Will to Power as a Drive to Self-Actualization. The Relevance of Friedrich Nietzsche for Contemporary Humanistic Psychology and Biosemiotics
Abstract
My presentation will introduce one of the main theses of my dissertation where I claim that Nietzsche's concept of the will to power can be fruitfully understood as a "drive to self-actualization". The fruitfulness of this reading is mainly its relevance for contemporary research and its interdisciplinary potential.
The concept of self-actualization is commonly used in humanistic psychology, especially in the works of Kurt Goldstein and Abraham Maslow (although in different meanings in both) and in the last ten years, biosemiotic interpretations of this concept have appeared as well. Nietzsche is not usually connected to any of these fields, however, and especially his connection to biosemiotics remains an unexplored teritorry.
In my presentation, I will thus attempt to show that Nietzsche can be considered a rightful precursor to both of these fields and that his thinking can bring much good to both of them even today.