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Personality Integration
By Jack
32 Years Old
The criterion refers to the wholeness of the individual, to the harmonious working together of the components of the human system and of these symptoms, in turn, with its environment. On a psychological level, the effectiveness of integration is evaluated in terms of the co-ordination of thought, feeling and action of freedom from disruptive inner conflicts and rigid defenses of openness to new experiences and of adequacy of adjustment to the environment.
Often the terms adjustment and integration are used synonymously. There is a difference, however, for a person may show a low level of personality integration and still be well adjusted if the environment takes minimal demands upon him. Thus, an immature and poorly adjusted person may adjust adequately as long as he lives at home with a mother, who protects him from having to meet the unusual demands of adulthood. Here we see again the inadequacy of the concept of personal adjustment as a criterion of normality, since such an individual can hardly be considered healthy.
But integration too, is an inadequate criterion since a variety of forms of integration have been considered effective under different conditions. The emotional detachment that makes survival and sanity opposable in a concentration camp would be abnormal in more usual circumstances. It is difficult even to say what level of integration really is the most normal form of adaptation in our complex and stressful world. Evidently some other criterion is necessary for deciding what type of personality integration is effective in given circumstances.
Personal Maturity and Growth
A criterion, which has received a good deal of emphasis, is that of personal maturity. Behavior is considered mature when it is appropriate to the age level, the problems and adjustive resources of the individual and thus contributes to his long-range resources of the growth and actualization. Personal maturity is thus an index of how "grown-up" an individual is and of the extent to which he is fulfilling him-self as a human being.
Although personal maturity is a very useful concept, it does not by itself provide us with as standard for evaluating either normal or abnormal behavior. We must decide what "grown up" and "self-actualization" behavior is. Of course, where an adult has temper tantrums, is very dependent on others and is impulsive in making crucial decisions, we can generally agree that he is showing immature. Unfortunately however delineating, what we mean by maturity is a much more difficult task. Often we stipulate certain characteristic like achieving a realistic view of oneself and one's world, developing problem solving and other competencies for meeting the demands of living and showing responsible direction, for maturity. But not all people have the same concept of maturity.
Posted by Jack : June 9, 2005
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