Nodal FS
"I can say what is my conception of the
mature personality in one sentence but it would take reams of paper
to clarify what I mean. So I shall, in this endeavor, express my
thoughts in one sentence and then elaborate only upon the basis of
what I mean.
The mature personality is a participating,
creative personality which in its operation does justice to every
type of personality, every mode of culture, every human potential
without forming anyone into typological molds.
The mature personality provides a means for
bringing relations of reciprocity and willing amity to the entire
family of human beings. The mature provides for the interchange and
utilization of the entire experiences of humankind. He or she lives
in a moral world which tears down manmade barriers of law and custom
widening the means of communication and cooperation between humans.
The mature is a committed person, committing self
to continuous self-development, and to intimate relations and
cooperation with all people. He or she is one who believes in face
to face interaction and assessment, one who believes friendly eyes
are the indispensable mirror for reflecting what is. he or she
believes in an absolutely open society where every nook, every
corner is exposed to anyone who is curious. He or she behaves so as
to demonstrate that every person may be freely heard.
The mature personality deliberately exercises
choice which directs life toward allegiances which are beyond the
boundaries of natural communities and the organized state and toward
the ultimate hopes of mankind. He or she seeks to widen the ties of
fellowship without respect to birth, caste or property, and disavows
claims to special privilege or the exclusivity of leadership. He or
she replaces Godly authority with the temporal authority of the time
and the place. He or she softens the features which identify a
person with a particular society or culture. To the mature, humanity
is a unity of souls seeking salvation not a union of Catholics, High
Episcopalians, Orthodox Jews or Baptists.
The mature is beyond sordid concern with his or
her own survival and is focused on intensive cultivation of a belief
in freedom, not a belief of freedom.
To the mature technology is for human needs, not
power, productivity, profit or prestige and scientific endeavor is
not for ruthless exploitation or desecration. Scientific endeavor is
for depth exploration of all regions not just physical regions, so
as to provide for the inner human knowledge that will assure human
supremacy.
The mature indulges in the dematerialization of
self, in self-transcending endeavors which reach beyond sordid
concern with one's own survival, beyond the over-rational and
irrational, beyond mechanical uniformity toward a concept of organic
unity. He or she operates by the belief that we are all one and
should seek to enhance human expression to provide for a world
society based on human values. He or she believes
one should know both the objective and the
subjective and show the ability to face one's whole self and direct
every part of it to a more unified development.
In summary, and in Freudian terms, the mature
personality accepts its id, but dopes not give it primacy, and
fosters the sure ego but does not allow it to depress the fullest
expression of the ego."
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