Initially, texts started to be looked upon from a much diversified and flexible theory in human beings’ case; however, it also was struggling to shed some light on previously vague and cloudy concepts of love, creativity, hope, loneliness, self-reverence, health, nature and noticeably ‘being’ in its sheer untouched meaning.
In 1943, Abraham Maslow chose a contradictory way of observation through which he not only eliminated the presence of invalids – either mentally or physically – as the sole source of his investigation, but more exerted to examine figures who were epitomization of maintained selfhood, prosperity and social achievement such as scholars and globally recognized figures; for instance Roosevelt and Einstein. As a result of such findings, he presented his “Hierarchy of Human needs: Humanistic Model;” a model which illustrated how amalgam of deviatory phases of success and existence might affect one’s pattern of life (Toward a Psychology of Being 49). By having leading features of both politics and literature observed, he depicted how an urge for meaningful existence in one’s life can be presented into reality; for instance, a literary work of art, a successful career, aimed educational efforts, etc.
Such preliminary concepts can simply be touched and relatively acknowledged through characterization in works of literary giants, i.e., those of Beckett, Morrison, Joyce, Hemingway, Conrad and so forth. In works of all previously mentioned authors’, one can conspicuously spot out how a desire for meaning and identity had turned into a pursued main goal of their characters. Take Beckett’s Trilogy: The Unnamable, Joyce’s Portrait of an artist as a young man, Morrison’s compound of projected anti-racist criterion for African-Americans in most of her novels say, Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992) and indeed Paradise (1999), and Hemingway’s clichéd The man and the sea, all can be taken as seriously earnest witnesses.
Maslow condemned Freud’s works as well, although he accepted the existence of an unconscious part within humans’ psyche. In fact, he refuted Freud’s idea that the bulk of our being is hidden far from our consciousness. Maslow purported that humanity is aware of motivation and drives on the whole. Without life’s obstacles, all of humanity would become psychologically healthy, attaining a deep self-understanding and acceptance of society and the surrounding world. He, additionally, directed his energy towards realizing the positive aspects of mankind, while Freud saw mostly negativity, repressed society, sexually abusive drives and death driven world which sounded more like Schopenhauer’s pessimism.
Source: Freudian Psychoanalysis and Maslovian Humanistic Psychology
Sphere: Related ContentTags: literature, psychology
