Reading: Re-Enchanted Science (A. Harrington) Ch. 5 The Self-Actualizing Brain

1. Harrington mentions that Goldstein had an interest in Neo-Kantianism. Did this have any effect on his work as relates to Maslow?
2. p 142-143 discuss the cultural critique of modernity that animated Goldstein's work. This then means that German holism directly attacked modernity and in turn Maslow absorbed this attack on the dehumanizing trends in modern society. Curiously, Maslow rarely references to the so-called modern social ills of anomie and spiritual desolation. In some sense, he found enough faith in science and progress in psychology to prevent such a confrontation personally with the harsh realities of life in the modern era.
3. p 146 Harrington mentions that Goldstein sought to bring to his study of brain-injured patients a phenomenological approach.
4. p147 discusses the case of schiender
5. p149 Mentions that Brain damaged patients would develop adaptions to avoid existential anxiety. Goldstein developed this formulation based upon conversations with Paul Tillich. So modern religious and existential concerns found their way into biological theory of the operation of the human being or organism. What implications does this have for Maslow's thought? It further places his work with the tradition of existential musing that rose to prominence after the second World War. Maslow only later "discovered" this dimension in his work: see page 56 of Maslow's journal (quote it). This then makes for the argument that Maslow's work should in part be considered in the tradition of German psychological existentialism represented by such thinkers as Nietzsche, Jaspers, Tillich, Heidegger, [who else?]. But not Sartre and French Existentialism as Maslow understood Sartre's writing as "high IQ whining" [find reference] and did not share his emphasis on atheism.
6. p 150 Has an interesting discuss on the concept of how to define health and a return by a patient to having an "essence" that is in harmony with his environment. This clearly connects to the "psychosomatic constitution" that Goldstein refers to in the Organism when discussing human nature. This then marks the idea of having a biological essence, which is anathema to French Existentialists, who view the self as the ultimate project with ultimate freedom. Maslow mis-reads Sartre's existentialism [find quote - What Psychology can Learn from the Existentialist - TPB in regards to the project of the self in that he does not recognize the limits Sartre saw on the possibilities of the self. While the individual has ultimate freedom of to choose his fate and he does not have ultimate freedom from historical and biological realities [find quote-potentially use Myth of Sisyphus]. Rather the individual has the ultimate responsibility to respond to these realities, denying or accepting them at the basic level [Defiance of the gods]. But there is some continuity as Goldstein mentions that health is a "choice" the patient must make to live again.
7. p 153 Harrington discusses how Gestalts are limited in the natural world, and thereby so are the patterns of potentiality. This is important for understanding 1960s culture as the notion of human potentiality dramatically expanded in the popular consciousness of the time because of Maslow and other humanistic psychologists' writings [See Toward a Psychology of Being]. Along with and because of existentialism, a cultural shift in mood took place in which the notions of radical freedom began to shaped how individuals sought out new patterns of living and thinking. Maslow's work had a direct impact on the human potential movement [get a secondary source on the human potential movement - see Maslow Biography p 262-263 for a great quote on the expansion of human potential. This also ties Maslow to Marcuse in the emphasis of new freedom that should be available as a result of technological advance - review notes on marcuse when writing] as has been noted]. Self-actualization mixed with the ultimate freedom preached by existentialism lead to the expansion of notions of human freedom well beyond the limits seen by Goldstein and the Gestalt psychologist. Essential and biological constraints no longer existed as inhibitions on consciousness in the new world described by Maslow and sought by the adherents of the human potential movement [see Wiki for reference on Human Potential movement]
8. p 154-159 has a discussion of Reason (Abstract Capacity), Courage, and Essences. This is great context for understanding Maslow's view of human nature. It makes Goldstein clearly appear as an existentialist who recognized that normal people move through crises in their live with courage and as result develop mastery of themselves while expressing their nature. This connection with Courage then links up with Tillich's Courage to Be. Goldstein also quotes Kierkegaard here "To venture causes anxiety, not to venture is to lose oneself". There is a connection with Fromm and his existential writing Man for Himself. Harrington turns to a discussion of essences: "Organisms must be understood as in terms of their teleological reasons rather than merely the proximate causes" The purpose of life is life itself. Go to Lear in Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of life for a discussion of the problems of teleological reasoning.
9. p160-161 has some criticisms of psychoanalysis; this will be useful when discussing how Maslow misunderstood the implicit criticisms in Goldstein's work of psychoanalysis.
10. p169 makes a small comment on hierarchies: "Goldstein began to lay more emphasis on the hierarchical nature of the relationship between a "primitive" concreteness on the one hand, and an evolutionarily more advanced capacity to detach and abstract on the other"
11. p 170. "Actualization is always actualization in relation to others" - Use this
12. p173 Excellent comments on how Goldstein was appropriated by 1950s american psychologists