This paper reexamines the psychological conditions giving rise to the temptation to run away from social responsibilities and personal growth (the “Jonah complex”). Abraham Maslow is here criticized for his self-actualization theory and his narrow interpretation of the Jonah complex. He sees the latter as a fear of God-like possibilities in ourselves but does not connect it to a rejection of the universal moral imperative to love and respect all that lives. It is argued that what lies at the roots of the Jonah Complex are two basic psychological prods: The first is the fear of death, and the second is the desacralization of life and the trivialization of its meaning.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AngyalA.Evasion of growth. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1953, 110.158–362.
2.
BeckerE.The denial of death.New York: Free, 1973.
3.
BulkaR.P.Death-in-life — Talmudic and logo-therapeutic affirmation. Humanitas, 1914, 10, 35–43.
4.
CohenS.H.A growth theory of neurotic resistance to therapy. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 1961, 1, 48–63.
5.
EliadeM.The sacred and the profaneNew York: Harper and Row, 1961.
6.
FranklV.E.The doe tor and the soul.New York: Knopf, 1955.
7.
FreudS.Some character-types met with in psycho-analytic work. In RickmanJ. (Ed.), A general selection from the works of Sigmund Freud.New York: Liver-right, 1957. (Originally published, 1915.)
8.
FrommF.Escape from freedom.New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1941.
9.
GoodnickB.Mental health from the Jewish standpoint. Journal of Religion and Health, 1977, 16, 110–115.
10.
JungC.G.Symbols of transformation.New York: Pantheon, 1956.
