Self-Actualization and Personal Mortality

A study was designed to test the hypothesized relationship between self-actualization or authenticity and the ability to confront personal mortality. Two groups of ten persons each were matched on demographic variables and compared on their performance in a phantasied age-progression procedure. The actualized group was composed of persons in the helping professions; the nonactualized group was composed of patients confined to a state mental institution. The procedure involved relaxation, visualization, and phantasy, guided to successively older ages, with no mention of death or dying. Successful completion required a phantasied dying-to-completion of natural causes at age sixty-five or older. Sessions were recorded and rated by five judges. Results demonstrated rater reliability and a significant difference (p <.01) between groups in the hypothesized direction, with 7.6 successful completions in the actualized and one in the nonactualized group. This study supports the contention that the ability to face death is a concomitant of actualized authentic existence.