As we close 2008, I am going to 'take another kick at the can' here relative to something that I have been doing for the last 30 years or so -- specifically, build another model of the human psyche, or worded otherwise, the human personality.
My influences are too many to mention but I will quickly off the top of my head name the main ones: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Fritz Perls (Laura Perls, Hefferline, Goodman...), Erich Fromm, Fairbairn, Eric Berne, Kohut, Hegel, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Korzybski, Hayakawa, Albert Ellis, George Kelly, Aaron Beck, Maxwell Maltz, Nathaniel Branden, Ayn Rand, Karl Marx, Anaxamander, Heraclitus, The Han Philosophers, Cannon, Derrida, Foucault, John Locke, Aristotle, Plato...
The model is a smaller version of 'Hegel's Hotel', partly realistic, partly idealistic -- ideally, something that we could/can all carry around in our heads from day to day, as those who invest their time and energy in this model seek to find their own individual, extremely elusive, always changing, dialectic-democratic, multi-bi-polar, homeostatic balance. The model is built partly -- indeed mainly in the name and vision of 'Gods, Myths, Philosophers, and Psychologists'...
Let it be clear from the outset that I am not 'mono-theistic'. I do not believe in one God; rather, I believe in many. I believe that all Gods are projections of the human mind, the human personality, and as such, are all an important part of us.
What we need to do in order to better 'self-empower' ourselves -- in all of our many bi-polarities and mult-dialectic complexities -- is to 're-own these Gods, re-own these projections', and bring them all back into an effective, dialectic-democratic 'Parliament of the Personality' where all these Gods, along with kings, philosophers, psychologists, poets, song-writers, and other leaders can have their individual say in how we choose to 'run our personality'. This is the ultimate goal of DGB Philosophy and 'Hegel's Hotel'.
What I have in mind relative to my DGB model of the personality builds completely from these three main entities:
1. John Locke and his famous idea of 'checks and balances' in British Parliament;
2. Friedrich Nietzsche's first book, 'The Birth of Tragedy' and its Psychoanalytic implications where the dramatic human adventures, conflicts, and tragedies of 'Apollo vs. Dionysus' would eventually become the dramatic human adventures, conflicts, and tragedies of 'The Superego vs. The Id', 'The Personna vs. The Shadow', 'The Righteous Ego vs. The Nurturing Ego', 'The Narcissistic Ego vs. The Altruistic Ego', 'The Ethical Ego vs. The Unethical Ego', 'The Authoritarian Ego vs. The Democratic Ego', 'The Conservative (Republican) Ego vs. The Liberal (Democratic) Ego', 'The Capitalist Ego vs. The Socialist Ego', and a host of other internal and external, personal and social 'dialectic-splits';
3. The Integrating (Synthesizing) force of the German Idealism of Immanuel Kant followed by Fichte, Schelling, and mainly, G.W.F. Hegel; combined with the the romantic-rational and irrational-humanistic-existential-post-modern-deconstructive influences of such philosophers as: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida, Erich Fromm, Ayn Rand, and finally -- DGB Philosophy.
No further explanations or extrapolations for now.
They will have to wait for another day.
Let's go!
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A/ The Mainly Conscious and Dominant or Suppressed Ego-States
1. The Central-Mediating, Executive Ego (Mythological Figure: Zeus);
2. The Nurturing (Maternal) Topdog Ego (Mythological Figures: Gaia, Hera);
3. The Righteous-Critical (Paternal) Topdog Ego (Mythological Figure: Apollo)
4. The Narcissistic-Hedonistic Topdog Ego (Mythological Figures: Narcissus, Dionysus);
5. The Righteous-Rebellious Underdog Ego (Mythological Figure: Apollo);
6. The Narcissistic-Hedonistic Underdog Ego (Mythological Figures: Narcissus, Dionysus);
7. The Nurturing (Aproval-Seeking, Co-operating) Underdog Ego (Mythological Figures: Gaia, Hera);
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B/ Supporting Background Ego States and Functions
1. The Enlightenment (Rational, Ethical) Ego;
2. The Democratic-Dialectic (Equal Rights) Ego;
3. The Authoritarian (The Individual 'Will to Power', 'Will to Control') Ego;
4. The Humanistic (Compassionate, Empathic) Ego;
5. The Existential (Accountable to Self, Accountable to Others) Ego;
6. The Romantic-Spiritual (Impulsive, Creative, Irrational, Spontaneous, Unpredictable, Loving, In Harmony With Nature) Ego;
7. The Constructive-Creative-Structural (Thesis) Ego;
8. The Deconstructive (Post-Modern, Anti-Structural-Anti-Thesis) Ego;
9. The 'Process' (Heraclitus, Korzybski, Hawakawa, Gestalt Principle of -- 'Life is always Subject to Change') Ego;
10. The 'Associative' (Comparing, Generalizing) Ego;
11. The 'Distinctive' (Contrasting, Distinguishing) Ego;
12. The Integrating or Synthesizing (Heraclitus, The Han Philosophers -- yin-yang, Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy, Freud, Jung, Perls, the Cannon principle of -- 'homeostatic balance', the DGB principle of 'dialetic-democratic balance') Ego;
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C/ Mainly Subconscious Ego States and Functions
1. The Subconscious, Dynamic, Creative Ego (including driving, underlying compensatory and projective transference complexes);
2. The Subconscious, Structural, Network and Template of Transference-Memory Complexes (including memories, beliefs, values, value-judgments, associations, distinctions, traumacies, tragedies, and source f driving, underlying compensatory and projective transference complexes);
3. The Driving Caldron of Biological-Psychological Impulses that closely equates with what Freud called 'The Id';
4. The Subconscious Genetic, Symbolic, Mythological, Archetype and 'Self-Potential' Template that roughly equates with what Jung called 'The Collective Unconscious'.
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As mentioned at the outset of this essay, this DGB model of the human psyche/personality builds upon and expands on John Locke's political principle of 'checks and balances' and his application of this principle to his Ideal Model of an effectively safe and working British Parliament.
Political parliaments are simply externalizations or projections of the internal workings of the human personality (just like religions and all other elements of human culture). Some governments obviously emphasize some internal workings of the human personality over others -- both good and/or bad (again, just like religions).
I will let you 'chew' on this latest DGB model for what it might mean or not mean to you at this point of time.
All explanations and extrapolations will have to wait for another day.
-- DGBN, Sunday December 13th, 2008.
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Democracy Goes Beyond Narcissism
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
Are still in process...
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