Self-transcendence

Self-transcendence is a personality trait that involves the expansion of personal boundaries, including, potentially, experiencing spiritual ideas such as considering oneself an integral part of the universe. Several psychologists, including Viktor Frankl, Abraham Maslow, Pamela G. Reed, C. Robert Cloninger, Lars Tornstam, and Scott Barry Kaufman have made contributions to the theory of self-transcendence. Self-transcendence is distinctive as the first trait concept of a spiritual nature to be incorporated into a major theory of personality. Self-transcendence is one of the "character" dimensions of personality assessed in Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. It is also assessed by the Self-Transcendence Scale and the Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory. Several overlapping definitions of self-transcendence have been given. Viktor Frankl wrote, "The essentially self-transcendent quality of human existence renders man a being reaching out beyond himself." According to Reed, self-transcendence is: the capacity to expand self-boundaries intrapersonally (toward greater awareness of one's philosophy, values, and dreams), interpersonally (to relate to others' and one's environment), temporally (to integrate one's past and future in a way that has meaning for the present), and transpersonally (to connect with dimensions beyond the typically discernible world). Taking a developmental perspective concerning aging and transcendence, Tornstam defined the concept of gerotranscendence as "a shift in metaperspective, from a midlife materialistic and rational vision to a more cosmic and transcendent one, accompanied by an increase in life satisfaction." In Cloninger's seven-dimensional model of personality, there are four temperament dimensions that have a strong biological basis, and three learned character dimensions that are believed to be concept-based. Self-transcendence is a character trait considered to relate to the experience of spiritual aspects of the self.