From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

by Arthur C. Brooks

“As soon as a person becomes an Object of appetite for another, all motives of moral relationship cease to function, because as an Object of appetite for another a person becomes a thing and can be treated and used as such by every one.”[13]

workplace objectification leads to burnout, job dissatisfaction, depression, and sexual harassment.

“every other kind of sin has to do with the commission of evil deeds, whereas pride lurks even in good works in order to destroy them.”[23]

When I consider myself better than others—when “better” is at the core of my identity—then failure is unthinkable. It would excommunicate myself from my objectified self. It is like a little death.

release from suffering comes not from renunciation of the things of the world, but from release from attachment to those things.

Rogers defined well-balanced people as those with a self-concept that matches their life experiences. In contrast, Rogers defined a neurotic person as one who could not accept her or his own experiences as valid, and thus who has a distorted self-concept.

“Employees who do not successfully traverse this period experience ongoing identity instability; they are cognitively and emotionally consumed by the loss, stagnating in their inability to let go of the old self and/or to embrace the new and changed work self.”[7]