self-actualization

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From self- +‎ actualization. Probably applied in this sense by Abraham Maslow.

Noun

self-actualization (usually uncountable, plural self-actualizations)

  1. Psychological development that can be achieved when all basic and mental needs are fulfilled.
    • 2007 November, Gil Schwartz, “Escape from the job monster”, in Men's Health, volume 22, number 9, →ISSN, page 122:
      This is not an exercise in self-actualization at other people's expense. That's what you've been doing up until now. This is about acknowledging your faults to the people you've hurt without hurting them more.
    • 2022 March 8, Andrew Anthony, “Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama review – a defence of liberalism… from a former neocon”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
      The pursuit of individual autonomy or “self-actualisation”, for example, has become mired in an identity politics that subsumes the individual into rigidly defined groupings based on ethnicity, gender or sexuality.

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