Self-Actualization

by frankiespeakin 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  mindseye

  Doofdaddy, I just googled that and it looks interesting as hell. I've got some reading up to do. Thanks.
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  doofdaddy

  A pleasure..
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  never a jw

  Hi everyone,

  I have never been a JW, but my wife, two brothers and their wives and children are. Also, most of my wife's brothers and sisters are JW's. Since I have a close relationship with both my family and my wife's family you can deduce that most of my friends and associations are with JW's. Never had a problem with these associations, even though I always thought the leadership and the doctrines of JW's were very much in the loonie side. However, recently everything changed when my sixteen year old daughter announced to me that she wanted to get baptized in one of their recent district assemblies. Being the type of father that allows some latitude to his children to make their own decisions, I reluctantly (and stupidly) consented to allow her to baptize. The following day I sstarted my research to confirm why I felt that JW's leadership were loonies. After several weeks of search I discovered enough to make me deeply regret not having conducted my research years ago and prevent my daughters baptism.

  I also have a 12 year old son who has not decided to baptize yet but is already a JW at heart (12 years of indoctrination couldn't lead to any other result). Needless to say that I need to rescue my son, even my daughter, from the mind controlling organization of JW's. They, my son and daughter, are two very bright kids, and saddens me deeply to know that their talented brains are already under the control of the WTS.

  I have already bought Apocalypse Delayed by James Penton, both books of Ray Franz and The Gentile Times Reconsidered of Carl Olof Jonsson. Great books, especially COJ's book, It is unfortunate that I can't find the other book of COJ anywhere unless I get it used for as much as three times the price of the new book in Commentary Press. Unfortunately it is sold out. Any advice as to how I can go about undoing the brainwashing of my children and how to get The Signs by COJ.

  Thanks in advance for all your comments that can give me hope to rescue my children.
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  talesin

  Hi, never a JW - and welcome! :D

  May I suggest you start a topic re your dilemma?

  xo

  tal
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  frankiespeakin

  Panhandle,

  No I'm not taking any classes just my own research, with the help of university library near by, Google search, and wikipedia.

  Fark,

  I know what you mean it is a rather deep subject, or at least it takes a lot of thinking to comprehend,,thank Thor we have the internet at our finger tips to help us seperate the foo foo from the good stuff.

  Doofdad,

  Yeah that polish guy and his positive personality disintigration is a real eye opener.

  http://positivedisintegration.com/
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  soft+gentle

  nice topic frankiespeakin

  self actualisation - now that is something to aim for.
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  rebel8

  I finally concluded that (at least in my experience) psychology was nothing more than "having a best friend you can talk with, can vent with and who will never judge you.

  You are what's called "the worried well" and that's what therapy is like for those of your ilk.

  For people with serious illnesses, not so much.
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  Twitch

  I've worked in the AV industry for 20 years and have seen my share of motivational speakers. There can be a lot of money to be made selling people ideas that make them feel good.

  But this is different from therapy for people in need of real help
• 

  frankiespeakin

  Carl Rogers:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers

  Rogers' theory of the self is considered to be humanistic and phenomenological. [10] His theory is based directly on the "phenomenal field" personality theory of Combs and Snygg (1949). [11] Rogers' elaboration of his own theory is extensive. He wrote 16 books and many more journal articles describing it. However, Prochaska and Norcross(2003) states Rogers "consistently stood for an empirical evaluation of psychotherapy. He and his followers have demonstrated a humanistic approach to conducting therapy and a scientific approach to evaluating therapy need not be incompatible."

  [edit] Nineteen propositions

  His theory (as of 1951) was based on 19 propositions: [12]

  1. All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are the center.
  2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is "reality" for the individual.
  3. The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.
  4. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self.
  5. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed - an organized, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the "I" or the "me", together with values attached to these concepts.
  6. The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.
  7. The best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual.
  8. Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived.
  9. Emotion accompanies, and in general facilitates, such goal directed behavior, the kind of emotion being related to the perceived significance of the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism.
  10. The values attached to experiences, and the values that are a part of the self-structure, in some instances, are values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in distorted fashion, as if they had been experienced directly.
  11. As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either, a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relation to the self, b) ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self structure, c) denied symbolization or given distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self.
  12. Most of the ways of behaving that are adopted by the organism are those that are consistent with the concept of self.
  13. In some instances, behavior may be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized. Such behavior may be inconsistent with the structure of the self but in such instances the behavior is not "owned" by the individual.
  14. Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self.
  15. Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of the self structure. When this situation exists, there is a basic or potential psychological tension.
  16. Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self structure is organized to maintain itself.
  17. Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of threat to the self structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences.
  18. When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of others and is more accepting of others as separate individuals.
  19. As the individual perceives and accepts into his self structure more of his organic experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system - based extensively on introjections which have been distortedly symbolized - with a continuing organismic valuing process.