Our finals in English and Psychology are coming up -- For the English final, part of it we have to come up with an essay consisting of a myth through a psychological interpretation such Maslow's heirarchy of needs or Piaget's cognitive theories, or even BF Skinner's behavioral theory. For instance, use the myth Hades and the Underworld and use an interpretation from a psychological theorist in psychology and describe the myth through it. Got any ideas, post them here, I need some help on it.

Well Maslow's heirarchy would be a great example to demonstrate, that we all require certain needs before getting up on the next plane. Which also can interpret that the idea of perfection is an obtainable one, but not all the time. So many questions can raise with his theory such as.

Is it possible to meet my needs in life fully?

Is it possible to be self-satisfied even if I don't meet all my social needs.

How does this theory compare to Freud's idea that we inherit all our personality traits during the first few months of life.

Consist the idea of hercules for a second, don't rely on the fact he was half god, but could the reason he seemed so great and important pertain to a fact he had met all his needs in life and was in the perfection zone? This is just a few ideas I had, Not sure what else I could contribute.

T

That's very helpful, but could you elaborate more on the interpretations with Maslow and Freud with Hercules? It would be helpful if I could just talk to you on Aim sometime tonight (Tuesday) -- my Aim is Xrph607
Please leave your Aim next time you reply to it -- btw, it's due on Wednesday :p

This is my small outline as to how I am going to tackle this essay tonight with the psychological theorists:

Maslow: Hercules did not achieve self-actualization? Hercules didn’t go up the hierarchy as accurately as Maslow believed one should?

Freud: Hercules didn’t acquire all his personality in the first few months of life? Hercules didn’t implement defense mechanisms, or did he? Hercules acquired personality through his consciousness, as oppose to us unconscious as Freud would argue?

MichaelCraft69 is the aim. Due to a heavy snowstorm coming here within the next few hours (4-8 inches) I may not be online, since I'll be at work unless they send me home early, the earliest I'll be home tonight is about 10pm Central Standard Time.

Heh, I should be on then, that's only 8:00pm Western.,

[quote author=Crypticflare link=board=2;threadid=4152;start=0#msg34451 date=1070997707]
MichaelCraft69 is the aim. Due to a heavy snowstorm coming here within the next few hours (4-8 inches) I may not be online, since I'll be at work unless they send me home early, the earliest I'll be home tonight is about 10pm Central Standard Time.
[/quote]
Heavy?! We got almost three feet over the weekend.

Rain earlier, plus heavy sleeting, now its snowing regular, oh did I mention the 45mph winds? wasn't fun driving home, I saw about 3 wrecks just within a 5 mile interval.

Crypticflare:

Even though Maslows interpretation of such needs in life are understandable and may be the source of perfection when considering when all "needs" are met in life, I don't care for the idea that perfection is obtainable. This is more of a throw out idea to discuss more than a bash because I like your interpretation :)

Perfection to me is more the same theory as what is "normal". I had this discussion with another person a few months back and I asked him what "normal" was. He gave me his answer and I went on about my theory about it. Wouldn't you agree that perfection/normality is in the eyes of the beholder rather than based on a chart of the basic needs in life? I find it abnormal that we spend billions upon billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq and that Bill and Linda Gates donate millions to poverty driven schools and black organizations when someone such as myself, regardless of the upper middle class status I've gotton from my parents income, has to almost struggle to go to school and obtain such basic needs. Although its normal in Bush's and Gate's eyes to fork over such funds because its right in their state of mind while its abnormal in mine.

So if perfection is based possibly on Maslows heirarchy in your eyes (this is the assumption of your first post above, and even if its wrong I like your input :) ) then why doesn't everyone obtain what they need in life so we are all perfect? But won't that conflict with the idea of what normal is? I find normality as great a mystery as perfection. Perfection is more of a pre-set limit that can be obtained but you can always go a step further to get better, so in a way perfection is someting to strive for but will never be reached simply because you can always do something better than previously.

What do you (as the reader/poster) think of the idea of what normal and perfection is?

Edit: By the way, stop your whining about snowstorms, I live in Vermont and this past weekend we got over 1.5 feet so I dunno where you live but I bet we had/have it worse 8)

Ah great point.

Normality is, will be, and will always be a variable. Everyone that is born, lives, and dies will be considered part of the variable. In the field of phycology they base normality on a few fields. Family environment, friends, community, and culture. I do believe in the same idea you were thinking about normality, but I was trying to explain the basic idea of Maslow's diagram just as its stated for reference material.

Perfection in his eyes all derives from those 4 things that create that normality variable. Of course perfection is always going to be a never-ending state of life, which none of us will ever achieve. But wait.. That table was setup although it's a generalized chart, it can and could be used for individual reference. Perfection is just a word, but until you put your OWN meaning into it. Thats when it comes alive. For the overall of the class, they may not feel that "Student A" is perfect, but maybe in "Student A's" mind he is perfect, He feels good about himself, he did great in school, or at work. To those that are containing to one definition, one standard. They will always think inside the box. Perfection is always attainable, You just need to know what type of perfection your getting

If I think of something else I'll come back and edit, I tried talking about some of the points you made, but it was quite the struggle trying to debate some of them to you =p

meh The storm was horrible here *cries* there were cow's skimming across the highways, oh gawd it was awful.