Maturity and the Soul

World renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow said:

"What [psychologists consider a well-adjusted person or] call normal is really a psychopathology so undramatic and so widely spread that we don't even notice it..."

Introduction

In this essay I will be suggesting that the core problem facing our world is not global warming or even the possibility of a nuclear holocaust; it is a lack of human maturity.

Is maturity staying married (or divorcing our first spouse and finding one more suited to us), caring for three healthy children, living in a four-bedroom house, driving a popular brand of car, finding and keeping a lucrative career, etc.? Is it having the clarity to remain single if this path feels right?

Is it learning to delay gratification? To balance short-term gains with a long-term view? Is it everyday responsibility? Knowing when to be truthful and when to withhold truth? Discerning the difference between actual love and narcissism?

Is it being a "moral person" (although this definition can vary from culture to culture)? Is it worshiping "God" as we are taught to understand this Higher Being? Is it having the courage to choose atheism? Is it being a responsible community member?

While some of these can be indications of mature functioning, I will note an additional criteria which Scott Peck calls "dedication to the reality." He states:

"..if our lives are to be healthy and our spirits are to grow we must be committed to a dedication to the truth.

"Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are; if the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost."

"First of all, we are not born with maps; we have to make them, and this making requires effort, but many do not want to make this effort. Their maps are small and sketchy, their views of the world narrow and misleading.

By middle-age [or even the end of adolescence] most people have given up the effort. They feel certain that their maps are complete, and they are no longer interested in new information.

"[Yet to be healthy] we must continually revise our maps.The process of making revisions, particular major revisions, is painful, sometimes excruciatingly painful. The painful effort [to redraw our maps, beliefs, or premises] seems frightening and almost overwhelming. What we do more often than not - and usually unconsciously - is to ignore the new information."

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