Actualization: Self and Community

The idea: The actualization of the self and the actualization of the community are inextricably connected. One cannot successfully develop without the other. The relationship involves both the transcendence of -- and focus on -- the individual. 

The background: "Self-actualization" is described by Abraham Maslow -- the psychologist who popularized the term -- as fulfilling one's potential in life and living creatively. According to Maslow, self-actualization is the pinnacle of human development; the peak of the hierarchy of needs. 

Similar ideas have been expressed by Carl Jung, Carl Rogers, and many others (although Jung referred to the process as individuation, by which a person discovers their "self" as the unity between the conscious and unconscious components of the psyche). 

Crucially, for Jung, Maslow, and Rogers, this is in fact a process. It is an aspirational ideal and an ongoing project. And it involves some form of transcendence of the self. 

According to these psychologists, actualization is a real and ongoing process that can be objectively observed. Under Maslow's formulation, some of the characteristics of self-actualization include: 

- Efficient perceptions of reality

- Comfortable acceptance of self, others, and nature, with all of their flaws

- Reliance on one's own experience

- Spontaneous and natural behavior 

- Autonomy. 

- Peak experiences

- Profound interpersonal relationships

- Comfort with solitude

- Task centering -- a mission to fulfill in life "beyond" themselves 

Some have interpreted this theory to be overly individualistic. Others -- by looking at the examples of actualized persons Maslow provides, for example -- might correctly point out that the concept has been conceived of in Euro- and male-centric ways, and favors typically "masculine" qualities. But more recent thinkers have begun to challenge these perceptions and expand the meaning of actualization. 

In his recent book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, author Scott Barry Kaufman discusses a new interpretation of Maslow's later work, which suggests that his theory was not meant to be interpreted individualistically. Kaufman pored through Maslow's journals to discover a more profoundly selfless conception of actualization. 

The explanation: Actualization involves the transcendence of the self -- the dedication and service of the self to a cause or a community. It involves discovering oneself and one's unique talents at the same time as those talents are used in a project that goes beyond the individual. 

Commonly cited examples of actualizing people are Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Each understood their skills and their values and worked tirelessly in the service of others. Other examples include Jane Addams, Harriet Tubman, or Toni Morrison. But these are just the popular examples often given. Actualized people could be found anywhere. 

The actualization process could be realized through community organizing, or working toward improved family dynamics, or participating on a sports team, or working for a local nonprofit or small business, or creating a work of art, or cultivating meaningful relationships, or making a sustainable garden. Really anything; that's the beauty of it. It all depends on the characteristics and needs of the individual and their community. And even the community aspect of it can be fluid and dynamic. 

The substantive aspect of the community or project is arguably less important than the paradoxical process in which the individual simultaneously seeks to know themselves, and selflessly focuses on an external project or community. 

This is the dual nature of actualization: the individual-community relationship that is the foundation of human development. One without the other is hollow. True actualization requires both internal and external focus and energy. 

Several questions then arise from this: How does one go about realizing this paradoxical actualization? What are the optimal conditions for individual and community actualization? Is actualization a method that can be taught? Or, is it too subjective of a concept to be meaningfully imparted? 

Several objections might also be raised: Is there really a "self" to be actualized? Are we not simply that which we project and create? Are there really innate qualities or talents to be discovered, or is that just what we call the characteristics we develop? 

And: How does this framework recognize interdependence? How does this theory respond to systems of oppression that might actively be preventing the actualization of certain persons and communities? 

I don't have the answers to these questions, but they do deserve more attention -- ideally from people better equipped to answer them than myself. 

For the purpose of this post, all I seek to offer is this: If one accepts the concept of actualization, it is better understood as a simultaneous process occurring in the individual and community.