Last time we looked at
how consciousness evolves through various stages of development. In this post
we’ll look at what happens when this process goes wrong.
Back to the house
building metaphor: as the foundations for your character are being laid
problems can arise which lead to difficulties later in life. If the support
structures in your house aren’t stable, the walls will crumble around you and
if you’re really unlucky, the roof will cave in.
It’s the same with
character. At each stage of development it’s possible to get stuck because we
fail to meet the challenge of growth. Our future development can then become
distorted. Life continues to grow and move forward, but often in destructive
ways. Scar tissue forms over the wound, like a bad leg fracture that hasn’t set
right and leaves you with a permanent limp. These kinks are your neuroses and
psychoses, bad tempers, mood swings and blind spots. But they’re also the
individual quirks and idiosyncrasies that make you so endearing!
How we evolve: Transcend and Include
Evolution moves towards
increasing levels of complexity, and previous stages are incorporated into the
next stage. For example, your body is composed of many organs, bones and blood,
and these are composed of individual cells with various functions. The cells
are made from atoms, which are made from subatomic particles, which are made
from energy. So you are energy arranged into atoms, arranged into cells,
arranged into organs, arranged into a body. Each level includes the previous
one.
It’s the same with
consciousness. The mind is a dynamic, evolving process in a state of constant
change. It is flexible and adapts to changing conditions, creating new concepts
and mental structures through learning. This process is driven by archetypes in
the collective unconscious which progressively introduce new structures into
the psyche – in others words, new ways of perceiving or interpreting reality.
Each new structure is of a higher order than the one preceding it, more complex
and so more unified or inclusive. We can’t skip a stage of development – jump
ahead from the Emotional self to full-blown Ego, for example. We need to grow through the levels.
So why do we get stuck?
At every stage there’s a
conflict between the current level and the new level trying to come through.
Life naturally wants to grow and evolve, but sometimes it meets resistance.
This leads to a crisis and a solution must be found:
Change or die.
Evolution seems to
happen because of this conflict. Life
is driven to transcend itself through conflict resolution driven by stress. But
too much stress can make an individual, or a society, move backwards. We
devolve to a prior state rather than evolve to the next natural level. There’s
no guarantee that evolution will happen, or that change will always be positive
or be a movement forwards.
To evolve to a new
level of consciousness we must transcend the old level. But this doesn’t mean
getting rid of or denying the old structure. The new structures are built on
the foundations of the old ones. For example, we don’t stop crawling when we
learn how to walk. We can still crawl if we want to, it’s just that walking is
more efficient and involves less wear and tear on our poor knees.
It’s the same with
levels of consciousness. As each new level is reached, the previous level is
transcended and included. For example, when the self starts to differentiate
from the body, it doesn’t deny the existence of the body. It transcends the
body but still includes it in awareness.
But part of the self
can remain attached at a particular level, even if the rest keeps growing. This
can happen because the self isn’t a singular entity. There are many different
lines of development and each can function at a different stage. Some of the
lines include: cognitive, self-identity, sexuality, moral, interpersonal,
conative style, empathy, and so on.
This sounds complicated
(and it is!) but here’s an example: an individual could have a high level of
development cognitively (Developing Ego) and yet be stuck at a lower level of
development morally (Role self). This person would be rational for the most
part, but when it came to moral decisions they would revert to conventional,
authoritarian opinions. In other words, their rationality would be compromised
and they may be easily led by people in authority over them.
When part of the self
gets stuck at a particular stage, it’s because the process of transcendence
hasn’t worked properly. We’re still attached at that level and so can’t
transcend it fully, leaving us open to developmental problems further down the
line.
Problems by Stage
For example, at the Symbiosis Stage (Infrared,
Undifferentiated) problems here mean you may not feel very real as a person.
You may feel drawn into activities that allow you to move back into a state of
unity, looking for self dissolution or annihilation. You may suffer from a lack
of clear boundaries, and may be prone to addictions and self-destructive acts,
such as suicide, or experience psychosis.
At the Impulsive Stage (Magenta, Emotional
self) problems can lead to oral fixations and difficulties separating from your
mother. You may become a mummy’s boy or girl, or have problems with over-eating
or smoking. Norman Bates from the film Psycho
is a perfect, but extreme, example of a mother complex gone bad. You may also
develop narcissistic or borderline personality disorders.
At the Self-Protective Stage (Red, Membership
self) you start to transcend the body and if you get stuck here, you may have
problems with authority and control. You may need someone to tell you what to
do and so hand your power over to others. Or you become very controlling
yourself, developing a need to have power over others at any cost. Developmental
problems at this stage include neuroses such as anxiety and phobias, as well as
depression, guilt, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
At the Conformist Stage (Amber, Role self) the
mind transcends the body and this increases the feeling of being separate from
other people and the world. You start to become more aware of your
vulnerability in life. You are alone and isolated from others. They have their
bodies and minds, you have yours. Problems here can lead to script pathologies,
so the stories you tell yourself about who you are may be less than helpful.
Such as, “I’m not good enough”, “I’m stupid”, or “Love always hurts.”
At the Conscientious Stage (Orange, Developing
Ego) the self begins to fragment as we learn to reflect on our own thinking and
roles in life. Problems here include role confusion, identity crises, as well
as issues around sexuality. The problems of the Individualistic Stage (Green, Mature Ego) continue on from the
previous stage with more identity crises.
Phew!
With all these
potential pitfalls, becoming your authentic self seems almost impossible. It’s
no wonder most of us get a little lost along the way. We’re the walking
wounded!
So where do all these
kinks in our mind end up?
The Elephant in the Room
The mind has various
defence mechanisms that kick in to protect us from suffering as we grow up.
They function in four main ways:
- Denial
- Repression
- Distortion
- Rationalisation
Denial and repression are
both ways of blocking information or experiences from consciousness. Denial
blocks stuff coming in from outside, and repression deals with the stuff
already on the inside. Distortion and rationalisation are more cerebral and
manipulative. Distortion changes information as it comes in from the outside,
like spin doctoring, whereas rationalisation alters what we already know to fit
the way we want things to be.
In other words, we lie
to ourselves.
If we return to the
idea of building a house we can see how these defence mechanisms work. In the
process of construction some areas of the build may not go to plan. Perhaps the
internal walls aren’t quite in the right place, the windows aren’t straight,
the floor slopes in places and the roof leaks. When you move in you’re going to
have problems. There’ll be buckets to catch the drips from the leaky roof and
some rooms won’t be useable at all. Whole areas of the house will be shut up
and ignored. You can’t use the basement because the ceiling is threatening to
cave in, so you fill it with all your old junk and stuff you never want to see
again.
You may spend a fortune
doing up the exterior of the house, get it looking fantastic so no one suspects
the mess on the inside. When you have friends round you make sure they only see
certain parts of the house. Of course you don’t tell them they can’t see it
all, that would only draw attention to it and make them curious. You just wow
them with the parts they can see, exaggerate their importance, overdo the
décor, and fill the rooms with interesting possessions. Failing that you could
just leave them mesmerised in front of the TV.
All the locked up
rooms, hidden junk and structural anomalies masked by strategically hung
pictures, represent what Jung called the Shadow.
And this is what we’ll
be looking at next time in: The Dark Side of the Ego
