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20th Century Rites, Maslow's Works

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,talk.religion.misc,talk.religion.newage,alt.abuse.transcendence,alt.religion.shamanism
From: nagasiva@luckymojo.com (mordred)
Subject: 20th Century Rites, Maslow's Works (Was Re: Writing rituals for ...)
Date: 6 Feb 1995 12:38:11 -0800

Kali Yuga 49950206

wednsday@tezcat.com (Wednesday) and I write:
|>|>| How do you tell a psychiatric illness from a spiritual crises?  

|>See Maslow and the differentiation made in the Transcendental Psychology
|>community regarding the differences between therapy and mental illness
|>and spiritual crises or mystical emergence.  There are signs, though I
|>have forgotten them at this point.

|Do you have a piece on this available to you? I'd like to see it...
|on alt.abuse.transcendence too, actually...

The books I have of Maslow's are somewhat dense but excellent.  It was not 
easy to find exact quotes quickly regarding the specific subject about 
which you are asking, plus I've not looked at this subject in a few years.  
All this stated, I'll elaborate and provide what I found.

From a brief refresh, I would like to clarify the above by saying that
at once Maslow and his like (Rogers, etc.) were attempting to both
synthesize what they called 'spirituality' and 'psychotherapy' (through
redefining each within a continuum) and describe the underlying problems 
associated with the whole.  

At least in Maslow's case he went as far as creating an relatively new
language with which he sought to reframe the notions of psychological
maladies, providing not only a foundation consistent with sociological
and religious models, but also a goal-state, a 'healthy-archetype'
which amounted to more than 're-adjusted to society'.  

For this reason it appears that at times he makes use of the terms
'neuroses' and 'self-actualization' to differentiate severe personal
dysfunction from movement toward the transcendence of personal issues.  
We might say that the comparison here is one of placement upon a range
of tranformative experiences, rather than that the essential nature
of neuroses and existential angst are in some way fundamentally
different.

In fact, it can be said that the Transcendental Psychologists are
attempting to combat this divisive language which appears to stem
from outmoded ideas about how therapy ought treat psychological
difficulties.  The traditional approach is to attempt a subtle
molding of the individual to suit her circumstances; in effect an
encouragement to regress to conformity to the societal norm.

Whereas as I understand it, the revised assessment includes not
only salvation from severe psychological distress (e.g. reconnection
to exterior stimuli and phenomena, orientation in the physical world,
some stability in personality and emotions, etc.), but also the 
recognition that existential angst is a real process of individuation
and human maturity, and that not only is assistance in enduring it 
the place of the psychotherapist (Maslow uses various terms for these
'counselors'), but encouraging and inspiring movement within it is
also appropriate.

In effect, Maslow and company are recreating the role of the shaman
in modern society.  Here's what I found:

"Self-actualization [Maslow's goal-state, the top of his 'hierarchy of
needs'] does not mean a transcendence of all human problems.  Conflict,
anxiety, frustration, sadness, hurt, and guilt can all be found in
healthy human beings.  In general, the movement, with increasing
maturity, is from neurotic pseudo-problems to the real, unavoidable,
existential problems, inherent in the nature of man (even at his best)
living in a particular kind of world.  Even though he is not neurotic
he may be troubled by real, desirable and necessary guilt rather than
neurotic guilt (which isn't desirable or necessary), by an intrinsic
conscience (rather than the Freudian superego).  Even though he has
transcended the problems of Becoming, there remain the problems of
Being.  To be untroubled when one *should* be troubled can be a sign
of sickness.  Sometimes, smug people have to be scared '*into* their
wits.'" [1:p210]


Here we see the sharp division between 'neurosis' and 'angst', which
I characterized above as the comparison between 'spiritual emergence'
and 'psychological dysfunction'.  Below is a bit more on the angst, 
so as to illustrate from where alot of it arises:

"...we have the peculiar situation in which many intellectuals today
find themselves skeptical in every sense, but fully aware of the
yearning for a faith or a belief of some kind and aware also of
the terrible spiritual (and political) consequences when this yearning
has no satisfaction.

"And so we have a new language to describe the situation, words like
anomie, anhedonia, rootlessness, value pathology, meaninglessness,
existential boredom, spiritual starvation, other-directedness, the
neuroses of success, etc....

"Most psychotherapists would agree that a large proportion of the
population of all affluent nations -- not only America -- are now
caught in this situation of valuelessness, although most of these
therapists are still speaking superficially and symptomatically
of character neuroses, immaturity, juvenile delinquency, over-
indulgence, etc.

"A new approach to psychotherapy, existential therapy, is evolving
to meet this situation.  But on the whole, since therapy is 
impracticable for mass purposes, most people simply stay caught in
the situation and lead privately and publicly miserable lives.  A
small proportion 'returns to traditional religion,' although
observers agree that this return is not apt to be deeply rooted."
[2:pp38-9]


Just to throw some curves, I note that Maslow appears to be
inconsistent in his usage of terminology, wishing to move from the
previously accepted techniks to a more expansive and less deprecatory
language to describe what he is seeing.  Some of his text indicates
exactly what he is doing:

"This is a radical move away from the medical model, a move which is
long overdue.  Strictly speaking, neurosis means an illness of the
nerves, a relic we can very well do without today.  In addition,
using the label 'psychological illness' puts neurosis into the same
universe of discourse as ulcers, lesions, bacterial invasions,
broken bones, or tumors.  But by now, we have learned very well that
it is better to consider neurosis as rather related to spiritual
disorders, to loss of meaning, to doubts about the goals of life,
to grief and anger over a lost love, to seeing life in a different
way, to loss of courage or of hope, to despair over the future, to
dislike for oneself, to recognition that one's life is being
wasted, or that there is no possibility of love, etc.

"These are all fallings away from full humanness, from the full
blooming of human nature.  They are losses of human possibility,
of what might have been and could yet be perhaps.  Physical and
chemical hygiene and prophylaxes certainly have some little place
in this realm of psychopathogenesis, but are as nothing in
comparison with the far more powerful role of social, economic,
political, religious, educational, philosophical, axiological,
and familial determinants." [3:30]


My impression is that what Transcendental Psychologists would
characterize as 'psychological difficulties' would include the
existential angst of modern valuelessness, but they would also
admit that there appears to be a minimum requirement regarding
functionality and perception which must occur before this angst
may be dealt with in any real fashion.  

What most people today categorize as 'psychological problems'
are of the former type -- angst-repercussions and difficulties
of those caught up in the complexities of modern 'civilized'
living.  Those who have such severe problems that they cannot
begin to function (e.g. psychotics, paranoid schizophrenics,
etc. -- I'm using these terms in their clinical, not popular,
senses) are simply not capable of really encountering the world
and their place in it, let alone facing the pressures and problems
to be found there.

As regards what those who are 'emerging' may find on the 'other
side' of their angst, Maslow speaks in plenty.  In fact, I find
that he is much more interested in promoting the vision of what
we may expect out of enduring and moving into our existential
trial than he is in categorizing its elements (perhaps this is
a skewing due to my own library-contents, or it may be that he
needed to focus there so as to gain credibility amongst those
who saw all struggle as futile).  He has this to say about
self-actualizating, for example:

"Self-actualizing people are, without one single exception,
involved in a cause outside of their own skin, in something
outside of themselves.  They are devoted, working at something,
something which is very precious to them -- some calling or
vocation in the old sense, the priestly sense.  They are working
at something which fate has called them to somehow and which
they work at and which they love, so that the work-joy dichotomy
in them disappears.  One devotes his life to the law, another to
justice, another to beauty or truth.  All, in one way or another,
devote their lives to the search for what I have called ... the
'being' values ('B' for short), the ultimate values which are
intrinsic, which cannot be reduced to anything more ultimate." [3:42]


Maslow goes into some depth to describe what these values are,
how they manifest in actualized experience, etc., etc.  He is
a very clear and inspiring writer, as much a crafter of words
and an artist as he is a reflector of his experience and one who
wishes to push forward a new vision of his science and its
possibilities.  

All in all I tend to think of the distinction being made here in
an analogy to a dancer with 200-lb weights attached to her limbs.
These weights are the obstacles to the dance.  Without removing
them then no exploration of movement is possible.  The weights
themselves are the severe neuroses which may plague human beings,
preventing them from movement through spiritual transformation
and growth.
 
-------------------------

Sources:

1 _Toward a Psychology of Being_, Maslow, Litton Educational Publishing

2 _Religions, Values and Peak-experiences_, Maslow, Penguin Books

3 _The Farther Reaches of Human Nature_, Maslow, Penguin


tyagi nagasiva
nagasiva@luckymojo.com 

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