New Integrations in The DGB Multi-Dialectic Model of The Psyche/Self

So let's see what we have here as I pull together a mixture and modification of Freudian Trauma, Transference, and Impulse Theory, Object Relations, Adlerian Family Constellation and Lifestyle Theory, Transactional Analysis, Jungian Mythological, Archetype, and Self Theory...

A/ Family Constellation Ego States In The Personality


1. First Internalized Ego State -- Split into Two:  a) 'The Good, Stabilizing (Nurturing, Supportive, Encouraging) Mother' and b) 'The Bad, Unstabilizing (Righteous, Narcissistic, Rejecting, Abandoning) Mother';

2. The Second Internalized Ego State -- Split into Two: a) The Good (Stabilizing, Nurturing, Supportive, Encouraging) Father and b) The Bad (Unstabilizing, Narcissistic, Righteous, Rejecting, Abandoning) Father;

3. The Third Internalized Ego State -- Split into Two: a) The Good, Supportive Sibling and b) The Bad (Rival, Competitive) Sibling;

4. The Fourth Internalized Ego State -- Split into Two: a) The Good (Co-operative, Conflict-Avoiding) Self and b) The Bad (Rebellious, Deconstructive) Self


B/ Main Generic Mythological Ego States in The Personality

5. The Good and Bad 'Reasonable-Apollo' Ego State;

6. The Good and Bad 'Romantic-Aprodite' (Venus/Cupid/Psyche, Spinoza, Rousseau, Goethe, Schelling, Woodsworth...) Ego State;

7. The Good and Bad 'Water-God-Poseidon' Ego State;

8. The Good and Bad 'Earth-And-Family Bound Gaia-Hera' Ego State;

9. The Good and Bad 'Ego-God-Narcissus' Ego State;

10. The Good and Bad 'Sensual-Sexual-Dionysus' Ego State;

11. The Good and Bad 'War-God-Aries' Ego State;

12. The Good and Bad, Jesus Christ and God (Zeus, Jupitor), 'Yin' and 'Yang' Central Ego State;

13. The Evil Satanic Ego State (The Darkest Shadow of Man);


C/ The Dream and Nightmare Catcher/Weaver/Creator


D/ The Transference Memory, Relationship, and Complex Template


E/ The Primitive, Archaic Mythological Archetype and Dream Symbols Template


F/ The Dialectic, Bi-Polarity of The Light (Apollo, Aprodite, Venus, Cupid, Psyche, God, Jesus) and The Dark(er) (Dionysus, Narcissus, Satan...) Spirit of Man/Self



-- dgb, Nov. 16th, 2010,

-- David Gordon Bain

I Speak of The 'DHEEP'...

There is a co-relational, influential relationship between self-perceived weakness and self-hate... As self-perceived weakness and ineffectualness (real and/or imagined) goes up, so too does self-condemnation, self-anger, self-depression, and self-hate....Adler pinpointed this relationship in terms of the effect of 'level of perceived inferiority feelings' on self-image and self-esteem fluctuation...

Working with this type of transient, acute, or chronic 'self-esteem illness', one may need the help of a good friend, counsellor, or psychotherapist....and/or alternatively, be able to kick-start into motion the 'self-healing capabilities' within all of us...

Whether we need to 'nurture' ourselves better, and/or 'kick ourselves in the ass', be embraced and cuddled or -- in recent Geico commerical style -- have a 'drill seargent' inside or outside us...'direct us to take a trip over to Mambi Pambi land...and find us some self-confidence...'

Whether we need to 'go easier on ourselves' -- or 'harder'....it all comes down to 'what works for us'...Let pragmatism and functionality dictate...chase dysfunctionality out the door...

Don't let the toxins within you poison you from the inside out...or the outside in...

Like our body needs our liver for 'detoxifying pathogens'....so too does our mind....

We need a 'liver' in our mind that is pragmatic and functional....detoxifying and self-healing...The Jesus Christ Archetype providing energy to our 'Central Ego'

And our Central Ego adhering to, worshipping, and celebrating the gifts of our Creative and Altruistic Selves....Our 'Light-Soul'...The Archetype of our 'Internal God' who is guiding...or who should be guiding us...and finally the re-integration of not only Holy Spirits...but also 'Darker Spirits'....'The Dark-Soul'...home of Satan...who needs to be listened to for his 'Anti-Christian' and 'Deconstructive' Beliefs...his grudges and resentments from being 'evicted from Heaven'...from being 'ex-communicated'...and being labelled as 'The Disavowed'...'The Evil One'....In this regard 'Satanic Impulses'...evil impules...most certainly need to be 'detoxified' through the self-healing capabilities of The Central Ego in the Archetype Image of Jesus Christ...'negative energy' needs to be 'turned back into positive energy'...and failing that...civil justice systems need to take over....

But the Human Spirit needs the Fires from the Underworld...just as it needs the romantic passion of Aphrodite, Venus, Cupid, and Psyche...and just as it needs the deep, healing energies of the peaceful waters ruled by Poseidon (until Poseidon gets angry)...

And so too, the Human Spirit needs the rootedness, the security, the stability, the food and nutrition provided by The Earth, ruled over by The Greek God 'Gaia'....

And The Human Spirit needs the stabilizing institution of 'family' and 'marriage' as guided over by the Greek Mythological God, 'Hera', in whatever way we can best conceive of maintainging the stability of the family...

And finally The Human Spirit needs the Idealistic and Supreme Ruling of Zeus, Jupitor...and God in The Heavens...the Ideal Goodness worshipped by Plato...that became the Goodness of The Christian Relgion...or at least the best part of The Christian Religion...

The worst part of the Christian Religion was rhetorically confronted and 'deconstructed' by Nietzsche, Dionysus, Zarathrusta, The Superman, and 'The Anti-Christ' all of them emphasizing the supreme importance of appreciating every last day and moment we have the capability of enjoying on Earth...regardless of what may or may not be waiting for us in any imagined or real 'Afterlife'...

And I speak of the 'all-round integration of man'...

Of rational-empirical-spiritual-romantic-sensual-dialectical-humanitic-existential-religious-and/or-pantheistic egalitarianism and freedom...

I speak of the 'DHEEP'.

Dialectic-Humanistic-Existential-Egalitarian-Psychotherapy'...


-- dgb, Nov. 12th, 2010,

-- David Gordon Bain

Falling Into The Nietzschean Abyss

I'm falling...

Falling...

Into the Nietzschean Abyss...

Quick...

Anybody have a trampoline...

A really, really long ladder...

A fire department...


A parachute...

Even a set of mountain gear...

Some shoes and gloves with spikes...

To grab onto the walls...

Perhaps a ledge...not that I've seen a ledge...

I can't see anything..

It just keeps getting darker, and darker, and darker...

I can barely see the light above me...


Does this abyss...

End in water?

Or hard rock ground...that is going to break all my bones...

And kill me...


Anybody got a super big, thick mattress...

That they can throw beneath me...

Perhaps this abyss...

Goes right through the earth...

To China...or Australia...or New Zealand...

Or more likely it ends in fire and rock...

Perhaps I will meet the Devil himself...

Did I do something wrong...

Go down a bad path...

Or make a wrong choice...

Make a whole bunch of bad choices...

To get me here....

Is this my 'Un-Divine Punishment'...

Or might I learn something down here...

Can I learn something about myself...

And turn myself into a better person...

My own personal Phoenix re-born...

Whatever doesn't kill you,

Makes you stronger....

How much deeper must I plunge?

And who or what am I going to meet down here?

Or is this going to end on a deathbed of cold rock...

Or burning lava...

Deep water maybe I can survive...

Although with my momentum,

I'll probably run out of air long before I resurface...

Assuming I resurface at all...

Is this a dream?

A myth?

A nightmare?

Please, be a nightmare!

And let me wake up!!

Now!!   Before I have a heart attack!!

If I must be down here,

Let me at least walk around...

Not keep falling...

Man, did I ever miss The Nietzschean Bridge...

Even the Nietzschean Rope...

Anybody...give me a Nietschean Rope...

That I can once again feel some Nietzschean Hope...

Climbing is far better than falling...

Give me some mountain gear...

And I'll take on Mt. Everest...

Or let me land safely below...

And I will take on...

Narcissus...Dionysus...Even Satan himself...

The 'Unholy Trinity'...

No deals with The Devil...

Well, maybe some detoxified compromises...

(My bargaining power isn't very good right now...)

But I'm not going to sell my Soul...

Maybe I did already sell my Soul...

Maybe that is why I am down here...

I sold out on My Self...

I sold myself to The Devil...

Where did I go wrong?

What bad choice did I make?

Or was it a whole slew of them?

How did I sell myself to The Devil?

By failing my parents when they need me most?

By looking powerless and weak in front of my kids...

And in front of my long-time girlfriend?

Maybe I have become powerless and weak?

How did that happen?

By turning my back on corporate owners...

Who had already sold themselves out to The Devil?

Who every day re choosing Profit over People?

But in walking away...

I was making things worse for myself...

Throwing myself into this economic abyss?

Is a 'Personal Economic Abyss'

The same as a 'Nietzschean Abyss'?

Or are the two abysses just connected together?

Different holes down to the same landing pit?

Not enough money and you can't pay your bills properly...

Take your kids and/or your girlfriend out for dinner...

Help your parents out of their own Economic Abyss...

I feel weak inside...

I can't chase my existential dream...

Because I am too busy just trying to get out of...

My Economic Abyss...

'Recession' is too weak a word to describe...

The Personal Economic Hell that you feel going on inside you...

And all around you...

As you battle your personal demons...

And meet some of the people you need to meet...

To work your way out of your Economic Abyss...

And not the ones who want to keep you down there...

The psychology, economics, and politics

Of Insufficieny...and Deficiency...


For those who struggle with debt, taxes, lower work wages than what we were making ten years ago, inflation, rising food, gas, utility, and energy prices, insufficiency, and deficiency...

I take my hat off to those who are still doing well...

And its not all about money; it is also about health...

I have an ex-friend who I worked with for 11 years, and lived with briefly...

He has closed his condominium door to visitors, as he and his family deal with his impending death...terminal cancer, a virus...and/or whatever hit his body fast and hard...

It makes my complaints here sound pretty hollow...

And yet they are still real...

Just secondary to a devastating health plunge...

At least I can still fight another economic day...

And write about philosophy, psychology economics, and politics...

Lose your body, lose your mind...and you lose everything you have to fight with...

I struggle between economic, creative, professional, and personal battles...

But at least I can still write in Hegel's Hotel...

Write about Nietzsche and The 'Anti-Christ'...

Write about Jung and Mythology...

Write about Freud and Transference...

And still find a way to help my parents...

And take my kids and girlfriend out to dinner...

As long as we are living, breathing, and still have hope, energy, and willpower...

We can still climb our way out of Nietzsche's Abyss...

No Faustian deals with The Devil...

Are needed...

Just faith in ourselves, and what we can do...

Both individually...

And collectively...

In dialectic...

And pluralistic...

Union...



-- dgb, Nov. 12th, 2010,

-- David Gordon Bain

Mythological Additions and Components To The DGB Model of The Personality

My first 'model' of the personality was created in 1979 with the completion of my Honours Thesis, Evaluation and Health.


Looking back at this first model now, I would call it mainly a model of 'The Central Ego' -- and a contrast between the different 'ways we can talk to ourselves', i.e, 'think to ourselves', in ways that can have radically different results on both our emotional and behavioral lives...between 'positive internal energy' and 'negative internal energy', between 'functional' or 'adaptive' ways we can relate to ourselves and 'dysfunctional', 'maladaptive', 'neurotic', 'psychotic', and/or otherwise pathological ways we can relate to ourselves...before we even begin to relate to our outside world...My primary influences here were all the 'cognitive' and 'cognitive-behavioral' psychologists that I had directly or indirectly (through books) come in contact with such as: Afred Korzybksi, S.I. Hayakawa, and the mutual field of 'General Semantics' that they were working in, Albert Ellis and Rational-Emotive Therapy, Aaron Beck, George Kelly, Jerome Frank, Nathaniel Branden, Ayn Rand, and the person I was writing this essay for, my University of Waterloo advisor at the time, Donald Meichenbaum, with his freshly published book, Cognitve-Behavior Modification: An Integrative Approach (1977)...At the time, I didn't know how lucky I was to be writing for a man who was in the process of building a very impressive reputation for himself... This quick summary of Dr. Meichenbaum career below came from an interview in April, 2002, by Victor Yalom....


http://www.psychotherapy.net/interview/donald-meichenbaum


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Donald Meichenbaum, PhD is Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology at the University of Waterloo, and founding member of The Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment. He holds the dual distinction of having been voted "one of the ten most influential psychotherapists of the century" (reported in the American Psychologist) and being the most cited psychology researcher at a Canadian university.

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This first DGB model of the personality in 1979, as well as expressing the dominance of my 'rational-empirical' and 'cognitve' approach to psychotherapy at the time also showed the beginnings of my 'humanistic' and 'humanistic-existential' approach to psychotherapy with influences such as Erich Fromm, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls, Rollo May, and more...The Fritz Perls influence would become much more developed in the 1980s and lead me to Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis, the study of Object Relations, Eric Berne and the study of Transactional Analysis, Jeffrey Masson and The Seduction Theory Controversy, Carl Jung and Jungian Psychology, G.W.Hegel the main philosophical creator of 'dialectic philosophy and psychology' which would lead to the dominant perspective in my thinking, , and from Hegel and the study of Dialectic Philosophy, the study of Western -- and a tidbit of Eastern -- Philosophy in general...



Finally, very very slowly over about 30 years, my latest significant influence by Carl Jung would awaken the 'mythologist' in me which was very much a 'Shadow' of my 1979 personality and would be for some 20 to 30 years after that...I am just starting to 'feel comfortable' with this new, creative element of my personality...as I write now...in 2010....


In 1979, I had not even significantly grasped the essence of the 'dialectic approach' that would in the 2000s stimulate the birth of my major integrative philosophical-psychological perspective and work -- a conglomeration of some 1000 essays or more that are so far strewn in disorganized fashion throughout -- 'Hegel's Hotel'...


I have just now started a derrivative of Hegel's Hotel called -- Freud's Hotel... And there will be probably many more derrivatives coming to spread out all of my work and its myriad of different philosophical and psychological influences...


Hegel's Hotel remains very much a still disorganized work in progress, with hopefully more and more organizational sub-classifications coming in the upcoming months...


My most recent model of the personality combines a 'nuclear family model' of the personality comprised of different internalized, 'compartment-ego-states'; with a larger mythological model of the personality that features elements of Greek and Roman Mythology, as well as Christian and Anti-Christian Mythology/Religion...

It is hard to adequately explain the model without a diagram but try to envision this...


Jesus on The Cross -- The Archetype Image of Our Central Ego -- with the concept-mythological images of 'heaven', 'air', 'romantic fire', 'water', and 'the earth' and 'sensual-sexual fire and the underground' being featured along the different sections on the cross -- 'Heaven' at the top', 'air, sky, and wind' a little further down on the top of the cross...'romantic fire' on the left hand side of the cross, 'water' on the right-hand side of the cross, 'the earth' towards the bottom of the cross, and 'sexual fire and the underground or underworld at the very bottom of the cross....

Now think of the 'light-soul' in the top part of the cross that features 'heaven' (Zeus, Jupitor, God), and the 'dark-soul' in the bottom part of the cross that features sensual- sexual fire and the underground (Dionysus, Satan, Hades, Pluto, Hell...)...

Now think of 'The Id' and 'The Shadow' as representing personality elements on the way to the deepest underground of the personality....And think of the Creative and Destructive Unconscious or Subconscious that respectively reflect images from either our 'Light-Soul' or our 'Dark-Soul'...or a combination of both...

And also on the way to the deepest Underground of our personality we have our 'Transference Templates, Memories, Images, Figures, Scenes, and Complexes'....as well as our 'Genetic Mythological Templates, Archetypes, Symbols, Figures, Scenes, and Complexes'...our Transference Templates and Complexes influenced by our childhood experiences, family dynamics, and upbringing; our Mythological Templates and Archetypes reflecting a much deeper, more archaic, primitive part of our human heritage and history...

Think of all these different factors as potentially 'bombarding internal forces' on our Central Ego -- on our personal, internalized, 'Jesus Christ Archetype' that can either be our 'Master Problem-Solver and Spiritual Self-Healer' or conversely become 'crucified' by the overwhelming barrage of different forces from all areas of the inside of personality, particularly from the deepest Underground of our personality...


In the most successful behavioral functions of our Central Ego -- our Master Spiritual Self-Healer, Problem-Solver, Mediator, Integrator, and Conflict-Resolver -- we put 'Humpty Dumpty back together again...we even reunite God and Satan in a new, creative energetic, functional relationship in which Satan becomes 'the prodigal, estranged and demonic Angel, that is detoxified, healed, and re-welcomed back into heaven...but not a completely 'angelic, God dominated Heaven above the sky'...but rather a new 'integrative, Heaven on earth, a Garden of Eden, with Adam, Eve, and The Snake all living harmoniously together....with both spiritual and sensual-sexual aspects of this relationship as well as rational and romantic components, idealistic and realistic components, and a sense of strong Earth-bound rootedness, stability, and security combining with various ventures into the sky, the water, and the different fires of the personality, contact and withdrawal in all relationships and in all aspects of the psyche, convergence and divergence, separation and union, separating as two...and coming back again as one...in a back and forth, productive, creative cycle..

In effect, our 'Light-Soul' and our 'Dark-Soul' are harmonized into something that may not be 'angelic' but that is a combination of what man essentially is -- a 'Centaur', a combination of both spiritual and sensual-sexual components...part man...and part animal...united harmoniously in the same being...at least until another internal, agitating force...sets the whole 'temporarily united' personality into 'imbalance' again...

This 'spiritual-sensual-and/or-sexual' bi-polarity is only one of a thousand potential different competing and/or attracting 'bi-polarities' in man that need to be successfully 'negotiated' and 'integrated' -- or, if our Central Ego is not strong enough to hold out against the barrage of all these internal competing forces, we could, in a state of a 'nervous breakdown' or something leading up to it, or see ourselve overcome by dark forces in our personality, see or not see ourselves become essentially the archetype of Jesus Christ 'crucified on the cross'...


Have I made the essential dynamics of my model and its various components reasonably clear?  Or have I 'mythologically' lost you?

This is where I stand now on Nov 10th, 2010, at least on an abstractified level, with more of the particular details to follow...some of them I have already outlined in past essays...

It is a far cry from the model I presented to Dr. Meichenbaum in 1979....
Things change...
Have a good day!


-- dgb, Nov. 10, 2010,


-- David Gordon Bain

Collisions Between Different Mythological Figures in 'The House of God' -- Man's Psyche, Man's Mind, Man's Heart, Man's Spirit and Soul

Coming up....

What I am going to do in this paper is to integrate particular elements of Greek, Roman, and Christian mythology/religion with Spinozian Pantheism, modern-day Jungian Mythological Psychology...and of course...my own unique individual perspective on things...dgb, Nov. 10th, 2010...

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Apollo Speaks...

Speaks Apollo...I love thinking from the neck up...That way I stay out of trouble...I am the God of Truth, Justice, Light, and 'Rational, Ethical Enlightenment'....long before the 'Enlightenment Philosophers made their particular appearance -- and opinions known -- in the course of Western History...I am essentially 'The God' that the Enlightenment Philosophers worshipped...

I have an 'alter-ego', or a 'competitive God' -- Dionysus -- who doesn't think anything like me, indeed, he doesn't think -- he feels -- but that is why Dionysus is always getting himself into trouble, or let me rephrase that -- that is why Dionysus is always 'seducing men and women into trouble'....as Western Culture's first and main predecessor to what would eventually become even more sinister in Western mythology and the beginning of the Christian religion -- i.e., 'The Anti-Christian Devil'...or 'Satan'...

Think from your neck up, and no matter what you do, don't let Dionysus into your head, because if you do, you are only asking for trouble, inviting trouble, allowing yourself to be seduced into trouble as Dionysus very seductively and manipulatively seeks to get you 'out of your head and into your senses'... Don't let him in, because if you do, you are allowing yourself to become Dionysus' 'play thing'...and further down the road, down the path to the Underground...Dionysus will eventually take you to Hades, which was the Greek mythological version of what would be called 'Pluto' in Roman mythology...and then essentially 'Hell' -- the 'Den of Satan' -- in Christian mythology/religion...

If you don't want to become the 'Devil's Plaything'....

Then follow me, not Dionysus...

Thus, Apollo speaks...


-- dgb, Nov. 10th, 2010,

-- David Gordon Bain


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Hades


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Hades

Hades with Cerberus (Heraklion Archaeological Museum)

Hades with Cerberus (Heraklion Archaeological Museum)

King of the underworld

God of the Dead and Riches

Abode Underworld

Symbol Cerberus, Cap of invisibility, or Helm of Darkness, Cypress, Narcissus and Key of Hades

Consort Persephone

Parents Cronus and Rhea

Siblings Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Zeus

Children Macaria

Roman equivalent Pluto, Dis Pater, Orcus



Hades (Άδης or Ἀΐδας; from Greek ᾍδης, Hadēs, originally Ἅιδης, Haidēs or Άΐδης, Aidēs, meaning "the unseen"[1][2]) refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the god; the genitive ᾍδου, Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative, too, came to designate the abode of the dead.



In Greek mythology, Hades was considered to be the oldest male child of Cronus and Rhea. According to myth, he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated the Titans and claimed rulership over the universe ruling the underworld, air, and sea, respectively; the solid earth, long the province of Gaia, was available to all three concurrently. Because of his association with the underworld, Hades is often interpreted in modern times as the Grim Reaper[citation needed], even though he was not.



By the Romans Hades was called Pluto, from his Greek epithet Πλούτων Ploutōn (πλοῦτος, wealth), meaning "Rich One". In Roman mythology, Hades/Pluto was called Dis Pater and Orcus. The corresponding Etruscan god was Aita. Symbols associated with him are the Helm of Darkness and the three-headed dog, Cerberus.



The term hades in Christian theology (and in New Testament Greek) is parallel to Hebrew sheol (שאול, grave or dirt-pit), and refers to the abode of the dead. The Christian concept of hell is more akin to (and communicated by) the Greek concept of Tartarus, a deep, gloomy part of hades used as a dungeon of torment and suffering.

Collisions Between 'Individual Wills to Power' (or 'Individual Willpower') and Different Assortments of 'Group Wills to Power' (or 'Group Willpower')...

Everyone brings a perspective to the table, an angle, a point of view, a proposed direction of movement, a 'Will to Power'...We have seen this at least as far back as Plato's 'The Symposium'...

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From Wikipedia....

The Symposium (Ancient Greek: Συμπόσιον) is a philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–380 BCE.[1] It concerns itself at one level with the genesis, purpose and nature of love.


Love is examined in a sequence of speeches by men attending a symposium, or drinking party. Each man must deliver an encomium, a speech in praise of Love (Eros). The party takes place at the house of the tragedian Agathon in Athens. Socrates in his speech asserts that the highest purpose of love is to become a philosopher or, literally, a lover of wisdom. The dialogue has been used as a source by social historians seeking to throw light on life in ancient Athens, in particular upon sexual behavior, and the symposium as an institution.

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dgb...

Sorry ladies, there were no women present at The Symposium...a statement of the male-dominated, patriarchal times that would spread over thousands of year of Western history, culture, philosophy and politics....It would be a long, long time before the first female philosopher would make made her presence known in Western culture, specifically between 1759 and 1797 with the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, arguably the first recognized 'feminist' in Western Philosophy. This is not to say that women didn't wield significant power behind the scenes relative to men's thoughts and actions...but none of these influences have been historically documented...at least from a philosophical perspective until Mary Wollstonecraft came along and said that 'Mind has no sex' and therefore rights are not determined by gender -- a shocking new idea even amongst so-called 'liberal, Enlightenment' philosophers...

In Plato's time, 'slaves' were taken for granted and they would be a part of Western civilization right up to the movement towards 'The American Civil War'...

'Democracy' is the collision -- and the purposeful egalitarian negotiation -- of a wide assortment of often strong, individual 'Wills to Power'...

Democracy has always been both the process and the outcome of an often very 'unstable', 'fleeting', and/or 'pseudo-for-public-appearance-only-symposium' among men...and more lately, women...which can be, and oftentimes is, at least partly compromised if not completely toxified and corrupted, by a 'strong undercurrent' of a domant sub-group of men and/or women who still very much 'want their own way'....and may even have their own pressing 'hidden agenda' that never, ever reaches the 'symposium table'...and/or makes its covert appearance after The Symposium...

Such is the difference between a 'democracy' and a 'pseudo-democracy' that puts on a front, a personna, or appearance of 'democracy' for the public masses, even though the real power, or a significant portion of it, is wielded in private rooms behind closed doors...

There will always be a collision in power between an 'individual's will to power' vs.  a 'group's will to power', with a wide assortment of possible different 'group wills to power' depending on the size, the individual make-up, and the individual contributions of particular members within the group...

For example, there could be a general consensus and agreement of the majority of a group of politicians -- even amongst different political parties -- to create a new 'pubic tax', or to keep hidden the exact particulars of all individual politicians 'expense accounts'...but come election time....in a 'representative democracy'...if the democracy is working right, these same politicians could be voted out of office by the 'larger voting public'...for doing what they did when the public had no vote...

-- dgb, Nov. 10th, 2010

-- David Gordon Bain