This paper focuses on different accounts on Katherine’s and Allen’s lives. Katherine feels that she can do better in her life if she is given a chance. Katherine has a dream of owning a business. She is planning for a good career and an excellent family life. However, her efforts are being suppressed by her husband who has denied her a chance to pursue a business-related course. As a result of her husband restrictions, she is completely dependent on him. As a consequence, Katherine is depressed by her failure to realize her desires in life.
On the other hand, Allen is determined to follow his dreams of being a teacher, since it is the only way that he can fulfill his wishes and be satisfied with his life. However, he faces restrictions from his family and is forced to pursue a course against his will. He ends up getting a job that he did not plan for as his career choice.
The two cases have presented a psychological relevance. They portray a level of human interference to individual’s choice as seen from Katherine’s husband and Allen’s parents. The power to exercise one’s own free will is limited by people and circumstances.
Allen is deprived of the right to decide about the best choices to make for example, the right course to pursue. He is constantly nagged by his parents to put away his intentions of going back to college, which is contrary to his personal will. Allen is not satisfied about being influenced by his parents to make his own choices. His coworkers have instilled some self purpose and confidence by offering him advice. Allen self perceptions about life would be different if his needs are fulfilled. He is not a “fully functioning individual” (Villanueva, 1997). He is not living a fulfilled life, that is, he does not appreciate his present times. His creativity and thinking are limited and he feels sidelined when he is among his peers. He would be jovial, glad of his present life, trustworthy of his decisions and be generally happy with his life. Allen’s coworker possesses characteristics that include bragging, unconditional positive regard, and empathy. The coworkers have been the same experience, which shows empathy, as well as, understands what Allen goes through. By showing attention to him, the coworkers portray unconditional positive regard as opposed to the other coworkers. Allen listens to his advisers despite his current tribulations. He should concentrate on making his own choices rather than seeking others attention. He can change his life from the current position to a more self- pleasing and purposeful life.
Katherine, on the other hand, has taken the initiative of rising from her dismal life. Her success has been as a result of self actualization. She leads a meaningful life and is on course to attend her 20th reunion feeling more confident than ever. Katherine suffers bad consequences of failing to actualize her dreams. She gets into a depression due to her husband’s betrayal and ends up adding 30 pounds to her body weight. This makes her feel less proud about herself.
The women support groups play an extremely influential role in her therapy process. The groups have attributes of a good therapy procedure as recommended by Carl Rodgers. The bond between her and the groups give Katherine a sense of belonging. The groups portray congruence by focusing on attitude adjustment through listening, caring and sharing of experiences. The groups reverse the condition shown by Catherine and direct her towards achieving her goals. They put much effort in Katherine’s self actualization. She is transformed into a self competent person (McGraw, 2001).
Creativity and production potential are the products of self actualization. Katherine reaps these products. She engages in wood carving as an additional work. The results are very positive as her business expands and she finally becomes self sufficient and independent. She derives self satisfaction in her self-image by losing some of the extra pounds she had added in her divorce aftermath. Carl Rodgers recommends that every individual should remain self oriented so as to improve human socialization. IBM Corporation dwells greatly on encouraging its employees to practice self actualization. The company sees it as a way of increasing employees’ output. Through the massive self actualization and awareness campaigns conducted in 2010, the corporation reported a 16% increase in employees’ output. The company was able to deal with the vigorous competition it was facing. This example shows the benefits of being self centered for developmental purposes. Employees are satisfied with their current position in life, thus, they can concentrate in their duties. This boosts creativity which translates to increased productivity of the company.
Allen should conform to his personal wishes as opposed to other people’s wishes. This way, he can reap the same benefits of self actualization as Katherine.
References
McGraw, P. C. (2001). Self matters: Creating your life from the inside out. New York: Simon & Schuster Source.
Villanueva, V. (1997). Cross-talk in comp theory: A reader. Urbana, Ill: National Council of Teachers of English.