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 Introduction: Self-Actualization

Self-Actualization is a major goal in individualistic societies

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write,
if he is to be at peace with himself.  What a man can be, he must be.
This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's
desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become 
actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one
is capable of becoming ..." (Maslow)

Abraham Maslow defined (without much scientific evidence, it must be said) the term "Self-Actualization" as the pinnacle in the hierarchy of human needs:

"...a differentiated but holistic representation of aspects of my/your personality focusing on potential for individual expression rather than conformity. Awareness of goals or expectations about the future (today, tomorrow, next year, my retirement) are likely to be significant cues and influences. Influences of enculturisation will also shape personal cognition."

According to Maslow two processes are necessary for self-actualization:

self-exploration and action

"Selbstverwirklichung ist für 58 Prozent der Frauen in Deutschland eine wichtige Motivation für berufliches Engagement." EMNID 2003

Some clever people even sell Buddhism - the opposite of self-actualization - as self-actualization to Western people:

http://www.naikan.com/selbstve.htm

 Contact: wolfgang.arlt@fh-stralsund.de  Office: 1/132, Tel. (03831) 45 6961