Transcend

In high school my psychology teacher, Carlton Wagner, took me aside after class and recommended that I read a book that he thought would be meaningful to me. It was Toward a Psychology of Being by Abraham Maslow, which changed the way I viewed the world.

Recently (on April 7, 2020 to be exact), Scott Barry Kaufman launched his book entitled Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, which picks up where Maslow left off, describing not only self actualization, but also transcendence.

Scott Barry Kaufman is a humanistic psychologist who has been named as one of “Fifty Groundbreaking Scientists Who Are Changing the Way We See the World” by Business Insider. He is an author of books on education and humanistic psychology, such as: Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined, Twice Exceptional, Wired to Create and his most recent book Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization.

Kaufman has had an interesting personal journey. He was asked to repeat third grade (due to his immaturity, a medical issue involving his ears, central processing disorder, and anxiety) and was placed in a resource room for special education. In the 9th grade, a teacher took him aside and said “I see you. Why are you here? You are capable of more.” He felt empowered for the first time in his life. He told parents he would not go back. His school held a meeting and let him into standard college preparatory courses on a trial basis. Kaufman went from being a C-D student to getting all As. Eventually, he was allowed to take honors classes. Most importantly, he started to love learning.

As a high school senior, he applied to Carnegie Mellon University, but was not admitted to the psychology program. They told him his SAT scores were not high enough for him to accomplish his stated goal of redefining intelligence. So he applied to the opera program at Carnegie Mellon instead, and was admitted on a partial scholarship, with that program not realizing that he had already been denied from the psychology program. He asked the department secretary during her lunch break if he could take a psychology course. She gave him a form to complete. Later, he went back, again during her lunch break, and asked if he could minor in psychology. Fast forward a few years and Kaufman graduated with a dual degree in psychology and computer science, with a minor in opera. Later he received a master’s in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge and his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University.

SBK, as he is known among his friends (among whom I count myself, despite the fact that we have never met), described Maslow’s first introduction to Esalen Institute. In 1962, Abe Maslow and his wife Bertha were driving down Highway One near Big Sur. They were looking for a place to stay and saw a light on at Esalen. They drove on the grounds, looking to see if it was an inn. Maslow later noted that the scene reminded him of the Bates Motel in the film Psycho. At the front desk a gruff man asked “What do you want?” Maslow described the man’s manner as “haughty and supercilious.” Maslow wanted to leave because the man had been so cold, but he and his wife were too exhausted. When he signed the register with his name, Abraham Maslow, the man said, “The Abraham Maslow?” He bowed deeply and began chanting “Maslow, Maslow, Maslow…” Dick Price heard and rushed in, sharing that Toward a Psychology of Being was being read by the entire staff and that Maslow’s work was the basis for Esalen’s mission. Michael Murphy was out of town when all of this happened, but began a correspondence with Maslow, and they met soon thereafter at an Association of Humanistic Psychology meeting in Los Angeles. Over time, Murphy became the son that Maslow never had, and Murphy described Maslow as a “second father.”

Abraham Maslow is known for his Hierarchy of needs; however, according to Kaufman’s research, Maslow never actually created a pyramid to represent the hierarchy, that was done by a management consultant in the 60s. Unfortunately, the pyramid told a story that Maslow never meant to tell: a story of achievement, of mastering level by level until you’ve “won” the game of life. But winning the game of life is not the spirit of self-actualization that humanistic psychologists like Maslow emphasized. The human condition isn’t a competition; it’s an experience.

According to Kaufman, “life isn’t a trek up a summit. It’s more like a vast ocean, full of new opportunities for meaning and discovery but also danger and uncertainty. In this choppy surf, a pyramid is of little use. What we really need is something more flexible and functional: a sailboat.” See image below:

Healthy self-actualization is a bridge to transcendence. Maslow defined healthy transcendence as “an emergent phenomenon resulting from the harmonious integration of one’s whole self in the service of cultivating the good society.” In an unpublished essay from 1966 called Critique of Self-Actualization Theory, Maslow wrote “It must be stated that self-actualization is not enough. Personal salvation and what is good for the person alone cannot be really understood in isolation...The good of other people must be invoked, as well as the good for oneself...It is quite clear that a purely intrapsychic, individualistic psychology, without reference to other people and social conditions, is not adequate." Other ways that transcendence has been discussed in recent years include terms like mystic experience, peak experience, religious experience, and being in the flow.

In his book, Kaufman provides seven principles for becoming a whole person - (These principles are aspirational, not a destination state)

1. Accept your whole self, not just your best self

2. Learn to trust your self-actualizing tendency

3. Become aware of your inner conflicts

4. Look out for lopsided development

5. Create the best version of yourself

6. Strive for growth, not happiness

7. Harness the power of your dark side

I highly recommend that you read Kaufman’s wonderful book that encourages us to increase our sense of mystery, awe, humility, and a new vision of civilization. He closes the book by saying “There’s a wide world out there, with many blank pages for you to fill in your own style, and in such a way that you not only existed but existed well.” Live Well!