From sub to super

The diagram below shows three pathways for psychological growth in time. Normal growth is normal but sometimes things go wrong and sub-normal individuals result. In extreme cases there is neurosis and psychosis while in milder cases there is anxiety, panic and depression. Traditional psychology studied the various sub-normal conditions and developed various forms of psychotherapy to make patients normal again. The super-normal states were largely ignored.

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) developed the idea of a Hierarchy of Needs. At the top of the hierarchy was self-actualization and the idea of peak experiences. It is mainly the super-normal people who experience these mental states. The field of positive psychology has evolved to study these healthy people who are marked by ‘well-being’ and by what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-ongoing) calls ‘flow’, and by what Martin Seligman (1942-ongoing) calls ‘flourishing’. Note that there is a lot in common between this western notion and the eastern views of enlightenment (eg nirvana and moksha).

An individual’s nature and nurture will influence their pattern of growth through time. It is generally felt that the potential for being sub-normal or super-normal is in all of us to some extent and that a wide range of factors are responsible for turning them on or off.

The three lines in the diagram present an ideal situation. In reality the lines will zig zag – sometimes from super to sub and sometimes from sub to super. Existential experiences, especially feelings and moods, cause the shifts and they can be very short term.

It is generally felt that the super-normal mind states are peaceful, beautific, and generally aiming for the greatest good of the greatest number. In terms of evolutionary psychology why should this be?

And what are we to make of the powerful minds that reaped despair, destruction and death at international level – Gengis Khan, Pol Pot, Mao tse Tung, Hitler, Stalin, Margaret Thatcher, George W Bush and Tony Blair. These are ab-normal minds. But are they super or sub?

It seems reasonable to suppose that the hard wired potential for developing this way rather than that is present in all of us although perhaps more in some than in others. The potentials might be switched on or off by external factors operating at multiple and interacting levels – genetic, individual, family, group, tribe, environment. Many present patterns would have been adaptive in ancestral times.