Within the depth-psychology corpus, self-actualization occupies a contested but structurally central position. It names the telos toward which much humanistic and existential theorizing aspires, yet the corpus refuses to treat it as a simple or self-evident ideal. Yalom maps the terrain with characteristic precision, noting that the concept — surfacing variously as 'self-actualization,' 'self-realization,' 'development of potential,' 'growth,' and 'autonomy' — rests on the ancient conviction that each human being harbors potentials whose non-fulfillment produces existential guilt. Horney, writing the most sustained depth-psychological treatment, sharply distinguishes the authentic striving toward self-realization from its neurotic counterfeit: the compulsive actualization of an idealized self, which requires ever-greater distortions of truth and ultimately forecloses genuine growth. Yalom further complicates the picture by subordinating self-actualization to self-transcendence, arguing that inward-focused meaning remains inferior to the altruistic turn toward something beyond oneself. From the Buddhist-Jungian axis, Spiegelman reframes the concept entirely as Selbstverwirklichung — the urge of the Self to realize itself through individuation — relocating agency from the ego to the transpersonal psyche. Schwartz's IFS model introduces a structural corollary: protector-dominated systems prevent Self-led living, while integration enables the clarity that genuine actualization requires. Brazier connects the 'actualizing tendency' of humanistic psychology to the Buddhist concept of buddha-nature, suggesting cross-traditional structural homology. The concept thus serves simultaneously as aspiration, diagnostic criterion, and theoretical pivot for the entire humanistic-existential tradition.
In the library
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Although it has been given many names (that is, 'self-actualization,' 'self-realization,' 'self-development,' 'development of potential,' 'growth,' 'autonomy,' and so on), the underlying concept is simple: each human being has an innate set of capacities and potentials
Yalom establishes self-actualization as the common denominator beneath multiple humanistic and existential terminologies, grounding it in the Aristotelian concept of entelechy and the notion that unfulfilled potentiality produces existential guilt.
Yalom, Irvin D., Existential Psychotherapy, 1980thesis
Self-realization does not exclusively, or even primarily, aim at developing one's special gifts. The center of the process is the evolution of one's potentialities as a human being; hence it involves — in a central place — the development of one's capacities for good human relations.
Horney defines authentic self-realization as the holistic evolution of human potentiality — including relational capacities — explicitly distinguishing it from mere talent development or achievement.
Horney, Karen, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization, 1950thesis
the ideal is the liberation and cultivation of the forces which lead to self-realization. I hope that this book, by a clearer exposition of the obstructing factors, may, in its own way, help toward such liberation.
Horney frames her entire project in Neurosis and Human Growth as the identification of intrapsychic obstructions to self-realization, positioning it as both a moral privilege and the primary goal of psychoanalytic therapy.
Horney, Karen, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization, 1950thesis
Hedonism and self-actualization are concerned with self, whereas the others reflect some basic craving to transcend one's self-interest and to strive toward something or someone outside or 'above' oneself.
Yalom critiques self-actualization as an insufficiently transcendent form of meaning-making, contrasting it with altruism, creativity, and dedication to a cause, which he regards as superior because they move beyond self-preoccupation.
Yalom, Irvin D., Existential Psychotherapy, 1980thesis
Trusting the buddha nature is similar to the humanistic idea that there is a reliable constructive growth process called the 'actualizing tendency'. The idea of self-actualization freed practitioners from the narrow mechanistic ideas of 'scientific' psychology and made room
Brazier draws a structural homology between the Buddhist concept of buddha-nature and the humanistic actualizing tendency, situating self-actualization as the Western psychological counterpart to a cross-traditional soteriological principle.
Brazier, David, Zen Therapy: Transcending the Sorrows of the Human Mind, 1995thesis
self-idealization in itself is a neurotic solution, and as such compulsive in character... He does not want to climb a mountain; he wants to be on the peak. Hence he loses the sense of what evolution or growth means, even though he may talk about it.
Horney diagnoses the neurotic counterfeit of self-actualization — the compulsive actualization of the idealized self — as fundamentally opposed to genuine growth because it bypasses the incremental process in favor of imagined glory.
Horney, Karen, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization, 1950thesis
Jung also designated individuation as 'Self-realization.' The German term for Self-realization is Selbstverwirklichung which, in my understanding, indicates the innate urge of the Self realizing itself as a paradoxical whole, being the center and circumference of the entire psyche
Spiegelman identifies Jungian individuation with Selbstverwirklichung, a transpersonal self-realization process driven not by ego intention but by the intrinsic urge of the Self to manifest as a paradoxical totality encompassing both conscious and unconscious.
Spiegelman, J. Marvin, Buddhism and Jungian Psychology, 1985thesis
satori (enlightenment) in terms of self-realization, or the urge of the Self to realize itself. The essential feature of satori does not consist in ego-transcendence or ego-negation, but rather in a life-long process which demands that the ego make ceaseless efforts towards the integration of the unconscious contents.
Spiegelman reframes Zen satori as a Jungian self-realization process, arguing that genuine actualization is not the negation of ego but its continual enrichment through integration of unconscious contents.
Spiegelman, J. Marvin, Buddhism and Jungian Psychology, 1985supporting
Man's aim in humanistic religion is to achieve the greatest strength, not the greatest powerlessness; virtue is self-realization, not obedience.
Pargament, citing Fromm, situates self-realization as the ethical center of humanistic religion — the alternative to authoritarian self-abasement — while noting that Fromm envisions a self intimate with God rather than one that displaces the divine.
Pargament, Kenneth I, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Miller invokes the Aristotelian concept of telos to define self-actualization within the MI framework, linking it to the honoring of core values and the closing of discrepancy between current behavior and one's ideal self.
Miller, William R., Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change, Third Edition, 2013supporting
as you get more access to Self and become more Self-led, you also attain more clarity about the vision you have for your life, which means that your priorities may be quite different than they were when your protectors were in charge.
Schwartz frames self-actualization structurally within IFS: genuine life-vision emerges only as protector-dominance recedes and access to the Self increases, implying that most apparent goal-pursuit is driven by defensive rather than actualizing motivations.
Entelechy, monad, and self coincide in this fantasy of independence: self-substantial entelechy on the course of its actualization and the self-same windowless monad unique to itself... recapitulated in Jung's self of individuation unfolding through the tensions of opposites, like a tree.
Hillman traces the philosophical genealogy of Jungian self-actualization through Aristotle's entelechy and Leibniz's monad, presenting the Jungian self as the modern heir to a long metaphysical tradition of immanent teleological unfolding.
self-realization takes place so as the ego comes to function in an 'ex-centric' manner in the service of the Self. Jung refers to this psychological state as 'an ego-less mental condition,' 'consciousness without an ego.'
Spiegelman describes the paradox at the heart of Jungian self-realization: the ego does not achieve actualization through its own effort but through an 'ex-centric' subordination to the transpersonal Self.
Spiegelman, J. Marvin, Buddhism and Jungian Psychology, 1985supporting
self-actualization, 279, 280, 399, 437-40... society: as obstruction to self-actualization, 438; values needed for, 464
Yalom's index entry reveals the structural scope of self-actualization in his framework: it is indexed against self-transcendence, self-expression, and self-perfection, with society explicitly named as a potential obstruction — highlighting a social-political dimension of the concept.
Yalom, Irvin D., Existential Psychotherapy, 1980supporting
Logotherapy tries to make the patient fully aware of his own responsibleness; therefore, it must leave to him the option for what, to what, or to whom he understands himself to be responsible.
Frankl implicitly critiques purely self-directed actualization by centering responsibleness — to society, conscience, or another — as the operative telos of human existence, positioning logotherapy against self-enclosed self-actualization frameworks.
Frankl, Viktor Emil, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946aside
the idealized image becomes an idealized self. And this idealized self becomes more real to him than his real self, not primarily because it is more appealing but because it answers all his stringent needs.
Horney analyzes the psychological mechanism by which the neurotic substitutes the actualization of an idealized self-image for authentic self-realization, tracing how the real self becomes progressively occluded in the process.
Horney, Karen, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization, 1950supporting