published in 1841, the Self Reliance essay is a deep-dive into self-sufficiency as a virtue.

In the essay "Self-Reliance," Ralph Waldo Emerson advocates for individuals to trust in their own instincts and ideas rather than blindly following the opinions of society and its institutions. He argues that society encourages conformity, stifles individuality, and encourages readers to live authentically and self-sufficient lives.

Emerson also stresses the importance of being self-reliant, relying on one's own abilities and judgment rather than external validation or approval from others. He argues that people must be honest with themselves and seek to understand their own thoughts and feelings rather than blindly following the expectations of others. Through this essay, Emerson emphasizes the value of independence, self-discovery, and personal growth.

What is the Meaning of Self-Reliance?

I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instill is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to think that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.

Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light that flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought because it is his. In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

Great works of art have no more affecting lessons for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility than most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance that does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

Trust Thyself: Every Heart Vibrates To That Iron String.

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, and the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.

What pretty oracles nature yields to us in this text, in the face and behaviour of children, babes, and even brutes! That divided and rebel mind, that distrust of a sentiment because our arithmetic has computed the strength and means opposed to our purpose, these have not. Their mind being whole, their eye is as yet unconquered, and when we look in their faces, we are disconcerted. Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it. So God has armed youth and puberty and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will stand by itself. Do not think the youth has no force, because he cannot speak to you and me. Hark! in the next room his voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic. It seems he knows how to speak to his contemporaries. Bashful or bold, then, he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.

The nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as much as a lord to do or say aught to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature. A boy is in the parlour what the pit is in the playhouse; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests: he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court you. But the man is, as it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness. As soon as he has once acted or spoken with eclat, he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this. Ah, that he could pass again into his neutrality! Who can thus avoid all pledges, and having observed, observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, unaffrighted innocence, must always be formidable. He would utter opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be not private, but necessary, would sink like darts into the ear of men, and put them in fear.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy - Ralph Waldo Emerson

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser, who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, — "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways. If malice and vanity wear the coat of philanthropy, shall that pass? If an angry bigot assumes this bountiful cause of Abolition, and comes to me with his last news from Barbadoes, why should I not say to him, 'Go love thy infant; love thy wood-chopper: be good-natured and modest: have that grace; and never varnish your hard, uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off. Thy love afar is spite at home.' Rough and graceless would be such greeting, but truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pules and whines. I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me. The lintels of the door-post I would write on, Whim . It is somewhat better than whim at last I hope, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I exclude company. Then, again, do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison, if need be; but your miscellaneous popular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots; and the thousandfold Relief Societies; — though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold.

Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule. There is the man and his virtues. Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world, — as invalids and the insane pay a high board. Their virtues are penances. I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. Wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. The primary evidence I ask that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions. For myself it makes no difference that I know, whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent. I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have intrinsic right. Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.

This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. The easy thing in the world is to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character. If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible-society, vote with a great party either for the government or against it, spread your table like base housekeepers, — under all these screens I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are. And, of course, so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. But do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. A man must consider what a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument. I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word? With all this ostentation of examining the grounds of the institution, do I not know that he will do no such thing? Do not I know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side, — the permitted side, not as a man, but as a parish minister? He is a retained attorney, and these airs of the bench are the emptiest affectation. Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right. Meantime nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere. We come to wear one cut of face and figure, and acquire by degrees the gentlest asinine expression. There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean "the foolish face of praise," the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease in answer to conversation which does not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneously moved, but moved by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face with the most disagreeable sensation.

For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. And therefore a man must know how to estimate a sour face. The by-standers look askance on him in the public street or in the friend's parlour. If this aversation had its origin in contempt and resistance like his own, he might well go home with a sad countenance; but the sour faces of the multitude, like their sweet faces, have no deep cause, but are put on and off as the wind blows and a newspaper directs. Yet is the discontent of the multitude more formidable than that of the senate and the college. It is easy enough for a firm man who knows the world to brook the rage of the cultivated classes. Their rage is decorous and prudent, for they are timid as being very vulnerable themselves. But when to their feminine rage the indignation of the people is added, when the ignorant and the poor are aroused, when the unintelligent brute force that lies at the bottom of society is made to growl and mow, it needs the habit of magnanimity and religion to treat it godlike as a trifle of no concernment.

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.

But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity: yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

Do not follow where the path may lead - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I suppose no man can violate his nature.

All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere. Nor does it matter how you gauge and try him. A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; — read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing. In this pleasing, contrite wood-life which God allows me, let me record day by day my honest thought without prospect or retrospect, and, I cannot doubt, it will be found symmetrical, though I mean it not, and see it not. My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow over my window should interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my web also. We pass for what we are. Character teaches above our wills. Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.

There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour. For of one will, the actions will be harmonious, however unlike they seem. These varieties are lost sight of at a little distance, at a little height of thought. One tendency unites them all. The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now. Greatness appeals to the future. If I can be firm enough to-day to do right, and scorn eyes, I must have done so much right before as to defend me now. Be it how it will, do right now. Always scorn appearances, and you always may. The force of character is cumulative. All the foregone days of virtue work their health into this. What makes the majesty of the heroes of the senate and the field, which so fills the imagination? The consciousness of a train of great days and victories behind. They shed an united light on the advancing actor. He is attended as by a visible escort of angels. That is it which throws thunder into Chatham's voice, and dignity into Washington's port, and America into Adams's eye. Honor is venerable to us because it is no ephemeris. It is always ancient virtue. We worship it today because it is not of today. We love it and pay it homage, because it is not a trap for our love and homage, but is self-dependent, self-derived, and therefore of an old immaculate pedigree, even if shown in a young person.

I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan fife. Let us never bow and apologize more. A great man is coming to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him; He should wish to please me, that I wish. I will stand here for humanity, and though I would make it kind, I would make it true. Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man works; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the centre of things. Where he is, there is nature. He measures you, and all men, and all events. Ordinarily, every body in society reminds us of somewhat else, or of some other person. Character, reality, reminds you of nothing else; it takes place of the whole creation. The man must be so much, that he must make all circumstances indifferent. Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design; — and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clients. A man Caesar is born, and for ages after we have a Roman Empire. Christ is born, and millions of minds so grow and cleave to his genius, that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, Monachism, of the Hermit Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, of Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called "the height of Rome"; and all history resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons.

Let a man then know his worth, and keep things under his feet. Let him not peep or steal, or skulk up and down with the air of a charity-boy, a bastard, or an interloper, in the world which exists for him. But the man in the street, finding no worth in himself which corresponds to the force which built a tower or sculptured a marble god, feels poor when he looks on these. To him a palace, a statue, or a costly book have an alien and forbidding air, much like a gay equipage, and seem to say like that, 'Who are you, Sir?' Yet they all are his, suitors for his notice, petitioners to his faculties that they will come out and take possession. The picture waits for my verdict: it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claims to praise. That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead drunk in the street, carried to the duke's house, washed and dressed and laid in the duke's bed, and, on his waking, treated with all obsequious ceremony like the duke, and assured that he had been insane, owes its popularity to the fact, that it symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason, and finds himself a true prince.

Our reading is mendicant and sycophantic. In history, our imagination plays us false. Kingdom and lordship, power and estate, are a gaudier vocabulary than private John and Edward in a small house and common day's work; but the things of life are the same to both; the sum total of both is the same. Why all this deference to Alfred, and Scanderbeg, and Gustavus? Suppose they were virtuous; did they wear out virtue? As great a stake depends on your private act to-day, as followed their public and renowned steps. When private men shall act with original views, the lustre will be transferred from the actions of kings to those of gentlemen.

The world has been instructed by its kings, who have so magnetized the eyes of nations. It has been taught by this colossal symbol the mutual reverence that is due from man to man. The joyful loyalty with which men have everywhere suffered the king, the noble, or the great proprietor to walk among them by a law of his own, make his own scale of men and things, and reverse theirs, pay for benefits not with money but with honor, and represent the law in his person, was the hieroglyphic by which they obscurely signified their consciousness of their own right and comeliness, the right of every man.

The magnetism which all original action exerts is explained when we inquire the reason of self-trust.

Who is the Trustee? What is the aboriginal Self, on which a universal reliance may be grounded? What is the nature and power of that science-baffling star, without parallax, without calculable elements, which shoots a ray of beauty even into trivial and impure actions, if the least mark of independence appear? The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct. We denote this primary wisdom as Intuition, whilst all later teachings are tuitions. In that deep force, the last fact behind which analysis cannot go, all things find their common origin. For, the sense of being which in calm hours rises, we know not how, in the soul, is not diverse from things, from space, from light, from time, from man, but one with them, and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed. We first share the life by which things exist, and afterwards see them as appearances in nature, and forget that we have shared their cause. Here is the fountain of action and of thought. Here are the lungs of that inspiration which giveth man wisdom, and which cannot be denied without impiety and atheism. We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm. Every man discriminates between the voluntary acts of his mind, and his involuntary perceptions, and knows that to his involuntary perceptions a perfect faith is due. He may err in the expression of them, but he knows that these things are so, like day and night, not to be disputed. My wilful actions and acquisitions are but roving; — the idlest reverie, the faintest native emotion, command my curiosity and respect. Thoughtless people contradict as readily the statement of perceptions as of opinions, or rather much more readily; for, they do not distinguish between perception and notion. They fancy that I choose to see this or that thing. But perception is not whimsical, but fatal. If I see a trait, my children will see it after me, and in course of time, all mankind, — although it may chance that no one has seen it before me. For my perception of it is as much a fact as the sun.

The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose helps. It must be that when God speaketh he should communicate, not one thing, but all things; should fill the world with his voice; should scatter forth light, nature, time, souls, from the centre of the present thought; and new date and new create the whole. Whenever a mind is simple, and receives a divine wisdom, old things pass away, — means, teachers, texts, temples fall; it lives now, and absorbs past and future into the present hour. All things are made sacred by relation to it, — one as much as another. All things are dissolved to their centre by their cause, and, in the universal miracle, petty and particular miracles disappear. If, therefore, a man claims to know and speak of God, and carries you backward to the phraseology of some old mouldered nation in another country, in another world, believe him not. Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fulness and completion? Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence, then, this worship of the past? The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul. Time and space are but physiological colors which the eye makes, but the soul is light; where it is, is day; where it was, is night; and history is an impertinence and an injury, if it be anything more than a cheerful apologue or parable of my being and becoming.

Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; 'I think,' 'I am,' that he dares not say, but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.

This should be plain enough. Yet see what strong intellects dare not yet hear God himself, unless he speak the phraseology of I know not what David, or Jeremiah, or Paul. We shall not always set so great a price on a few texts, on a few lives. We are like children who repeat by rote the sentences of grandames and tutors, and, as they grow older, of the men of talents and character they chance to see, — painfully recollecting the exact words they spoke; afterwards, when they come into the point of view which those had who uttered these sayings, they understand them, and are willing to let the words go; for, at any time, they can use words as good when occasion comes. If we live truly, we shall see truly. It is as easy for the strong man to be strong, as it is for the weak to be weak. When we have new perception, we shall gladly disburden the memory of its hoarded treasures as old rubbish. When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn.

And now at last the highest truth on this subject remains unsaid; probably cannot be said; for all that we say is the far-off remembering of the intuition. That thought, by what I can now nearest approach to say it, is this. When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; not see the face of man; and you shall not hear any name;—— the way, the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new. It shall exclude example and experience. You take the way from man, not to man. All persons that ever existed are its forgotten ministers. Fear and hope are alike beneath it. There is somewhat low even in hope. In the hour of vision, there is nothing that can be called gratitude, nor properly joy. The soul raised over passion beholds identity and eternal causation, perceives the self-existence of Truth and Right, and calms itself with knowing that all things go well. Vast spaces of nature, the Atlantic Ocean, the South Sea, — long intervals of time, years, centuries, — are of no account. This which I think and feel underlay every former state of life and circumstances, as it does underlie my present, and what is called life, and what is called death.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life only avails, not the having lived.

Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim. This one fact the world hates is that the soul becomes ; for that forever degrades the past, turns all riches to poverty, all reputation to a shame, confounds the saint with the rogue, shoves Jesus and Judas equally aside. Why, then, do we prate of self-reliance? Inasmuch as the soul is present, there will be power, not confidence but an agent. To talk of reliance is a poor external way of speaking. Speak rather of that which relies, because it works and is. Who has more obedience than I masters me, though he should not raise his finger. Round him I must revolve by the gravitation of spirits. We fancy it rhetoric, when we speak of eminent virtue. We do not yet see that virtue is Height, and that a man or a company of men, plastic and permeable to principles, by the law of nature must overpower and ride all cities, nations, kings, rich men, poets, who are not.

This is the ultimate fact which we so quickly reach on this, as on every topic, the resolution of all into the ever-blessed ONE. Self-existence is the attribute of the Supreme Cause, and it constitutes the measure of good by the degree in which it enters into all lower forms. All things real are so by so much virtue as they contain. Commerce, husbandry, hunting, whaling, war, eloquence , personal weight, are somewhat, and engage my respect as examples of its presence and impure action. I see the same law working in nature for conservation and growth. Power is in nature the essential measure of right. Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself. The genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying soul.

Thus all concentrates: let us not rove; let us sit at home with the cause. Let us stun and astonish the intruding rabble of men and books and institutions, by a simple declaration of the divine fact. Bid the invaders take the shoes from off their feet, for God is here within. Let our simplicity judge them, and our docility to our own law demonstrate the poverty of nature and fortune beside our native riches.

But now we are a mob. Man does not stand in awe of man, nor is his genius admonished to stay at home, to put itself in communication with the internal ocean, but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of the urns of other men. We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. How far off, how cool, how chaste the persons look, begirt each one with a precinct or sanctuary! So let us always sit. Why should we assume the faults of our friend, or wife, or father, or child, because they sit around our hearth, or are said to have the same blood? All men have my blood, and I have all men's. Not for that will I adopt their petulance or folly, even to the extent of being ashamed of it. But your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is, must be elevation. At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door, and say, — 'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me, I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act. "What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love."

If we cannot at once rise to the sanctities of obedience and faith, let us at least resist our temptations; let us enter into the state of war, and wake Thor and Woden, courage and constancy, in our Saxon breasts. This is to be done in our smooth times by speaking the truth. Check this lying hospitality and lying affection. Live no longer to the expectation of these deceived and deceiving people with whom we converse. Say to them, O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after appearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truth's. Be it known unto you that henceforward I obey no law less than the eternal law. I will have no covenants but proximities. To nourish my parents, to support my family I shall endeavour, to be the chaste husband of one wife, — but these relations I must fill after a new and unprecedented way. I appeal from your customs that I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions if you are not. If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly. It is alike your interest, and mine, and all men's, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth. Does this sound harsh today? You will soon love what is dictated by your nature as well as mine, and, if we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. — But so you may give these friends pain. Yes, but I cannot sell my liberty and my power, to save their sensibility. Besides, all persons have their moments of reason, when they look out into the region of absolute truth; then will they justify me, and do the same thing.

The populace think that your rejection of popular standards is a rejection of all standard, and mere antinomianism; and the bold sensualist will use the name of philosophy to gild his crimes. But the law of consciousness abides. There are two confessionals, in one or the other of which we must be shriven. You may fulfil your round of duties by clearing yourself in the direct , or in the reflex way. Consider whether you have satisfied your relations to father, mother, cousin, neighbour, town, cat, and dog; whether any of these can upbraid you. But I may also neglect this reflex standard, and absolve me to myself. I have my own stern claims and perfect circle. It denies the name of duty to many offices that are called duties. But if I can discharge its debts, it enables me to dispense with the popular code. If anyone imagines that this law is lax, let him keep its commandment one day.

And truly it demands something godlike in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!

If any man consider the present aspects of what is called by distinction society , he will see the need of these ethics. The sinew and heart of man seem to be drawn out, and we are become timorous, desponding whimperers. We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state, but we see that most natures are insolvent, cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force, and do lean and beg day and night continually. Our housekeeping is mendicant, our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. We are parlour soldiers. We shun the rugged battle of fate , where strength is born.

If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart.

Men say he is ruined if the young merchant fails . If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life. A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it , farms it , peddles , keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not 'studying a profession,' for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances. Let a Stoic open the resources of man, and tell men they are not leaning willows, but can and must detach themselves; that with the exercise of self-trust, new powers shall appear; that a man is the word made flesh, born to shed healing to the nations, that he should be ashamed of our compassion, and that the moment he acts from himself, tossing the laws, the books, idolatries, and customs out of the window, we pity him no more, but thank and revere him, — and that teacher shall restore the life of man to splendor, and make his name dear to all history.

It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; education; and in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views.

1. In what prayers do men allow themselves! That which they call a holy office is not so much as brave and manly. Prayer looks abroad and asks for some foreign addition to come through some foreign virtue, and loses itself in endless mazes of natural and supernatural, and mediatorial and miraculous. It is prayer that craves a particular commodity, — anything less than all good, — is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature, though for cheap ends. Caratach, in Fletcher's Bonduca, when admonished to inquire the mind of the god Audate, replies, —

"His hidden meaning lies in our endeavours; Our valors are our best gods."

Another sort of false prayers are our regrets. Discontent is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will. Regret calamities, if you can thereby help the sufferer; if not, attend your own work, and already the evil begins to be repaired. Our sympathy is just as base. We come to them who weep foolishly, and sit down and cry for company, instead of imparting to them truth and health in rough electric shocks, putting them once more in communication with their own reason. The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. We solicitously and apologetically caress and celebrate him, because he held on his way and scorned our disapprobation. The gods love him because men hated him. "To the persevering mortal," said Zoroaster, "the blessed Immortals are swift."

As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect . They say with those foolish Israelites, 'Let not God speak to us, lest we die. Speak thou, speak any man with us, and we will obey.' Everywhere I am hindered of meeting God in my brother, because he has shut his own temple doors, and recites fables merely of his brother's, or his brother's brother's God. Every new mind is a new classification. If it prove a mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a Fourier, it imposes its classification on other men, and lo! a new system. In proportion to the depth of the thought, and so to the number of the objects it touches and brings within reach of the pupil, is his complacency. But chiefly is this apparent in creeds and churches, which are also classifications of some powerful mind acting on the elemental thought of duty, and man's relation to the Highest. Such as Calvinism, Quakerism, Swedenborgism. The pupil takes the same delight in subordinating everything to the new terminology, as a girl who has just learned botany in seeing a new earth and new seasons thereby. It will happen for a time, that the pupil will find his intellectual power has grown by the study of his master's mind. But in all unbalanced minds, the classification is idolized, passes for the end, and not for a speedily exhaustible means, so that the walls of the system blend to their eye in the remote horizon with the walls of the universe; the luminaries of heaven seem to them hung on the arch their master built. They cannot imagine how you aliens have any right to see, — how you can see; 'It must be somehow that you stole the light from us.' They do not yet perceive, that light, unsystematic, indomitable, will break into any cabin, even into theirs. Let them chirp awhile and call it their own. If they are honest and do well, presently their neat new pinfold will be too strait and low, will crack, will lean, will rot and vanish, and the immortal light, all young and joyful, million-orbed, million-colored, will beam over the universe as on the first morning.

2. It is for want of self-culture that the superstition of Travelling, whose idols are Italy, England, Egypt, retains its fascination for all educated Americans. They who made England, Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination did so by sticking fast where they were, like an axis of the earth. In manly hours, we feel that duty is our place. The soul is no traveller; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still, and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance, that he goes the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign, and not like an interloper or a valet.

I have no churlish objection to the circumnavigation of the globe, for the purposes of art, of study, and benevolence, so that the man is first domesticated, or does not go abroad with the hope of finding somewhat greater than he knows. He who travels to be amused, or to get somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth among old things. In Thebes, in Palmyra, his will and mind have become old and dilapidated as they. He carries ruins to ruins.

Travelling is a fool's paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. The Vatican, and the palaces I seek. But I am not intoxicated though I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions. My giant goes with me wherever I go.

3. But the rage of travelling is a symptom of a deeper unsoundness affecting the whole intellectual action. The intellect is vagabond, and our system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home. We imitate, and what is imitation but the travelling of the mind? Our houses are built with foreign taste; Shelves are garnished with foreign ornaments, but our opinions, our tastes, our faculties, lean, and follow the Past and the Distant. The soul created the arts wherever they have flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought his model. It was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed. And why need we copy the Doric or the Gothic model? Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought, and quaint expression are as near to us as to any, and if the American artist will study with hope and love the precise thing to be done by him, considering the climate, the soil, the length of the day, the wants of the people, the habit and form of the government, he will create a house in which all these will find themselves fitted, and taste and sentiment will be satisfied also.

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. There is at this moment for you an utterance brave and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or trowel of the Egyptians, or the pen of Moses, or Dante, but different from all these. Not possibly will the soul all rich, all eloquent, with thousand-cloven tongue, deign to repeat itself; but if you can hear what these patriarchs say, surely you can reply to them in the same pitch of voice; for the ear and the tongue are two organs of one nature. Abide in the simple and noble regions of thy life, obey thy heart, and thou shalt reproduce the Foreworld again.

To be yourself in a world - Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. As our Religion, our Education, our Art look abroad, so does our spirit of society. All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves.

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other and undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, civilized, christianized, rich and it is scientific, but this change is not amelioration. For everything that is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat, and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under! But compare the health of the two men, and you shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength. If the traveller tell us truly, strike the savage with a broad axe, and in a day or two, the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch, and the same blow shall send the white to his grave.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe, the equinox he knows as little, and the whole bright calendar of the year are without a dial in his mind. His note-books impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy, by a Christianity entrenched in establishments and forms, some vigor of wild virtue. For every Stoic was a Stoic, but in Christendom, where is the Christian?

There is no more deviation in the moral standard than in the standard of height or bulk. No greater men are now than ever were. A singular equality may be observed between the great men of the first and of the last ages; nor can all the science, art, religion, and philosophy of the nineteenth century avail to educate greater men than Plutarch's heroes, three or four and twenty centuries ago. Not in time is the race progressive. Phocion, Socrates, Anaxagoras, Diogenes, are great men, but they leave no class. He who is really of their class will not be called by their name, but will be his own man, and, in his turn, the founder of a sect. The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men. The harm of the improved machinery may compensate its good. Hudson and Behring accomplished so much in their fishing boats, as to astonish Parry and Franklin, whose equipment exhausted the resources of science and art. Galileo, with an opera-glass, discovered a more splendid series of celestial phenomena than anyone since. Columbus found the New World in an undecked boat. It is curious to see the periodical disuse and perishing of means and machinery, which were introduced with loud laudation a few years or centuries before. The great genius returns to essential man. We reckoned the improvements of the art of war among the triumphs of science, and yet Napoleon conquered Europe by the bivouac, which consisted of falling back on naked valor and disencumbering it of all aids. The Emperor held it impossible to make a perfect army, says Las Casas, "without abolishing our arms, magazines, commissaries, and carriages, until, in imitation of the Roman custom, the soldier should receive his supply of corn, grind it in his hand-mill, and bake his bread himself."

Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not. The same particle does not rise from the valley to the ridge. Its unity is only phenomenal. The persons who make up a nation today, next year die, and their experience with them.

And so the reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance. Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long, that they have come to esteem the religious, learned, and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he has, if he see that it is accidental, — came to him by inheritance, or gift, or crime; then he feels that it is not having; it does not belong to him, has no root in him, and merely lies there, because no revolution or no robber takes it away. But that which a man is does always by necessity acquire, and what the man acquires is living property, which does not wait the beck of rulers, or mobs, or revolutions, or fire, or storm, or bankruptcies, but perpetually renews itself wherever the man breathes. "Thy lot or portion of life," said the Caliph Ali, "is seeking after thee; therefore, be at rest from seeking after it." Our dependence on these foreign goods leads us to our slavish respect for numbers. The political parties meet in numerous conventions; the greater the concourse, and with each new uproar of announcement, The delegation from Essex! The Democrats from New Hampshire! The Whigs of Maine! the young patriot feels himself stronger than before by a new thousand of eyes and arms. In like manner the reformers summon conventions, and vote and resolve in multitude. Not so, O friends! will the God deign to enter and inhabit you, but by a method precisely the reverse. It is only as a man puts off all foreign support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail. He is weaker by every recruit to his banner. Is not a man better than a town? Ask nothing of men, and in the endless mutation, thou only firm column must presently appear the upholder of all that surrounds thee. He who knows that power is inborn, that he is weak because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and so perceiving, throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself, stands in the erect position, commands his limbs, works miracles; just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man who stands on his head.

So use all that is called Fortune. Most men gamble with her, and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls. But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings, and deal with Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God. In the Will work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance, and shalt sit hereafter out of fear from her rotations. A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.

Which quotation from "Self-reliance" best summarizes Emerson’s view on belief in oneself?

One of the most famous quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" that summarizes his view on belief in oneself is:

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."

What does Emerson argue should be the basis of human actions in the second paragraph of “self-reliance”?

In the second paragraph of "Self-Reliance," Emerson argues that individual conscience, or a person's inner voice, should be the basis of human actions. He writes, "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." He believes that society tends to impose conformity and discourage people from following their own inner truth and intuition. Emerson encourages individuals to trust themselves and to act according to their own beliefs, instead of being influenced by the opinions of others. He argues that this is the way to live a truly authentic and fulfilling life.

Which statement best describes Emerson’s opinion of communities, according to the first paragraph of society and solitude?

According to the first paragraph of Ralph Waldo Emerson's " Society and Solitude, " Emerson has a mixed opinion of communities. He recognizes the importance of social interaction and the benefits of being part of a community but also recognizes the limitations that come with it.

He writes, "Society everywhere is in a conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members." He argues that society can be limiting and restrictive, and can cause individuals to conform to norms and values that may not align with their own beliefs and desires. He believes that it is important for individuals to strike a balance between the benefits of social interaction and the need for solitude and self-discovery.

Which best describes Emerson’s central message to his contemporaries in "self-reliance"?

Ralph Waldo Emerson's central message to his contemporaries in "Self-Reliance" is to encourage individuals to trust in their own beliefs and instincts, and to break free from societal norms and expectations. He argues that individuals should have the courage to think for themselves and to live according to their own individual truth, rather than being influenced by the opinions of others. Through this message, he aims to empower people to live authentic and fulfilling lives, rather than living in conformity and compromise.

Yet, it is critical that we first possess the ability to conceive our own thoughts. Prior to venturing into the world, we must be intimately acquainted with our own selves and our individual minds. This sentiment echoes the concise maxim inscribed at the ancient Greek site of the Delphic Oracle: 'Know Thyself.'

In essence, Emerson's central message in "Self-Reliance" is to promote self-reliance and individualism as the key to a meaningful and purposeful life.

Understanding Emerson: "The American scholar" and his struggle for self-reliance.

Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09982-0

Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Other works from ralph waldo emerson for book clubs, the over-soul.

There is a difference between one and another hour of life, in their authority and subsequent effect. Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual.

The American Scholar

An Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837

Essays First Series

Essays: First Series First published in 1841 as Essays. After Essays: Second Series was published in 1844, Emerson corrected this volume and republished it in 1847 as Essays: First Series.

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Essay Self-Realization

Introduction.

Self-realization refers to the development and fulfillment of potential on an individual. In the theory of self-actualization, it is perceived that, an individual life of Excellency highly bases on the actualization of human potentiality. In a political perspective, self-realization is refers to a process of individuals attaining freedom from external coercion, which include both economic and political freedom, freedom from earthly desires and attachment as well as freedom from cultural demands. There are four fundamental conditions, which are necessary for individuals to attain self-realization or self-development in the modern society. These conditions are equality, freedom, reciprocity, and democracy. Thus the papers seeks to discuss the four fundamental conditions namely, equality, freedom, reciprocity and democracy, which are necessary for self-realization or development in a political theory while underpinning the argument with political thoughts of theorists John Stuart Mill and Michel Foucault’s in the book “On Liberty” and “Discipline & Punish” respectively.

The first vital condition is equality. Equality means that individuals would have equal access to power, instruments of labour among other resources that are deemed vital for human beings’ development. In an agent capacity, no one has a right to enjoy factors that boost self-development at the expense of others (Mill, 35). Equality is considered as a more essential condition for self-realization as lack of it may cause one group to exercise dominance in a direct way over another. Similarly, Lack of equality renders freedom in self-development to become empty, as mere possession of resources does not guarantee the attainment of self-realization. Conversely, The problem with this argument is that, when individual are placed at an equal ground, they may not attain self-realization as they have unique natural capability such as talent, personality and values (Mill, 41). Another problem is that, other people may utilize the equitable resources to develop negative aspects such as corruption, manipulation, and lies.

Similarly.In Mill’s attempt to make a case for perfect equality, he uses an example of gender equality, whereby women were were being exploited. According to Mill, women were being treated as slaves, a phenomenon that greatly hindered their improvement as well as self-realization. Women’s ability to attain self-development was stagnated since they did not have equal access to education as men. Additionally, Mill also suggests that equality is key for individual to develop by arguing that it should begin by dissemination of political and administrative power. Relatedly, Foucault covered on the subject of equality by emphasizing that equal access to power and knowledge is vital for every individual as lack of it may lead to punishment. According to Foucault, the modern society uses supervision and system of institution to measure human knowledge against the societies norms on the basis of their behavior (Foucault, 60).

The second condition is freedom. Freedom emanates from the doctrine of equality as one enjoys freedom when they have free access to various kind of necessary resources. Individual are said to enjoy freedom when they can access intelligent, talent or character as well as wealth. Freedom is split into two, which are, the internal freedom and the external freedom. The internal freedom includes right to basic freedom such freedom of expressing feeling, ideas, proposal, and speech (Mill, 112). Therefore, complete freedom will boosts people’s inner aspects such as personality, habits, needs, values and emotions, which are key for self-realization. Internal freedom capacity is vital as it allows an individual to realize his total personalities, which leads to positive freedom. In others words, an individual mind should be fully involved to its potentiality to earn the freedom of mind. In a situation where the mind is not fully engaged to its potentiality or it is not in a position to exploit all the available facilities, then its freedom is restricted, external freedom includes the right to own properties and enter into contracts in accordance with the stipulated guidelines (Mill, 87). These tend to grant individual with economic freedom, hence enabling them to attain self-realization.

Freedom has been a major theme in Mill’s coverage in the book “On Liberty.” Mills argues that the intensive contestation about freedom and liberty actions in the society today helps individuals towards achieving a greater level of self-realization as it fights for their opportunities. However, Mill says that, “in spite the fact that freedom can be made universal, self-realization cannot be uniform to every individuals as each one has a unique trait such as talent, personality, and values.” (Mill, 52). Additionally, Mill declares that the fact that freedom creates different kind of self-realization implies that such freedom can be at odds with the plans for leaders and reformers to the improvement of the people’s welfare.

The third condition is reciprocity. Reciprocity is referred to as a moral value that is rooted in individuals’ relational traits to utilize their freedom and equality. As equality and freedom are essential in the establishment of self-realization, then reciprocity becomes important automatically as it uses an implication of the elements of freedom and equality (Foucault, 150). When individuals comprehend what is necessary and important for their development process, they get insight and are obliged to reciprocate the same conditions to others. In others words, one realizes how to motivate others once they lean how to motivate themselves. Under customary reciprocity, individual self-development is created by the sense of recognition and identity received from expressing equality and freedom to fellow individuals. Additionally, self-realization can be established by a small expression of customary reciprocity such as the thank you statement.

Foucault underpinned the argument by suggesting that the universal human rights are fringed with human notion of responsibility and reciprocity of care. He said that, “Every individual rely on each other in the process of attaining self-realization as they each have an irreplaceable role to play.” (Foucault, 93). Further, Foucault argues that, the society ought to practice equality with utmost integrity to every group of human beings as a reciprocation of equilibrium and sustainability provided by nature. In his theme of power and knowledge, Foucault concluded that individuals will not only enjoy self-realization but also enjoy harmony and peace among each other when the society practices proper reciprocity (Foucault, 200).

The fourth condition is democracy. Democracy is defined as a government for the people of the people by the people (Mill, 59). In this respect, democracy comprises of equality, freedom, and reciprocity. An environment of democracy is created where there are no unfair restrictions and distribution of resources is a society. For example, access to power should be equally be distributed in a society by encouraging a free and fair representation in a manner that satisfy both the majority and the minority. Concerning the instruments of labour, democracy ought to ensure that there is freedom in the right to work. In the society, individuals should have the chance to choose employment that offers proper working condition and good remuneration packages. Right to the free choice of employment will serve as a vital tool to inspired people towards self-realization and self-development (Foucault, 183). Relatedly, the Universal Declaration of human rights assert that the right to work as well as declaring self-realization through work. However, in a society where democracy is deprived, self-realization will be hampered by people’s struggle to balance between the actions that generate scarce resources and the actions that consumes them (Mill, 86). In such circumstances, chaos tend to ensue when the powerful individuals attempts to overwrite the individual’s right to persue the means of self-realization

According to Mills, the idea of liberal democracy is measured on the degree of participation of citizens and the competency of the rulers. For instance, Mill is one of the theorists who advocated for plural voting, whereby more qualified candidates are given extra votes, an idea that was hugely rejected by other theorists. Similarly, Mill notably advocated for women right votes as the definition of democracy encompasses women, Mill says, “Women will earn a sense of self-realization if granted the right to participate in the election of their representative as they will feel that their voices counted.” (Mill, 28). Foucault had a different opinion on the same, as he believed that society should operate in a meticulous basis where restrictions to certain aspects are controlled through a series of punishment. In this respect, freedom would be deprived and this will hinder self-realization and self-development on individuals.

Conclusions

From the argument, it is clear that for an individual to attain a greater level of self-realization, four fundamental conditions namely, equality, freedom, reciprocity, and democracy must be put in place. Equality places people at a uniform platform to develop their living standards. As a result, every human will develop sense of self- realization. Additionally, Freedom relies on the degree of equality in a society in that, once people have the accessibility to important to resources, their rights is assumed to have been observed. Freedom to human rights also gives individuals a sense of self-realization as they feel as part of the society. Reciprocity has also emerged as a necessary condition for self-realization as it urges individual to return the share of equality and freedom to others to boost their level of self-realization. Lastly, democracy serves as a common necessity that will only exist if a society practices equality as well as observing citizen’s freedom. In a perfect democratic environment, individual have a higher affinity of attaining self-actualization.

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Self-Realization in “Intoxicated by My Illness”, “A Father’s Faith”, “The Seventh Seal” Essay

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The notion of self-realization as a phenomenon that is highly subjective is very difficult to explore in any medium, including even movies and novels. The concept in question delves into the extent of one’s potential and even the nature of one’s self-image and self-esteem. Therefore, the short stories such as “Intoxicated by My Illness” and “A Father’s Faith,” as well as the movie The Seventh Seal should be credited for exploring the problem that is so elusive for both a visual story and a textual narrative.

However, each of these narratives provides a different view of the nature of self-realization, not because of the differences in the medium type but because of the message that they convey. While in “Intoxicated by My Illness” and The Seventh Seal , the idea of self-realization through confronting death is presented directly, “A Father’s Faith” meanders around the notion, exploring the lead character’s emotional development rather than the change in his perception of death itself.

Although the difference in the types of genres, namely, a novel and a movie, is evident in the described scenario, The Seventh Seal is much closer to “Intoxicated by My Illness” in its message rather than to “A Father’s Faith.” The reasons for the observed phenomenon lie in the restrictions that exists outside the genre and concern cultural issues more than the differences in the use of artistic tools of expression. Specifically, “A Father’s Faith” is restricted by the religious principles and values according to which the emotional response to death is an issue of significantly greater importance than the exploration thereof through the cultural lens (Bosio 2). As a result, the attitudes that the lead characters in “A Father’s Faith” assume are much more passive than the ones that can be observed in The Seventh Seal and “Intoxicated by My Illness.”

Indeed, The Seventh Seal involves a direct and uninhibited interaction between the lead character and the Death itself, personifying the latter and showing what one can achieve by confronting it. While the movie renders a concept of cheating death, it, in fact, helps one to reconcile with the idea of dying instead of encouraging one to avoid contemplating the idea ( The Seventh Seal ). In a similar way, “Intoxicated by My Illness” allows one to study the idea of dying and suffering meticulously and attempting to understand this grim knowledge (Broyard 3). The journeys of each protagonist involve a transformation from the scared self that bargains with death to a wiser one that recognizes the value of having lived a fulfilling life and being able to accept the inevitability of death.

In contrast to the previous two artworks, “A Father’s Faith” takes an emotional approach toward managing death. Although the specified aspect of the movie does not deprive it of its value, it does restrict the process of self-realization through the analysis of death. Thus, “A Father’s Faith” can be seen as a different approach to self-realization that involves spiritual and religious experiences rather than self-exploration. As a result, the journeys of the lead characters differ drastically from each other. The passive way toward self-realization that “A Father’s Faith” promotes is not inherently worse than the active one that “Intoxicated by My Illness” and The Seventh Seal purport, yet it affects the process of self-realization by making it slower and reduces one’s own agency in realizing one’s potential.

Whereas “Intoxicated by My Illness” and The Seventh Seal imply self-realization by rationalizing death and facing it directly, “A Father’s Faith” represents self-realization as an emotional journey toward acceptance of dying. The specified difference in the ideas shown in the narratives does not diminish the philosophical and moral value of “Intoxicated by My Illness” and The Seventh Seal , but, instead, introduces the audience to a new interpretation of the concept of self-realization through the exploration of death.

Works Cited

Bosio, John. A Father’s Faith . Routledge, 2010.

Broyard, Anatole. “Intoxicated by My Illness.” Fawcett, 1993.

The Seventh Seal . Directed by Ingmar Bergman, performance by Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, and Nils Poppe, AB Svensk Filmindustri, 1997.

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IvyPanda. (2020, December 3). Self-Realization in “Intoxicated by My Illness”, “A Father’s Faith”, “The Seventh Seal”. https://ivypanda.com/essays/self-realization-in-intoxicated-by-my-illness-a-fathers-faith-the-seventh-seal/

"Self-Realization in “Intoxicated by My Illness”, “A Father’s Faith”, “The Seventh Seal”." IvyPanda , 3 Dec. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/self-realization-in-intoxicated-by-my-illness-a-fathers-faith-the-seventh-seal/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Self-Realization in “Intoxicated by My Illness”, “A Father’s Faith”, “The Seventh Seal”'. 3 December.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Self-Realization in “Intoxicated by My Illness”, “A Father’s Faith”, “The Seventh Seal”." December 3, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/self-realization-in-intoxicated-by-my-illness-a-fathers-faith-the-seventh-seal/.

1. IvyPanda . "Self-Realization in “Intoxicated by My Illness”, “A Father’s Faith”, “The Seventh Seal”." December 3, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/self-realization-in-intoxicated-by-my-illness-a-fathers-faith-the-seventh-seal/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Self-Realization in “Intoxicated by My Illness”, “A Father’s Faith”, “The Seventh Seal”." December 3, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/self-realization-in-intoxicated-by-my-illness-a-fathers-faith-the-seventh-seal/.

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Journey to Self-Realization - Collected Talks and Essays. Volume 3 (Self-Realization Fellowship)

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Journey to Self-Realization - Collected Talks and Essays. Volume 3 (Self-Realization Fellowship) Paperback – October 1, 2000

Topics include: Remolding Your Life Acquiring Attunement with the Source of Success Renewing and Transforming Your Body, Mind, and Spirit The Wisdom Way to Overcome Karma How to Quicken Your Spiritual Progress How to Express Everlasting Youthfulness Receiving God's Answers to Your Prayers The True Signs of Progress in Meditation.

Print length 462 pages
Language English
Publisher Self-Realization Fellowship
Publication date October 1, 2000
Dimensions 5.98 x 0.91 x 9.02 inches
ISBN-10 087612256X
ISBN-13 978-0876122563
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Self-Realization Fellowship; New edition (October 1, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 462 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 087612256X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0876122563
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 0.91 x 9.02 inches
#1,231 in Other Eastern Religions & Sacred Texts (Books)
#1,339 in Hinduism (Books)

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Paramahansa yogananda.

1893 – 1952 Hailed as the “father of Yoga in the West,” Paramahansa Yogananda is regarded as one of the great spiritual figures of our time. Born in northern India, he came to the United States in 1920, where he founded Self-Realization Fellowship, to disseminate his writings and teachings worldwide. Through his best-selling classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, and his numerous other books, he has introduced millions throughout the world to the spiritual principles of yoga meditation and the universal truths underlying all world religions.

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Self-Realization Life up to Now

The following example essay on “Self-realization Life Up to now” is the author’s discourse on what a person needs to be inspired by absolute values and make these core values as regular practices, especially in professional life.

As of now, my age is 19, and in the last 2 years of my life, I have always tried to give my best in everything and worked hard. At the same time, I have also focused on my career growth and improvement in many things.

In order to support this career growth and improvement, I have never tried to follow any short-cut but always maintained righteousness towards my jobs and tried to perform my responsibilities with integrity. I have experienced multiple obstacles in the workplace that have created difficulties to proceed through grappling with spiritual values. However, I have overcome the challenges with the help of non-violence and always took the side of truth anyhow.

I have learned from my parents that; the truth is the only arsenal to win the ultimate battle of life.

They have remained the utmost inspiration for me to follow the path of truth. When I was only 13 years old, one of our close relatives was sentenced to jail due to some offensive activities in the workplace. I spotted my father not to support that person and respect the law and truth.

This is how; I have learned to adopt spiritual values like truth, non-violence, and righteousness in the professional field. These values have not only helped me to grow a successful career and maintain a healthy professional life but also to spend a peaceful life as well.

Proficient in: Communication

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

Spiritual values have always guided me to find out the most suitable option in decision-making and the proper way to lead my life. Now I am standing at a point of life when life is going to flow in a different direction as I will retire from my professional life within the coming two years. In this stage of life, I am realizing a few changes in my behavior, attitude as I have started quite more to think about my family members. I feel that I have embraced specific religious values such as I have become more compassionate than the previous time. Sometimes, I am willingly joining the family occasions and find its importance more than maintaining perfection in-office tasks.

According to me, these changes have been occurred due to the influence of my brother who is just two years older than me and has retired from a job recently. I am observing my brother regret for the time of young ages, he has lost and his family especially the children have missed him so much. This has somehow inspired me to adopt religious values like being quite more compassionate to my family members and try a little more to revive the relationships for exploring the new dimensions.

My self-realization has taught me to revolutionize my core values for being modest to my close people, who are always surrounding me but I have never recognized them individually due to professional busyness. Additionally, I had also become more compassionate than before and started to treat these people, close to my heart, as they would like to be treated.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Richard III — Self-realization in William Shakespeare’s Richard II

Self-realization in William Shakespeare's Richard Ii

Categories: Richard III

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Words: 1492 |

Published: Jul 2, 2018

Words: 1492 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out. (5.5.1-5)

My brain I'll prove the female to my soul, My soul the father; and yet these two beget A generation of still-breeding thoughts; And these same thoughts people this little world, In humors like the people of this world, For no thought is contented.... (5.5.6-11)

The better sort, As thoughts of things divine, are intermixed With scruples, and do set the word itself Against the word: As thus, 'Come, little one's,' and then again, 'It is as hard to come as for a camel To thread the postern of a needle's eye.' (5.5.11-17)

Nor shall not be the last; like seely beggars Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame, That many have, and others must sit there. And in this thought they find a kind of ease, Bearing their own misfortunes on the back Of such as have before endured the like. (5.5.25-30)

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me; For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock: My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch, Whereto my finger, like a dial's point, Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. (5.5.49-54)

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Self-realization is a term used in Western psychology, philosophy, and spirituality; and in Indian religions. In the Western understanding, it is the "fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one's character or personality" (see also self-actualization). [1] In Jainism, self realization is called Samyak darshan (meaning right perception ...
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The Process of Self-Realization—From the Humanist Psychology Perspective

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Examples of Self-Realization in Life

Why Is Self-Realization Important?

1. Higher confidence and self-esteem

2. A sharper focus

3. Not being controlled by emotions

4. Acceptance

12 Ways to Develop Self-Realization

1. Take care of your health

2. Be aware of your thoughts

3. Embrace your emotions

4. Build good character

5. Cultivate a spiritual practice

6. Work on your love relationships

7. Define what kind of parent you want to be

8. Nurture your social life

9. Build financial wellness

10. Discover a career path that fulfills you

11. Enhance your quality of life

12. Create a clear life vision

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A New Integrative Model of the Self

A New Model for Framing the Self

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The Odyssey of Self-Realization: Navigating the Depths of Personal Growth

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Self-Actualization In Psychology: Theory, Examples & Characteristics

Key Takeaways

Self-Actualization Theory

Kurt Goldstein

Carl Rogers

Abraham Maslow

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Examples of Self-Actualizations

Characteristics of Self-Actualized Individuals

Critical Evaluation

Paradoxical narrative of self-actualization

For individualistic cultures only?

What is self-actualization?

According to Maslow, what are some of the traits and qualities of self-actualizing individuals?

What is the difference between self-actualization and self-transcendence?

Further Reading

Drop your worries.

Do not try to please or impress anyone but yourself.

Embrace your unique qualities and talents.

Believe in your path.

Take your time.

Surround yourself with positivity.

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Narrative, Self-Realization, and the Shape of a Life