Emotional factors in public health nursing : a casebook / prepared by the Wisconsin State Board of Health. ; Abraham B. Abramovitz, editor.

  • Wisconsin. State Board of Health.
Date:
1961
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Emotional factors in public health nursing : a casebook / prepared by the Wisconsin State Board of Health. ; Abraham B. Abramovitz, editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    reach the point where the balance is almost fully in the op- posite direction, that is, in unselfish concern for other peo- ple. As in the other adaptation processes, the real issue is maintaining an appropriate balance under varying circum- stances. In actuality there is no such thing as a “selfish” or “unselfish” person. In order to be able to be concerned ade- quately about other people one must first experience suf- ficient satisfaction of one’s own needs. Those who are labeled “selfish” are really unable to move from themselves to others because they have not had appropriate satisfaction of their own needs. Some take exception to this point of view by pointing out that some people are spoiled by being given too much satisfaction of their selfish needs. On closer inspection, one finds that this is not an appropriate type of satisfaction of the individual’s needs but really more a satisfaction to the person who is doing the spoiling. Thus, for example, in the common instance of overprotective mothers, there is little question that it is the mother’s needs that are being satisfied and to a much lesser extent the needs of the child. In this basic struggle of self-satisfaction versus unselfish behavior can be included the love-hate continuum which has been of such central importance in psychiatric and psychologic theory and practice. From the point of view presented here, there is no such thing as a dichotomy of love and hate, but rather both are functions of the way in which one relates self-satisfactions to providing, or hindering, satisfaction of the needs of other people. 8. Complex perceptual experiences versus the striving for simplified organization and consistency.—Even before birth every human being is bombarded by an untold number of experiential stimuli. It would be completely impossible either to react appropriately at the moment, or to have a progressive development, unless these varied never ending stimuli were _ subjected to some organizational process which not only ties