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Co-Actualization: A New Construct in Understanding Well-Functioning Relationships

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: renate.motschnig{at}univie.ac.at.

	Abstract

The person-centered approach, positive psychology, and also neuroscience contribute evidence of a tendency toward actualization inherent in living organisms. In this article, the authors build on the observation that actualization in humans tends particularly to be promoted by being in wellfunctioning relationships with others. Each such fruitful relationship has a selfdeveloping quality as well as being enhancing to the relationship partners. The resulting process is referred to as co-actualization. The postulated tendency toward engagement in that process is called the co-actualizing tendency. The article characterizes co-actualization especially from a relationally oriented person-centered perspective on psychology, education, systems thinking, psychotherapy, conceptual modeling, and neuroscience. The authors cite evidence from various sources, identify questions for further research, include phenomenological considerations, and discuss potentials of the coactualizing process in close and larger scale relationships.

First published on October 6, 2009
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 2009, doi:10.1177/0022167809348017


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