We are conceptualizing human personality in a form quite
different from anything we have conceived before. I had, first of all,
to choose a beginning point for conceptualization and I
started with this factor of the cyclic dimension that had shown up.
This said to me, (to go back over this diagram {1st graph}
to make a point and to explain what I mean) that in some manner or
another the deny-sacrifice and the express self shifted back and
forth. When one system dimmed, the other system brightened.
Let me take one step backward there or this will not be
meaningful. One of the studies which
I conducted along the way was a rough study of the relation of the
regular general socio-economic data of the person choosing a
conception of healthy personality. In general I found that the lower
socio-economic status of the individual the more his conception of
healthy personality tended to be low in the hierarchy of conceptions
that I had set up from this research.
So it looked as if a person’s conception of healthy
personality and then generalizing that from
a miniature system of personality to a system of personality, was a
function of his having experienced the solution of certain problems
that the human being runs into when he tries to stay alive. The lower
the conception of healthy personality, in the hierarchy we’ve
established, the closer to being vital were the problems that the
human being was confronted with.
Now, with that and the other data, I had to begin to try to
conceptualize. I chose as a beginning this cyclic factor and I said
that data say that there are two major components in personality which
change with time but they have the character that they spurt and then
plateau for a period of time. Then they spurt and then plateau again.
I couldn’t account for the cyclic factor in the data in any other
way. The data indicate that some people are attempting to make this
world fit them . . . and some people are trying to fit themselves to
the world – that is, express self and deny/sacrifice self
categories. So I said; “In my mind, personality
develops by periods of spurts and
plateaus of certain basic components
in the brain.”
And so this is a depiction in part of that. It depicts the
spurting and the plateauing which accounts for the cyclic factor in
the data.
(see
Figure 1.)
The solid line accounts for the fact that some of the systems
are adjustive systems and some of the systems are expressive. When the
dotted line is in a state of ascendancy this indicates an expressive
system. So 1 – 3 – 5 – 7 are a family of self-expressive
systems. Now, if you are with me you will see something here in a
moment if you know Maslow. The 2-4-6-8 and
I hypothesize in the future
10-12-14
systems are
adjustive systems. The person is trying to adjust
to the world as he finds it rather than trying to change it. He’s
trying to get along with it and to belong to it. - - - - Now . . .
let’s look at what Maslow said. You should know that Maslow came
around to my point of view. If you look at some of his later writings
you will see that he accepted both the cyclic idea that there are more
than one kind of expressive system and more than one kind of belonging
system . . .and that the system is open ended.
We finally, after fighting this over for eight or more years,
came to a final agreement along
this line. So we are representing here, you see, that in my data it
said that there are systems that respond change-wise to outside
authority. My data said the deny/sacrifice self to get
reward later
category responded to authority in the fullest meaning of the word:
higher authority. My data also said that the sixth system, the
deny/sacrifice self to get now category responded to peer
authority. So they are alike, all in the same family. They have even
numbers because they both change under the influence of authority.
This we will see subsequently. This is quite important, for
example, in what evidence I have psychotherapeutically in respect to
many involved in the drug problem. This is not entirely so but many
who are involved in the drug problem appear to be in difficulty making
the transition from the fifth system (express self as self desires
in a rational/calculating way but not so much that
others turn on you).
This data says that if you are going to help them to make the
transition from the fifth system to the sixth system it is only peer
authority that can be effective in bringing about this transition. If you use any other kind of
approach you will be in trouble.