"Hannush's work is a psychoeducational tour de force on psychosocial maturation. ... The reader will appreciate that each chapter as a dedicated reference page(s) ... . This scholarly text would be excellent support for a graduate-level course in psychosocial maturation as well as lifespan development. ... Without doubt, the reader will enjoy much wisdom in this book. ... This instructive, comprehensive, and perceptive book thus ends with optimism and hope for our enduring and maturing selves ... ." (Robert McInerney, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Vol. 53 (1), 2022)
1. Introduction
Part I The Capacities for Self-Analysis, Self-Understanding, and Self-Transcendence
2. Self-Analysis: The Capacity for Self-Analysis Through Self-Reflection
3. Self-Understanding: The Capacity for Self-Understanding and Insight into the Self
4. Self-Transcendence: The Capacity for Self-Transcendence Through the Suspension of Belief/Judgment
Part II The Capacities for Balance, Feelings, and Creativity
5. Balance: The Capacity to Establish and Maintain a Dialectical Balance Between Polar Lifeworld Meanings
6. Feelings: The Capacity to Balance One’s Feelings and Come to Terms with the Ambivalences and Ambiguities of Existence
7. Creativity: The Capacity for Creativity and Creative Living
Part III The Capacities for Aesthetics, Goodness, Kindness, and Truth
8. Aesthetics: The Capacity for Relational Aesthetics
9. Goodness: The Capacity for Goodness
10. Kindness: The Capacity for Kindness
11. Truth: The Capacity to Seek, Find, and Be in the Service of Emotional and Relational Truth
Part IV The Capacities for Companionship and Aloneness
12. Companionship: The Capacity for Companionship and Friendship
13. Aloneness: The Capacity to Be at Home with Aloneness, Silence, and Solitude
Part V The Capacities for Self-Esteem, Flexibility, and Resilience
14. Self-Esteem: The Capacity for Self-Esteem Regulation
15. Flexibility: The Capacity for Flexibility
16. Resilience: The Capacity for Resilience
Part VI The Capacities for Acceptance, Authenticity, and Responsibility
17. Acceptance: The Capacity for Acceptance of Self, Others, and Life Itself
18. Authenticity: The Capacity for Authenticity, Congruence, Genuineness, and Realness
19. Responsibility (Response-Ability): The Capacity for the Acceptance, Assumption, and Owning of Responsibility
Part VII The Capacities for Holding, Trust, and Hope
20. Holding: The Capacity for Holding and Containing the Self/Other
21. Trust: The Capacity to Trust Self and Others
22. Hope: The Capacity for Realistic Hope
Part VIII The Capacities for Empathy, Relating, and Repairing
23. Empathy: The Capacity for Empathy
24. Relating: The Capacity for Healthy Relating
25. Repairing: The Capacity for Repairing Relational Ruptures
Part IX The Capacities for Irony, Joy, Love, and Work
26. Irony: The Capacity for Cultivating a Sense of Irony
27. Joy: The Capacity for Joy and Enjoyment as Manifested in Humor, Laughter, and Playfulness.
28. Love: The Capacity to Love and Be Loveable
29. Work: The Capacity for Generative Work
Part X The Capacities for Suffering and Mourning
30. Suffering: The Capacity to Endure Suffering
31. Mourning: The Capacity for Mourning and Working Through Loss
32. Conclusion
Mufid James Hannush was Associate Professor of Psychology at Rosemont College in Rosemont, USA. Professor Hannush is the author of Becoming Good Parents: An Existential Journey (2002).
“This book is long overdue. Stage theory in all its forms has dominated and skewed the way human development has been conceptualised for far too long and this book repositions human development as a life-long dialectical process. In doing so, the author draws on a wide range of sources and by using everyday terminology he manages to make it easy to relate to and apply to everyday life.”
—Martin Adams, author of An Existential Approach to Human Development (2018).
This book advances an integrative approach to understanding the phenomenon of psychosocial maturation. Through a rigorous, dialectically-informed interpretation of psychoanalytic and humanistic-existential-phenomenological sources, Mufid James Hannush distils thirty essential markers of maturity. The dialectical approach is described as a process whereby lived, affect-and-value laden polar meanings are transformed, through deep insight, into complementary and integrative meta-meanings. The author demonstrates how responding to the call of maturation can be viewed as a life project that serves the ultimate purpose of living a balanced life. The book will appeal to students and scholars of human development, psychotherapy, social work, philosophy, and existential, humanistic, and phenomenological psychology.
Mufid James Hannush was Associate Professor of Psychology at Rosemont College in Rosemont, USA. Professor Hannush is the author of Becoming Good Parents: An Existential Journey (2002).