Hide and Seek
Carl Rogers Proposition (IV) The organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualise, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism. . (Carl Rogers. Client Centred Therapy. P.487)
Self does a lot of developing in maintaining self.
Interesting point because as it appears that there is no solid description other than a directional force in organic life.
Lorenz‘s basic aggression: our need to survive in the face of threat, to be aggressive in defence. It moves in the direction of greater independence or self – responsibility. The day parent’s dread when their compliant child develops a personality from hell, depending how this is developed, positively/negatively will deepen core experiences, and how those experiences are re-routed in order to achieve the desired goal. To achieve autonomy we face the pain of reality, that of independence in thought and emotion.
To meet myself I made painful choices, and it is true that pain was easier than living ‘the life’, only once I knew all my options and consequences, only when I had an understanding of me, who I am and what life I wanted could I face the destruction I would cause. I also knew I had another life to live and I had waited long enough!
Spinelli's theory gives an understanding that we tend to hide from who we are or disguise who we are in an attempt to ‘fit' in, causing us to hide from the disruption or tensions, we immerse them in the unconscious (reflective) making change difficult if not for some impossible.
When in this state we tend to repeat mistakes and behaviours, using our defence mechanisms(pre-reflective) to make things ‘better’. Freud believes we do this because of past experiences where by repressing or ignoring difficult situations we coped and survived. Or as Spinelli and Sartre would expect, we behave this way to camouflage what lies beneath, we lie to ourselves about what disturbs us.
If I were asked to give what
I consider the single most useful Bit of advice for all humanity,
It would be this: Expect trouble as an Inevitable part of life,
And when it comes, hold your head high, Look it squarely in the eye and say,
“I will be bigger than you.
You cannot defeat me.”
Then repeat to yourself the most comforting of words,
“This too shall pass.”
(Ann Launders.)