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Thought of the Week
March 2000
March 6
When the eye wakes up to see again, it suddenly stops taking anything
for granted. The thing I draw, be it leaf, rosebush, woman, or child,
is no longer a thing, no longer my "object" over and against which I am
the supercilious "subject." The split is healed. When I am drawing
leaf or caterpillar or human face, it is at once de-thingified. I say
yes to its existence. By drawing it, I dignify it, I declare it worthy
of total attention, as worthy of attention as I am myself, for sheer existence
is the awesome mystery and miracle we share.
- Frederick Frank
Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action (Bantom Books, 1993)
March 13
Permissive Child Rearing. The Permissive style of child rearing
is nurturant and accepting, but it avoids making demands or imposing controls
of any kind. Permissive parents allow children to make many of their own
decisions at an age when they are not yet capable of doing so. They can
eat meals and go to bed when they feel like it and watch as much television
as they want. They do not have to learn good manners or do any household
chores. Although some permissive parents truly believe that this style
of child rearing is best, many others lack confidence in their ability
to influence their child's behavior and are disorganized and ineffective
in running their households.
Baumrind found that children of permissive parents were very immature.
They had difficulty controlling their impulses and were disobedient and
rebellious when asked to do something that conflicted with their momentary
desires. They were also overly demanding and dependent on adults, and
they showed less persistence on tasks at preschool than children whose
parents exerted more control. The link between permissive parenting and
dependent, non achieving behavior was especially strong for boys (D. Baumrind,
Current patterns of parental authority, Developmental Psychology Monograph,
1971).
- Berk, Laura E.
- Development Through the Lifespan (Allyn and Bacon, p. 267)
March 20
Yet for all the credit that Carlyle accorded heroes, they were for
him as much at the mercy of history as in control of history. Carlyle
praises heroes for above all their insight into the course of society
rather than for the direction they impose on it. Unlike ordinary humans,
who mistake appearance for reality, heroes see beyond appearance to reality:
"A hero, as I repeat, has this first distinction, which indeed we may
call first and last, the Alpha and Omega of his whole Heroism, That he
looks through the shows of things into things." (On heroes, Hero-Worship,
and the Heroic in History, p. 55)
- Robert A. Segal
- Hero Myths (Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2000)
March 27
Piaget has borrowed [the concept of equilibrium] from physics and has
modified it to apply to human intelligence. The concept of equilibrium,
which is not unique to psychology, refers to a state of balance or harmony
between at least two elements which have previously been in a stage of
disequilibrium. Freud, for example, makes use of a similar principle when
he states that a person tends toward a release of tension. For Piaget
(unlike Freud) equilibrium does not have the connotation of a static state
of repose between a closed system and its environment. Rather, equilibrium,
when applied to intellectual processes, implies an active balance or harmony.
It involves a system of exchanges between an open system and its surroundings.
The child is always active. He does not merely receive information from
his environment like a sponge soaking up water. Rather, he attempts to
understand things, to structure his experience, and to bring coherence
and stability to his world. Thus, a cognitive system which has attained
a high degree of equilibrium is not at rest. It interacts with the environment.
The system attempts to deal with environmental events in terms of its
structures (assimilation), and it can modify itself in line with environmental
demands (accommodation). When in equilibrium, the cognitive system need
not distort events to assimilate them; nor need it change very much to
accommodate to new events. Equilibrium then, involves activity, openness,
and a state of relative harmony with the environment.
- Herbert Ginsburg and Sylvia Opper
Piaget's theory of intellectual development: An Introduction (p.
172)
Comment:
- by Reg Harris
Jean Piaget's concept of cognitive equilibrium closely parallels the
fundamental processes in the Heroic Journey pattern. In fact, when I describe
the Journey process at seminars for teachers, I often use the words "equilibrium"
and "harmony" to describe the Return.
We tend to forget at times that we and our environment are not two
separate, individual things. We really are a system, a dance where we
and our environment are two sides of one experience, one consciousness.
We could apply the concept of equilibrium to our environment as well as
our own cognition. What we do affects our environment, and the environment
adjusts to maintain an equilibrium.
We see the concept of equilibrium in Chinese philosophy, as well. Taoist
thought, for example, includes the concept of "mutually arising opposites"
or "mutually arising order." Nothing arises in life without its opposite
or balance -- that which maintains equilibrium. Wealth cannot arise without
poverty, tall cannot arise without short, light cannot arise without dark.
Similarly, problems do not arise without their own harmonic element, or
solution. Because of our bias, we may not see the solution immediately
or like it when we find it, but it is always there. It must be there,
because everything carries its own equilibrium.
In the Heroic Journey, we exist in our known world, a world of relative
balance and equilibrium. As Ginsburg and Opper write above, "When in equilibrium,
the cognitive system need not distort events to assimilate them; nor need
it change very much to accommodate to new events." So, too, in the Journey.
We do not experience a call as long as we are in equilibrium, where we
can assimilate or easily accommodate changes in our environment.
However, when that balance is upset, either by an internal or external
force, we are called to change, called to accommodate or reorganize our
way of seeing and dealing with life. It is a constant process, and if
we shut ourselves from it, as in the Call Refused, we will experience
negative side of growth, which is emotional withering, along with the
defensiveness, paranoia, bitterness and self hate which accompany it.
As Ginsburg and Opper write, "Equilibrium then, involves activity,
openness, and a state of relative harmony with the environment." So it
is with the Journey and with life. To move, to grow, to evolve, we must
be actively seek equilibrium, which means adjusting and learning.
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