Quote:
Originally Posted by deliquesce
Basically, it says that you need to ensure the bottom levels of the hierarchy are stable (e.g., safety, food, physical attention etc) first before you can progress up the hierarchy towards things like self esteem. it is harder to maintain a stable sense of self esteem if, e.g., your home environment is not safe or you cannot secure stable employment.
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At the risk of going a little off topic, please allow me to expand on that. What you've described there, deli, looks to me like one side of a dialectic. It's true enough, as far as it goes: without security there's no self-actualization, so you can't get there from here.
There's another side to it, though.
----- Leaving ordinary reality. Please watch your step. -----
When something is important enough to you, you can transcend the need for security to pursue it. Doing so seems to enhance (what would ordinarily be) your coping skills; you end up taking care of your "basic needs" efficiently enough that they don't get in the way of what you're doing. When at altitude this way, though, it's best not to look down too much. You might say, if you get distracted into feathering your nest -- providing for your security -- you can easily forget how to fly.
----- Re-entering ordinary reality. Please watch your step. -----
*blink* *blink* Did I just say something?
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See, for example, Alan Watts' The Wisdom of Insecurity.