Redefining Self-ish

I'm reading Carl Roger's "On Becoming a Person." His whole thing is that therapy is based on the individual, based on potential in man rather than methodology. Obviously I have not broken into the fun summer beach books yet.

Anyhow, an interesting topic came up.

Redefining the word "Self-ish"

In one of the client excerpts this woman is going on and on about how she thought being in therapy and wanting to talk about herself is selfish. Until she realized that the word has a new and different connotation. Maybe being "self-ish" in some regards isn't always so bad. In this context the therapist summarizes what the client says and connects the dots between self-ish and discovering more about your self.

So its good to be self-ish if it means self discovery or exploration?

I've been thinking about this ever since I read that particular passage. I think its kind of a cool concept. Selfish gets a bad connotation most of the time. But in this context it is an important to vital thing towards building self-awareness, towards becoming.

I wonder what would happen if we all practiced a little more self-ishness?