The New Science Of Self Actualisation | Scott Barry Kaufman | Modern Wisdom Podcast 156

If you find yourself becoming egoistic, arrogant, conceited, or puffed up, think of mortality. Or think of other arrogant and conceited people and see how they look. Do you want to look like that? Do you want to take yourself that seriously? To be that un-humorous? I really like that.

Scott, welcome to the show.

Oh, thanks, Chris. So great to chat with you today.

Really excited to speak to you today. So we're talking about transcend. We're gonna be speaking about self-actualization. Kind of, uh, at the moment, I suppose, the way that people view their own lives and what they can do with them is probably a, a pretty timely topic at the moment, right?

I would say so. I think people are struggling in a lot of ways, that they are perhaps losing sight of the self-actualization that, that's possible within them. It can be very easy to lose sight of the greater possibilities for yourself and for your fellow humans when you're pitched in a state of insecurity.

Mm. So I know that you're a, a big fan of Maslow, and you w- base a lot of what you do on top of some of his work. I guess-

He's okay.

He's all right.

(laughs)

He's pretty, he's pretty cool. Um, I'm gonna guess that at a time like this, where people are very concerned about some real basics, the bottom of the pyramid, who are worried about their health, their family's health, you know, there's food and water shortages. You see these images of Costco and everyone's ripping shit off the shelves and stuff like that.

Yeah.

Like, does that sh-

I know, and toilet paper, they're ripping the toilet paper, you know?

Oh, the toilet paper's the maddest thing, because it doesn't, it doesn't affect your digestion, but y- that's, like, we could go on forever about that. Um, how does that relate, do you think, to the way that people are seeing their lives at the moment? The fact that their more, uh, immediate primal needs, uh, are kind of brought to the forefront?

So, what is the question exactly? How do I, wha- like, w- how do I perceive the situation?

So at the moment, we're talk- we're gonna be talking about self-actualization and transcending.

Sure.

Is there a, an upper bound that's being placed on that by the immediacy of people's concerns at the moment?

Um ... I see what you're saying. Well, there c- there certainly is. And, and that's the, the great tragedy of, of, of falling prey to insecurity and uncertainty. F- what I mean by falling prey is, there, there, there's always gonna be uncertainty in our lives. We're in this ... It, it's funny, people are, are just, are acting as though this situation is, like, the first time in their life that there's great uncertainty. I mean, there's, there's, there's equally probabilities, actually greater probabilities of things when you cross the street every day in your li- you don't, you don't think about all these things, you know? (laughs) But here, there, there's a, there's a thing we can see on the media, there's a thing we can see on TV where, you know, people are talking about it every day as, "This is the thing." But it turns out, and I hate to break it, uh, break the news, you hear, "Breaking news." (laughs) Scott Barry Kaufman, breaking news. You know how CNN's like, "Breaking news."