By Maeder Osler
Our next term from the little book Everyday Psychology by Prof Steve Edwards is ADULT. Prof Edwards provides the following saying, by Carl Oberholzer and Dirk Greyling: ‘A true adult is one who is free from instinctive drives, free to accept responsibility when faced with God or his own conscience’.
Edwards then comments: ‘True. Final adulthood is of course an ultimately unrealizable goal. We all have potential to become more authentically adult and human. Th saying above implies an additional aspect of adulthood ie freedom for responsibility.There are various other categories, maturity, insight, self-acceptance, respect. Changeability, independence-in-dependence, risk and crisis, boundary situations, authentic involvement a d commitment, humility, faith, humour, creativity, spontaneity, morality, spirituality etc.”
We also wonder about gender, rites and non-rights of passage, and ways in which childhood can and cannot prepare us for adulthood. Any thoughts? By all means, respond below …