Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
-- Soren Kierkegaard's famous critique of Hegel's 'Historical Dialectic Determinism'...
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When I graduated from The University of Waterloo with an Honours B.A. in Psychology in 1979, I was looking for somewhere other than a university setting to continue my studies and training in psychology. I became involved with both The Adlerian Institute in Ontario and The Gestalt Institute of Toronto at the same time -- 1980.
The contrast in perspective and training procedure was significant between the Adlerian Institute (which offered a more 'standard, more or less formal approach to teaching and learning' operating out of OISE which had connections to The University of Toronto while the Aderlian Institute of Ontario was also associated with its home base -- The Adlerian Institute in Chicago) and The Gestalt Institute (which offered a much more informal, casual, and experiential approach to teaching and learning Gestalt Therapy. The Gestalt Institute in Toronto operated like Gestalt Institutes everywhere including where Gestalt Therapy first really established a home for itself at The Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California).
My Freudian education at this point in time was pretty basic -- just what I had learned like everyone else in Introductory Psychology classes at practically any university. So Freud, for me at this point in time, was not really in the picture. My focus was on Humanistic Psychology and Cognitive Therapy (of which the latter included Rational Emotive Therapy and General Semantics primarily).
So here I was in 1980 learning two different schools of psychology -- both professing to believe in the principle of 'unity in the personality' and yet it was entirely obvious to me within a very short period of time that Gestalt Therapy was operating under a 'dualistic-conflict' model whereas Adlerian Psychology was -- at least on the surface of things -- much more 'monistic' and 'wholistic' and at this point in time I would say 'Spinozian' as opposed to both Psychoanalysis and Gestalt Therapy which tend to follow a much more 'Hegelian Dualistic and Dialectically Integrative Model'.
So when Adlerian Psychology talks about 'unity in the personality', it is talking about 'monistic unity' in the personality and combined with this -- the idea of 'pseudo-conflict' rather than real conflict in the personality.
In contrast, when Psychoanalysis and/or Gestalt Therapy talk about 'unity in the personality', they are talking about the idea of a 'dualistic and dialectic unity and wholism in the personality' that is only arrived at in states of 'psychological health' and usually through the process of 'dialectic psychotherapy' as opposed to the opposite state of affairs -- 'neurotic and/or psychotic conflict' -- which exists in most of us most of the times as we attempt to battle ourselves through this 'anxiety neurosis' or that 'narcissistic neurosis' or this 'distancing (anal schizoid) neurosis'... Or in post-Nietzschean terminology, this 'Apollonian Neurosis' (too anal retentive) or that 'Dionysian Neurosis' (not anal retentive enough, not self-controlling enough, too hedonistic, too narcissistic, too impulsive, too addictive in whatever the person's particular 'realm of addiction' might be...)
If we add Jungian Psychology into the mix here -- also developed according to a post-Hegelian dualistic-dialectic model, then we would distinguish between our 'Persona' and our 'Shadow' which worded a little differently might be viewed as our 'Dominant Ego State' (Persona) vs. our 'Suppressed, Marginalized Ego State' (our Shadow).
In Freudian Psychoanalysis, we might also talk about the type of dualistic and dialectic conflict that exists between our 'Superego' (social conscience) and our 'Id' (our biological instincts, drives, impulses) or later in Freudian Theory, we might talk about the type of dualistic-dialectic conflict that might exist between our 'Life Instinct' (tendency towards our survival and sex instincts) and our 'Death Instinct' (tendency towards aggression, destruction, and self-destruction) although, as pointed out earlier in Freudian theory, our Survival Instincts and our Sex Instincts can also be at war with each other such as when our social and ethical conscience conflicts with our wish , impulse, drive, 'need' for sexual gratification).
And in Gestalt Therapy, we might talk about the type of conflict that exists between our 'Topdog' (Righteous, scolding, sometime ruthless and self-torturing) and our 'Underdog' ('Yes/But'...rebellious, often manipulative mixing approval-seeking methods with passive-aggressive and/or covertly rebellious methods...always breaking the rules and advice of the Topdog...in the name of pleasure-seeking and freedom primarily...)
Which brings us to Adlerian Psychology.
Adlerian Psychology has a different view on conflict. Or perhaps Adlerian Psychology is focusing on a different type of human conflict than the types of conflict that we have discussed above relative to different forms of 'Hegelian Dualistic-Dialectic Conflict'.
The type of conflict that Adlerian Psychology usually focuses on and describes might be called the 'Neurotic Two-Step' Conflict. And it might also be called a 'Pseudo-Conflict'. We have an idea, a goal, and/or a plan in mind. We take one step forward to act on the idea. Like a high school boy at a dance taking one step forward to ask a girl across the room to dance. Then we get 'second thoughts' on this matter, and 'self-doubt' enters into the picture. So we stop dead in our tracks like the high school boy who loses courage upon taking a step forward towards the other side of the room. We step backwards. He steps backwards. Net result. No gain. No advancement. The status quo remains the same. We are in the same spot again where we started. The boy is in the same spot he was before he started towards the other side of the room. We again are holding up the wall as the 'wanted to have courage but ran out of courage' high school boy is again holding up the dance floor wall on his side of the room. He watches as some other boy asks his intended dance partner to dance. She says yes. And he is/we are left kicking himself/ourselves for not having more courage.
This is 'The Neurotic Two Step' and the type of conflict that Adlerian Psychology usually describes. In some cases, a person will go through almost his or her entire life playing The Neurotic Two Step Dance or Game...with the same outcome...One step forward...one step backwards...we are back where we started from. If this type of 'dance' happens over and over again in our lives, we can hardly call it a 'legitimate conflict'. It is more like a 'pseudo-conflict' resulting in entropy. No movement except a 'little two step' to seemingly trick ourselves and/or others into actually believing that we had other more courageous intentions. But our ultimate motto is: Better safe than sorry. That is our lifestyle philosophy.
Until one day our 'wanna be' and our 'could be' becomes a 'could have been' and 'should have been'...I could have been what I 'wanted to be'...and I 'could have been great'...but instead I am still doing what 'I don't want to be'...and I don't feel so great...
Call that an 'existential neurosis' if you want.
Potentially leading to an 'existential crisis'....
When our 'essence' didn't meet -- didn't contactfully and dialectically engage -- with our 'existence'.
Or stated oppositely, when our 'existence' didn't meet up to the wondrous potential of our 'essence'.
Does 'existence precede essence'?
No. Our essence precedes existence just as the sperm and the egg precede the conception and birth of a new human being. However, once the two are on board with each other -- our essence providing our spirit and our existence actualizing and spreading our spirit -- then the two need to continuously dialectically engage with each other for us to be in harmony with ourselves.
A life without an expression of our essence is a life without meaning, a life without spirit.
Our existence -- ideally -- is the internal and external expression of our essence.
An existence that alienates us from our spirit, our essence, is a life devoid of feeling and meaning.
'Work' that expresses our spirit, our essence, is 'self-actualizing' or 'self-fulfilling' work.
'Work' that does not express our spirit, our essence, is 'self-alienating' work...
Sometime we need to simply leap or climb across the Nietzschean 'abyss' -- from the cliff of 'non-being' and 'alienation' to the cliff of 'being' and 'becoming'.
That takes courage.
The courage of the high school boy (or girl) walking across the dance floor room to engage with the person of his or her attraction.
While the rest of us who don't show this type of courage and initiative -- engage in The Neurotic Two Step.
And torture ourselves afterwards for wishing we hadn't -- for wishing that we hadn't done the same thing, the same neurotic two step dance, that we have probably done thousands and thousands of times before...
-- dgb, Nov. 30th, 2009.
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still In Process...
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More Quotes By Soren Kierkegaard
A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.
Soren Kierkegaard
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
Soren Kierkegaard
At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.
Soren Kierkegaard
Be that self which one truly is.
Soren Kierkegaard
Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearences.
Soren Kierkegaard
Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself.
Soren Kierkegaard
Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood.
Soren Kierkegaard
Don't forget to love yourself.
Soren Kierkegaard
During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.
Soren Kierkegaard
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
Soren Kierkegaard
Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.
Soren Kierkegaard
Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.
Soren Kierkegaard
God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.
Soren Kierkegaard
How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.
Soren Kierkegaard
I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this.
Soren Kierkegaard
I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.
Soren Kierkegaard
I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both.
Soren Kierkegaard
If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.
Soren Kierkegaard
It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.
Soren Kierkegaard
It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.
Soren Kierkegaard
