Emotional Intelligence: THE FEELING AND EXPERIENCING SELF
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF THE HUMANISTIC VIEWS
Humanistic psychologists have contributed enormously to our understanding
of the nature ofhuman needs, the notion of self, and the role of feelings
and experiences in personal growth and understanding.
THE FEELING AND EXPERIENCING SELF
Humanistic psychologists are generally opposed to formal personality diagnosis.
Many of the diagnostic categories, such as bipolar depression and
schizophrenia, are alien to the humanistic spirit. Why should that be?
Fundamentally, it is because humanistic psychologists believe that there is
only one useful way of understanding human experience, and that it is from
the inside. According to Carl Rogers, a leading humanistic
thinker and therapist, each person lives in a "continually changing world of
experience of which he is the center." No one can know a person's private
world as well as that person does. If we wish to understand someone's personal
world, we must understand that person's private experience, and we
must take care not to confuse that experience with our own. Diagnostic categories
are not created that way, nor are they intended to summarize private
experience. Rather they are created from without, on the basis of observed
behaviors and verbalizations, as well as the diagnostician's assumptions regarding
how a mature person should function. Those perceptions and assumptions
do not conform with humanistic notions.
The notion of the self is central to understanding the private world of experience.
According to Rogers, the self is that aspect of personality that em-bodies a person's perceptions and values.
There are two kinds of values:
those that are acquired from experience and those that are introjected or
acquired from others. Values that arise from experience are easily labeled by
the individual and therefore they are easily accessible to the individual.
They are the kinds of values that contribute to personal growth and self knowledge.
Values that are introjected, however, are confusing, for they
often require that a person deny his or her own feelings in order to conform
to the desires of another. When children are told that it is bad to be angry
with a sibling, for example, they gradually come to avoid labeling their feelings
toward siblings as anger in order to preserve parental affection. Their
conscious self is not in tune with their true self, and that produces tension
and conflict, particularly when they are with those siblings.
Humanistic psychologists place great emphasis on three features of the
self: feelings, experience, and perceptions. When the self is integrated and
not threatened, experience and feelings are deep and alive, and perceptions
are accurate. Under such conditions, individuals are free to actualize themselves,
to become what they want to be, to fulfill their potentials. But when
the self is threatened or divided, experience becomes blunted and perception
distorted (Laing, 1965). Personal growth is slowed, if not halted, and
the possibilities for self-actualization are correspondingly diminished.
Humanistic psychologists have contributed enormously to our understanding
of the nature ofhuman needs, the notion of self, and the role of feelings
and experiences in personal growth and understanding.
THE FEELING AND EXPERIENCING SELF
Humanistic psychologists are generally opposed to formal personality diagnosis.
Many of the diagnostic categories, such as bipolar depression and
schizophrenia, are alien to the humanistic spirit. Why should that be?
Fundamentally, it is because humanistic psychologists believe that there is
only one useful way of understanding human experience, and that it is from
the inside. According to Carl Rogers, a leading humanistic
thinker and therapist, each person lives in a "continually changing world of
experience of which he is the center." No one can know a person's private
world as well as that person does. If we wish to understand someone's personal
world, we must understand that person's private experience, and we
must take care not to confuse that experience with our own. Diagnostic categories
are not created that way, nor are they intended to summarize private
experience. Rather they are created from without, on the basis of observed
behaviors and verbalizations, as well as the diagnostician's assumptions regarding
how a mature person should function. Those perceptions and assumptions
do not conform with humanistic notions.
The notion of the self is central to understanding the private world of experience.
According to Rogers, the self is that aspect of personality that em-bodies a person's perceptions and values.
There are two kinds of values:
those that are acquired from experience and those that are introjected or
acquired from others. Values that arise from experience are easily labeled by
the individual and therefore they are easily accessible to the individual.
They are the kinds of values that contribute to personal growth and self knowledge.
Values that are introjected, however, are confusing, for they
often require that a person deny his or her own feelings in order to conform
to the desires of another. When children are told that it is bad to be angry
with a sibling, for example, they gradually come to avoid labeling their feelings
toward siblings as anger in order to preserve parental affection. Their
conscious self is not in tune with their true self, and that produces tension
and conflict, particularly when they are with those siblings.
Humanistic psychologists place great emphasis on three features of the
self: feelings, experience, and perceptions. When the self is integrated and
not threatened, experience and feelings are deep and alive, and perceptions
are accurate. Under such conditions, individuals are free to actualize themselves,
to become what they want to be, to fulfill their potentials. But when
the self is threatened or divided, experience becomes blunted and perception
distorted (Laing, 1965). Personal growth is slowed, if not halted, and
the possibilities for self-actualization are correspondingly diminished.
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http://emotional-intelligence-training.weebly.com/
Of course you know the training method I recommend!
http://theliberatormethod.com/Welcome.html