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Introduction to the programs on self-development
Question: Whether the self-development is an automatic and mechanical process or a reflective and creative process?
The common sense meaning of development implies the ideas of moving ahead toward something positive, the unfolding of a pre-conceived plan, and/or the novel and surprising realization of one’s deeply felt ideals. The full human meaning of the word, development, takes on flesh and bones when applied to an artist such as, van Gogh. His works over time expressed the mature development of his talents and creative insights.
On another level human development refers to the biological and social development of children which seems in the early stages to require little or no reflective thinking. Common sense without critical reflection can lead to the erroneous assumption that the ground plan for self-development happens automatically and technically in childhood and unfolds by being trained in social and cognitive skills. Based on this point of view self-development is equated with the tasks of perfecting tactics and strategies to satisfy biological and social needs in the game of life. This uncritical common sense view assumes that humans do not create their lives, as van Gogh created his paintings; they only get a chance to win or lose in the game of life set up by some unknown or known game-maker.
Critical common sense based on the deep-seated intuitions that humans are free and creative rejects the belief that self-development is an automatic and technical process. The evidence based on studies using critical common sense clearly shows that self-development is a process of creating ourselves in the light of our best insights that we discover in dialogue.
The following programs using the OSCAR method are examples of personal, creative dialogue.