8.2 From Identity to Cognition.
The following map 8.2.1 gives an approximation of the growth-zones of the human mind and its principal behavioural objectives (based in part on Ericson 1972). The map has helped us to answer such questions as:
what is healthy development,
can we identify orthogenic as opposed to pathogenic factors that stabilize normal development,
what is essential to facilitate recovery from developmental set-backs.
When someone firmly decides to free himself of misdirected attitudes and behaviours a strong motivation is important to succeed. However, people are often less "voluntary" in their willing and doing as we or they themselves would like them to be. In what measure can one be free to decide about a change of behaviour? Not before some fundamental conditions for healthy development have been met. This can be an arduous task especially if unfavourable conditions have prevailed in the earliest stages of personality development, such as deprivation of early bonding. A successful attachment between mother and child is necessary for the child to develop it's personal identity, intimacy and healthy emotions in a secure environment. Attachment (bonding) is NAD's pre- and post-natal analogue to the LAD's pre- and post-natal immune-dependence. Maternal antibodies, ingested during breast feeding, shield the child from being poisoned or infected. This support, supplied by the maternal LAD, lasts for a period of many months after birth, as long as the child is breast-fed, until its own immune system has matured sufficiently to give protection, independent of the mother's immune-support. In a similar way the emotional bond with the mother makes for a safe environment for the child to develop an identity of it's own and to build it's private mental immunity.
The first steps towards maternal bonding have been accurately observed by H. Nakajima (1994) in a Maternity Hospital at Saitama, Japan: When immediately after birth the newborn is gently accosted by the mother and allowed to rest, the child will not cry, but lies still with a Buddha-like face during ten minutes. It will then make little movements of the fingers, wrists and arms, and eventually start searching for the nipple.
After many years, when the last steps towards completion have been taken, a competent mental immunity includes: undistorted cognition of it's own particular world, and the social skills to cope with it. Development towards emotional, social, intellectual and moral maturity is sketched in the following Map 8.2.1. Reaching mental immunity lasts considerably longer than the period of breastfeeding and subsequent acquisition of somatic immunity, which is practically completed in early childhood.
1. The awareness of Identity is at the core of a person. "it feels good to be the one I am". Identity is nourished by discovering the contours of "self" and "non-self" in an accepting environment.
2. Intimacy is the innermost protective layer of the Identity: it is the capacity for attachment and love; fundamental trust in the mother and, later, in other people:"It is alright for me to exist, I trust those around me and feel secure". The environment provides security and expresses kindness.
3. On the basis of Identity and Intimacy and controlled bodily functions, a balanced emotional life develops, self-confidence and the ability to cope with stress. "I feel safe, even when standing up for myself". This is fostered by an encouraging environment.
4. Social interactions, creating new relations, generate the next protective layer, and gradually replace the bond with the primary caretaker. As soon as a child can move around he is taught social manners: he learns to respect the boundaries of others and to defend his own. He learns to give and take, and to accepts his place in a group. "I belong and feel responsible". The environment should be sufficiently challenging as well as rewarding.
5. Creativity and willpower provide the driving and executive force to put one's intentions and goals into effect. Play and work alternate. "I count with others and feel competent". The environment provides role models and encouragement.
6. Developing cognition. Mapping one's environment, without distortions. Realistic interpretations of the world and one's potentialities in life. "I feel at home in the world and can express myself in it". A family-environment that does not invite selfish games and devious ways is helpful.
Map 8.2.1 Layers of the personality. Personal development, from identity to mature judgment, in enveloping spheres, identity in the centre
Each successive layer implements a part of the motive or incentive dictated by its predecessor. Identity is protected by intimacy; intimacy can continue to exist only when crude self-protecting emotions make way for more subtle social feelings; these give rise to social interactions and in turn are refined by mature relationships. From social feedback one derives the knowledge and power to implement one's goals; by striving for something and encountering difficulties one acquires knowledge of the world. Arrears in any of the six zones of adaptation and defence can be made up by appropriate remedial training. If a defence-zone is overdeveloped, it can block the communication between zones, and has to be opened gently and patiently. As in every evolutionary process we see a development by dialogue, that is by synergy of opposing tendencies:
Levels 1-3: the urge towards independence competes with a conservative trend to remain out of harm's way.
Level 4: Identification with one's limited individual point of view, versus opening up for the wider reaches of the social group.
Level 5: conforming to and accepting the status quo versus being creative, summoning new forms not tried out before
We have used this map for diagnosis and advice in cases in which therapy for communication disorders had run aground. This is illustrated in the case of a family with a stuttering child. Usually a child that stutters is experiencing some form of pressure, from which it is trying to escape. Counselling the parents takes the form of searching together for the source of the emotional pressure. Sometimes no cause of undue pressure is found in the family system. The map of zones has then served to disclose a weakness in the personal development of the child which has reduced it's resistance to stress. Once this weak point has been found, the appropriate measures to relieve pressure on the child usually present themselves. It is up to the parents to strengthen the child's resistance to adversities and frustration, and to increase its sense of identity and intimacy. We have found holding sessions (Welch 1989) to be particularly helpful.
The concentric layers in the developing person can be conceived as the gates and the walls around a city. They have to be renewed as the city grows and expands (compare 7.1). Mental and moral growth processes have their origin in an urge to improve the quality of one's life and to adjust one's interaction with the environment to new requirements. The environment widens from the primary caretaker to the family, to the household, to the neighbours and the school, to the town, the nation and finally all nations on earth. It is of considerable interest that a person's capacity for moral judgment keeps pace with his growing responsibility and with his increasingly wider view of the world.