Sustained human development as a psycho-social evolution from individuality to personality

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how Vivekananda, in his quest for sustained human development, explores a new generation of humanity by combining some of the active and heroic personality elements of the West with the meditative and yogic personality skills of the East.

Design/methodology/approach

Because of Vivekananda’s pioneering efforts in the last decade of the 19th century, ancient India’s Vedânta philosophy of human life, along with the Yoga system, has now become a common heritage of all mankind. Vivekananda’s assertion that a human being is potentially divine – one of the major tenets of ancient India’s Vedânta philosophy – has been used as the philosophical foundation of sustained human development.

Findings

A psycho-physical human being’s initial individuality could be developed towards a psycho-social personality with its manifold existence by manifesting the aesthetic, ethical, heroic and spiritual possibilities lying hidden in an individual person.

Originality/value

Persons with different degrees of higher assimilative qualities create different personalities. A psycho-social personality could lead to the path of sustained human development essentially by controlling its mind.

Citation

Dutta, D. (2014), "Sustained human development as a psycho-social evolution from individuality to personality", International Journal of Development Issues, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 188-203. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDI-06-2014-0050