ATTITUDES TOWARD THE SELF
Openness and Self-Insight
A Mature person possess the capacity to reflect on motives, to express his or her feelings and to speak about oneself and one's sexuality in a sincere and open way, with some allowance evidendy given for the need to establish some basic trust in the relationship (Champoux, 1998). This is opposite to "acting-out" our needs in unconscious or destructive patterns of behaviour. This aspect of maturity includes the ability to experience and tolerate especially intense feelings - which inevitably occur in life - and to be able to appropriately express these feelings, or contain them until an appropriate and responsible means for expressing them is available. Negative signs are unwillingness or inability to open up, lack of self-questioning, constant self-justification, sensitiveness to remarks, and rationalisation. On the other hand, the need to open up about everything to everybody is also sign of immaturity.