Blatz - Security

This discussion is an attempt to strike at the root of social living and to try to bring out its first principle - security .... Security is not safety, because as soon as we desire safety we thereby show that we have not achieved security ... security is something you cannot buy or borrow. It is something you must learn and earn. The secure individual is one who when presented with a problem chooses an alternative and then is willing to accept the consequences, whatever they may be.... The standard of security may be achieved in two ways. The first way is through the mechanism of dependence.... Individuals grow toward the goal of maturity ... being born dependent, we achieve independence.... Independence is the end result of emancipation from all those persons or things upon which we are dependent since birth.... How do we achieve this independence? The mechanism is that of learning.... As you know how to do something, you are increasingly secure ... every individual may be regarded as striving for security in four phases of his social milieu ... a purpose in life ... vocation ... avocation ... social intimacies.
- Blatz 1934a pp.3-4

Source: The Secure Child, Volpe:p.11