We have here in Abraham Maslow’s idea a preventive measure against even thinking of committing suicide:
If you take into yourself something important from the world, then you become important. You have made yourself important thereby - as important as that which you have integrated & assimilated to self. At once it matters if you die, or are sick & can’t work, etc. You must take care of yourself, respect yourself, get plenty of rest, not smoke or drink too much. You can no longer commit suicide - that would be too selfish. It would be a loss for the world. You are needed, useful. Easiest way to feel needed. Mothers with babies don’t commit suicide as easily as nonmothers, I feel sure, because they are needed, because they’re too busy to indulge themselves.
Easy medicine for self-esteem: become a part of something important. Be able to say: “We of the United Nations . . .” or “We physicians . . .” or “We psychologists have proven that . . .” (thereby participating in the glory, the pleasure, the pride, of all psychologists anyplace). (Quoted in The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 186.)
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For a brief biography of Abraham Maslow, click here.
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