The year 1954 has been
such a productive year for all of literature! Indeed the literary output of
this year has an amazing varicoloured potpourri of such diverse genres to its litty-kitty!
Some of the hot
favourites in literature who’ve given us some endearing reads during the course
of this flourishing year in literature, include, Kingsley Amis, who published
his first novel titled, Lucky Jim,
this year [1954].
Famed Irish novelist
and Winner of the Booker Prize, Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net was also published this self-same year [1954].
The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R.
Tolkien, saw its publication spree starting only from 1954 on!
Interestingly, Nobel
Laureate William Golding’s The Lord of
the Flies was also published this very year, in 1954.
Simone de Beauvoir’s
famed roman-à-clef titled The Mandarins, in
which her long-time partner Sartre and her friend Albert Camus adorn the novel
with such curiously intriguing, invented names in the guise of Robert Dubreuilh
and Henri Perron respectively, was also published this year, in 1954. So what
is the invented name of Simone de Beauvoir, you may ask? No points for
guessing! It’s another Dubreuilh, named, Anne Dubreuilh!
1954 also saw renowned
Japanese director Akira Kurosawa giving us his epic samurai drama film titled, Seven Samurai! More on Akira Kurosawa on
our past post HERE.
It’s quite interesting
to note that, celebrated Booker awardee Kazuo Ishiguro was also born in Nagasaki, Japan,
in 1954.
Eminent Oxford
academic and novelist C. S. Lewis had also come up with his phenomenal
intellectual treatise titled, English
Literature in the 16th Century during the same year, in 1954. [Added,
his scholarly work on Milton titled A
Preface to Paradise Lost is one of the most indispensable reference books
on Paradise Lost till date!]
On the home front,
Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve,
her first published novel, which went on to be published in more than 18
languages worldwide, and became a quick best seller on the international arena,
was also published this year, in 1954.
Yukio Mishima’s
gripping novel titled, The Sound of Waves
also saw publication, this year, in 1954. A preview to Yukio Mishima HERE on
our same past post as well!
Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s favourite
memoir of all time, from Peter Abrahams, titled, Tell Freedom was also published this year, in 1954.
[Well, on an aside,
Thiong’o had once particularly singled out three marvelous and impactful works
that have had a great influence on him. They are, George Lamming’s In the Castle of My Skin (1953), Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and
Peter Abrahams’ Tell Freedom (1954).]
Nigerian writer, Amos
Tutuola, whose stories were almost always based on the Yoruba folk-tales, also
published his My Life in the Bush of
Ghosts an autobiographical novel in this very year, in 1954.
This apart, what gives
this post an added wide-eyed coverage is the fact that, Maslow’s famed book on
Motivation titled, Motivation and
Personality was also published this year, in 1954. The germ of the book was
originally published as a paper, almost a decade back in the famed Psychological Review.
This Maslow
masterpiece of 1954 is much credited with popularizing the term, self-actualisation
which has shot to prominence today in the fields of psychology, literature and
related research.
Well,
self-actualisation is defined as a person's desire to use all their abilities
to achieve and be everything that they possibly can. It is also defined as ‘the
psychological process aimed at maximizing the use of a person’s abilities and
resources.’
One reason why
self-actualisation tops the charts, and is on the highest level on Abraham Maslow's
hierarchy of needs!
Hence it was that, Maslow,
who’s famously credited with creating his all-time popular ‘Maslow's hierarchy
of needs,’ strongly believed that, all of human motivation hinges much on an individual's
ability to seek personal fulfillment through means of personal growth.
To Maslow then, individuals
strive for higher needs only when their lower-level needs have been met, fulfilled
or satisfied.
The structure of
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is given in this diagram that comes below -
To put it simply,
then, Maslow’s index to his hierarchy of needs is made up of -
physiological
[needs],
safety [needs],
love [needs],
esteem [needs], and finally,
self-actualization
which comes in a
pyramid from bottom to top.
Hence, to Maslow, each
level of need must be taken care of before moving on to addressing the next in the hierarchy of one’s need!
That means to say
that, it is only when one’s physiological needs, safety needs, love needs, and
esteem needs are very much taken care of, that one can really move up the
hierarchical pyramid to achieving self-actualization, or reaching one’s fullest
potential and capabilities in one’s life.
Connecting this post
with our last post, we could surmise the prime importance that encouragement, motivation,
positive thinking, and positive words can have on one’s self-actualisation, isn’t
it?
And that’s one reason
why, (Albeit I repeat), parents, teachers, professors and mentors the world
over, ask their wards to stay clear of negative minds, demotivating people,
people who always have a sting in their tongue, venom in their words and poison
in their hearts!
And that’s added
reason why, it goes on to say that, the more you surround yourself with
positive people, [that comes up in the third step of the hierarchy: amongst
friends, groups, families, and in society,] the more are your chances of
gracefully climbing up the ladder to self-confidence, and finally to
self-actualisation or self-fulfillment!
Maslow moves on to describe
the top of his hierarchy of needs, saying that,
A musician must
make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately
happy!
It’s no wonder then
that Maslow cultivated a wide-eyed curiosity for everything by making the
library his second home!
A few decades thence,
Maslow also listed out a few eminent minds who had attained a high degree of
self-actualisation in their lives! Some of them are - Albert Einstein, Abraham
Lincoln, Aldous Huxley, Baruch Spinoza, Jane Addams, William James, Thomas
Jefferson, etc.
Yesss folks! Let’s
steer full-throttle onto the road of self-actualisation, the Maslow way, shall
we?
Musings on Motivation
to continue…
images: amazondotcom, pinterestdotcom
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