Autotelic experience

This is the experience of carrying out an activity for its own sake and not for any end result. Even activities initially commenced as [exotelic]

, or with an end in view, may become [autotelic]

if they become intrinsically rewarding. It is a matter of where the attention is focused. It is the opposite of the feeling that time - whether work or leisure - is being wasted. Alienation, boredom and helplessness are replaced by involvement, enjoyment and a feeling of control. The experience of the present is rewarding in itself and one does not depend upon (hypothetical) future gain.

The state is potentially addictive, and although it may arise in rewarding activities it also arises in less acceptable situations. For some the inflicting of pain or the carrying out of daring crimes may be difficult to give up. It has been postulated that juvenile delinquency may be motivated by the search for an autotelic or flow experience which does not arise in ordinary life. Different people have different ability to transform ordinary experience into flow experience. Some people find it easier to control consciousness than others, so that schizophrenics and those suffering from attentional disorders are unlikely to have autotelic experiences, they are unable to concentrate psychic energy, the attentional processes are fragmented. It is also a matter of controlling psychic energy so that it is not overly directed towards the self (not being too self-conscious or self-centred), with the result that attentional processes are excessively rigid. Social pathology hindering autotelic experience are those of anomie and alienation, which can be thought of as equivalent to attentional disorders and self-centredness.