Publication

Abstract : Renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow’s romantic vision of a self-actualized human being and novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand’s visualization of an ideal human being are similar in many aspects. While the psychologist conceived an encouraging picture of the fundamental nature of human beings (what they could be), the writer, through her novels, envisioned what people who have reached that stage are capable of achieving (how they ought to be). Both treat happiness as a state of mind that is achievable by all, rather than an emotional state that is dependent on external factors. While Rand in her fiction and Maslow in his theories have listed a number of common traits as prerequisites for an individual to lead a constructive and happy life, the ability to resolve or integrate dichotomies, according to them, plays a vital role in deciding a person’s psychological health. Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged contains many such dichotomies that human beings battle with in the course of their lives. This paper explores how the characters in Atlas Shrugged successfully deal with some of these dichotomies and as a consequence lead joyful lives. Since the mental health of a person is crucial to one’s wellbeing and happiness, the objective of this paper is to discover solutions to internal conflicts that can disrupt the tranquility of the human mind.