SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER 2

Loving from Authenticity

    The subtitle of this book is "How Authenticity Transforms Relationships".
And this chapter explains exactly what is meant by "Authenticity".
To become more Authentic means to rise above our original personalities
by choosing our own basic purposes-in-life.

    A companion book to New Ways of Loving is
Becoming More Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism .
This companion book describes in detail (with an Authenticity Test)
the following 23 features of Authentic Existence:
1. Transcend enculturation.
2. Invent our own patterns; rise above circumstances.
3. Unique, self-defining, self-creating.
4. Create our own meanings and goals.
5. No roles or games from the culture.
6. Directed by ourselves.
7. Believe what we know from experience.
8. Gather the past, present, & future into the unity of our resolute selves.
9. Embrace our Existential Predicament.
10. Unified.
11. Focused.
12. Owned by ourselves.
13. Solid, organized.
14. Integrated.
15. Centered.
16. Governed by larger, deeper patterns.
17. Single-minded, willing one thing.
18. Simple, direct.
19. Decisive.
20. Self-creating.
21. Seeking meaning, purpose.
22. Always free and responsible for inventing ourselves.
23. Having an ultimate concern.

    Becoming More Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism
devotes a full chapter to each of the following existential thinkers:
Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger,
Søren Kierkegaard, & Abraham Maslow.

    And the Authenticity chapter in New Ways of Loving
gives a summary of Authentic Existence
as described by each of these thinkers.

HOW READING
"Loving from Authenticity"
MIGHT CHANGE YOUR LIFE

This chapter presents the basic new structures of existence
for persons who choose to become more Authentic.
And this fundamental change in your being
will have profound effects on your loving relationships.
Each of the other chapters of New Ways of Loving
explains in detail how becoming more Authentic
will change that dimension of your relationships.
For example, Chapter 4 "Loving without Needing"
explains how the process of becoming more Authentic
empowers you to satisfy your own pre-existing needs
so that you will not be tempted to use other people
as a means of satisfying your own needs.

Of course, simply reading and understanding this chapter
will not make you an Authentic person.
Nor will it transform your loving relationships.
But it might be the beginning of a long-term process of personal growth,
which will have important implications for your relationships
at each step in the process of becoming more Authentic.
Even a trip of a thousand miles begins with one step.

revised 8-4-2007; revised 2-13-2014; 2-24-2017;

If you would like to read the first two pages of this chapter, click this title:
"Loving from Authenticity" .
The first page includes the table of contents for this chapter.

Go to the index page for New Ways of Loving:
How Authenticity Transforms Relationships .

Go to the beginning of this website:
James Leonard Park---Free Library .