Chapter 1: The Rubricization of Experience

I have always held a profound distrust of categorization or classification of experience. I am, for better and for worse, a constructivist. I have been trained to believe and think that all experiences are mediated through subjective processes. When I was an undergraduate, I majored in English literature. As anyone who has experienced this impressionable discipline, studying literature is an immeasurably complex and influencing process. It requires one to read myriad authors and go through many transformations of self. Despite the number of changes I have experienced, I have steadfastly held onto the belief that no one ever seems to understand completely the nature of meaning from my perspective. If I intend one meaning, before I have the opportunity to complete the expression of that idea, my thoughts, ideas, and perspectives have already been pigeonholed. That is, frequently the person I am communicating with has developed a preconceived understanding of what I mean to say. The epigram for this chapter eloquently expresses this ontological and epistemological dilemma, and as this chapter will demonstrate, so does the work of Abraham Maslow.