avad: (Default)
avad ([personal profile] avad) wrote2007-08-25 12:38 pm
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Evolving Self excerpt

on universal impulse I find myself looking for a good excerpt from The Evolving Self (one of my favorite books) today to post to you. And I happen upon this blog that just posted this 2 days ago. 'good timing' if you believe in time;)no? an excerpt which also 'happens' to deal with distributed memory...ha.
I sincerely echo the intro/praise to the book here as well.thanks universe;)

The Power of Love & Trascendance - an excerpt from Csikszentmihalyi's Evolving Self
"One of the men who most influenced my perspective on the modern world is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I'm still amazed that Csikszentmihalyi's book The Evolving Self isn't continually cited. It gets my vote as the most overlooked and underappreciated books of our time.

Central to his thesis is the notion that a fully developed self comes from two often competing needs: the movements towards greater complexity and integration of that complexity into harmony, bringing those disparate elements into a whole self. Complexity results from pursuit of what makes us individuals, and he calls a person joyfully invested in complex goals a transcender. What follows is an excerpt of Evolving Self, using the Hungarian poet Gyorgy Faludy as an example.read the excerpt on R World blog

Re: Great stuff

(Anonymous) 2007-08-26 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
Avad & Cesar,

I'm glad that you so enjoyed the excerpt. I've read Evolving Self a couple of times and will occasionally open it at random for a bit of provocation. The other day it seemed too profound not to share. I'm glad it brought me to your posts, Avad.

As to what this means for movements, I personally think that one element of the coming transformation of society is this: rather than work to change the individual to better adapt to institutions and norms, we'll become more able to change institutions and norms for the individual. Very much aligned with you comments, Cesar, about working with, but not being constrained by, movements by various names. I've tried to express some of that here: http://rwrld.blogspot.com/2007/06/transformation-for-rather-than-of-self.html

Thanks again for connecting. You are right, Avad, that it is heartening to steer someone towards a little inspiration and encouragement. From my coast to yours - have a happy weekend.
- Ron from R World