UNCOVERING PATTERNS OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEMES IN ROBIN SHARMA’S THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI AND PAULO COELHO’S THE ALCHEMIST

Abstract

This research paper is an extensive study of the literary manifestation of self-actualization in a psycho analytic and statistical context of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Although these two world-renowned masterpieces are divergent in terms of their cultural milieu, their method of narration, and the philosophical background, they all unite on a similar literary quest the description of the path of man to fulfillment, transformation, and spiritual awakening. The paper attempts to shed light on the way each story follows its own road to self-realization and does not contradict universal psychological facts by applying a mixed-method methodology that brings together thematic content analysis with the classical psychoanalytic theory and the hierarchy of needs developed by Maslow. The paper defines and quantitatively charts a set of repetitive patterns: the search of meaning, the incorporation of shadows, the transpersonal connectedness, the ritualized practice, and revision of the ego-ideal as major predictors of self-actualizing behavior of a literary expression. These themes are not just thematic tools but psychological indicators as per the accepted theories of Freud, Jung, Maslow, and Viktor Frankl hence joining the fields of literature, psychology and spirituality. This paper has shown the way in which Sharma can use a pragmatic model of change based on the discipline, self-mastery and symbolic renunciation, and Coelho can use a mythopoetic approach of self-actualization based on destiny, faith, and archetypal mentorship by analyzing textual instances. Thus, the paper demonstrates that the two authors, who have different stylistic temperaments (i.e., the didactic realism of Sharma and the allegorical mysticism of Coelho), reinterpret the psychoanalytic journey of individuation to the contemporary reader in search of meaning in the era of materialism and spiritual alienation. The additional scaffolding offered to this interdisciplinary reading is provided by critical interpretations and theoretical frameworks, which assert that both authors turn the abstract ideals of self-actualization and psychological completeness into moral and available narratives that can be found worldwide. Conclusively, the research paper conjectures that the narratives of Sharma and Coelho are literary case studies on the psychology of meaning-making, dramatizing the eternal human desire to join the spiritual with the rational self into a self-fulfilling identity.