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I want to move from general to
specific, to perhaps abstract, the ideas that I want to focus
on when I discuss Subject/Object Relations in FLOW
Applications. You can see this can get pretty complex very
fast. But I want to introduce you to this, and for those
already introduced, reacquaint you with work that is largely
popularized by Kegan, in his book The EVOLVING SELF, and IN
OVER OUR HEADS, as well as others.
William Perry needs to get most of
the credit for what Kegan, has of course, renamed and made his
own, just for the record.
The following comes directly from
the Wiki on Kegan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kegan
In The Evolving Self, Kegan
presents a model of psychological development consisting of
six "equilibrium stages": the incorporative stage, the
impulsive stage, the imperial stage, the
interpersonal stage, the institutional stage, and the
inter-individual stage. The
object of each stage is the subject of the preceding
stage.
The subject of the incorporative
stage is
reflexes, and it has no object. The subjects of the
impulsive stage are the individual's impulses and
perceptions, and its objects are the reflexes. The
subject of the imperial stage is the individual's needs,
interests, and
desires. Its objects are the individual's impulses
and perceptions.
The subject of the interpersonal
stage is interpersonal
relationships and mutuality. Its objects are the
individual's needs, interests, and desires. The subjects
of the institutional stage are the individual's
authorship,
identity, and
ideology. Its objects are interpersonal relationships and
mutuality.
The subject of the inter-individual
stage is "the interpenetrability of self-systems". Its
objects are the individual's authorship, identity, and
ideology.
Stage 0: Incorporative stage
- Subject: reflexes
- Object: nothing
Stage 1: Impulsive stage
- Subject: impulses,
perceptions
- Object: reflexes
Stage 2: Imperial stage
- Subject: needs,
interests, desires
- Object: impulses,
perceptions
Stage 3: Interpersonal stage
- Subject: interpersonal
relationships, mutuality
- Object: needs,
interests, desires
Stage 4: Institutional stage
- Subject: authorship,
identity, ideology
- Object: interpersonal
relationships, mutuality
Stage 5: Inter-individual stage
- Subject: "the
interpenetrability of self-systems"
- Object: authorship,
identity, ideology
In the work I'm doing with
development, I like to use the idea of subject-object
relations to describe what might be happening in terms of
meaning-making and the sense we can make from the making of
meaning through the use of subject/object relations.
I'm less concerned with the level
that the person appears to be at, but how they are moving
among levels, whether or not the density of their memes is
flexible enough that they are not bounded by narrow levels of
S/O Relations, but can take perspectives on their
perspectives, even if it's fairly simple.
This ability to take a perspective
on a perspective shows that while we are all subject to things
in many object domains, we can "mechanically" fish ourselves
out of the subjective soup from time to time and formulate an
object experience or perspective.
This is particularly important when
we are starting to flex through transitions of these
equilibrium states noted by developmentalists. While we
are dissipative structures as living
systems--organizationally closed and energetically open--how
open, and how closed is key to note as we move to discover and
disclose ourselves in the acceptance process.
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