Like Dr. King: May You Always Be “Creatively Maladjusted”

In September of 1967, a 38-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took the podium in front of a crowd of psychologists and delivered a riveting speech. It was popular for many reasons, but the reason I appreciate it is for his coining of a new phrase that explains, so well, what it means to be a smart risk-taker: creatively maladjusted.

Here’s the passage1:

mlk-dream

There are certain technical words in every academic discipline which soon become stereotypes and even clichés. Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. You who are in the field of psychology have given us a great word. It is the word maladjusted. This word is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is a good word; certainly it is good that in dealing with what the word implies you are declaring that destructive maladjustment should be destroyed. You are saying that all must seek the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities.

But on the other hand, I am sure that we will recognize that there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we should never be adjusted. There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. We must never adjust ourselves to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence.

This idea of creative maladjustment, in my opinion, should guide the heart and the mind of any smart risk-taker.

A great life is not one that only makes you comfortable. It’s one that stretches you and forces you to confront the world as it is. It requires you to ask yourself questions like, “Why is this normal?” and “What am I really accomplishing by believing and acting this way?” And a great life is one that encourages others to ask themselves those same questions.

It’s a luxury to look into the past and see so clearly what was right and what was wrong, asking yourself, “Why couldn’t they see what they were doing wrong?”

What we often fail to realize, though, is the same issues are still here today, only with a new face and wearing different clothes. In 30 years, the next generation will look back on us and ask, “Why couldn’t they see what they were doing wrong?”

But there’s always a small group who see through the veil of their own time. They don’t allow themselves to become adjusted to the ills of their world. They see what’s normal—yet wrong—and they work to fix it.

These are the creatively maladjusted. May you always be one of them.

1. See here for the full text of Dr. King’s address to the APA.