Psychology

Both Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow describe a healthy person as one who challenges him- or herself to be fully human.  For Maslow, the definition of full humanity does not only include the desire to actualize ones potential but also the capability to actually do the same.  Rogers, on the other hand, describes a healthy personality as a process, which may be understood as a lifelong challenge to keep oneself fit and able not only to surmount difficulties in life but also to stay content and go on striving to achieve greater goals.  What is more, both Rogers and Maslow explain the differences between unhealthy and healthy personalities, helping their readers to incorporate the characteristics of the latter as though being fully human is truly a process that each individual who cares for his or her wellbeing should opt to undergo.  Even though it is only Rogers who refers to the healthy personality as a process rather than a state of being, it is perfectly clear that Maslow cannot define the hierarchy of needs, metamotivation, metaneeds and metapathologies, etc. without his readers experiencing the urge to self-actualize by first fulfilling all their lower needs.  Besides, the self-actualizer, according to Maslow, does not stop fulfilling his or her potential, gaining knowledge, enriching his or her life experiences and trying to be all that he or she can be.  Hence, the self-actualizer is always in the process of self-actualization or maintaining a healthy personality (Healthy Personality, 2006).
   
Rogers also wrote on self-actualization.  In his opinion, maintaining a healthy personality is the same as striving for self-actualization.  But this is not an easy and painless process, as it requires individuals to attain and maintain mastery over their lives instead of forcing themselves to adopt societal norms.  Thus, an individual trying to maintain a healthy personality must be open to experiences, including both positive and negative feelings.  This openness to experience must accompany the thought to live in the present.  Instead of dwelling on the past or the future, a healthy person indulges in existential living, enjoying life as it goes, at the same time as he or she is aware of the fact that both positive and negative feelings are a part of human nature and life is not always a bed of roses.  Moreover, Rogers wrote that a fully functioning individual, that is, one who possesses a healthy personality, must trust his or her feelings and decisions made on the basis of feeling rather than rely on the intellect alone for solutions.  This individual must feel free and capable of achieving his or her goals.  Furthermore, a healthy person must be spontaneous and creative rather than bound by hard and fast rules at all times (Healthy Personality).
   
Rogers views a healthy personality as a courageous individual who would like to fulfill his or her goals, being happy for him- or herself as he or she continues to strive for perfection in his or her being and circumstances in life.  A healthy person works to maintain his or her health by continuously striving to achieve greater goals with contentment in existential living.  Rogers does not have a list of goals for the fully functioning individual to achieve, unlike Maslow who describes a range of needs for the healthy person to fulfill before he or she can strive for self-actualization.  Hence, Maslows process of self-actualization appears more difficult than Rogers.  An individual has to fulfill his or her physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, cognitive and aesthetic needs before he or she can strive for absolute perfection, which is self-actualization in Maslows terminology.  According to Maslow, it is unhealthy not to strive for self-actualization.  Once an individual has fulfilled his or her need to self-actualize, however, he or she is fully human or fully functioning.  In other words, the process of achieving a healthy personality is over by the time an individual has reached the stage of self-actualization, that is, being all that one is capable of being or having achieved everything that one had set out to achieve (Healthy Personality).
   
All the same, the self-actualized person, according to Maslow, cannot lose his or her zest for life or experience despair, depression, constant tiredness or discomfort after achieving all goals in life (Healthy Personality).  Rather, the healthy person maintains health in the mind and body with the following characteristics, some of which are included among Rogers list of characteristics of the fully functioning personality
       
En efficient perception of reality a general acceptance of nature, others, and oneself spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness a focus on problems outside themselves a need for privacy and independence autonomous functioning a continued freshness of appreciation mystical or peak experiences social interest interpersonal relations a democratic structure discrimination between means and ends, between good and evil an unhostile sense of humor creativeness and resistance to enculturation. (Healthy Personality).

Maslows comprehensive description of the healthy personality is better able to help readers striving for self-actualization.  Rogers does not mention that it is important to look outside of oneself, be democratic by nature or a lover of knowledge.  Then again, Rogers is more concerned about being free as a unique individual who may or may not feel compelled to serve others nor feel comfortable in a democratic setting.  Hence, readers of Rogers and Maslow may feel free to incorporate characteristics of healthy persons that suit them best, according to their own feelings.  In fact, both Maslow and Rogers allow their readers to think creatively enough to develop their own conceptualizations of healthy personality if they will.