62 - Scott Barry Kaufman - What We Are Capable of Becoming

You can find out more about Scott’s work here:
https://scottbarrykaufman.com/

Scott’s book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualisation:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/552566/transcend-by-scott-barry-kaufman-phd/9780143131205

Scott’s interview on Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast:
https://samharris.org/podcasts/209-a-good-life/

Scott’s interview with Sean Carroll:
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/04/06/91-scott-barry-kaufman-on-the-psychology-of-transcendence/

Follow Scott on Twitter: @sbkaufman

Further References

The OCEAN personality test:
https://www.psychometrictest.org.uk/big-five-personality/

Kim Stanley Robinson, Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars (1993)

Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016)

Sci fi series Salvation: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6170874/

P. D. James, The Children of Men (1992)

Peter D. Ward, Robert Brownlee Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (2000)

George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–72)

Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (1943)

John Keats, “Ode on Melancholy” (1819):
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44478/ode-on-melancholy

Timestamps

2:35 The pyramid image versus Scott’s sailboat metaphor
13:37 Ascetic orders, basic needs & transcendence. Can monks be self-actualizing?
21:19 My general assessment of Scott’s book
23:44 The D-realm (“deficiency” realm)
26:52 Scott’s interview with Sam Harris
29:15 Disagreeableness
30:44 Axes of human personality
31:51 Stability and plasticity
34:08 Introversion and extraversion
38:54 The B-realm (“being” realm)
42:59 How easy is to access the B-realm and to find transcendence?
53:34 Peak experiences, flow states, transcendence
1:01:05 Maslow’s discoveries at the end of his life
1:02:58 Demotivation and how to fight it
1:07:04 Attachment styles and other ways in which the D- and B-realms are inextricably intertwined