Friday, March 10, 2017

智慧的16种共同特征

马斯洛:世上只有1%的人能达到的智慧境界,他们有16种共同特征

美国心理学大师马斯洛在研究了许多历史上伟人共同的人格特质之后,更详细地描绘出“自我实现者”(成长者)的画像。自我实现者有下列16个特色:

1.他们的判断力超乎常人,对事情观察得很透彻,只根据现在所发生的一些事,常常就能够正确地预测将来事情会如何演变。

2.他们能够接纳自己、接纳别人,也能接受所处的环境。无论在顺境或逆境之中,他们能安之若命,处之泰然。虽然他们不见得喜欢现状,但他们会先接受这个不完美的现实(不会抱怨为何只有半杯水),然后负起责任改善现状。

3.他们单纯、自然而无伪。他们对名利没有强烈的需求,因而不会戴上面具,企图讨好别人。有一句话说:“伟大的人永远是单纯的。”我相信,伟人的脑子里满有智慧,但常保一颗单纯善良的心。

4.他们对人生怀有使命感,因而常把精力用来解决与众人有关的问题。他们也较不以自我为中心,不会单顾自己的事。

5.他们享受独居的喜悦,也能享受群居的快乐。他们喜欢有独处的时间来面对自己、充实自己。

6.他们不依靠别人满足自己安全感的需要。他们像是个满溢的福杯,喜乐有余,常常愿意与人分享自己,却不太需要向别人收取什么。

7.他们懂得欣赏简单的事物,能从一粒细砂想见天堂,他们像天真好奇的小孩一般,能不断地从最平常的生活经验中找到新的乐趣,从平凡之中领略人生的美。

8.他们当中有许多人曾经历过“天人合一”的宗教经验。

9.虽然看到人类有很多丑陋的劣根性,他们却仍满有悲天悯人之心、民胞物与之爱,能从丑陋之中看到别人善良可爱的一面。

10.他们的朋友或许不是很多,然而所建立的关系,却比常人深入。他们可能有许多淡如水的君子之交,素未谋面,却彼此心仪,灵犀相通。

11.他们比较民主,懂得尊重不同阶层、不同种族、不同背景的人,以平等和爱心相待。

12.他们有智慧明辨是非,不会像一般人用绝对二分法(“不是好就是坏”或“黑人都是懒惰鬼”)分类判断。

13.他们说话含有哲理,也常有诙而不谑的幽默。

14.他们心思单纯,像天真的小孩,极具创造性。他们真情流露,欢乐时高歌,悲伤时落泪,与那些情感麻木,喜好“权术”、“控制”、“喜怒不形于色”的人截然不同。

15.他们的衣着、生活习惯、方式、处世为人的态度,看起来比较传统,保守,然而,他们的心态开明,在必要时能超越文化与传统的束缚。

16.他们也会犯一些天真的错误,当他们对真善美执著起来时,会对其他琐事心不在焉。例如爱迪生有一次做研究太过专心,竟然忘了自己是否吃过饭,朋友戏弄他,说他吃过了,他信以为真,拍拍肚皮,满足地回到实验室继续工作。

据马斯洛的估计,世上大概只有1%的人,最后能成长到上述这种“不惑”、“知天命”、“耳顺”、“随心所欲而不逾距”、圆融逍遥、充满智慧的人生境界。

我不敢期望每个人都能达到这个境界,然而我相信,当我们愈趋近这种境界时,我们的人生会愈有喜乐、愈有意义。

成长是必须付代价的,因为成长永远包含着冒险、面对未知、尝试新经验、扩展个人的极限与改变。若不必成长,我们就不用改变自己,不用面对未知的危险,更不用花心神面对生活的挑战,从各种选择中做出新的决定。

Abraham Maslow: 16 Traits of Mentally Healthy People (Self-Actualizers)

Abraham Maslow, unlike most psychologists, made it his business to study maximally psychologically healthy people.  (Needless to say, he didn't have much of a clinical practice!)  He felt that using behaviorism (based primarily on the study of animals, e.g. rats in mazes) or psychoanalysis (based primarily on the observations of mentally ill people in a clinical setting) to arrive at a general conception of human psychology is not likely to yield the most accurate conception.

Here is a summary of the 16 traits that Maslow felt were typically found among "self actualizers", his term for maximally psychologically healthy people.  It's somewhat amorphous, but interesting all the same.  Please feel free to examine it at your leisure:

16 Distinguishing Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People from the writings of Abraham Maslow

1. They are realistically oriented.
2. They accept themselves, other people, and the natural world for what they are.
3. They have a great deal of spontaneity.
4. They are problem-centered rather than self-centered.
5. They have an air of detachment and a need for privacy.
6. They are autonomous and independent.
7. Their appreciation of people and things is fresh rather than stereotyped.
8. Most of them have had profound mystical or spiritual experiences, although not necessarily religious in character.
9. They identify with mankind.
10. Their intimate relationships with a few specially loved people tend to be profound and deeply emotional rather than superficial.
11. Their values and attitudes are democratic.
12. They do not confuse means with ends.
13. Their sense of humor is philosophical rather than hostile.
14. They have a great fund of creativeness.
15. They resist conformity to the culture.
16. They transcend the environment rather than just coping with it.

Source: Theories of Personality, 3rd Edition, by Calvin S. Hall (Univ of Calif, Santa Cruz) and Gardner Lindzey (Stanford Univ), Copyright 1978 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., pp. 266-275 (the list is on one of these pages!)

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