Latest revision as of 05:28, 6 March 2026

Human Diminution

Human Diminution refers to the "loss or not-yet-actualization of human capacities and possibilities,"^[1] a falling away from full humanness. According to Maslow, human diminution is caused by toxic environments. This term is syncretic with the LP term Diminishment, one of the 5Ds of Toxic Existence.

Concept Map

Notes

Key Characteristics

Aspect	Description
Core Concept	Loss or failure to actualize inherent human potentialities and capacities
Nature	Exists on a continuum (matter of degree and quantity)
Observability	More externally observable and behavioral than traditional psychiatric symptoms like anxiety or repression
Scope	Includes standard psychiatric categories, stunting from poverty/exploitation/maleducation, existential disorders, character disorders, value pathologies, drug addiction, psychopathy, authoritarianism, and criminality
Distinction from Medical Model	Not considered "illness" in the medical sense (unlike brain tumors or bacterial infections), but rather a spiritual disorder related to loss of meaning, courage, hope, or purpose. A failure to live up to one's full potential, to actualize.

What It Replaces

Maslow explicitly uses "human diminution" instead of "neurosis", which he considers an obsolete, medically-inaccurate term implying "illness of the nerves."

Underlying Causes

Treatment

Diminution can. of course. be reversible. Very frequently. simply supplying the need gratificatioris can solve the problem. especially in children. For a child who hasn't been loved enough. obviously the treatment of first choice is to love him to death, to just slop it all over him. Clinical and general human experience is that it works-I don't have any statistics. but Iould suspect nine out of ten times. So is respect a wonderful medicine for Counteracting a feeling of worthlessness. Which of course, brings up the obvious conclusion that, if "health and illness" on the medical model are seen as obsolete, so also must the medical concepts of "treatment" and "cure" and the authoritative doctor be discarded and replaced.^[2]

Summary

In essence, human diminution describes any condition where a person fails to realize their full human potential, whether due to external oppression (poverty, enslavement) or internal/spiritual crises (loss of meaning, despair, self-dislike).

Quotes

"...it puts on the same continuum all the standard psychiatric categories, all the stunting, cripplings, and inhibitions that come from poverty. exploitation, maleducation. enslavement. etc., and all the newer value pathologies, existential disorders, character disorders that come to the economically privileged. It handles very nicely the diminutions that result from drug addiction, psychopathy authoritarianism. criminality. and other categories that cannot be called"illness" in the same medical sense as can, e.g., brain tumor.

This is a radical move away from the medical model, a move which is long overdue. Strictly speaking. neurosis means an illness of the nerves a relic we can very well do without today. In addition, using the label "psychological illness" puts neurosis ulcers, lesions, bacterial invasion, broken bones, or tumors. But by now. we have learned very well that it is better to consider neurosis as rather related to spiritual disorders, to loss of meaning, to doubts about the goals of life, to grief and anger over a lost love, to seeing life in a different way. to loss of courage or of hope, to despair over the future, to dislike for oneself, to recognition that one's life is being wasted. or that there is no possibility of joy or love. etc.

These are all failings away from full humanness, from the full blooming of human nature. They are losses of human possibility, of what might have been and could yet be perhaps. Physical and chemical hygiene and prophylaxes certainly have some little place in this realm of psychopathogenesis, but are as nothing in comparison with the far more powerful role of social, economic, political, religious, educational, philosophical, axiological, and familial determinants."^[3]

In any case, I think the particular sense in which I suggest interpreting the neurosis as a failure of personal growth must be clear by now. It is a falling short of what one could have been. and even. one could say, of what one should have been biologically speaking, that is, if one had grown and developed in an unimpeded way. Human and personal possibilities have been lost. The world has been narrowed, and so has consciousness. Capacities have been inhibited. I think for instance of the fine pianist who couldn't play before an audience of more than a few. or the phobic who is forced to avoid heights or crowds. The person who can't study. or who can't sleep. or who can't eat many foods has been diminished as surely as the one who has been blinded. The cognitive losses, the lost pleasures, joys, and ecstasies, the loss of competence, the inability to relax, the weakening of will, the fear of responsibility-all these are diminution of humanness."^[4]

The solution to human diminution is needs gratification

"Diminution can, of course, be reversible. Very frequently, simply supplying the need gratifications can solve the problem, especially in children. For a child who hasn't been loved enough, obviously the treatment of first choice is to love him to death, to just slop it all over him. Clinical and general human experience is that it works-I don't have any statistics. but I would suspect nine out of ten times. So is respect a wonderful medicine for counteracting a feeling of worthlessness. Which. of course, brings up the obvious conclusion that, if "health and illness" on the medical model are seen as obsolete, so also must the medical concepts of "treatment" and "cure" and the authoritative doctor be discarded and replaced."^[5]

Abraham Maslow Terms

... further results

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Footnotes

↑ Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking, 1971. p. 5-6
↑ Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. Viking, 1971. p. 33-4.
↑ Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking, 1971. p. 29-30.
↑ Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking, 1971. p. 32-33.
↑ Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking, 1971. p. 33-4.

References

[1] Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking, 1971. p. 5-6

[2] Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. Viking, 1971. p. 33-4.

[3] Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking, 1971. p. 29-30.

[4] Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking, 1971. p. 32-33.

[5] Maslow, A. H. The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking, 1971. p. 33-4.

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 ===Related LP Terms===
-[[Human Diminution]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related LP term::Human Diminution]]}}
+[[Human Diminution]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related LP term::Human Diminution]]|format=ul}}
 ===Non LP Related Terms===
-[[Human Diminution]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related term::Human Diminution]]}}
+[[Human Diminution]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related term::Human Diminution]]|format=ul}}
 ==Notes==
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 === Underlying Causes ===
-Primarily social, economic, political, religious, educational, philosophical, axiological, and familial determinants—'''not''' physical or chemical factors (which play only a minor role).
+=== Treatment ===
+<blockquote>Diminution can. of course. be reversible. Very frequently. simply supplying the need gratificatioris can solve the problem. especially in children. For a child who hasn't been loved enough. obviously the treatment of first choice is to love him to death, to just slop it all over him. Clinical and general human experience is that it works-I don't have any statistics. but Iould suspect nine out of ten times. So is respect a wonderful medicine for Counteracting a feeling of worthlessness. Which of course, brings up the obvious conclusion that, if  "health and illness" on the medical model are seen as obsolete, so also must the medical concepts of "treatment" and "cure" and the authoritative doctor be discarded and replaced.<ref>Maslow, A. H. ''The Farther Reaches of Human Nature''. Viking, 1971. p. 33-4.</ref></blockquote>
 === Summary ===
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 ===Abraham Maslow Terms===
-{{#ask:[[Is a term::Abraham Maslow]]}}
+{{#ask:[[Is a term::Abraham Maslow]]|format=ul}}
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 [[Is a term::Human Potential| ]]
 [[Has sort order::1| ]]
+[[Is a related term::5Ds of Toxic Existence| ]]
 [[Is a related term::D-Cognition| ]]
 [[Is a related term::Disconnection| ]]
 [[Is a related term::D-Realm| ]]
 [[Is a related term::Deficiency Disease| ]]
-[[Is a related term::5Ds of Toxic Existence| ]]
+[[Is a related term::Full Humanness| ]]
 [[Is a related term::Neurosis| ]]
 [[Is a related term::Jonah Complex| ]]

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