Archives for April 2020

“In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.” —Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning Kintsugi is a centuries-old Japanese art of fixing cracked pottery. Rather than hide the cracks, the technique involves rejoining the broken pieces with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. When put back together, the whole […]

“Perhaps human nature has been sold short….”—Abraham Maslow Toward the end of his life, the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow was developing new insights into self-actualization – and envisioning an even higher motivation, which he called transcendence. He referred to his theory as “Theory Z“.* To Maslow, “transcenders” are regularly motivated by values and experiences that go beyond […]

Wow, a lot has changed in the world in just the past few weeks. I hope you are staying safe and healthy, and able to find moments of joy and connection during these extremely uncertain times. While safety is crucial, let’s not neglect our higher possibilities. These times are difficult, but ultimately it’s times like these that lead to unexpected growth, creativity, and meaning. […]

Many people are familiar with Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs,” with self-actualization depicted at the top of a pyramid. Chances are, you learned about it in your introduction to psychology course in college or saw it diagrammed on Facebook (perhaps humorously with “WiFi” or “toilet paper” added to the base of the pyramid). There are […]

For many years, researchers have treated the individual traits and characteristics of autistic people as an enduring essence of their autism– in isolation of the social context and without even asking autistic people what their social life is actually like. However, perspective matters. Who is to say it’s autistic people who are the “awkward” ones? […]