Thousands of people in our World are wearing masks. Since a mask is usually a part of an identity, these mask-wearers are not necessarily phonies. However, some wear masks that pass off only one part of themselves as their entire identity. Those who show only a limited bit of themselves are not particularly sick or disturbed. They may or may not need psychotherapy; nevertheless they are living only partially. To speak of a whole society as lacking in mental health implies a controversial assumption contrary to the position of sociological relativism held by most social scientist today. They postulate that each society is normal inasmuch as it functions, and that pathology can be defined only in terms of the individual’s lack of adjustment to the ways of life in his or her society. To speak if a sane society implies a premise different from sociological relativism. It makes sense only if we assume that there can be a society which is not sane, and this assumption, in turn, implies that there are universal criteria for mental health which are valid for the human race as such, and according to which the state of health of each society can be judged. This position of normative humanism is based on a few fundamental premises. #RandolphHarris 1 of 15

The species of human can be defined not only in anatomical and physiological terms; its members share basic psychic qualities, the laws which govern their mental and emotional functioning, and the aims for a satisfactory solution of the problem of human existence. It is true that our knowledge of human beings is still so incomplete that we cannot yet give a satisfactory definition of human beings in a psychological sense. It is the task of the science of humans to arrive eventually at a correct description of what deserves to be called human nature. What has often been called human nature is but one of its many manifestations—and often a pathological one—and the function of such mistake definition usually has been to defend a particular type of society as being the necessary outcome of human’s mental constitution. Nonebing threatens humans as a whole, and therefore threatens one’s spiritual as well as one’s ontic self-affirmation. Spiritual self-affirmation occurs in every moment in which a person lives creatively in the various sphere of meaning. Creative, in this context, has the sense not of original creativity as performed by the genius but of living spontaneously, in action and reaction, with the contents of one’s cultural life. #RandolphHarris 2 of 15

In order to be spiritually creative one need not be what is called a creative artist or scientist or statesperson, but one must be able to participate meaningfully in their original creations. Such a participation is creative insofar as it changes that in which one participates, even if in very small ways. Some people wear the mask of Autocracy. They adopt a face and posture that say: “I want you to know m only as the leader, the boss, the one who runs the show.” They toss their weight around, give orders, interfere with the ongoing operations of things, veto group decision, or boast of their own single-handed accomplishments. These people who we have dubbed The Power People, are unwilling to acknowledge or display any other part of their personality. They deny any tenderness, concern, agreeableness, or sympathy. They consider the role of powerful, influential person to be adequate for them. It meets all their needs, or at least all those that concern them. It gets for them a certain amount of respect or fear, or even dislike; and for some, being disliked is a very important motivation. Why? Is it because they are full of guilt and seek out dislike as a form of punishment or penance? Possibly. #RandolphHarris 3 of 15

Or do people like to be disliked because people are so full of dislike for others that they perceive dislike as the only acceptable emotion? Possibly. Or is it because they project their own dislike onto others and are justifying their negativisms by calling it protection against the hostility they find all about? Again, possibly. These are some of the motivation we find in the power people. Are some people born power-seeking? Is there an innate drive or gene for power-lust? The best evidence still supports the hypothesis that leaders and rulers and executives and despots are made, not born. Certainly, any careful study of the history of monarchies will show that some kings’ children have not been kingly material. Our conclusions are that for a variety of motives, some people ignore or eliminate all other sides to their personalities and present themselves to the World as powerful, born leaders, influential. Often, because of what sociologist call self-fulfilling prophecy, these people cause their wishes to come true. They play their roles so well that everyone, including themselves, believes the power exists—and gradually, it does. Against such reactionary use of the concept of human nature the Liberals, since the eighteenth century, have stressed the malleability of human nature and the decisive influence of environmental factors. #RandolphHarris 4 of 15

True and important as such emphasis is, it has led many social scientists to an assumption that human’s mental constitution is a black piece of paper, on which society and culture write their test, and which has no intrinsic quality of its own. This assumption is just as untenable and just as destructive of social progress as the opposite view was. The real problem is to infer the core common to the whole human race from the innumerable manifestation of human nature, the normal as well as the pathological ones, as we can observe them in different individuals and cultures. The task is furthermore to recognize the laws inherent in human nature and the inherent goals for its development and unfolding. This concept of human nature is different from the way the term human nature is used conventionally. Just as humans transforms the World around them, so they transform themselves in the process of history. One is one’s own creation, as it were. However, just as one can only transform and modify the natural materials around one according to their nature, so one can only transform and modify oneself according to one’s own nature. “I know that it shall come to pass; and they sell themselves for naught; for, for the reward of their pride and their foolishness they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and choose works of darkness rather than light, therefore they must go down to hell,” reports 2 Nephi 26.10. #RandolphHarris 5 of 15

The point of view taken here is neither a biological nor sociological one if that would mean separating these two aspects from each other. It is rather one transcending such dichotomy by the assumption that the main passions and drives in humans result from the total existence of human beings, that they are definite and ascertainable, some of them conducive to health and happiness, others to sickness and unhappiness. Any given social order does not create these fundamental strivings but it determines which of the limited number of potential passions are to become manifest or dominant. Humans as they appear in any given culture are always a manifestation of human nature, a manifestation, however which in its specific outcome is determined by the social arrangements under which one lives. Just as the infant is born with all human potentialities which are to develop under favorable social and cultural conditions, so the human race, in the process of history, develops into what it potentially is. The creative transformation of language by the interdependence of the creative poet or writer and the many who are influenced by these individuals directly or indirectly and react spontaneously to one is an outstanding example. #RandolphHarris 6 of 15

Everyone who lives creatively in meanings affirms oneself as a participant in these meanings. One affirms oneself as receiving and transforming reality creatively. One loves oneself as participating in the spiritual life and as loving its contents. One loves them because they are one’s own fulfillment and because they are actualized through the individual. The scientist loves both the truth one discovers and oneself insofar as one discovers it. One is held by the content of discovery. This is what one can call spiritual self-affirmation. And if one has not discovered but only participates in the discovery, it is equally spiritual self-affirmation. Such an experience presupposed that the spiritual life is taken seriously, that it is a matter of ultimate concern. “And there are many churches built up which cause envyings, and strifes, and malice. And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever. However, the Lord God worketh not in darkness. He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the World; for he loveth the World, even that he may draw all people unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation,” reports 2 Nephi 26.21-24. #RandolphHarris 7 of 15

A spiritual life in which this is not experienced is threatened by nonbeing in the two forms in which it attacks spiritual self-affirmation: emptiness and meaninglessness. We use the term meaninglessness for the absolute threat of nonbeing to spiritual self-affirmation,and the term emptiness for the relative threat to it. They are no more identical than are the threat of death and fate. However, in the background of emptiness lies meaninglessness as death lies in the background of vicissitudes of fate.The anxiety of meaninglessness is anxiety about the loss of an ultimate concern, of a meaning which gives meaning to all meanings. This anxiety is aroused by the loss of a spiritual center, of an answer, however, symbolic and indirect, to the question of the meaning of existence. The anxiety of emptiness is aroused by the threat of nonbeing to the special contents of the spiritual life. A belief breaks down through external events or inner processes: one is cut off from creative participation in a sphere of culture, one feels frustrated about something which one had passionately affirmed, one is driven from devotion to one object to devotion to another and again on to another, because the meaning of each of them vanishes and the creative eros is transformed into indifference of aversion. #RandolphHarris 8 of 15

Everything is tried and nothing satisfies. The contents of the tradition, however, excellent, however praised, however loved once, lose their power to give content today. And present culture is even less able to provide the content. Anxiously one turns away from all the concrete contents and looks for an ultimate meaning, only to discover that is was precisely the loss of a spiritual center which took away the meaning from the special contents of the spiritual life. However, a spiritual center cannot be produced intentionally, and the attempt to produce it only producer deeper anxiety. The anxiety of emptiness drives us to the abyss of meaninglessness. Some people refuse to display any part of themselves except their intellect. In a college environment, The Intellectual often snows or frighten one’s opponents with one’s intellectual power. One is a master of rhetoric and backs one’s opponents into a corner without lifting a finger. When attacked for one’s aggressiveness, The Intellectual may shrug and say, “The illogic of one’s own argument defeated him or her,” or “That person does not have the capacity to follow my train of thought.” Thus, The Intellectual exhibits one’s superiority without every falling into the position of being labeled the aggressor. #RandolphHarris 9 of 15

Some people play Intellectual because they find too many defects in portraying other aspects of themselves. They may not be adequate to compete athletically or in interpersonal effectiveness, so they razzle and dazzle ‘em with their footwork, only it is intellectual footwork. This is partly a mechanism identified as Compensation. Often a fragile, puny, undersized boy cannot play sports, cannot attract a female, and cannot make it socially or interpersonally. So, he buckles down to come the all-time Honors Student who wins admiration for his brainpower, if not for his musclepower or drinking skills. This is an important role for many people and is not to be interpreted as always unhealthy. Some people simply need one area to excel in and they pick the academic or intellectual arena. The unself-actualizing aspects consist of their unwillingness or inability to admit that this is what they are doing. The approach of normative humanism is based on the assumption that, as in any other problem, there are right and wrong, satisfactory and unsatisfactory solutions to the problem of human existence. Mental health is achieved if a person develops into full maturity according to the characteristics and laws of human nature. #RandolphHarris 10 of 15

 Mental illness consists in the failure of such development. From this premise the criterion of mental health is not one of individual adjustment to a given social order, but a universal one, valid for all people, of giving a satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. What is so deceptive about the state of mind of the members of a society is the consensual validation of their concepts. It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Noting is further from the truth. Consensual validation as such has no bearing whatsoever on reason or mental health. Just as there is a folie a deux there is a folie a millions. The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane. There is, however, an important difference between individual and social mental illness, which suggests a differentiation between two concepts: that of defect, and that of neurosis. #RandolphHarris 11 of 15

If a person fails to attain freedom, spontaneity, a genuine expression of self, one may be considered to have a severe defect, provided we assume that freedom and spontaneity are the objective goals to be attained by every human being. If such a goal is not attained by the majority of member of any given society, we deal with the phenomenon of socially patterned defect. The individual shares it with many others; one is not ware of it as a defect, and one’s security is not threatened by the experience of being different, of being an outcast, as it were. What one may have lost in richness and in a genuine feeling of happiness, is made up by the security of fitting in with the rest of humankind—as one knows them. As a matter of fact, one’s very defect may have been raised to a virtue by one’s culture, and thus may give one an enhanced feeling of achievement. Emptiness and loss of meaning are expressions of the threat of nonbeing to the spiritual life. This threat is implied in a person’s finitude and actualized by an individual’s estrangement. It can be described in terms of doubt, its creative and its destructive function in a person’s spiritual life. #RandolphHarris 12 of 15

People are able to as because one is separated from, while participating in, what one is asking about. In every question an element of doubt, the awareness of not having, is implied. In systematic questioning systematic doubt is effective. This element of doubt is a condition of all spiritual life. The threat to spiritual life is not doubt as an element but the total doubt. If awareness of not having has swallowed the awareness of having, doubt has ceased to be methodological asking and has become existential despair. One the way to this satiation the spiritual life tries to maintain itself as long as possible by clinging to affirmation which are not yet undercut, be they traditions, autonomous conviction, or emotional preferences. And if it is impossible to remove the doubt, one courageously accepts it without surrendering one’s convictions. One takes the risk of going astray and the anxiety of this risk upon oneself. In this way one avoids the extreme situation—till it becomes unavoidable and the despair of truth becomes complete. Then people try another way out: Doubt is based on human’s separation from the whole of reality, on one’s lack of universal participation, on the isolation of one’s individual self. #RandolphHarris 13 of 15

So one tries to break out of this situation, to identify oneself with something transindividual, to surrender one’s separation and self-relatedness. One flees from one’s freedom of asking and answering for oneself to a situation in which no further questions can be asked and the answers to previous questions are imposed on one authoritatively. In order to avoid the risk of asking and doubting one surrenders the right to ask and to doubt. One surrenders oneself in order to save one’s spiritual life. One escapes from one’s freedom in order to escape the anxiety of meaninglessness. Now one is no longer lonely, not in existential doubt, not in despair. One participates and affirms by participation the contents of one’s spiritual life. Meaning is saved, but the self is sacrificed. And since the conquest of doubt was a matter of sacrifice, the sacrifice of the freedom of the self, it leaves a mark on the regained certitude: a fanatical self-assertiveness. Fanaticism is the correlate to spiritual self-surrender: it shows the anxiety which it was supposed to conquer, by attacking with discorporate violence those who disagree and who demonstrate by their disagreement elements in the spiritual life of the fanatic which one must suppress in oneself. Because one must suppress them in oneself one must suppress them in others. #RandolphHarris 14 of 15

One’s anxiety forces one to persecute dissenters. The weakness of the fanatic is that those who one fights have a secret hold upon one; and to this weakness one and one’s group finally succumb. It may be said that the person who is overwhelmed by a feeling of one’s own powerlessness and unworthiness, by unceasing doubt as to whether one is saved or condemned to eternal punishment, who is hardly capable of genuine joy, suffers from a severe defect. Yet this very defect was culturally patterned; it was looked upon us particularly valuable, and the individual was thus protected from the neurosis which one would have acquired in a culture where the same defect gave one a feeling of profound inadequacy and isolation. Many people are seized by one and the same affect by one object that one believes this object to be present even if it is not. If this happens while the person is awake, the person is believed to be insane. However, if the greedy person think only of money and possessions, the ambitious one only of fame, one does not think of them as being insane, but as people who avoid human interaction by acting superior; generally one has contempt for them. However, factually greediness, ambition, and so forth are forms of insanity, although usually one does not think of them as illness. #RandolphHarris 15 of 15