PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Etymologically Psychology is from two Greek words soul or mind, and

logos or discuss, to translate "the science of the soul.". Psychology is the
study of the mind or the science of the mind. The concept is that every
living body (plant, animal, man) has a vital principle, or soul. Therefore all
living bodies, including plants, are studied in philosophical psychology. In
other words psychology can be said to be the science of mental activity,
encompassing both the conscious and unconscious mental activity.

Psychology may be studied at different levels and with different methods,

hence which may be called empirical, experimental, philosophical and
metaphysical.

Empirical Psychology

Empirical psychology may be defined as the science of the facts and laws
of mental life, as acquired by everyday experience. We say mental life,
rather than conscious life in order to include the preconscious as well as
unconscious phenomena in life. Everybody acquires some knowledge of
facts and laws of mental life, through ordinary process of living. Life
would be almost impossible if we do not foresee to a certain extent our
own and other people’s reaction in a given circumstances. Some
individuals are better endowed in this respect of this kind of knowledge
than others. Some professions require more of the kind of knowledge than
others. E.g. teachers, traders, politicians. This kind of psychology is to be
found although for most part in a poorly organised or uncritical form, in
proverbs, in masterpieces of literature, in moralists, educator,
psychotherapy, ascetical authors, in popular books on self-improvement.
Example of Local proverb An orderly presentation of such facts and laws
which explains not only the “how” but also, wherever possible, the why of
human behaviour is an organised knowledge through the causes.

Experimental Psychology
It may be defined as the science of behaviour. This applies strictly

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scientific methods to the study of animal and human behaviour. It
originated in the middle of the 19th century. Wilheim Wundt who
established the first laboratory of experimental psychology in 1879 at the
University of Leipzig, is considered its founder. In its beginning, this
science did not differ much from physiology and was mainly concerned
with the study of sense organs. Gradually, more functions such as memory,
association and imaginations were investigated and eventually, application
of scientific methods to the study of human behaviour of thinking and
willing  

Metaphysical psychology

It is that aspect of metaphysics which is concerned with the study of living

bodies. Metaphysics which is the science of being as such is divided into
general metaphysics or ontology and special metaphysics. Special
metaphysics may be concerned with inorganic beings, the metaphysical
cosmology or organic beings, like metaphysical psychology or pure spirits,
otherwise known as angelology or infinite being like natural theology and
theodicy. Metaphysical psychology is deductive in this sense that it starts
from a hypothetically necessary fact and discovers a priori all conditions
we need to make that fact possible. Eg. We necessary think by means of
judgement to deny this involves a contradiction since the denial itself
entails a judgement. Metaphysical psychology is also termed
reflective psychology because it consists essentially in the reflection of the
intellect on its own activity. It differs from other forms of psychology
especially, in that it studies man not as a thing, but as a spiritual and
internal action. Not so much under the aspect of an object as under that as
a subject.

Philosophical Psychology
It is the science of living bodies which interpret the data of experience in
the light of metaphysical principles.
1. The data of experience is supplied mainly by everyday experience and

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to some extent, biology for the vegetative function, and empirical and
experimental psychology for the sentient and rational function.
2. The metaphysical principles are supplied by ontology or metaphysics
Philosophical psychology is the combination of science and metaphysics
as applied to the domain of living bodies or organisms. Such a
combination of science and metaphysics is sometimes called natural
philosophy. Philosophical psychology may alternatively
be defined as the natural philosophy of living bodies.  Since it employs
both metaphysics and science, philosophical psychology is partly
deductive and partly inductive. It gives us a complete picture of living
bodies in both their noumen al and phenomenal aspect. Noumenal aspect
of beings refers to these beings as they are in themselves, independent of
what we do to know them to be. The phenomenal aspect of being refers to
them as they affect us, as they appear to our senses.
Since the soul is the Innermost reality of every organism, the soul, its
faculties and activities, is the main object of metaphysical and
philosophical psychology

THE EMPOWERMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL BY WESTEN

PHILOSOPHY FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TILL DATE

1.0. Introduction

It is clear that the desire of many scholars to understand human

nature and make life better for man is a common part of everyday thought.
This has moved many scholars to devote their time in studying the
individual. Among others one feels that he comes to know human nature
through the character and conduct of other individuals he meets. Behind
what they do one recognizes qualities that are often not surprising. Human
beings are proud, sensitive, eager for recognition or admiration, often
ambitious, hopeful or downhearted, and selfish or capable of self-sacrifice.
They take satisfaction in their achievements, feel guilty and are loyal or
disloyal to mention but a few. Experience by scholars in
dealing with and observing people gives rise to a conception of a

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predictable range of conduct. Conduct falling outside the range that is
considered not to be worthy of an individual is frequently regarded as
inhuman or bestial whereas that which is exceptional in that it lives up to
standards, which most people recognize, but few achieve is regarded as
saintly. The common conception of human nature thus implicitly locates
man on a scale of perfection, placing him somewhere above most animals
but below angels or gods. Among others two
sayings that have been adopted as mottoes by those who see themselves as
engaged in philosophical study of the individual date from the 5th century
BC. These are: "Man is the measure of all things" (Protagoras) and "Know
thyself" (a saying from the Delphic oracle, echoed by Heracleitus and
Socrates, among others). Both are believed to reflect a specific orientation
of philosophy of man as humanism, which takes man as its starting point
and treats man as the centre, or origin, on which all other disciplines
ultimately depend1. What this chapter is out
to consider is the empowerment of the individual in western philosophy
over the centuries. We shall start by looking at how the individual
emancipates from attributing every days` happenings to the forces of
nature to the use of reason to understand them in the activities of some
classical Greek philosophers. We shall then look at how the individual is
understood in the medieval period, the renaissance, the reformation, the
16th and 17th centuries, the 18th-century Enlightenment and the period
after enlightenment.

AIM

The aim of this is to bring out in clear terms the efforts made over the
years in stressing the individual as over and above every other thing, and
also as the most important being without which nothing has worth.

1.1. Late Antiquity

11Philosophical Anthropology in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001 Deluxe Edition CD ROM (article by Georges Paul
Gusdorf and Mary Elizabeth Tiles). (Hence to be known as Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001 CD ROM Philosophical
Anthropology )

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 Western philosophy is considered generally to have begun in ancient
Greece. Philosophy among the Greeks is said to have slowly emerged out
of religious awe into wonder about the principles and elements of the
natural world. Eventually, cosmological speculation partly gave way to
moral and political theorizing. As the Greek populations left the land to
become concentrated in their cities, interest is seen to have shifted from
nature to social living and so questions of law and convention and civic
values to mention but a few became paramount. (Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 2001 CD Philosophical Anthropology). It is believed among
other things, that the Ionian school made the initial radical step from
mythological to scientific explanation of natural phenomena. Mythology is
here understood to mean a

Symbolic narrative usually of unknown origin and at least partly

traditional that ostensibly relates actual events and that is
especially associated with religious belief. It is distinguished from
behaviour (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (temples,
icons). Myths are specific accounts of gods or superhuman beings
involved in extraordinary events or circumstances in a time that is
unspecified but which is understood as existing apart from
ordinary human experience.2

Ross Kelley L in his History of Philosophy under the topic The

Origin of Philosophy: The Attributes of Mythic/Mythopoeic Thought
explains that the way the Pre-philosophical individual thought could be
characterized as "mythopoeic," "mythopoetic," or "mythic". He goes on to
explain "Mythopoeic" to mean "making" and "myth" (mûthos) that is,
stories about persons, where persons may be gods, heroes, or ordinary
people. Differentiating myth from philosophy he identifies that myths by
their nature are conservative, non argumentative, allows for a multiplicity
of explanations which are not logically exclusive. In other words they can
contradict each other, and are often humorous. 3
We identify the pre-philosophic

22. "Myth." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004.  Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.

26 Dec. 2004 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article t. (Date visited 2nd Jan.2004)

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individual as one that looked up almost solely to supernatural powers for
solution to problems. He did that by means of stories, in other words
myths, not founded on any scientific proof, but all the same important for
his survival, because they gave him answers to questions he could not
answer. Furthermore they gave him security and maintained order and
stability in his community. 4
Rudolf Steiner in his Individualism in Philosophy thinks that the
individual even at this pre-philosophic level wishes to stand at the topmost
place in the world. However he does not dare to pronounce himself the
pinnacle of creation. Therefore he invents gods in his own image and lets
the world be ruled by them. He thinks that the religious person cannot set
himself up as the lord of the world, but he does indeed determine, out of
his own absolute power, the likes and dislikes of the ruler of the world.
For him this explains why even though there are countless people who
believe themselves governed by gods, there are none who do not
independently, over the heads of the gods, judge what pleases or displeases
these gods.Thus we can conclude that no matter how unclear the
individual was at this time about his relationship to the world, he
nevertheless seeks within himself the yardstick by which to measure all
things. Out of a kind of unconscious feeling of sovereignty he decides on
the absolute value of all happenings. 5
It is worth mentioning that philosophy or reason did not set in to take
the place of mythological thought. All it did was to find a reasonable or
logical meaning to what the individual could not explain unless with the
help of supernatural powers and myths. What we realise is that with
philosophy the individual decided not to live in the chance proximity into
which nature has placed him, hence he seeks to regulate the way he lives
with others in accordance with his reason. The transition from the
mythological thinking into philosophical thinking is particularly
33 .Ross Kelley L. History of Philosophy. The Origin of Philosophy: The Attributes of Mythic/Mythopoeic Thought.
http://www.friesian.com/greek.htm (Date visited 23rd Dec.2004)
44 Susana Ruano, 4 Myth Theories (699) http://www.collegetermpapers.com/TermPapers/Mythology/ ( Date
visited 23rd Dec.2004)
55 Rudolf Steiner, Der Individualismus in der Philosophie.
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/IndPhi_essay.html (1989) . (Translated from German into English
by William Lindeman. 1989) ( Date visited 5th Jan.2005) (Hence to be known as Rudolf Steiner 1989, Der
Individualismus in der Philosophie)

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interesting. Here thinkers in the persons of Thales, Anaximander,
Heraclitus and Parmenides will be of interest. In Thales we see the
individual approaching the world in an entirely free way. His way of
thinking is no longer religious at all. When we accept the statement by
scholars that thinking is the trait, which distinguishes the individual from
the animal, then we shall see Thales as the first Western personality who
dared to assign to thinking its sovereign position. The individual knows
that he thinks and because he thinks he also had a right to explain the
world to himself in accordance with his thinking. One sees here a
declaration of the absoluteness of human thinking. The individual thinks
about the world, and by virtue of his thinking he ascribes to himself the
power to judge the world. Beginning with Thales therefore we can agree
with Steiner (1989) that the activity of knowing das Erkennen - now enters
into a completely new stage of its development. Like Thales, it is clear
that Anaximander, he explains, no longer speaks of gods as his Greek
ancestors did. For him the highest principle, which rules the world, is not a
being pictured in man's image6 but “an impersonal being, the apeiron, the
indefinite”7. This Steiner Rudolf explains
developed out of itself everything occurring in nature, not in the way an
individual creates, but rather out of natural necessity. For Anaximander
therefore, everything in the world occurs just as necessarily as a magnet
attracts iron, but does so according to moral, i.e., human laws. Only from
this point of view according to Steiner could he say: “Whence things arise,
hence must they also pass away, in accordance with justice, for they must
do penance and recompense because of unrighteousness in a way
corresponding to the order of time.” This is the stage at which we
identified the individual as being able to judge philosophically. He lets go
of the gods. He no longer ascribes to the gods what comes from him as
man. Steiner explains further the view of Heraclitus
that all things are in eternal flux. Becoming is here seen as the essential
being of things. This thought culminated in the popular statement; “you
cannot step in the same river twice”. Or (“of those who step in the same
66 ibid ., See also Russell Bertrand, A History Of Western Philosophy Counterpoint Edition London George Allen
&Unwin Publisher 1979 p. 25-48
77 Audi Robert (General Editor) The Cambridge Dictionary Of Philosophy second edition Cambridge university press,
1999 p. 33

7
river different waters flow”). When I step into a river, it is no longer the
same one as in the moment of my deciding to step into it. This may be seen
as an attempt to think out the causes of change in nature, and in man.
Steiner identifies further how Parmenides sets himself in absolute
opposition to Heraclitus with all the one-sidedness possible only to a keen
philosophical nature. He is seen to have rejected all testimony brought by
sense perception. For Parmenides, it is precisely this ever-changing sense
world that leads one astray into the view of Heraclitus.
Parmenides is seen to have regarded those revelations as
the only source of all truth, which well forth from the innermost core of the
human personality, the revelations of thinking. In his view the real being
of things is not what flows past the senses, it is the thoughts, the ideas that
thinking discovers within this stream and to which it holds fast. He sees
thought as the only means by which being is determined and that belongs
to the individual. What is
impressive here, to begin with, is not at all whether the above-mentioned
persons believed water or anything else to be the principle of the world.
Our concern here is, the individual is able to say to himself that whatever
the principle is, he will decide by thinking8. There is argument,
there is disagreement, there is agreement there is a challenge there is a
proof. The role of providence, fate and the like are relegated to the
background. We begin to admire an individual who begins to look for
solutions to the causes of events by use of reason. If the gods are
responsible for the causes of events he will like to know to what extent.
The individual questions and tries to answer the question “why”.
By the time of Plato and Aristotle things
had become clearer. The individual’s dependence on the forces of nature is
becoming a thing of the past. They are seen to concern themselves with the
composition and the potentials in the individual. Their view of the
individual is a consequence of their differing metaphysical views. Plato's
metaphysics is seen as dualistic, claiming that the everyday physical world
of changeable things, which the individual “comes to know by the use of
his senses, are not the primary reality but is a world of appearances, or
phenomenal manifestations, of an underlying timeless and unchanging
88Rudolf Steiner 1989, op. cit, Der Individualismus in der Philosophie See also Russell Bertrand op. cit, pp. 66-70

8
reality, an immaterial realm of Forms that is knowable only by use of the
intellect”9. Steiner (1989) identifies in Plato that

the things of this world which our senses perceive have no true
being at all: they are always becoming but never are. They have
only a relative existence; they are, in their totality, only in and
through their relationship to each other; one can therefore just as
well call their whole existence a non-existence. They are
consequently also not objects of any actual knowledge. For, only
about what is, in and for itself and always in the same way, can
there be such knowledge; they, on the other hand, are only the
object of what we, through sensation, take them to be. As long as
we are limited only to our perception of them, we are like people
who sit in a dark cave so firmly bound that they cannot even turn
their heads and who see nothing, except, on the wall facing them,
by the light of a fire burning behind them, the shadow images of
real things which are led across between them and the fire, and
who in fact also see of each other, yes each of himself, only the
shadows on that wall. Their wisdom, however, would be to
predict the sequence of those shadows which they have learned to
know from experience. 10

The individual for him is in a prison-house, the world of sight, making a

journey upward, understood as the ascent of the soul into the intellectual
world. The individual that I see and touch is therefore the shadow of the
idea of an individual. And this idea is what is truly real. The idea,
however, is what lights up within my spirit when I look at the individual.
What I perceive with my senses is thus made into a copy of what my spirit
shapes through the perception. Steiner (1989). This is the idea
expressed in Plato’s Republic in the metaphor of the cave. Here the
changeable physical world is likened to shadows cast on the wall of a cave
99Encyclopaedia Britannica 2001 CD op. cit, Philosophical Anthropology, See also Plato Republic: Book VII.
http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/republic/ about.html.(Date visited 5th Jan.2005)
1010 Rudolf Steiner 1989,op cit Der Individualismus in der Philosophie See also Plato Republic: Book VII

9
as said above. To know the real world the occupants of the cave must do
two things. These include turning round to face the graven images in the
light that casts the shadows and, leaving the cave to study the originals of
the graven images in the light of day.
For him therefore in the same line human bodily existence is
merely an appearance of the true reality of human being. The conclusion
we can draw from this is that the identity of a human being does not derive
from the body but from the character of his soul, which is an immaterial
entity. There is so to say a divorce between the rational and the material
aspects of human existence, one in which the material will be seen as
devalued.11 “Plato therefore maintained the ultra-dualism of body and soul
(mind). The body is a material substance, and the soul is a spiritual
substance. The two substances form a dynamic unit, but not a substantial
unit.” 12 Aristotle, base on his worldview,
obviously did not agree with Plato on this. He is seen to have insisted that
the physical, changeable world made up of concrete individual substances
is the primary reality. For him each individual substance may be
considered to be a composite of matter and form, but these components are
not separable, for the forms of changeable things have no independent
existence. Furthermore they exist only when materially instantiated. This
general metaphysical view is seen to have undercut Plato's body-soul
dualism. Aristotle synthesized body and mind by assuming that the soul of
man is the formal, organizing, animating principle of primal matter. What
we see is that for Aristotle, all things had each a unique "Form" which
gave it its distinct existence as a particular entity. Thus a Human Form
gave human potential its existence as a particular individual, and this
forms such a person as an individual. This is also regarded as responsible
for particular instincts of this individual and his constant desire to move
forward toward some sense of personal potential or not-yet-realized
existence. For Aristotle all life is a process of
moving toward one's potential, something like a life-giving struggle to
realize one's self fully. The soul is the form of the body, giving life and
1111 Encyclopaedia Britannica 2001 CD op. cit, Philosophical Anthropology
1212 Bittle Celestine N. The Human Person :.A Study and Critique. Philosophical Critiques
http://radicalacademy.com/adiphilcritperson1.htm.(Date visited 5th Jan.2005)( Hence to be known as Bittle Celestine N.
The Human Person)

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structure to the specific matter of a human being. For him all human
beings are the same in respect to form and therefore their individual
differences are to be accounted for by reference to the matter in which this
common form is variously instantiated. This being so, it is concluded that
it is impossible for an individual human soul to have any existence
separate from the body.13 Matter and soul are therefore seen as two
incomplete substances or substantial co-principles, and their union results
in a single, unitary substance, namely, the human organism. Thus while
safeguarding body and mind (soul) as distinct realities he gives a neat
explanation of their synthesis into one substance. 14 The period
of Greek thought that follows Plato and Aristotle is seen to have concerned
it self with the individual wish to attain happiness. It begins with the Stoics
and Epicureans and reaches its climax with the Sceptics. According to
Steiner the Stoics and Epicureans feel instinctively that one cannot find the
essential being of things along the path taken by those before them. They
were concerned about how man should live his life in happiness.
Everything else was only a means to this end. For the Stoics therefore
philosophy is worthwhile only if through it the individual could know how
he is to live his life. For them the right life for man is one that is in
harmony with nature. In order to realize this harmony with nature in one's
own actions, one must first know what is in harmony with nature. In the
Stoics' teaching the individual will be seen as his own purpose and goal
and that everything else, even knowledge, is there only for the sake of this
individual. In another development Steiner saw the Epicureans
going further in this regard. Their striving consisted in shaping life in such
a way that the individual would feel as content as possible in it or that it
would afford him the greatest possible pleasure. One's own life stands so
much in the foreground for them that they are said to practice knowledge
only for the purpose of freeing the individual from superstitious fear and
from the discomfort that befalls him when he does not understand nature.
He
observes that a heightened human feeling of oneself runs through the
views of the Stoics and Epicureans compared to those of older Greek
1313Encyclopedia Britannica 2001 CD. op. cit, Philosophical Anthropology.
1414Bittle Celestine, N. op cit, The Human Person

11
thinkers. This view he sees as appearing in a finer, more spiritual way in
the Sceptic teachings. They were convinced that an individual in forming
ideas about things could form them only out of himself; and only out of
himself can he draw the conviction that an idea corresponds to some thing.
Thus they saw nothing in the outer world
that would provide a basis for connecting thing and idea. And they
regarded as delusion and combated what anyone before them had said
about any such bases. The basic characteristic of the Sceptical view Steiner
regards as modesty. For him the sceptics did not dare to deny that there is a
connection in the outer world between idea and thing. What they disagreed
with is the perfect knowledge in such connection. Therefore they did
indeed make the individual the source of his knowing, but they did not
regard this knowing as the expression of true wisdom. 15
Thus so far we see the course of
development taken by Greek thinking trying to stress confidence in the
individual’s cognitive ability while playing down his dependence on
providence. The period that followed try to reconcile the individual with
the supernatural world through Christian religion.

1.2. Medieval Period

According to Erwin Bader in his Christliche Social Reform,

Christianity is the historical foundation of Europe, (Das Christentum ist die
historische Grundlage des Europas). He explains that Christianity, even
though over the years has suffered at various stages of history, (im
Humanismus, in der Reformation, in der Aufklärung, im unserem Säkulum
im Materialismus) remains the only institution, which has survived
ideologies and wars.16 The Encyclopaedia Britannica
(2001) asserts that the Christian Church, and for that matter, Christianity is
seen to have dominated western medieval culture. This influence is seen to
have naturally reflected in the philosophy of the period. Theology rather
than metaphysics tends to be given primacy, even though many of the
structures of Greek philosophy, including its metaphysics are preserved. In
1515 Rudolf Steiner 1989,op. cit, Der Individualismus in der Philosophie See also Audi Robert, op. cit, pp. 269-270,
846-850 and 879-881
1616 Bader, Erwin. Christliche Social Reform Herder &Co Wien 1991, pp. 16-17

12
light of this metaphysics, form and matter is readily assimilated into
Christian thought. Form is here understood as ideas in the mind of God,
the patterns according to which he creates and continues to sustain the
universe. Christian theology, however, modifies the Greek thought system
making use of the views of Plato and Aristotle.
We see the creation story in the bible making the individual a
creature among other creatures, but not a creature like other creatures. The
differentiation here must be noted, human beings from other creatures. The
individual is the product of the final act of divine initiative, is given
responsibility for the Garden of Eden, and has the benefit of a direct
relationship with his creator. The lost of paradise by the individual through
Adam and redemption through Christ, the categories of sin and grace, are
seen to concern only the descendants of Adam, who are given a nature
radically different from that of the animals and plants over which they are
given dominion. The individual is presented in this Christian tradition
as the only one among the creatures of God who after a life in this world
can hope to participate in an eternal life that is far more important than the
temporal life that he lives here on earth. Interestingly belief in a life after
death makes it impossible to regard the individual as wholly a natural
being. It also entails that the physical world now inhabited by the
individual is not the sole, or even the primary, reality. Furthermore, the
characteristically Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body also
entails that the human body cannot be regarded as being of significance
only in the physical world. In line with the above
Christian philosophy through the teachings of St. Augustine, gives
prominence to Platonic views. God as Augustine sees him is a wholly
immaterial, supremely rational and transcendent creator of the universe.
As far as the individual human person is concern, Augustine asserts that
the soul is not the entire man but his better part. We see a Platonic
tendency to regard the body as a prison for the soul and a mark of the
fallen state of the individual. He believes that “since the seat of the will
was reason, when people exercise their will, they are acting in the image of
God, the supreme rational being”.
On the other hand, Thomas Aquinas whiles placing less emphasis on
the will “regarded the individual as acting in the image of God to the

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extent that he exercises and seeks to fulfil his intelligent nature”. He like
Aristotle rejected the Platonic tendency to devalue the body and insisted
that it is part of the concept of the individual that he has flesh and bone, as
well as a soul. It is interesting to note however that whatever line the
argument on the relation between the soul and body may take, it is
explained, the view of the individual is first and foremost a creature of
God who is privileged by having been created in the image of God and
“given the gift of reason in virtue of which he also has free will (rational
appetite summa contra gentiles 2.47) and must take the burden of moral
responsibility for his own actions. In order to fulfil his distinctively human
nature man must thus order his thoughts and actions in such a way as to
reflect the supremacy of religious values”.17

1.3. The Renaissance

It is observed that until the 15th century Renaissance the standard

assumption is that the individual had a fixed nature, one that determined
both his place in the universe and his destiny. We see humanism as the
dominant intellectual movement of the Renaissance. This we understand is
a philosophy based on the idea that the individual is a are rational being
who possesses within himself the capacity for truth and goodness. This
philosophy seeks to emphasize the dignity and worth of the individual. The
humanists in line with this expressed an enormous confidence in the power
of reason as a source of profound understanding of human nature and of
his place in the natural order. The Renaissance Humanism is seen to have
displaced Scholasticism as the principal philosophy of Western Europe and
deprived church leaders of the monopoly on learning that they had
previously held18.
The humanists of this period identify what distinguishes the
individual from all other creatures to be the fact that he has no nature. This
is a way of asserting that the individual’s actions are not bound by laws of

1717 Encyclopaedia Britannica 2001 C D, op cit, Philosophical Anthropology. See also Grayling A.C.( Editor) Philosophy
2, Further Through The Subject Oxford University Press 1998, pp. 523-551
1818 Distante, Patrick op cit History of Western Philosophy Summary Outline Renaissance and Reformation
http://home.earthlink.net/pdistan/ (Date visited: 5th Jan.2005)( Hence to be known as Distante, Patrick Renaissance
and Reformation)

14
nature in the way that those of other creatures are. The individual is
capable of taking responsibility for his own actions because he has the
freedom to exercise his will. It is in this cultural context of the
Renaissance, and in particular with the Italian humanists and their
imitators, that the individual, his nature, and his capacities and limitations
became a primary focus of philosophical interest. The individual does not
thereby cease to view himself within the context of the world, nor does he
deny the existence of God, he does, however, free himself sufficiently
from the bonds of cosmic determination and divine authority to become a
centre of interest in his own eyes.
In this period of the renaissance it is observed
that the educated people of the West rediscovered a clear conscience
instead of the guilty conscience of Christianity. At the same time, the great
inventions and discoveries suggests that the individual could take pride in
his accomplishments and regard himself with admiration. These themes of
the dignity and excellence of the individual were prominent in Italian
humanist thought and are clearly expressed in Giovanni Pico (1486)
Oration on the Dignity of Man. In this work Pico is seen to have expressed
a view of the individual person that breaks radically with Greek and
Christian tradition. (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2001 CD Philosophical
Anthropology) He thinks that

What distinguishes man from the rest of creation is that he has

been created without form and with the ability to make of himself
what he will. Being without form or nature he is not constrained,
fated, or determined to any particular destiny Thus he must
choose what he will become. In this way man's distinctive
characteristic becomes his freedom; he is free to make himself in
the image of God or in the image of beasts.19

In humanism therefore we see an optimistic view of the individual as

essential. This is believed to be a product of the revival of Neo-Platonist
thought. Its optimism is based on a view that the individual is at least
potentially a non-natural and godlike being. His status is no more

1919 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001 CD op. cit., Philosophical Anthropology

15
ascribed. The individual has to earn it. The individual must win his right to
dominion over nature and in so doing earn his place beside God in the life
hereafter. He must learn both about himself and about the natural world in
order to be able to achieve this. This we are made to understand was,
however, only one of two streams of humanist thought. The other was
essentially more pessimistic and sceptical, stressing the limitations on
man's intellectual capacities. In this case there is an insistence on the need
to be reconciled to the fact of individual’s humanity rather than to persist
in taking seriously his superhuman pretensions and aspirations.
(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001 CD Philosophical Anthropology)

1.4. The Reformation

The Reformation is seen as that great 16 th century religious

revolution, which ended the ecclesiastical supremacy of the pope in
Western Christendom and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant
churches. Martin Luther (1483-1546), the German monk and theologian
and father of the Reformation is seen as a radical reformer who condemned
some of the basic teachings and practices of the Church.20
In its teachings the reformers
see the individual before his maker as so helpless that he can only be saved
by justification. Arthur W. Pink explains this doctrine of justification in his
essay The Doctrine of Justification as “a legal change from a state of guilt
and condemnation to a state of forgiveness and acceptance, a change owes
solely to a gratuitous act of God, founded upon the righteousness of
Christ.” For him “justification is an acceptance by which God receives us
into His favour and esteems us as righteous persons”. It is explained to
“consist in the remission of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of
Christ… Justification, for him, is no other than an acquittal from guilt of
him who was accused, as though his innocence has been proved” 21
Richard Hooker in his article on Luther in Northern
Renaissance thinks that “the Freedom of the Christian," is the theological
and ideological core of Luther's thinking. For him the concept of (Freiheit),
2020 Distante Patrick, op. cit, Renaissance and Reformation
2121 Arthur Pink. W. The Doctrine of Justification http://www.gregwolf.com/pink/justification/justification.htm (Date
visited 5th Jan, 2005)

16
"freedom” or “liberty” is the fundamental term of value, around which
every other aspect of Luther’s thought rotates. He thinks that even though
this is not our concept of freedom, in the eventual turn of time it gave rise
to the notion of "individual freedom," and later "political freedom," and
later "economic freedom."
He asserts further that “following the reformation most of the
European Enlightenment revolves around freedom and the project of
"liberating" people, liberating them from false beliefs, from false religion
and from arbitrary authority. He believes that this idea of "liberating"
people, so common to the international politics of our own period, comes
out of Luther's idea of "freedom.”22 Bertrand Russell also sees the
reformation as a springboard for free thinking because in the absence of a
hope for a unity in doctrine by the Protestants and the Catholics there is an
increase in men’s freedom to think for themselves even about
fundamentals.23 In another development
received authority during this period is subject to the probing of creative
minds. The idea of the universe as a mechanism governed by a few simple
laws that can be known had a subversive effect on the concepts of a
personal God and individual salvation that were central to Christianity. As
one might expect, the method of reason is applied to religion itself.
(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001 CD Philosophical Anthropology. )

1.5. The 16th And 17th Centuries

In the period after the reformation the thought of Michel de

Montaigne the 16th-century French sceptical author of the Essais (1580-
95; Essays) is seen to have represented one of the first attempts at
individual reflection. He is said to have explored the individual’s different
aspects in a spirit of empirical investigation that is freed from all ties to
dogma. The earlier emphasis on man's humanity and on the limited nature
of his capacities lead to a denial that he can, even by the use of reason,
transcend the realm of appearances. It is proposed that the only form of
knowledge available to him is experimental knowledge, gained in the first
2222 Hooker Richard, Luther Northern Renaissance http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/Reform/Luther.htm:(Date visited: 5th
Jan, 2005)
2323 Russell Bertrand, op. cit, p. 511

17
instance by the use of the senses. The effect of this sceptical move is
twofold. The first effect is liberation from the claims of dogmatic authority
to knowledge of a reality behind appearances and of moral codes based on
them. Sceptical arguments as pointed out above are to the effect that
human beings are so constituted that such knowledge must always be
unavailable to them. The second effect is identified as a renewal of
attention to and interest in the everyday world of appearances, which now
becomes the only possible object of human knowledge and concern.
In contrast to the above
conception of the individual, in the works of the 17th-century French
philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) there is a continuation of the
theme of optimism about the individual’s capacities for knowledge.
Descartes explicitly set out, in his Meditations to beat the sceptics at their
own game. He is seen to have used their methods and arguments in order
to vindicate claims to be able to have non-experimental knowledge of a
reality behind appearances. In other words the individual is capable of
knowing what is beyond without experience. In the
Meditations therefore Descartes is seen as turning in upon himself but with
the aim of finding there something that would go beyond the confines of
his own mind. This inward journey is designed to show that each human
being can come to knowledge of his intellectual self and that as he does so
he will find within himself the idea of God, the mark of his creator, the
mark that assures him of the existence of an objective order and of the
objective validity of his rational faculties. 24 Steiner Rudolf (1989)
explains that Descartes no longer stands under the influence of
Scholasticism. He recognizes that the adherence of the Schoolmen to
Christian teachings is only a matter of centuries-long habituation to these
pictures. Therefore he considered it necessary first of all to doubt these
habitual pictures and to seek a way of knowledge by which man can arrive
at a kind of knowing whose certainty he does not assert out of habit, but
which can be guaranteed at every moment through his own spiritual
powers. Descartes is seen to have had
a strong feeling for the fact that man, through his thought-development,
2424 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001 CD Philosophical Anthropology. See also Descartes in Audi Robert (General
Editor) The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy second edition Cambridge university press, 1999.

18
had brought himself into a distorted relationship with the world. Therefore,
to begin with, he met everything that had come forth from this thought-
development with doubt. Only when one doubts everything that the
centuries have developed as truths can one, in his opinion gain the
necessary objectivity for a new point of departure. In the process one thing
became clear to him; he could not doubt that he is doubting or thinking
hence his classical statement (dubito) Cogito, ergo sum (I doubt or think,
therefore I am). Descartes is seen to have pressed even further.
Aware that the way the individual arrives at knowledge of himself
should be a model for any other knowledge he intends to acquire,
Descartes declares clarity and definiteness as the most prominent
characteristics of self-knowledge and all other knowledge. For him only
that can stand as certain whatever the individual can distinguish just as
clearly and definitely as his own existence. With this, the absolutely
central place of the individual in the world-whole is said to have been at
least recognized in the area of cognitive methodology. The individual
determines the ‘how’ of his knowledge of the world according to the ‘how’
of his knowledge of himself, and no longer asks for any outer being to
justify this ‘how’25. Descartes is
seen to have defended an ultra-dualism of body and soul in the individual.
Regarding his body, he advocates a mechanistic atomism, with regard to
his soul, ultra-spiritualism. The individual’s ideas are potentially innate,
not derived from sense data but through intellectual abstraction. Since
mind can know only its own internal states, his theory of knowledge
terminated in subjectivism. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001 CD
Philosophical Anthropology ) The path Descartes took by
starting with the individual and pressing forward to world knowledge is
extended from now on by the philosophers of modern times. For Rudolf
Steiner (1989), the Christian theological method, which had no confidence
in the power of the individual as an organ of knowledge, at least was
overcome. Like in Descartes, he sees in the German philosopher, Leibniz
the recognition of the creative ability in the activities of the individual. The
individual has a very clear overview of the scope of this activity. The
individual for him is a world in itself, a monad. Only monads, i.e., beings
2525Steiner Rudolf 1989 op cit Der Individualismus in der Philosophie. See also Russell Bertrand op. cit, p. 511.

19
creating out of and within them, exist. Each person is a world, a monad.
He recognizes that the individual is active, creative, within his inner being
and so gives its content to itself and brings this content into relationship
with the other content of the world. (Steiner Rudolf 1989 Individualismus
in der philosophie) This development of
western thought about the individual continue to manifest a very definite
character in which the individual draws out of himself the best that he can
know. We see in George Berkeley a person for whom the creative being of
the individual comes fully to consciousness. He had a clear picture of the
individual’s own activity in the coming about of all knowledge. Steiner
explained his thought in terms of the following

When I see an object, he said to himself, I am active. I create my

perception for myself. The object of my perception would
remain forever beyond my consciousness; it would not be there
for me, if I did not continuously enliven its dead existence by my
activity. I perceive only my enlivening activity, and not what
precedes it objectively as the dead thing. No matter where I look
within the sphere of my consciousness: everywhere I see myself
as the active one, as the creative one.26

In general Descartes cogito ego sum is seen to have dominated this

period even though there were those who still hold on to the view that
sense perception play a vital role in the individual’s self-enlightenment.

1.6. The 18th-Century Enlightenment

According to The Encyclopaedia Britannica what has come to be

known as the Enlightenment is a period characterized by an optimistic
faith in the ability of the individual to develop progressively by using
reason. The assumption is that by coming to know both himself and the
natural world better he is able to develop morally and materially,
increasingly dominating both his own animal instincts and the natural
world that forms his environment. Among the contributors is
Immanuel Kant the great German philosopher who gives credit to Hume
2626 Ibid, 1989 Individualismus in der Philosophie

20
for waking him up from his dogmatic slumbers. But while Kant agreed
with Hume in rejecting the possibility of taking metaphysics as a
philosophical starting point he did not follow him in dismissing the need
for metaphysics altogether. Instead he returns to the Cartesian project of
seeking to find in the structure of consciousness itself. That is to say Kant
starts from the same point as the empiricists, but with Cartesian
consciousness. For him the experience of the individual is a sequence of
mental states. But instead of asking the empiricists' question of how the
individual acquires such concepts as number, space, or colour, he enquires
into the conditions under which the conscious awareness of mental states,
as states of mind and as classifiable states distinguished by what they
purport to represent is possible.
The empiricists are seen simply to have taken the
character of the human mind consciousness and self-consciousness for
granted. But even Hume is seen to have been compelled to admit that self-
observation, or introspection, given the supposed model of experience as a
sequence of ideas and impressions, can yield nothing more than an
impression of current or immediately preceding mental states. Experiential
self-knowledge, on this model, is seen as impossible. The knowing
individual it is explained in his effort to know himself, is already changing
himself so that he can only know what he was, not what he is. Kant's
position is seen as dualist in which the conscious subject constitutes itself
through the opposition between experience of itself as free and active and
of the thoroughly deterministic, mechanistic, and material world. The
nature of the individual is seen as not static this is because the individual’s
own efforts to understand the world and adapt it to his needs, physical and
spiritual, continuously transform that world and himself. Thus each
individual is both the product and the support of a collective consciousness
that defines a particular moment in the history of the human spirit. 27
Thus, with Kant we see the individual as able to
possess a knowledge that is certain. In Kant's opinion, explained by
Steiner,

2727 Encyclopaedia Britannica 2001 CD op cit Philosophical Anthropology

21
 within the human soul there are certain principles present by
which the manifoldness of sensations is brought into objective
unities. Such principles are space, time, and certain connections
such as cause and effect. The contents of sensation are given to
the individual but not their spatial interrelationships nor temporal
sequence. Man first brings these to the contents of sensation. One
content of sensation is given and another one also, but not the fact
that one is the cause of the other. The intellect first makes this
connection. Thus there lie within the human soul, ready once and
for all, the ways in which the contents of sensation can be
connected. Thus, even though we can take possession of the
contents of sensation only through experience, we can,
nevertheless, before all experience, set up laws as to how these
contents of sensation are to be connected. For, these laws are the
ones given us within our own souls….. We have, therefore,
necessary kinds of knowledge…….. We have knowledge from
experience and another, necessary, experience-free knowledge as
to how the contents of experience can be connected. But we have
no knowledge that goes beyond experience. Here one element
does not come from outside and the other from within; both arise
from, a completely homogeneous content. 28

Steiner moves on to see in the philosophy of George Wilhelm

Friedrich Hegel a further bold attempt to explain the world on the basis of
content lying within the individual. For him, Hegel’s nature is nothing
other than the content of the individual that has been spread out in space
and time. Nature is this ideal content in a different state. “Nature is spirit
estranged from itself.” Within the individual human spirit the stance of
Hegel toward the impersonal “I” is personal. Within self-consciousness,
the being of the individual is not an in-itself, it is also for-itself through
which the human spirit discovers that the highest world content is his own
content. This abstracting of everything personal is seen most strongly in
the views of Hegel about the spiritual life or the moral life. Steiner

2828 Steiner Rudolf Individualismus in der Philosophie op. cit, 1989 see also Hegel G W F: Philosophy Of Rights
(Translate by S W Dyde) Great Books In Philosophy Prometheus Books New York 1996 pp 164-350.

22
explains that for Hegel it is not the single, personal, individual “I” of man
that can decide its own destiny, but rather it is the great, objective,
impersonal world “I,” which is abstracted from man's individual “I”. This
is seen as the general world reason or the world idea. The individual is
expected to submit to this abstraction drawn from its own being.
Steiner goes on to identified in Ludwig Feuerbach
an attempt to put an end to this subordination by stating in powerful terms
how man transfers his being into the outer world in order then to place
himself over against it, acknowledging, obeying, and revering it as though
it were a god. Feuerbach is seen to have advocated a general concept of a
generic individual, and demanded that the individual should raise himself
above the limitations of his individuality because the individual is the
function of the absolute as the absolute is a function of the individual. 29

1.7. The Period after the Enlightenment

We are made to understand from the deliberation on man in the

Britannica that the philosophers of the enlightenment seem to agree in
thinking that the transcendence of God is doomed to fail by any attempt to
encompass him within the framework of human discourse. It is not
surprising therefore that by the late 19th century the German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche had announced that God was dead. The implication of
the death of God is also seen to mean that the essence of God in the
individual is dead. Also dead is the part of a person that recognized
universal God-given ideals of reason and truth, goodness and beauty. Here
we are being presented with a view of an individual treating his
incarnation as an essential aspect of his condition, while integrating
himself more thoroughly with the natural world, having to come to terms
with the consequences of science and morality. The result is the removal of
a transcendent support for belief in absolute standards or ideals.
Among others the
presumption of a fixed human nature is said to have been undercut at the
level of natural history by the emergence and eventual acceptance of
evolutionary biology. This made the individual a direct descendant of

2929 Ibid, 1989

23
nonhuman primates and suggested that the gift of reason, which so many
had seen as establishing a gulf between man and animal, might have
developed gradually and might indeed have a physiological basis. (Charles
Darwin's Origin of Species (1859).) In another development the
experience of the Industrial Revolution is seen as important to most 19th-
century concept of the individual. There are those who see in
industrialization the progressive triumph of reason over nature, making
possible the march of civilization and the moral triumph of reason over
animal instinct. This is a view that continued the spirit of the
Enlightenment, with its confidence in reason and the ability to advance
through science. The English philosopher John Stuart Mill, a strong
defender of liberal individualism is named among others. His philosophy is
explained in many respects to be a continuation of that of Hume but with
the addition of utilitarian view of Jeremy Bentham that “the foundation of
all morality is the principle that one should always act so as to produce the
greatest happiness of the greatest number.” This ethical
principle gives a prominent place to the sciences of the individual and their
studies are deemed necessary for an empirical determination of the social
and material conditions that produce the greatest general happiness. This is
explained to mean a non-dialectical, naturalistic humanism, which gives
primacy to the individual and stresses the importance of his freedom. For
Mill, all social phenomena, and therefore ultimately all social changes, are
products of the actions of individuals.
Dissatisfied with the turn of affair as a
result of the industrial revolution, the Romantics are said to have
questioned the instrumental conception of the relation between man and
nature as fundamental to the thinking behind much technological science.
They insist on an organic relation between the individual and the rest of
nature. It is not the individual's place outside of nature that is emphasized
but his situation within it. Karl Marx is identified to have emphasized the
importance of labour and work in the individual’s relation both to the
natural and to the social worlds in which he finds himself and which
condition his ability to realize himself. He is seen to have deplored the loss
of humanity associated with capitalist industrialization, which was
manifest in the alienating conditions under which members of the working

24
class were treated as objects and thus, deprived of their full status as
human subjects by their industrial masters. He thinks revolution can re-
institute the lost status of the individual.
Under Friedrich Nietzsche we arrive at views that
definitely lead to the path of absolute appreciation of the individual. In his
opinion, genuine culture consists in fostering the individual in such a way
that he has the strength out of himself to develop everything lying within
him. He is explained to mean that up until now it was only an accident if
an individual was able to develop himself fully out of himself. He is seen
to have transfigured poetically, as his ideal, his type of man in his
Zarathustra. He calls him the Superman (Übermensch). He is seen as that
individual freed from all norms, who no longer want to be the mere image
of God, a being in whom God is well pleased, a good citizen, and so on,
but rather an individual who wants to be himself and nothing more.30
Max
31
Stirner, in his book The ego and its own (1993) from (Der Einzige und
sein Eigentum, 1844), demanded of the individual in a radical way that he
finally recognizes that all the beings he has set above himself in the course
of time were cut by him from his own body and set up in the outer world
as idols. Every god, every general world reason, is an image of the
individual and has no characteristics different from the individual. Stirner
calls upon the individual to throw off everything general about himself and
to acknowledge to himself that he is an individual. Commenting
on the thought of Max Stirner in the above mentioned book Norbert Lesser
sees him as

Rudolf Steiner (1989) quotes and explains how Max Stirner raises the
individual above all categorization in his writing.

“You are indeed more than a Jew, more than a Christian, etc., but
you are also more than a man. Those are all ideas; you, however,
are in the flesh. Do you really believe, therefore, that you can ever
3030 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001 CD op cit Philosophical Anthropology,. See also Audi R. Friedrich Nietzsche The
Cambridge Dictionary Of Philosophy
3131 Max Stirner, The ego and its own Rebel press London 1993

25
 become ‘man as such’?” I do not first have to produce man in
myself, because he already belongs to me as all my characteristics
do.” “Only I am not an abstraction alone; I am the all in all... I am
no mere thought, but I am at the same time full of thoughts, a
thought-world. Hegel condemns what is one's own, what is
mine ... ‘Absolute thinking’ is that thinking which forgets that it is
my thinking, that I think, and that thinking exists only through me.
As ‘I,’ however, I again swallow what is mine, am master over it;
it is only my opinion that I can change at every moment, i.e., that
I can destroy, that I can take back into myself and can devour.”
One can define everything else in the world by ideas, but we must
experience our own “I” as something individual within us. “The
individual is a word and with a word one would after all have to
be able to think something; a word would after all have to have a
thought-content. But the individual is a word without thought; it
has no thought-content. This individual “I” can acknowledge no
ethical obligation that it does not lay upon itself. “Whether what I
think and do is Christian, what do I care? Whether it is human,
liberal, humane, or inhuman, unliberal, inhumane, I don't ask
about that. If it only aims at what I want, if I satisfy only myself in
it, then call it whatever you like: it's all the same to me ...”
“Perhaps, in the very next moment I will turn against my previous
thought; I also might very well change my behaviour suddenly;
but not because it does not correspond to what is Christian, not
because it goes against eternal human rights, not because it hits
the idea of mankind, humanity, humaneness in the face, but rather
— because I am no longer involved, because I no longer enjoy it
fully, because I doubt my earlier thought, or I am no longer happy
with my recent behavior.”35

We see from the above development that the individual will not allow
anything be determined for him by anything outside him. He wants to
make himself into what he or she wants. Other writers of the late
19th and early 20th centuries who are seen to have influenced subsequent
3535 Steiner Rudolf Der Individualismus in der Philosophie op. cit, 1989. See also Max Stirner, 1993, p. 173 ff

26
philosophical thought about the individual most include Gottlob Frege,
Edmund Husserl, Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler among others. With
Frege, the individual is said to have participated in a rationality that is
independent of him to the extent that he is a language user. He argued that
if language is to be a vehicle for the expression of objective, scientific
knowledge of the world, then the meaning of a linguistic expression must
be the same for all users of the language to which it belongs and must be
determined independently of the psychological states of any individual.
Husserl who is regarded as the founder of phenomenology believes that
laws of reasoning needed to be validated by reference to the objects of
thought, but he did not agree that logic could be made purely formal and
independent of the particular subject matter in hand, nor did he agree that
the primary focus should be on language. He claimed however that all
consciousness is intentional in other words one can only be conscious of
something. The implication is that the individual can, in principle, abstract
from every influence of culture and environment by abstracting also from
that element of consciousness that involves awareness of self. The
presumption is that consciousness as such has structures that would then be
revealed. For Husserl, each individual is by necessity socially and
historically conditioned by his environment.
Another important person worth mentioning in the deliberation as far
as the individual is concern is Sigmund Freud .He is seen to have
concerned himself with the mind of the individual and declares that part of
the mind that is accessible to consciousness is but the tip of an iceberg.
The unconscious here is the hidden remainder, which influences the
conscious. Thus, for instance, there are unconscious desires that can cause
someone to act in certain ways that he cannot explain rationally to others,
or even to himself. In his
later expositions Freud is said to have assigned to the mind a tripartite
structure consisting of the id, which contains all the instinctual drives
seeking immediate satisfaction, the ego, which deals with the world
outside the person, mediating between it and the id and finally the
superego, a special part of the ego that contains the conscience or the
social norms acquired in childhood. It is explained that whatever can
become conscious is in the ego, although even in it there may be things

27
that remain unconscious, whereas everything in the id is permanently
unconscious. The instincts or drives contained in the id are the
motivating forces in the mental apparatus, and all of the energy of the
mind comes from them. Freud also holds that the first five or so years of
life are the time in which the basis of an individual's personality is laid
down. One cannot fully understand a person until he comes to know the
psychologically crucial facts about that person's early childhood. 36
Alfred Adler in his Individual
Psychology presents us with the individual who aims only at an ultimate
goal. He sees one basic dynamic force behind all human activities, a striv-
ing form a felt minus situation towards a plus situation, from a feeling of
inferiority towards superiority, perfection, totality. This striving he makes
us to understand receives its specific direction from an individual’s unique
goal or self-ideal, which though influenced by biological and en-
vironmental factors is ultimately the creation of the individual. He
explains further that this goal which is only "dimly envisaged" by the
individual becomes the final cause, the ultimate independent variable that
provides the key for understanding the individual. For Adler the
individual cannot be considered apart from his social situation. Because
the individual is embedded in a social situation, social interest becomes
crucial for his adjustment. Maladjustment is characterized by increased
inferiority feelings, underdeveloped social interest, and an exaggerated
uncooperative goal of personal superiority. 37
Thus Adlerian psychology is
explained to adhere to the principle of affinity, expressed in the concept of
goal. This goal has a starting point in a combination of factors found in
early childhood. What one inherits coupled by a thousand fold impressions
given by his physique, his environment as well as the influences of
climate, culture, and society, the child creates his very own way of survival
and development. The chances are that he not merely is "on his way," but
that he protects or defends himself in his very own way, and according to
Adler, with his "life style." Consequently essential in Adlerian concept of

3636 Encyclopaedia Britannica 2001 C D op cit Philosophical Anthropology

3737 Alfred Adler, The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: a Systematic Presentation Selection From His Writings
ed/and Annotated By Heinz Ansbacher. New York Basic Books 1956. pp. I&2

28
the individual is the concept of “creative ability”. It is with his creative
ability that the individual even as a child tries to find his way in an
unknown world, in which he has to find his place and has to achieve
significance. Out of what is innate and what is outside of him, the
individual at an early age creates his personal goal, which from there on
dictates his actions, thinking, and feeling. Only if this personal goal is
included in his concept of his significance can he become an integrated
personality. This is called the concept of overall-goal.
For him every action serves a
purpose. Both action and lack of action are characteristics of the
individual. If the individual has capacities, which he does not develop, or
use, his lack of action is typical for his life style. Implied by this is the idea
that “use is more important than possession”. Adler is presented as
carefully pointing out that there is not merely one way in which the
individual can use what he has. That is to say his creative ability is not
limited to finding one certain combination out of what is innate and
outside. He has choice, because as a human being he is capable of
reasoning out situations. If there is no choice, it is further explained the
individual would be inescapably submitted to his inheritance, environment,
and the thousands of factors that influence his life. Furthermore he would
be entirely determined and therefore never could use any creative ability.
Whatever he might do would be determined by his fate.
However studying life as it presents itself, we observe that the
individual is capable of turning negative into positive. He may be found
either on the negative or on the positive side of life as a result of the choice
he makes out of all the possibilities that present themselves to him. With
Adler it is observed that the insecurity and feelings of inadequacy of the
individual are general to all human beings. All faces difficulties for which
they are not prepared. According to Adlerian principles therefore, it is
explained mankind naturally strives toward perfection. The individual, as
part of mankind, has the inclination and at the same time has to accept his
imperfection. Striving toward perfection with the acceptance of being
imperfect leads toward improvement. This means that the individual is "on

29
his way." 38 Another important
philosopher who raised the individual above what is ordinary is Max
Scheler. He is a German social and ethical philosopher, remembered for
his phenomenological approach to the understanding of the individual,
after the philosophical method of the founder of phenomenology, Edmund
Husserl. He differed however from Husserl in his readiness to assign an
independently real status to objects. Scheler has the aspiration to avoid the
mind-body dualism, ambition to consider the social dimension of human
life and without ignoring the organic nature of human beings, stressed the
ability of human beings to learn (“Weltoffenheit”). In contrast to all
animals, human beings do not live in their biological sphere (Umwelt), but
rather in a world (Welt) they have constructed. This sphere is also called
“second nature” or “culture” (Kultur). In Die Stellung des
Menschen im Kosmos (1928) ("Man's Place in the Universe") Scheler is
identified to have seen the individual as the only one with what he called
the spirit (Geist) and life-urge (Drang). The spirit is seen as powerless,
unless its ideas can "functionalize" with life-factors, (material conditions)
which allow their realization. With the help of the biological sciences,
Scheler explores the ways in which human beings are like the rest of the
biosphere. Humans, like other forms of life, have a psychic or life principle
and are therefore "self-moving, self-differentiating and self-limiting in a
spatial and temporal sense" and are not only objects for external observers
but also have the quality of being in and for themselves with an inner life
of their own. 39   Nicholas C. Lund-Molfese in his discuss on
Toward a Philosophical Anthropology Of Love explains that Scheler’s
philosophical anthropology is distinguished from others by his refusal to
reduce the human subject to any aspect of the human being. For him just
as to speak of a human being without a body is meaningless so it is

3838 Stein Henry T., Some basic principles of individual psychology (by Sophia J De Vries) (Originally published in
the “Individual Psychology Bulletin," Vol. 9, 1951.) http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/basic.htm
( dated visited 27th December 2004)

3939 "Scheler, Max." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004.  Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.

12 Dec. 2004 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article. (Date visited, 23rd Dec.2004). See also Scheler Max, Der
Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik 1913

30
meaningless to speak of a human being without a culture or without
subjectivity. The reality is that all humans are biological and more-than-
merely-biological beings. This is because unlike other living things the
human individual by reflecting on his actions can experience himself as
subject and gain an "inner" and an "outer" knowledge of himself. He also
has experiences of other individuals who are subjects and objects of action.
This dynamic correlation of the interior and exterior aspects of an action in
which two or more persons participate he referred to as "intersubjectivity."
He explains further that in the
action of an individual as a human person what is opposite in the rest of
the animal world comes to light. Whereas in animals action and reaction
are limited to and directed by biology and drives, human behaviour is
motivated by "a complex of sensations and ideas raised to the status of an
object." This difference has three important implications for the individual.
They include the fact that the ability of the individual to act for an object
raises the possibility that he can act independently and is unlimited by the
sensations he receives from the physical world. Furthermore the individual
can voluntarily release or inhibit his drives in response to the environment.
Finally, the individual’s action brings about a change both inside and
outside of the acting individual. Scheler refers to this structure of human
action as "world-openness." The individual becomes self-conscious in
and through his actions and thus knows himself as both a subject and an
object. In his concentration at a goal he achieves self-consciousness. Since
he is the centre of his acts the individual can reflect on and objectify
himself. This gives the individual the ability to be a subject, which has a
centre, a unity of experience and action that can transcend different
experiences and reflect on various sensations as a unity. By reference to
their centre individuals are able to relate, coordinate and combine sensory
data. This ability allows individuals mastery over sensation and drives.
One’s ability to objectify one’s own body and his position in the
environment enable him to have the world as an object because he is able
to consider the world with himself abstracted. In the thought of Scheler
only Man, the human being differentiated from animals or other living
things is able to go beyond himself as an organism and transform, from a
centre beyond the spatial-temporal world, everything (himself included)

31
into an object of knowledge. 40
What we realize from the above is a capable
individual who is a member of a society but one who neither allows
himself to be dissolved into the society nor does he loses his identity as a
social being. He is conscious of what he wants to achieve and struggles to
achieve it by interpreting every experience he makes to suit his purpose.

Conclusion

Beginning with the philosophers of ancient Greece we have seen how the
individual is empowered to see himself at the centre of nature by placing
value on himself. Christianity adopted and preserved much of Greek
thought system to define the individual as a creature of God with body and
soul, with reason and free will. The intellectual dominance of Christianity,
of the European Middle Ages, fell in turn to the assaults made on it by
humanism, the Renaissance, and the Protestant Reformation. The
Renaissance is seen to have rediscovered much of classical culture and
revived the notion of man as a creative being, while the Reformation, more
directly but in the long run no less effectively, challenged the monolithic
authority of the Roman Catholic Church. For Humanist, Reformist,
Descartes, Kant and those who followed, the way to truth or self
realization lies with the individual.
From the above discussion we see the individual evolving
from a being who tries to understand nature and find answers to his
problem by recourse to the forces of nature, to a complex being who now
understands events of nature by the use of reason or by himself. He is
rational and sensitive, emotional, active confident and ready to venture.
He has an aim and from the onset is endowed with the potential that he can
achieve the best possible. The individual as we see today among others is a
rational being who possess within himself the capacity for truth and
goodness. He has dignity and has an enormous confidence in his power of
reason as a source of profound understanding of human nature and of his
place in the natural order. The average individual is therefore capable of
4040 Lund-Molfese Nicholas C. Toward A Philosophical Anthropology Of Love
www.faithandculture.us/resources/papers/love.pdf (Date visited2004 Dec.2004) See also Scheler Max, Die Stellung
des Menschen im Kosmos Bouvier Verlag. Bonn 2002, pp. 9-90

32
taking responsibility for his own actions because he has the freedom to
exercise his will.

EXISTENCE AND ESSENCE

Ontology demonstrates that every finite being is composed of two really

distinct and strictly complementary principles: existence and essence.

Existence is that which makes a being exist, which makes it real.

WHETHER it is,

Essence is that which makes a being that which it is. WHAT it is.

Pure existence is pure perfection, pure act. Of itself it is unlimited.

Wherever existence is limited, that limitation must come from another
principle, which is called essence. A being which is only existence, which
is its own existence, is of necessity infinitely perfect. God is His existence.
But it is clear from language alone that we are not existence, not even our
own existence. We possess existence, we share it with other beings. In us,
and in all finite beings, existence is limited by essence. Essence is to
existence as potency is to act. Under
God and above man in the hierarchy of being are the immaterial beings,
the pure spirits, whose existence cannot be strictly demonstrated by reason
but whose essence can be studied as a possible reality. Pure spirits differ
from material beings in that the essence of the pure spirit is simple,
whereas the essence of the material being is composed of two
complementary principles, substantial form and pure matter. None of these
material beings is its essence. My essence, that which makes me a human
being, is humanity. I am not humanity, not even my own humanity. I
possess humanity; I share it with many others. If my essence were simple,
if it did not contain prime matter, I should exhaust it completely. I should
possess the whole of humanity, and no other human being would be
possible. Every pure spirit exhausts his essence, is his whole species.
Two pure spirits differ from each other, not as two men differ, but

33
rather as a man differs from an animal. Two pure spirits differ from each
other through their essences. Two men do not differ from each other
through their essences, for the essence is the same in both. What then
causes them to differ from each other? The fact that their essence is
composed of two principles of determination in that essence substantial
form received in a principle of indetermination, prime matter.

PERFECTION IN THE NORMAL PERSON (STRIVING)

According to Alfred Addler, it is natural that human beings strive for

perfection. In every psychological phenomenon, there is a strive for
superiority. This runs parallel to physical growth and it is an intrinsic
necessity of life itself. It lies at the root of all solutions of the problems of
life and is manifested in the way in which we meet those problems. All our
functions follow its direction; they strive for conquest, security, and
increase either in the right or tin the wrong direction; the impetus from
minus to plus never ends. The urge from below to above never ceases.
Whatever premises, all our philosophies or philosophers and psychologists
dream of; self preservation, pleasure principle, equalisation, all these are
but vague representation or attempts to express the great upward drive.
The history of human race points in
the same direction: willing, talking, seeking after rest and pleasure,
thinking, learning, undertaking, working and loving, all betoken the eternal
melody, arise, achieve or conquer. The feeling for abrogation of every
imperfection is never absent. We strive to reach a goal, by attaining it, we
feel strong and complete or superior. According to John
Dewey, this is the struggle for security. Others call it striving for self-
preservation. But whatever name we call it, it is always the case that the
human person will always see himself in this great line of activity: the
struggle to rise from an inferior to a superior position, from an inferior to a
superior position, form defeat to victory from below to above is never
absent; this striving found in every individual is referred to as the pre-
potent, dynamic principle, so that it will not be necessary to inoculate man
into the superman as thought by Nietzsche. Strive for perfection is innate a

34
part of life. According to Kuft Koffker, our ego is under a force, which
propels it upward. Goldstein refers to it as self actualisation.

PERFECTION IN THE ABNORMAL

Failures, persons who suffer from neurosis or psychosis, delinquents,

alcoholics, drugs addicts, etc. display the goal of superiority but it tends in
the direction which opposed to reason, to the extent that we cannot
recognise in it a proper goal of perfection. For example, it is seen when a
person seeks to concretise his goal by wanting to domineer over others.
Such a goal of perfection seems unfitted to guide the individual or the
mass of men. No one can posit such a goal for himself without being
forced to come into conflict with the coercion of evolution or to violate
reality or to protect oneself fearfully against the truth and those who stand
for it. A goal of perfection by leaning on others also contradicts reason. A
goal of perfection which leaves the tasks of life unsolved in order not to
suffer sure defeat is also unsuited.
The norm for perfection is social interest. But the purpose of the
neurotic for perfection or superiority is selfish or self-centred. His reason
for self- enhancement or self-esteem is recognition. All that he is thinking
of is that, I want to be a real man, I want to be seen. So the fundamental
apperception in every neurotic or psychotic, where it demands perfection is
to be a man. Such drives and inclination toward perversion irrespective of
their origin become subordinate to this guiding thought.

COMPLEX

Development of concept of complex

In psychology complex as first used by Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist,

complex was a group of ideas with a strong emotional tone, either pleasant
or unpleasant. Later, it came to include only sets of ideas which have been
repressed or held back from consciousness because they are emotionally
painful or unpleasant, leading to actions which seem unaccountable and
which tends to handicap the individual or results in maladjustments. In the

35
modern usage, complex is a grouping of definite forms of irrational
behaviour, the cause of which an individual may not understand.

Alfred Addler was the first to stress inferiority complex. For him, this
complex may have its basis in a real or imagined physical or intellectual
disability or in early unfortunate child parent relationship which gave rise
to the feeling of rejection or insecurity. A person may be unaware that he
has such feelings of insecurity so it may lead him to avoid situations and
responsibilities which demand courage and self-confidence.

Boastfulness and inappropriate aggressive behaviour when employed to

compensate for painful feeling of inferiority is superiority complex. This
behaviour pattern is usually regarded as one manifestation of the inferiority
complex rather than a distinct complex in itself.

Sigmund Freud

Freudian psychology postulated many complexes. Among them Oedipus

complex, characterised by a persisting infantile attachment to the parent of
the opposite sex and antagonism toward the parent of the same sex. When
it is from the son to the mother, it is Oedipus complex. When it is from the
daughter to the father, it is Electra complex.

FEELINGS and EMOTIONS

Feelings are elementary affective (,touching sentimental) states which
cannot be further analyzed. Feelings can be reduced to two that is
pleasantness or unpleasantness, pleasure or pain. Experience seems to
indicate that there are more than two feelings that is sadness, tiredness or
depression.    But on further analysis one realizes that sadness is an
emotion; and tiredness is a visceral or organic sensation; and depression
may be either an emotion or organic (visceral) sensation.
Feelings scarcely ever occur in isolation. They are generally elements in a
complex whole. The affective character has sensations like pain, smell,
taste, organic sensation etc. Ideas, drives, decisions can be felt as pleasant
or unpleasant. It is only by abstraction and for greater clarity that one

36
distinguishes feelings as a group of mental states. Some authors claim that
an affective state must always be preceded by an act of knowledge: that is
something must be felt as pleasant or unpleasant. Indeed, feelings develop
in us because we have become aware of something that pleases or
displeases us. Yet, the same feeling may be produced of physiological
causes of which we are not aware and which can hardly be identified with
any cognitive process.
We may have a pleasant or unpleasant feeling without knowing why. 
There are causes for these feelings but they are merely physiological or
conscious. In such case, we project our feelings onto some people in our
environment or external circumstance as if we are looking for some
reasonable justification for feeling the way we do.
EMOTIONS
Emotions are affective states of greater intensity and shorter duration. It is
from Latin, e movere, originally meant to translate or to transfer from one
place to the other. It was also used to refer to states of agitation or
perturbation, both physical and psychological. Earlier centuries speak of
emotion as passion, from the Latin pati _ to rather or Greek patos. At the
root of this concept is the idea that an individual or a physical object is
undergoing or suffering some change, as opposed to doing or initiating a
change. We therefore hear statements like “he is torn by emotion”, “he is
gripped by emotion”. ‘He is overcome with emotion’. Emotion is therefore
something that happens to us (passion) instead of doing something
(action). The main emotions are anger, joy, fear and sadness. Everyone
experiences one of these emotions. The experience of emotions is
universal. In ancient times, it was believed that the seat of emotions
was in the heart or in the visceral. Today we are told that the physiological
modifications which control the emotions are under direct control of the
autonomic nervous system (ANS) and direct control of the mid-brain
especially the thalamus. Under the influence of these agencies, the
activities of the stomach slow down, the beating of the heart accelerates,
and glucose is poured into the blood. The organism is keyed up and ready
for emergency. We become aware of some stimulus; brightening,

37
saddening or provoking and this produce in us the typical psychological
state known as emotions. This follows the physiological modification.
They occur simultaneously.
USEFULNESS OF EMOTIONS
One French scholar, Walloon thinks that emotions are useful and harmful;
useful as long as they are kept under control and harmful as long as they
are out of control.
When an emergency arises, we normally experience emotion. This emotion
produces a mobilization of all our powers which enable us to act with
extraordinary vigour and dispatch. If we act at once, the emotion abates, it
has performed its useful function and the emotion disappears. If no action
is done, the emotion takes control of our whole system. It floods the body,
producing all kinds of disturbing effects.
CONTROLLING THE EMOTIONS
As an expression of the body sharing in the intellective and volitional
world of humans, the emotions themselves have no built in control. If left
unchecked they easily become destructive of the very force which initially
seasoned them. If they are to prove beneficial to the individual, the
emotions need to be controlled and channelled. A person in an emotionally
agitated state is in a disadvantage or position to apply himself or herself to
the problems of profound intellectual concern. The function of
concentration is to enable one to focus one’s attention on a job to be done
or a problem to be solved. Such concentration inevitably requires a
conscious exclusion of overt emotional distraction. It is impossible to
continually apply the mind to difficult question in situations that naturally
tend to engender emotional excitement. Mental break-through generally
occurs in times of rest and repose. It is therefore advisable to postpone
decision until emotional equilibrium is achieved or regained in times of
emotional stress or pressure.
An integrated emotional life is an essential component of both physical
and mental life, a prerequisite for significant human achievement. In order

38
to avoid the destructive force of continuing internal pressure and tension,
we need to have emotional outlets. Play and leisure are some of the
outlets.  Humour should be seen as an essential component of normal and
well-balanced emotional life. And it helps in maintaining mental health. It
is significant to note that emotionally disturbed people generally lack a
sense of humour. The pursuit of hobbies and sports are other outlets.
Though in themselves a valued dimension of the human scene, the
emotions lack an internal system of control and, precisely because of this
they can become a destructive force within the individual if they are
allowed to exert their full influence without direction and intelligent
restrain. 
 

39
 JOY AS A PRIMARY EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Everyone experiences joy, sadness, irritation or anger, fear, affection etc.
these emotions and feelings are taken for granted by everyone as an
integral part of the human condition. Emotion is thus a complex, internal
activity consisting of an intense, spontaneous affective and somatic
response to a psychic awareness. This means that, emotional experience
involves a bodily reaction that results from, and is initiated by, a mental
awareness. The human emotional experience is so prized that we seek it
(especially joy). The cultivation of the emotions is a highly developed art,
and we have established profession whose chief purpose is to provide the
occasion for a contrived experience of emotions. We actively cultivate the
arts of music, drama, dance, painting etc because they evoke and stimulate
a deep personal experience of emotions.

Emotion as such plays an unrecognized indispensable role in human life.

However of the broad domain emotions encompass, there are four primary
emotions from which evolve other secondary and tertiary emotional
experiences. These primary emotions are joy, anger, fear and grief or
sadness. Very important for our discussion and the first of these primary
emotions is joy, though these are not always arranged in this order.

40
DEFINITION
Joy is derived from the Latin “gaudere” meaning to rejoice, also related to
the Greek “gethein” meaning to rejoice, “gauros” meaning proud. Joy is
the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something
exceptionally good or satisfying. The expression or display of glad feeling;
festive gaiety, and a state of happiness or felicity can be termed as joy. Joy
is complex, deep and difficult to understand. It is the feeling you get when
you are having an absolutely terrible day, but can keep a positive outlook.

To illustrate with recourse to the Bible, the fortunes of Paul and Silas in
the goal at Philippi were at low ebb. With backs bruised and bleeding from
severe beating, they were in a dark and stuffy inner prison, their feet fixed
in the stocks. Yet at midnight they were singing praises to God. They were
filled with joy. (cf. Acts 16: 25).

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JOY, HAPPINESS AND PLEASURE

The words pleasure, happiness and joy are used almost interchangeably in
today’s society. “I am pleased to meet you,” a person might say, or “I am
happy to meet you”: they mean the same thing. However, this is not
always the case. Pleasure, happiness and joy can be three different things,
come from differing sources and stay for varying lengths of time.
Confusing the three is a dangerous thing, as pursuit of one while ignoring
the others can lead to heartache. To bring out this distinction we have to
clarify each of them.

41
PLEASURE is an immediate satisfaction or gratification, it is a delight to
take it, give it, seek it, request it or afford/buy it. Pleasure can be a
"source" of joy. Pleasure is simple, easy to attain, but disappears quickly.
It is, perhaps, the easiest to understand and the easiest to mistake for others
of these three feelings. We all know what pleasure feels like, or enjoyment.
We have all had fun at one point in our lives or another. Since pleasure is
the feeling which accompanies the expression of any one instinct; it is a
by-product of healthy function and activity. And it may spring from the
satisfaction of the senses of hearing and sight, of taste and smell, of touch
and movement. Pleasure can be a component of both happiness and joy,
but it is not the same as them. Pleasure is shallow and has limitations. A
good example of pleasure is an orgasm. Sex and relationships are a great
source of pleasure, happiness and, if you are lucky, joy. An orgasm is, by
definition, pleasurable. But, also by definition, an orgasm is short. The
pleasure from an orgasm lasts only a short while. There are many sources
of easy pleasure in the world: drugs, alcohol, chocolate, video games. They
bring pleasure, but the positive feelings they bring do not last. It is the
pursuit of this type of pleasure while ignoring the possibility of finding
happiness and joy that has led to societal issues. Drugs bring pleasure, but
overuse leads to destructive addictions. Chocolate brings pleasure, but
over-consumption leads to obesity.

HAPPINESS is a pleasurable satisfaction. Happiness is a state of well

being and contentment brought about by good fortune, prosperity, luck or

42
chance, it can just occur. Happiness is more complex, deeper and longer-
lasting than pleasure. It has to do with the personality as a whole. The
desire to be happy is elementary and universal. Happiness is what we seek
when we go on our very first date, when we are young and naive,
unscarred by relationships past. On your first date, you are not concerned
about sex; you are, perhaps, anxious about holding hands. Our first,
awkward attempts at romance are not focused on the pure pursuit of sex.
We are seeking out what brings pleasure while trying to figure out
happiness. Most of us, however, get so caught up in the pleasure aspect
that we forget about happiness. As we age, accrue heartbreak and
cynicism, and we drift even further from this pursuit. We begin to believe
that happiness does not and cannot exist–not for us, anyway. In a
relationship based on pleasure, the only positive feelings come from
pleasurable acts, such as sex. In a relationship based on happiness, the
positive feelings last beyond said acts. The acts are an icing on the cake of
the enjoyable relationship.

This is not to say that relationships are the only source of happiness. We
can gain it from our jobs. If you are doing a job that you love, that
provides fulfillment, that you feel is your calling, that job brings you
happiness. But this too, becomes tainted over time. No job is truly perfect
all of the time. We have bad days. This is the difference between happiness
and joy: happiness can change; it can go away for a while.

43
By its very definition, joy lasts. And joy is an experience of great
"pleasure" or delight. Joy is the state of being happy. But pleasure occurs
and can bring happiness and joy. Happiness occurs and can bring pleasure
and joy. Joy cannot occur without levels of pleasure and happiness already
in existence, because joy is an expansion of experience and state of being
from pleasure and happiness. Pleasure can go from a very short lived level
of satisfaction to an intense and lasting experience of "great" joy.
Happiness can go from a short lived experience of contentment and
satisfaction to the intense and lasting state of "being" happy, which in
short, is what joy is.

Nonetheless, Happiness, pleasure and joy are connected; it is like a

staircase, one step leading to another. Each experience or event occurring
one after another, without the first two steps the landing cannot be reached.
Until the top level is achieved at which point we can "enter" into a state
of being.

CAUSES OF JOY
Joy is described as the emotion evoked by wellbeing, success, or good
fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. The source of
joy is pleasure and happiness, choices made on both steps brings the
experience of joy into our lives. Also, lasting investments made for
pleasure, not based on things that erode, get lost and can be taken from us,
brings joy. That is investing in pleasurable events that bring lasting

44
happiness. Therefore, joy is the resultant effect of the physical pleasures
and happiness we choose along our journey of life.

Joy can come from having a purpose in life. But the single best source of
joy is a religion. You can tie your joy to a god or other being greater than
yourself. Atheists can have joy as well, but the easiest source of it is
religion. It is not a good idea to attach your joy to another person - they
will let you down eventually. This is why a god is so useful.

For example, Success in ones endeavour, for instance, the completion of

one’s education brings great joy, considering all the ordeals he or she had
to endure. Meeting one’s expectation especially that which one strongly
desired for example a minor seminarian becomes very happy or joyful
immediately he receives a letter to continue his formation in a Major
Seminary. Again, promotion is another major cause of joy for many, from
the street-sweeper to the most affluent in society. Music they say is the
food of the soul, so appreciators of music have great joy when listening to
a very good music. Mens sana, in corpore sano, since happiness is also a
state of the mind when one has recovered from a prolonged or even short
term ill health, the joy experienced is very great. Winning one’s favourite
sport is another cause of joy. In marriage, the ability of couples to gratify
each other brings joy into their union. These can be summed up as:

 Generosity – daring to give more than you would normally have

given.

45
  Faith – in God.
 Forgiveness – absolute, and especially when undeserved.
 Transparency – living without deceit or hidden agenda.
 Openness – willingness to try new things and new adventures.
 Awareness – of the impact left on others and on the environment.
 Kindness – treating others in a manner that fosters their highest good.
 Assertiveness – finding your way without impeding the growth of
others.
 Usefulness – finding a meaningful place in a community.
 Love – deciding to love without expecting recognition or reward

EFFECTS OF JOY ON THE HUMAN PERSON

POSITIVE EFFECTS
Joy like other emotional experiences have effects on the person. However,
if you know joyful people, you will probably notice common traits among
them.

 Joyful people are often healthy, both physically and mentally,

 they value strong positive relationships
 They don’t allow the extremes of life-sudden highs or sudden lows-
to influence them unduly.
 Joyful people lead a more stable life. But these abilities do not just
arrive; they have to be worked at.

46
  Scientifically it is proven that, one prolongs his life by a second
whenever he or she laughs and it also relaxes the facial muscles,
making one appear younger and fresher facially.

NEGATIVE EFFECTS
 Uncontrolled joy may lead to hasty decisions which will have
regrettable consequence on the person involved. For example, the
episode of scripture on the death of John the Baptist (Mark 6: 14-
29).
 Being over joyous may lead to the disgrace of one’s self, for
instance, in 2 Samuel 6; David being over joyous about bringing
back of the ark of covenant, dance till he was visibly naked.
 Joy at something can lead to situations of accepting death for
example, the martyrs who were filled with joy to die witnessing for
Christ.
 Excessive joy may result in disastrous consequences such stampedes
resulting in death. For instance, the sudden event of the May 9th
Stadium disaster at Ohene Gyan Sport Stadium.

DEALING WITH JOY

SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
Because we now recognize the connection between emotional health and
physical health, teaching ourselves to be joyful may be one of the greatest
things we can do to enhance our overall health. However, it is important to

47
understand that joy is an emotion that arises from within us and is not
affected by the things that happen to us. Instead of looking for external
things to provide happiness in our lives, we must strive to find the joy
within. We must educate ourselves about joy and work to enhance it in our
lives. One way to start is to:

 Make a decision to wake up every morning and find joy in our lives.
 Think about a special person or a devoted pet.
 Think about the joy derived from a bird’s call or the joy of a day in a
forest.
 Also seeking professional counselling is vital towards achieving this
objective.

A person who has joy can remain happy, optimistic–in a word, joyful–in
the face of crushing odds, as the world crumbles around them.

TRADITIONAL APPROACH
 Think twice or have a thorough examination of conscience when one
experiences too much joy in a situation.
 When one reaches the peak or apogee of a joyous experience in a
particular scene, he or she must leave the scene to stabilize himself or
herself.
 Another means is to share ones joy with other because over
saturation of joy in a person may cause an outburst which is very
dangerous and scandalous.

48
  Seeking spiritual direction is another special means of dealing with
being excessively joyous in life.
 Always ask questions such as: after joy what next? This and many
other will limit our reactions to our joyous emotions.
 Resorting to religious teachings and principles on life will serve as
checks and balances on how best to regulate our emotions.
 Being considerate to one’s neighbour is very crucial in determining
the extent to which one can go in expressing his or her joy.

It is our choice to be joyful or fearful. Let’s take the time to train ourselves
to be joyful-our lives will be both happier and healthier for it.

REFERENCES
Feldman, S., Robert, Understanding Psychology, 2nd ed. New York: Mc
Graw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990.

http//www.wikipediaonline.com.

49
LaHale, Tim, Spirit-Controlled Temperament, Benin City: Joint
Publications Nigeria Ltd., 2002.

Reichmann, B., James, Philosophy of the Human Person, Chicago: Loyola

Press, 1985.

Royce, E., James, Personality and Mental Health, Milwaukee: The Bruce
Publishing Company, 1955.

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FEAR

Research has shown that there are eight primary emotions; fear, surprise,
sadness or grief, disgust, anger, anticipation, joy, and acceptance. These
are called primary because they are basic to every human temperament,
that is, every human being experiences them. However, the most common
treated by psychologists are; fear, anger, grief, and joy.

Emotions are states characterised by psychological arousal, changes in

facial expressions, gesture, posture, and subjective feeling. 1
Etymologically, emotion is from the Latin word motio meaning to move,
and they really move us into behaving in a particular way2.

Fear, primarily, is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a

basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus,
such as pain or the threat of pain. Fear is a primitive and often intense
emotion characterized by a systematic pattern of bodily changes and by
certain types of behaviour, particularly flight or concealment. 3 Fear is of
two forms; anxiety and phobia. Although fear is used synonymously with
1 Dennis Coon, Introduction to Psychology, 8th Ed., Belmont: Brooks/ Cole Publishing Company, 1998, p. 428.
2 Robert K. Barnhart, ed., Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, New York: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 2000, p.647.

3 “Fear”, [Database Online], Accessed 17th March 2010, Available from http://www.wikipedia.org/fear/html.

51
anxiety and phobia, psychologists have endeavoured to differentiate
between them. Anxiety is defined as an effect with both psychological and
physiological aspects which is generally an unpleasant emotional state
accompanied by physiological arousal and cognitive elements of
apprehension, and a sense of impending disaster. Fear is different from
anxiety in that people who have fears are able to identify the object of their
fear but those who feel anxious are not aware of the reasons for their fear. 4

Although fear and anxiety involve similar reactions, the cause of

worry is apparent in the former but is not at all clear in the latter. Simply
stated, anxiety is a mismanaged and negative imagination. Examples of
fear are, fear of being evaluated in a negative way, fear of bodily harm.
However in anxious situations, an individual may harbour intrusive
thoughts which often take the form of worries about possible future events
or mistakes which the individual might have made. Some of the symptoms
of anxiety are helplessness, uncertainty, and physiological arousal.

Fears which are persistently out of proportion to the real danger involved
are called phobias. Phobia, by definition, is an intense and persistent fear
of a specific object, situation, or activity. Some scholars also define Phobia
as an inappropriate sense of anxiety or fear triggered by exposure to a
specific object or situation and referred to as constituting the anxiety
disorders. People with phobias have a strong desire to avoid whatever it is

4 Irwin & Barbara Sarason, Abnormal Psychology: the Problem of Maladaptive Behaviour, 9th Ed., New Jersey: Prentice
Hall Inc., 1999, p.182.

52
that is causing their fears and as a result, it has been observed by
psychologists that people with phobia usually live a restricted life.5

The difference between fear and phobia is that Fear is a form of

anxiety triggered by something in your surroundings. If the situation is a
real threat - for example, you are being attacked - fear is a completely
sensible and appropriate reaction. With phobias, the fear is inappropriate
because you have an exaggerated or unrealistic idea about the harmfulness
of the situation. If you have a phobia, you may realise that the fear is out of
proportion to the true danger or threat, but you cannot control or explain
it.6 Phobias can be very long-lasting and can cause problems ranging from
minor disruption to significant disability. Thus long lasting fears are called
Phobia. Examples of phobia are; fear of wells, heights (acrophobia),
enclosed spaces (claustrophobia), or water (aquaphobia). This are called
phobia because the objects of fear – for example water – are not in
themselves harmful or threats. Hence, the fear involved is said to be out of
proportion.

Although it may seem that the definitions and differences given between
fear, phobia, and anxiety are contradictory, such is not the case. Because as
stated earlier, the terms are used interchangeably and also as a result of the
fact that fear can degenerate into anxiety – this happens when the focus of
the individual is drawn from the object of fear to what may happen in the

5 “Fear” [Database Online], Accessed 20th March 2010, Available from http://www.anxietycare.uk.org.
6 Op. cit., Sarason, p.191.

53
future – and anxiety can also degenerate into fear likewise phobia. It must
also be noted that the object of fear is not only the physical entity in sight
but can also be associated with a mental object and also an entity out of
sight.7

Scientifically it has been found that fear is due to the secretion of

hormones by the amygdala – an area of the brain located behind the
pituitary gland in the limbic system – which also influences the secretion
of other hormones and it is involved in the processing of negative
emotions such as fear and anger. Among the hormones secreted is
Epinephrine, widely called adrenaline, which is secreted by the adrenal
gland located in the kidney.8 This secretion is due to the exposure between
the individual and the object of fear causing what is usually referred to by
psychologists as the fight-or-flight response. This fight-or-flight response
is due to the response of the sympathetic nervous system. When adrenaline
is secreted, it increases heart rate, contracts blood vessels and dilates air
passages and participates in the fight-or-flight response of the sympathetic
nervous system which results in faster heart beat, because the heart to
pump more blood to the brain, thus putting the human body into an "alert"
state, in which they are ready to move, run, or fight. 9 This defensive "alert"
state and response is what is called the fight-or-flight response. It is a

7 This was a response to a question raised during the presentation in class in class.
8 Op. cit., www.Wikipedia.org.
9 Op. cit., Coon, p.431.

54
catecholamine, a monoamine produced only by the adrenal glands from the
amino acids and tyrosine.

Further more, it has been found that people develop specific fear (usually
phobia) as a result of learning. This has been studied in psychology as fear
conditioning, beginning with John B. Watson's Little Albert experiment in
1920.10 In this study, an 11-month-old boy was conditioned to fear a white
rat in the laboratory. The fear became generalized to include other white,
furry objects. In the real world, fear can be acquired by a frightening
traumatic accident. For example, if a child falls into a well and struggles to
get out, he or she may develop a fear of wells, heights (acrophobia),
enclosed spaces (claustrophobia), or water (aquaphobia). There are on
going studies looking at areas of the brain that are affected in relation to
fear. Here also, some might argue that fear is not learnt but that the
individual is rather conditioned to fear the object. However, it must be
noted that conditioning constitutes any form of learning process, hence we
can comfortably say that fear is learned.

Traditionally, fear is said to be caused by anxiety wherein the

irrational object of fear disintegrates to a rational and for that matter a
specific object. Also, fear is said to be caused by worry or panic as a result
of the fact that the individual is incapacitated as far as the knowing about
what will happen in the future is concerned. That is, he or she knows not
what will happen next. More so, fear is also caused by the mere thought of
10 Op. cit.

55
death, of being embarrassed, of being bewitched, of being punished due to
the violation of a norm or rule.11

Among the symptoms of fear are fast heart beat and sudden flush of
sweat on the body. This occurs when adrenaline is pumped into the body
system causing the contraction of the blood vessel making causing a
difficulty of the flow of blood to the brain. To augment, this, the heart
beats faster to pump enough blood to the brain. The sweat is caused by the
introduction of Mitochondria – the site for the body’s energy supply – to
supply enough energy to help heart meet the blood requirements of the
brain, hence through some complex metabolic processes, sweat is
produced as the by product. Also, the adrenalin causes the air passage to
narrow resulting in difficulty in breathing.

Furthermore, due to the increase proportion of adrenaline in the system the

amount of tyrosine decreases and this affects the eye such that the
individual has to open the eyes wide so as to allow the entry of more light
to help in clear vision.12 Some, due to fear, experience dizziness, diarrhoea,
headache, churning of the stomach, among others.

(It must be noted that the situations vary between individuals but research
has proven the above mentioned as that which occurs in 85-90% of fear
related cases).

11 It must be noted that the word traditional used here refers to any cause of fear which has not been scientifically
proven but is widely held.
12 Robert S. Feldman, Understanding Psychology, 2nd Ed., New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990, p. 599.

56
 The effects of the above mentioned (causes of fear) is that it inhibits
success such that the individual in a state of fear is not able to bring out the
best in him or her, thus making one lose great opportunities in life.
Another effect of fear is that it wears down physical vitality after the fear
process due to the various complex metabolic and biochemical processes
that were involved just to make the body adjust to the new situation. 13
Excessive fear if not controlled can cause sicknesses such as heart diseases
due to undue pressure on the heart, it may also cause hypertension as a
result of over pumping, it may also lead to stroke in cases where the heart
is not able to pump enough blood to supply oxygen to the brain. Fear can
also, cause eye problems due to the constant straining of eye. If this
continues for a long time, it puts strain on the ciliary muscles which holds
the pupils in position. Uncontrolled fear may also lead to death in severe
cases.

Traditionally, it has been suggested that fear can be controlled by the

following;

1. Divination (i.e. seeking protection from a diviner)

2. Avoid idleness because it may cause the intrusion of
some strange ideas in the mind thus causing an undue anxiety which
can degenerate into fear.
3. Breathing in and out to reduce the rate of heart beat.

13 Robert Kastenbaum, Humans Developing: A Lifespan Perspective, Boston: Allyn & Bacon Inc., 1979, p. 46.

57
4. Sleeping (this is a temporary control or treatment of fear because
after sleep, the individual again comes into contact with that which
causes the fear.
5. Verbal encouragement wherein words like “you can make it, believe
in your self”
6. Drinking some amount of alcohol they claim helps one to overcome
fear and even face the object of fear with some kind of courage
which might not have been experienced in one’s life.
7. Acquire and develop confidence
8. Deposit only positive thoughts about yourself in your “memory
bank”.
9. Withdraw only positive thoughts in your “memory bank”
10. Be a “front-seater” in all gatherings and practice eye
contact (this may be in the form of looking above the heads of the
people without necessarily looking in their eyes) when reading or
speaking to an audience.
11. Walk about 25 per cent faster.
12. Practice speaking up when in public.
13. Smile big and crack jokes to relax yourself when
under any form of fear.
14. Christians also propose prayer as a remedy for fear.

Scientifically, the following have been suggested as means of

controlling and overcoming fear.

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(a). Cognitive behavioural Treatment (CBT): here the individual is
helped to know the negative thought patterns and the ways to change this
thought pattern. However, the success of this therapy depends on the co-
operation of the individual. This has been tested and has been proven to be
among the beat ways of dealing with fear with a 90% success. 14

(b). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has

been demonstrated in peer-reviewed clinical trials to be effective in
treating some fears which might generate into phobia. It is mainly used to
treat Post-traumatic stress disorder, EMDR has been demonstrated as
effective in easing fear symptoms following a specific trauma, such as a
fear of dogs following a dog bite.

(c). Self-help: The best way to get over fear is to expose yourself to the
feared object or situation and to tolerate the anxiety until it starts to
decrease. Some people find that they can do this on their own, perhaps
with the help of self-help books, support groups, friends and family.
Others may need professional help from a psychiatrist or other therapist15.

(d). Talking therapies: If self-help techniques haven't worked, you should

talk to your therapist. For many people, the best treatment for phobias is a
treatment called behavioural therapy. It's successful for three-quarters of
people with specific phobias. 16
14 Op. cit., Feldman, p. 600.
15 Ibid.
16 Susan C. Cloninger, Theories of Personality: Understanding Persons, 2nd Ed., New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1996, p.
388.

59
(e). Behavioural therapy: Behavioural therapy involves a one-to-one
session with a therapist trained in treating fear. The principle of this
approach involves exposure and a gradual desensitisation to the thing that
causes your phobia. During the sessions, you learn to tolerate the anxiety
triggered by exposure with the help of relaxation techniques. The amount
of exposure is gradually increased during the sessions. For example, if you
have a bird phobia, the early sessions might involve only looking at
photographs of birds. They would then move on to handling feathers,
before going to feed ducks. In a later session you might help to clean out a
birdcage, handling the bird in the process. Your therapist might ask you to
work on your thoughts about what's going on. For example, when the
anxiety associated with phobia begins, and you feel dizzy, you may
automatically become alarmed and think you are in danger. Your therapist
helps you to replace this with a more realistic thought such as "It's just
dizziness and I'm going to be OK". These techniques can also be learned
and practised as self-help techniques, with help from family, friends or
trained volunteers from organisations such as Anxiety Care.17

17 Op. Cit., www.Wikipedia.org

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(f) Flooding: This is an alternative form of exposure therapy. This
involves being exposed at a go to the feared object or situation. This is
based on the idea that you can't stay anxious indefinitely - 40 minutes is
about the maximum your body will stay in an anxious state. If you can
bear this, at the end of it you may well be able to see that you have
survived unharmed and the basis of your fear or phobia is unfounded. This
technique should be supervised by a trained therapist.

(g) Medicines: medicines are rarely used to treat simple phobias and fear,
though if you also have depression, this may be treated with medication.
Antidepressants are used to treat agoraphobia, especially if you have panic
attacks as well. Antidepressants such as paroxetine can also be used for
social phobia. Always ask your doctor for advice and read the patient
information leaflet that comes with your medicine. Your doctor may
prescribe anti-anxiety medicines called benzodiazepines (such as
diazepam) to ease symptoms in the initial stages of a psychological
programme. However, you can only take these for short periods because
they can lead to dependence. Other medicines, called beta-blockers (e.g.
propanolol), are sometimes used to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and
have also been used together with psychological treatment programmes.
Social phobias can be treated with SSRI antidepressants such as Prozac.
However, treatment with medicines alone is usually not enough to treat
your phobias effectively.

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(h) On going research suggests that suppression of amygdala activity can
be achieved by the injection of some pathogens called toxoplasmosis. It
has been found that rats injected with the toxoplasmosis parasite become
less fearful of cats, sometimes even seeking out their urine-marked areas.
This behaviour often leads to them being eaten by cats. The parasite then
reproduces within the body of the cat. 18

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnhart, Robert K., ed., Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, New York:

Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 2000,

Cloninger, Susan C., Theories of Personality: Understanding Persons, 2nd

Ed., New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1996.

Coon, Dennis Introduction to Psychology, 8th Ed., Belmont: Brooks/ Cole

Publishing Company, 1998.

Feldman, Robert S., Understanding Psychology, 2nd Ed., New York:

McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990.

18 Ibid.

62
Kastenbaum, Robert, Humans Developing: A Lifespan Perspective,

Boston: Allyn & Bacon Inc., 1979.

Sarason, Irwin & Barbara, Abnormal Psychology: the Problem of

Maladaptive Behaviour, 9th Ed., New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.,

1999

“Fear”, Retrieved on 20th March 2010, from

http://www.anxietycare.uk.org.

“Fear”, Retrieved on 17th March 2010, from

http://www.wikipedia.org/fear/html.

63
Definition of Anger
Anger etymologically comes from the Latin angere meaning to hurt.
Anger is an emotional reaction characterized by extreme displeasure, rage,
indignation or hostility. It is a reaction to an emotional irritability. It is an
emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something you
feel has deliberately done you wrong. It is mostly turned towards
something bad but it is not really bad. It considered to be of pathologic
origin when such a response does not realistically reflect a person’s actual
circumstances.

According to Charles Spielberger, PhD, a psychologist who specializes in

the study of anger, anger is "an emotional state that varies in intensity from
mild irritation to intense fury and rage.” Like other emotions, it is
accompanied by physiological and biological changes; when you get
angry, your heart rate and blood pressure go up, as do the levels of your
energy hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Some view anger as part
of the fight or flight brain response to the perceived threat of pain . Anger
becomes the predominant feeling behaviourally, cognitively and
physiologically when a person makes the conscious choice to take action
to immediately stop the threatening behaviour of another outside force.

64
Anger as a primary emotion: Modern psychologists view anger as a
primary, natural, and mature emotion experienced by all humans at times,
and as something that has functional value for survival.

Types of Anger

Three types to anger are recognized by psychologists. The first form of

anger , named hasty and sudden anger by Joseph Butler, an 18th century
English bishop, is connected to the impulse for self preservation. It is
shared between humans and non-human animals and occurs when
tormented or trapped.

The second type of anger is named settled and deliberate anger and is a
reaction to perceived deliberate harm or unfair treatment by others.

The third type of anger is however dispositional and is related more to

character traits than to instincts or cognition.

Expressing anger

The external expression of anger can be found in facial expressions, body

language, physiological responses, and at times in public acts of
aggression. Animals and humans for example make loud sounds, attempt
to look physically larger, bare their teeth, and stare. Anger is a behavioral
pattern designed to warn aggressors to stop their threatening behavior.
Rarely does a physical exchange occur without the prior expression of

65
anger by at least one of the participants. While most of those who
experience anger explain its arousal as a result of "what has happened to
them," psychologists point out that an angry person can be very well
mistaken because anger causes a loss in self-monitoring capacity and
objective observability.

CAUSES OF ANGER

Anger can be caused by both external and internal events. You could be
angry at a specific person (Such as a co-worker or supervisor) or event (a
traffic jam, a cancelled flight), or your anger could be caused by worrying
or brooding about your personal problems. Memories of traumatic or
enraging events can also trigger angry feelings.

a) Provocation from another person.eg teasing, insults, frustration on

the pitch
b) Inferiority complex
c) Being discriminated against or being unjustly treated as in being
cheated in an event.
d) Genetic or physiological: It is scientifically proven that we do not
inherit only physiological characteristics from our parents but also
emotional traits. Such traits include quick temper which is exhibited
in anger. Further, there is evidence that some children are born
irritable, touchy, and easily angered, and that these signs are present
from a very early age.

66
 e) Disappointments and failures: Often we develop anger when our
expectations elude us. For example, failure in examination and
getting low marks.
f) Exhaustion or extreme tiredness
g) Environmental and Sociocultural factors: The group or society to
which one belongs sometimes affects his behavior; the environment
we find ourselves in sometimes shapes us. Sociologically, we can
learn to be angry from the different people associate with. These
people include our peers, parents and models. Research has also
found that family background plays a role. Typically, people who are
easily angered come from families that are disruptive, chaotic, and
not skilled at emotional communications. Furthermore, in most
cultures, anger is often regarded as negative; we're taught that it's all
right to express anxiety, depression, or other emotions but not to
express anger. As a result, we don't learn how to handle it or channel
it constructively.
h) False accusation

EFFECTS
Negative effects

a) Loss in self-monitoring capacity (Unconscious of the self).

b) Disgrace or humiliation and loss of respect

67
 c) Sickness: Anger turned inward may cause hypertension, high blood
pressure, or depression.

d) Sleeping disorders. insomnia

e) Indigestion and loss of appetite.

f) Loss of relationship.

g) Inappropriate decisions are made in the state of anger.

h) Destruction of properties and causing of injuries.

i) Death: One may commit murder as a result of anger. The sicknesses

related can lead to the person’s death.

Positive effects of anger

A certain amount of anger, therefore, is necessary to our survival.

1. Sociologically, anger is functional. This is because it can bring about

social change. Anger can mobilize psychological resources for
corrective action. For example the strike of NAGRAT, the Veteran
soldiers of the Gold Coast, students on demonstration.

2. On a more personal level, the expression of anger towards another

causes the latter to modify his or her behaviour. Anger facilitates the
communication of negative sentiment and redress of grievance.

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 3. It can also facilitate patience.

CONTROL

People use a variety of both conscious and unconscious processes to deal

with their angry feelings. The three main approaches are expressing,
suppressing, and calming.

Anger can be suppressed, and then converted or redirected. This happens

when you hold in your anger, stop thinking about it, and focus on
something positive. The aim is to inhibit or suppress your anger and
convert it into more constructive behaviour

Expressing your angry feelings in an assertive—not aggressive—manner is

the healthiest way to express anger. Unexpressed anger can create other
problems. It can lead to pathological expressions of anger, such as passive-
aggressive behavior (getting back at people indirectly, without telling them
why, rather than confronting them head-on) or a personality that seems
perpetually cynical and hostile.

Finally, you can calm down inside. This means not just controlling your
outward behavior, but also controlling your internal responses, taking steps
to lower your heart rate, calm yourself down, and let the feelings subside.

Traditional ways of controlling anger

a) Leave the scene

69
 b) Be silent

c) Drink water (you may hold the water in your mouth to prevent
utterances)

d) Take a good bath and sleep

e) Count one to ten and in severe cases count up to fifty.

f) Sometimes you have to carry on with an action you want to

especially in the case when you will not hurt the person.

g) Extra energy acquired in the state of anger can be channelled into

useful work such as weeding, washing bowls etc.

Psychological ways of controlling anger

1. Relaxation
Simple relaxation tools, such as deep breathing and relaxing imagery,
can help calm down angry feelings. There are books and courses that
can teach you relaxation techniques, and once you learn the
techniques, you can call upon them in any situation. If you are
involved in a relationship where both partners are hot-tempered, it
might be a good idea for both of you to learn these techniques.

Some simple steps you can try:

70
  Breathe deeply, from your diaphragm; breathing from your chest
won't relax you. Picture your breath coming up from your "gut."
 Slowly repeat a calm word or phrase such as "relax," "take it easy."
Repeat it to yourself while breathing deeply.
 Use imagery; visualize a relaxing experience, from either your
memory or your imagination.
 Nonstrenuous, slow yoga-like exercises can relax your muscles and
make you feel much calmer.

2. Cognitive Restructuring

Simply put, this means changing the way you think. Angry people tend to
curse, swear, or speak in highly colourful terms that reflect their inner
thoughts. When you're angry, your thinking can get very exaggerated and
overly dramatic. Try replacing these thoughts with more rational ones. For
instance, instead of telling yourself, "oh, it's awful, it's terrible,
everything's ruined," tell yourself, "it's frustrating, and it's understandable
that I'm upset about it, but it's not the end of the world and getting angry is
not going to fix it anyhow."

Logic defeats anger, because anger, even when it's justified, can quickly
become irrational. So use cold hard logic on yourself. Remind yourself that
the world is "not out to get you," you're just experiencing some of the
rough spots of daily life.

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 3. Problem Solving

Sometimes, our anger and frustration are caused by very real and
inescapable problems in our lives. Not all anger is misplaced, and often it's
a healthy, natural response to these difficulties. There is also a cultural
belief that every problem has a solution, and it adds to our frustration to
find out that this isn't always the case. The best attitude to bring to such a
situation, then, is not to focus on finding the solution, but rather on how
you handle and face the problem.

4. Better Communication

Angry people tend to jump to—and act on—conclusions and some of those
conclusions can be very inaccurate. The first thing to do if you're in a
heated discussion is slow down and think through your responses. Don't
say the first thing that comes into your head, but slow down and think
carefully about what you want to say. At the same time, listen carefully to
what the other person is saying and take your time before answering.

5. Using Humor

"Silly humor" can help defuse rage in a number of ways. For one thing, it
can help you get a more balanced perspective.

6. Changing Your Environment

72
Sometimes it's our immediate surroundings that give us cause for irritation
and fury. Problems and responsibilities can weigh on you and make you
feel angry at the "trap" you seem to have fallen into and all the people and
things that form that trap. Give yourself a break.

7. Counselling and spiritual direction.

8. Take consolation in the Word of God.

9. Engage in physical exercises such as jogging, football.

DEFINITION

Grief is a multi-faceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of

someone or something to which a bond was formed. 19 Grief belongs in the
group of emotions referred to as primary because according to some
experts, they have been experienced by all humans. Other scholars refer to
these emotions as primary and distinguish them from secondary emotions
in the sense that a primary emotion is what an individual feels first; the
secondary emotion is what the primary emotion leads to. Grief, a primary
emotion for instance, may result in depression, a secondary emotion.

Grief is usually employed synonymously with Sadness, but is

19

73
distinguished from sadness because grief is directly linked with loss;
….sadness. Losses that result in grief can range from bereavement or the
death of a loved one, loss of employment, pets, status, a sense of safety,
order or possessions.( wiki)

TYPES AND DURATION

Although the experience of grief is a very individual process depending on

many factors, certain commonalities are often reported among various
peoples, and this has made it possible to differentiate two types of grief:
"Complicated grief", also commonly referred to as "Prolonged grief", and
“Normal grief”.

Normal grief typically involves a range of transient behavioral and

emotional responses to loss. Complicated grief responses almost always
are a function of intensity and timing: such grief usually lasts more than a
year and worsens as the years go by. Deaths such as suicides, murders,
accidents, and other sudden and unexpected deaths can result in
complicated grief due to the sudden shock. It is this sudden shock that
causes the person to struggle with the task of simply believing that the
loss has occurred. The intensity of Complicated grief is determined by
such factors as expectedness, naturalness, the presence of violence in the
cause of death, ambivalence and degree of attachment. From the above
explanations, Normal grief is transitory, transient and temporary, fading off
with the passage of time. Complicated grief, on the other hand, endures.

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CAUSES AND ASSOCIATED EFFECTS
As discussed above, grief is a response or reaction to a loss, especially that
caused by death or bereavement. The causes of grief will be treated under
various forms of bereavement: Childhood bereavement, Death of a child,
Death of a spouse, Death of a sibling, and Other losses. Such grouping is
necessary because the grief they result in differ in intensity and duration.

Differing bereavements along the life cycle may have different

manifestations and problems which are age related, mostly because of
cognitive and emotional skills along the way. Children will exhibit their
mourning very differently in reaction to the loss of a parent than a widow
would to the loss of a spouse.

Reactions in one type of bereavement may be perfectly normal, but in

another the same reaction could be problematic.

DEATH OR BEREAVEMENT

The death of a parent or caregiver in childhood years, the death of a child,

of a spouse, of a parent and of a sibling has varied effects, including
psychopathology, on children, parents and couples.

In younger children, for instance, the loss of a guardian around the critical
periods such as 8-12 months, may result in a change in the fact of death:

75
children often see death as a curable and temporary thing, not as a
separation. Other children, since they do not have the maturity to mourn as
adults, express their grief in such behaviours as sucking thumbs, clinging
to toys, or angry behaviours. Adolescents may respond by deliquency and
repetitive actions and tasks such as washing a car repeatedly, sewing and
computer games, just to stay above the grief. There is also a predisposition
to physical illness and an increased risk for suicide.

The loss of a child through miscarriage, neonatal death,Sudden Infant

Deaths (SIDS), or the death of an older child has dire consequences for
parents, include family breakup or suicide. Because of the intensity of grief
emotions, irrational decisions are often made. Feelings of guilt, whether
legitimate or not, are pervasive, and the dependent nature of the
relationship disposes parents to a variety of problems as they seek to cope
with this great loss. Parents who suffer miscarriage or abortion may
experience resentment towards others who experience successful
pregnancies.

Furthermore, most couples have a division of 'tasks' or 'labor', following

the death of their spouses whom they often refer to as a 'half' of
themselves. For instance, the husband mows the yard, the wife pays the
bills, which, in addition to dealing with great grief and life changes, means
added responsibilities for the bereaved. Social isolation may also become
imminent, as many groups composed of couples find it difficult to adjust to
the new identity of the bereaved.

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Siblings don't expect to lose their siblings who have been part of their lives
since birth and with whom they have formed and sustained their identities.
early; as a result, when a sibling dies, the surviving sibling may experience
a longer period of shock and disbelief. Overall, with the loss of a sibling, a
substantial part of the surviving sibling's identity, past, present, and future
is also lost.

OTHER LOSSES

Loss of children caused by events other than death, such as loss of custody
in divorce proceedings, legal termination of parental rights as a result of
child abuse, kidnapping and a child's voluntary leaving home also causes
parents much grief.

Many other losses predispose persons to these same experiences, although

often not as severely. Loss reactions may occur after the loss of a romantic
relationship, a vocation, a pet, a home, children leaving home (empty nest
syndrome), sibling(s) leaving home, a friend, a favored appointment or
desire, or a faith in one's religion and even a loss of trust.

SOME GENERAL EFFECTS

Nightmares, appetite problems, dryness of mouth, shortness of breath,

sleep disorders and repetitive motions to avoid pain are often reported by
people experiencing normal grief. Even hallucinatory experiences may be

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normal early in grief. There is a clinical problem of becoming "identified"
with the grief. In this situation, mourners are reluctant to release the grief
because grieving has been integrated as part of their identity. A major
effect of prolonged grief is depression, and sometimes consequent suicide.
Many studies have looked at the bereaved in terms of increased risks for
stress-related illnesses. Colin Murray Parkes in the 1960s and 1970s in
England noted increased doctor visits, with symptoms such as abdominal
pain, breathing difficulties, and so forth in the first six months following a
death. Others have noted increased mortality rates (Ward, A.W. 1976) and
Bunch et al. found a five times greater risk of suicide in teens following
the death of a parent. Grief puts a great stress on the physical body as well
as on the psyche, resulting in wear and tear beyond what is normal.

Positively, expressing loss and grief help us develop better coping skills in
which to deal with life's expected and unexpected losses. Developing a
grief skill set would allow each of us to live our lives more richly without
as much fear, anxiety, and avoidance. (Rachel Bridgewater)

DEALING WITH GRIEF; TRADITIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

Each society specifies manners such as rituals, styles of dress, or other

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habits, as well as attitudes, in which the bereaved are encouraged or
expected to take part.

An analysis of non-Western cultures suggests that beliefs about continuing

ties with the deceased varies. In Japan, maintenance of ties with the
deceased is accepted and carried out through religious rituals. In the Hopi
of Arizona, the deceased are quickly forgotten and life continues on.

Different cultures grieve in different ways, but all have ways that are vital
in healthy coping with the death of a loved one...egs.

The commonest traditional way of dealing with grief is to let out your grief
either in weeping or crying.

Other people resort to distracters such as exercising excessively, and

overeating. However, these distracters only temporarily push grief away.

PSYCHOLOGICAL

An important way of dealing with grief is to accept the loss which is the
cause of the grief. It is important to come to terms with the loss of a loved
one or thing; it is with the acceptance of the loss that one can take steps to
meaningfully deal with the resultant grief.

Bridgewater.....One of the ways we accept our losses, and perhaps the most
critical loss belief, is to realize that it is possible to create personal

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meaning out of the loss. When we make meaning of our losses we are
encouraging the healing process to occur.

Various ways have been proposed as correct ways of dealing with grief. A
number of these include:

1. Identify the source of the grief

2. Express your grief , either by screaming, or crying
3. Comfort and reassure yourself; talk to yourself as you would a
friend; reassure yourself with what you need to hear such as “I'm
okay”; treat yourself to something special such as going to a spa.
4. Take a break from your feelings. This does not mean denying that
they are there, but taking a rest so you can deal with the emotion
later.
5. Create a safe inner place; let your imagination create an image of
something that represents the grief you feel, then imagine a
protective bubble around this image, and feel this image separate
itself from you.
6. Count your blessings. Remember times when you felt good, loved or
calm; relax and get comfortable, and imagine yourself in these times
again. Stay with this memory until you feel really connected to it.
7. Get a change of scenery; get out of your home for a walk
around the block or take a vacation.

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While many who grieve are able to work through their loss independently,
accessing additional support from licensed psychologists or psychiatrists
may promote the process of healing. Grief counseling, professional support
groups or educational classes, and peer-led support groups are primary
resources available to the bereaved. In the United States, local hospice
agencies may be an important first contact for those seeking bereavement
support.

Music, watching photos or albums of lost loved ones, organized religion

and spirituality can help in the proper management of grief.

Technology, such as the internet is an escape from grief. One relatively

unexplored avenue of working with grief exists in the realm of technology.
A particularly innovative method can be found in the three dimensional,
virtual world of Second Life (secondlife.com). This is an endless virtual
space, owned and created by its residents, where anyone can join and
interact for free. Users from at least 100 countries gather to create
figurative social and physical structures of every type imaginable
(Johnson, 2007). Residents create an avatar, a personal character, which
can travel and interact freely with people from all over the world. While

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this virtual land can be used purely for fun, it is also used for educational
and professional activities. It is not unusual for professionals of any genre
to network through this platform, which is what transpired in one special
grief project.

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