PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Evening Star, Issue 23683, 17 September 1940, Page 11

PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

* The Desire for Self-expression ’ was the subject under discussion at the Practical Psychology Club. It was pointed out that, seemingly, throughout the whole of Nature, there throbbed a power urging the organism to selfrealisation. Psychologically every one of man’s instincts demanded some kind of expression in which to realise its purpose. A repressed instinct would make itself felt in unpleasant ways, leaving a sense of incompleteness atid frustration. Spiritually, one found a, universal craving for God, or the urge of man to self-completion. There appeared a

closer loyalty to the urge of Nature than to the same urge on the highest plane of all —to God. The desire for self-expression was the greatest factor in civilising man. Congenial and creative work was a great form of selfexpression. Outside interests sometimes satisfied expression. Poetry was of all, perhaps the most satisfactory medium of expression. Within all was the love of the beautiful and a desire to express it. In this machine age man was in danger of becoming devoid of real and individual self-expression, and was becoming o servant to the machine. Some means of self-expression had to be found, and one looked forward to the time when people could express themselves constructively and not destructively. It was through the explosion of science, music, and art that the world moved on. Work in a garden was a beautiful means of expression, and the return was bountiful. Self-expression could come to one through the ordinary tasks of an ordinary life.