I am writing from the lobby of the newly renovated Sharaton Hotel in Richmond Hill, Leslie and 7, this mornig. High definition tvs in the bedrooms and 5 internet computers in the lobby -- two very nice additions to staying over night at a nice hotel.
My last essay didn't take me where I expected -- the 'genetic unconscious' being the last 'ego-compartment' that I wanted to unfold, not the first. But this is not unusual for me in my writing so let us go with the flow and see where it takes us.
Two day ago I was worried about the model being 'too big and complicated', 'carrying too much excess baggage', pushing the 'analytic reading up the Richter scale and off the charts' while at the same time pushing 'the existential reading' down and off the charts at the other end.
Today I am not as worried about that. My model covers a lot more 'philosophical as well as psychological territory' -- about 2700 years of philosophical -- and before that even mythological -- history that I am bringing into play in Hegel's Hotel that most of the psychologists were not terribly worried about.
Berne's model used six different 'ego-states' in his terminology -- 'ego-compartments in my terminology. Berne's model talked about: 1. the 'nurturing parent' (ego-state); 2. the 'controlling parent' (ego-state); 3. the 'adult' (ego-state); 4. the 'adapted child' (ego-state'; 5. the 'natrual child' (ego-state); and 6. the 'rebellious child' (ego-state). According to Berne, every person 'moves around' form one of these ego-states to another depending on the context of the situation, and the particular inter-relational dynamics of the encounter -- or dialectic -- in progress.
My DGB model is an abbreviated synopsis of everything I am writing in Hegel's Hotel and at this point in time includes these 16 different ego-compartments -- or 'divisions of the ego'.
3rd Floor: 1. The Nurturing Topdog; 2. The Narcissistic-Hedonistic Topdog; 3. The Righteous Topdog;
2nd floor: 4. The Creative-Constructive Ego; 5. The Deconsstructive Ego; 6. The Epistemological Ego; 7. The Enlightenment Ego; 8. The Romantic-Humanistic-Existential Ego; 9. The Economic Ego; 10. The Physical Fitness Ego; 11. The Conflict-Mediating/Executive-Existential Ego;
1st Floor: 12. The Righteous (Rebellious) Underdog; 13. The Narcissistic-Hedonistic Underdog; 14. The Approval-Seeking/Co-operative Underdog;
Basement: 15. The Creative-Dynamic Unconcious; 16. The Structural Unsconscious (consisting of two parts): a) The Social Unconscious (and Transference-Lifestyle-Archetype Templates); and b) The Geenetic Unconscious (of which we have already talked about in the last essay).
That will do for today -- something for you to mull over and ponder on until we get down to more of the specifics of the 'the structural make-up, dynamics and interaction of these different ego-compartments and/or ego-states'.
dgb, May 16th, 2008.
