The Human Psyche System and Living System Psychology

Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 6 - Individual Psyche Stage Periods

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This diagram symbolizes the rise and fall of psyche stage dominance through the life of a highly evolved individual in our culture. The peaks represent approximate periods when a person’s conscious and unconscious are aligned in the same stage. This means that their psyche is balanced between the conscious and unconscious sub-systems.

It is normal that we begin to transform into each psyche stage first in our conscious, intellectual life and later we become aware consciously of our unconscious, emotional life. For some time after we first enter a new stage, we behave as split humans – Our conscious becoming dominant in the new stage and our emotions remaining dominant in an earlier stage. Great confusion, turmoil and troublesome behavior can result. Split people are problems for themselves and for others. For example, fundamentalist Terrorists tend to be split between unconscious Stage C emotions and conscious Stage D intellect and emotions.

The Key idea is – If you understand the dominant psyche stage patterns of individuals and groups you can know how to lead, organize and manage them for maximum performance consistent with their stage patterns – Not Yours. This is a foundation for Isis Group leadership work – You cannot lead anyone without knowing who you are and who others are in Human Psyche System stage evolution. This is what Rudolf Steiner said – Only those who understand life can become truly practical persons.

John Clayton Caris

Links to previous Posts in this series:
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 1 - Terminology
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 2 - Individual Psyche Structure
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 3 - Psyche System Stages Diagram
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 4 - Terminology Table
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 5 - Collective Psyche Stage World Eras

Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 5 - Collective Pysche Stage World Eras Diagram

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At critical times in individual lives and for collective mankind there come transcendent transformation eras into a new stage of the Human Psyche System that did not previously exist on Earth.

First, the Transcendence comes to a relatively small number of leading-edge human individuals. Their numbers gradually accelerate until they emerge as the new Genre of world leaders living and working in the newly emerging stage of individual human psyche - A new individual Paradigm. Second, these transcendent individuals catalyze and then develop the newly emerging stage of collective human psyche - A new collective Paradigm.

This two-fold process of Transcendence - Individual and then Collective - is the root cause for each great Transformation Era of human history when the previous dominant stage of human leadership is replaced by the newly emergent stage. The results of this process are the major turning points in human life, organization and affairs on earth.

The first diagram above shows the rise and decline of the various Human Psyche System stages in world leadership and the resulting great collective transformation eras of human history. The earliest transition era - From Stage A to Stage B - took at least 10,000 years. The second transition era - From Stage B to Stage C - took 2,000 to 3,000 years. Since then, the transition eras have been significantly shorter. The shaded areas on the diagram designate the periods when the world was undergoing traumatic upheaval to a whole new concept and practice of human life and affairs.

The peak of the curve for each stage represents the period of history when the world leadership Paradigm of that stage was dominant in human affairs. A complete curve for Stage A is not shown because it would require the diagram's time scale to extend backward several hundreds of thousand to maybe a million years. There is little historical knowledge about Stage A.

The second diagram below uses an expanded time scale to better show the more recent transformation eras. The Stage D Era in the West is best known as the Middle Ages. Its peak of power came about 1000 A.D. when the Stage E began its transcendence into world leadership. The Stage D to Stage E transformation era is best known in the West as The Renaissance - that I prefer to name the 1st Renaissance. Near 1800 A.D., Stage F began its transcendence into world leadership. Western events directly related to the emergence of Stage F are the French Revolution and the rapid growth of socialism throughout Europe in the early 1800's. The rapid rise of Stage F marked the peaking of Stage E power. Since then, up until today, Stage E and Stage F have been in a shared, but combative, dominant power relationship in human affairs.

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Then, about 1900 A.D. the Stage A' - Living System humans began their transcendent appearance in human affairs. I name the period since the early 1900's as the coming of the 2nd Renaissance. It promises to be the most tumultuous and beneficial transformation era in history since humans first emerged out of the pre-human animals more than a million years ago. This time leading edge humans are emerging into Living System Life and Work. Their leadership influence is already far greater than their still relatively small numbers. Like all previous stages I believe Stage A' will grow to dominant influence in human affairs and faster than any previous stage.

Since the early 1800's, the world has been in continuous transformation upheaval. Since the early 1900's there is a unique situation in human history. Previously, transformation eras involved one rising and one declining stage. Now there are two declining stages - Stage E and Stage F - and one rising stage - Stage A' -that is much more than just a new stage because it also brings a whole new phase of human life not known to any of the earlier six stages of mankind.

As you learn more about Living System Psychology and the Human Psyche System you will become more profoundly impressed that the period ahead of us is truly a 2nd Renaissance, even though the challenges to move beyond today's transition trauma will be substantial.

John Clayton Caris

Links to previous Posts in this series:
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 1 - Terminology
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 2 - Individual Psyche Structure
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 3 - Psyche System Stages Diagram
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 4 - Terminology Table

Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 4 - Terminology Table

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This Table extends the Human Psyche System Terminology.

It shows:
– When each stage was world leader
– And the period when each stage is dominant in the life of highly evolved persons today.

John Clayton Caris

Links to previous Posts in this series:
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 1 - Terminology
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 2 - Individual Psyche Structure
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 3 - Psyche System Stages Diagram

Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 3 - Psyche System Stages Diagram

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This diagram shows the sequence of the Human Psyche System evolution process through its Phases, Cycles and Stages. The process of Human Psyche Evolution starts at the top of the diagram. It proceeds first through Phase I of human life as three bi-polar Cycles of two Stages each.

During Phase I, at each Cycle human life proceeds through a back-and-forth psychological “flip-flop”. The first Stage of each Cycle is driven by its specific type of Individualism and Independence in the pursuit of its specific type of “End-Point” goal. That is the psychological “flip” from the second Stage of the previous Cycle. Then the second stage of each Cycle is driven by its specific type of Collectivism and Dependence in the pursuit of its specific type of “End-Point” goal. That is the psychological “flop” from the first Stage of the same Cycle.

“End-Point” goals mean that the human individual or collective tries to achieve some specific position in life and/or quantity of some specific types of resources as end-points that define a successful life. The “End-Point” goals often substitute for life purpose and for measures for achieving that purpose. The result is a flip-flopping, end-point driven type of life process. It is really a closed process because it is considered to be ended if the desired end-point is achieved. At that point life purpose shifts from the drive to achieve the specific end-point to the drive to protect and defend the end-point results. The point is that Phase I life purpose and process are not “Open Ended” – They are a sequence of end-point focuses that lead to continuous disagreements, anger and conflicts.

On the diagram, you see Phase I human life composed of six Stages – Three Cycles of two Stages each. Mankind’s Phase II of human life you see just starting at its Stage A’ – Living System, 2nd Renaissance Human. The whole concept and practice of human life begins to transform during the concluding stage of Phase I life – Stage F. Life becomes an open-ended, continuous flow process of Living System Life and Work at Stage A’.

During the first two Cycles, the basic structure of the Human Psyche System is forming. You see the psyche’s Conscious/Unconscious dimension forming at Cycle 1 and the Personal/Collective dimension forming at Cycle 2. At Stage D, or Adolescence, the human psyche’s basic structure is formed. Throughout the World, the underlying human psyche patterns of Stages A through D are uniform.

But, Cycle 3 brings a mirror-image human behavior split between the West and Orient. When I later discuss the details of Cycle 3 – Stages E and F – I use this split to explain world geo-political and economic forces over the last 200 years. This fascinating story explains the materialism of the West during its Stage E rise and dominance and how the more recent materialistic power of the Orient arose out of its Stage F behavior.

I emphasize that each Phase I stage is driven by its own type of End-Point Goals. This has profound effects on how individuals and organizations find purpose, are motivated, form relationships, do strategy work, organize, and operate.

Stages A, C and E are each driven by a different type of Individualism and independence – While Stages B, D, and F are each driven by a different type of Collectivism and dependence. For example, the reasons for the recent rise of political correctness, populism, drug dependencies and collectivist power groups are no mystery. They are to be expected – They are underlying Stage F behavior characteristics.

Recall that all of Phase I life is a process of human “Flip-Flops” in each Cycle from one type of unbalanced individualism to its opposite as one type of unbalanced collectivism. You note that Stage A’ is shown as a totally different pattern – End-Point goals and flip-flops between Individualism and Collectivism are gone. Life becomes a continuous flow process and is interdependence-collaboration driven. Goals become milestones embedded in a continuing process – Not ends in them selves. This has profound meaning for the emerging pattern of Living System Life and Work, especially for leadership, strategy, organization, operations and entrepreneurship. The psychological sources for inherent disagreement, anger and conflict are absent.

John Clayton Caris

Links to previous Posts in this series:
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 1 - Terminology
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 2 - Individual Psyche Structure

Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 2 - Individual Psyche Structure

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The human psyche is a living energy system in which we are embedded. It is not the Brain – Which is the biological living system that enables us experience the psyche in our life.

You need to be aware of the human psyche’s structure, that develops through several stages. This diagram shows you the human psyche system structure when fully developed – It has two bi-polar dimensions and four sub-systems.

The two psyche system dimensions are
– The Personal/Collective Dimension; and
– The Conscious/Unconscious Dimension.

The four subsystems of the individual psyche system are:

– The Personal Conscious (PC) – A central portion of the PC is called the Ego.
– The Personal Unconscious (PU) – A central portion of the PU is called the Shadow.
– The Collective Conscious (CC) – The CC contains the conscious patterns and forms of what is called Culture.
– The Collective Unconscious (CU) – The CU contains energy patterns shared by all humans called Jungian Archetypes.

The Human Psyche System is open in two ways:
– Open through the Conscious subsystems to external experience on the Operating plane of life and work through the physical senses; and
– Open through the Unconscious subsystems to internal experience and the knowledge of the Universe on the underlying Morphic Field plane of life and work through the intuitive senses.

Each Human Psyche sub-system is a fascinating story whose details are beyond our needs now. We discuss each sub-system later when we focus on specific stages.

John Clayton Caris

Links to previous Posts in this series:
Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 1 - Terminology

Human Psyche System Definitions - Part 1 - Terminology

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This table defines the Human Psyche System terminology we use to identify the human psyche stages. There are seven psyche stages known so far. Each stage is a whole pattern of human life – A human Paradigm. Each has its unique pattern for life purpose, motivation, learning, leadership, organization, relationship, etc.

The first six stages – Stages A through F – Compose Phase I of human life. Phase I contains three bi-polar cycles of two stages each. The two stages of each cycle are complementary opposite psychological patterns of each other:
- Cycle 1 – Stage A – Primitive, Hunter Gatherer Human and Stage B – Mystical, Tribal Human;
- Cycle 2 – Stage C – Heroic, Early Imperial Human and Stage D – Absolutistic, Medieval Human; and
- Cycle 3 – Stage E – Linear System, 1st Renaissance Human and Stage F – Relativistic, Collectivist Human

Each Phase I Cycle has a common underlying pattern - A Cycle Paradigm. All Phase I stages have a deeper underlying common meta-pattern - A Phase Paradigm. These Phase and Cycle Paradigms underlie the discontinuous Paradigm differences of the psyche stages. As you learn the natures of the specific Phase, Cycle and Stage Paradigms, this way of defining the Human Psyche System becomes clear.

The seventh stage – Stage A’ – Living System, 2nd Renaissance Human begins a new Phase II of human life - A whole new phase of human life whose underlying Paradigm is discontinuously different from the Phase I Paradigm that underlies all Phase I stages. This explains why the human transformation into Stage A' is so profound in human affairs.

The emerging results of the current transformation of leading-edge persons into Stage A’ is Mega-Force 1 of the four Mega-Forces now driving the world human transformation. I cannot over emphasize that this is a unique transformation in history. It is not just a Human Psyche System stage transformation – But also, the coming of a whole new Phase of human life that breaks the underlying patterns for all previous stages of human life. It is a big deal – That is why I call it The World’s Biggest Story that is Almost Invisible.

To the right of each psyche stage pattern name in the diagram, I give in parentheses the life period when a given psyche stage tends to be dominant for highly evolved persons today. For example – The life of Infants from birth to about 1 year is dominant at Stage A – The life of Young Children from 1 year to about 2 ½ years is dominant at Stage B – The life of Older Children is dominant at Stage C – The life of Adolescents from late childhood to mid-teens tends to be dominant at Stage D – The life of Young Adults tends to be dominant at Stage E. Life at Stages F and A’ arrives later and is more complex.

Earlier human stages can remain dominant in the lives of less evolved persons and groups much later in life than shown on this diagram. Many persons today in our society live out their lives dominant at Stages D and/or E without ever evolving to Stage F or Stage A'. Another example important in today's events is the Terrorists of all types - They behave as being driven by Stage C and D dominance. Of course, I am not saying that all humans driven by Stages C and D are terrorists. This fascinating situation we discuss later.

John Clayton Caris

Living System Psychology - Is It Practical; Is It an Advantage; and Why Does It Appear Strange?

I write this Post to answer three Questions I am asked about Living System Psychology: Is It Practical; Is It an Advantage; and Why Does It Appear so Strange?

From the Mindset of an emerging Stage A' - Living System, 2nd Renaissance Human who is aligned with the current World Human Transformation, the answers to these questions are simple and direct. They are Yes, it is Practical - Yes, it is an Advantage to use - and It is Not Strange at all because it is the natural thing to believe and use if you wish to be most successful now. I explain these answers next.

Psychology as the central underlying foundation for human life and work is a new concept and practice that emerge at Stage A'. This became recognizable in human affairs about 1900 A.D. except for rare earlier individual examples. Its importance for emerging leaders has accelerated since the 1970's. Conventional linear system life and work (Stage E) or earlier stages of human psyche evolution (Stages A through D) cannot perceive psychology in this way and therefore cannot practice it. Relativistic system life and work (Stage F) acts as an essential bridge stage between the linear system pattern and the living system pattern of life and work.

What I am saying is valid but it may be diffficult to understand until one is able to adopt the new Mindset. It should become clearer as you discover the contents of this Blog and the other Isis Group Network materials.

Now let's answer three Questions from a Living System human's Mindset.

Living System Psychology - Is It Practical?

Rudolph Steiner, an early example of a Stage A' - Living System Human, wrote near 1900 A.D in his book Theosophy:

"Only he who understands human life can become a truly practical man."

Steiner was a pioneer in transforming human life and leadership. He was saying that the practical management of human affairs is based on a profound understanding of inner human life rather than the conventional focus on external non-human forces and events. His ideas are a natural result of the new stage of the human psyche, the Stage A'.

It is a discontinuous break from what generally exists even today. It is a leap in what it means to be Practical. It is the leap from the conventional focus of being Practical in terms of the external material world to being Practical by focus on 1) First understanding the internal world of human affairs and their psychology so 2) Second it is then possible to become Practical in the external world in transformed ways.

Carl Jung, another Living System pioneer, wrote in 1961 in the memoir of his life's work - Memories, Dreams, Reflections:

"There is a general feeling to be sure, that we have reached a turning point in the ages, but people imagine the great change has to do with nuclear fission or fusion, or with space rockets. What is currently taking place in rh human psyche is usually overlooked."

Both Jung and Steiner were saying essentially the same thing - That the key to understanding human life and taking Practical actions is the underlying psychological patterns of mankind. Thus, Practical actions really flow from the underlying psychology.

There is in progress a massive transformation in what is Practical. Human psychology is now primary for those who can adopt the new Mindset. Living System Psychology, the Human Psyche System and its stage-by-stage process of human evolution are the central tools for understanding human life and thus being Practical in the emerging Stage A' pattern.

Living System Psychology - Is it an Advantage?

A good way to answer this question comes from a talented software "Hacker" named Paul Graham, whose psyche appears to operate in the Mindset of an emerging Stage A' leader. (Please note that a Hacker is a talented sofware creator - A Cracker is the software criminal that does harmful and illegal things with computers.) Paul Graham wrote in an essay about successful software development entitled Beating the Averages:

"In business there is nothing more valuable than a technical advantage your competitors don't understand."

He was writing about software development, but his concept applies broadly. Living System Psychology is now the core "Technology" for effective leading-edge human action, including leadership, organization and entrepreneurship. Because almost nobody now has any idea about what Human System Psychology is or how it can be used, it is a powerful competitive advantage for those who do know. The vast majority of your competitors don't understand it. Even in the future it will remain a great advantage because the majority of existing individuals and organizations will probably not be able to transform themselves or their organizations to Stage A' Living System Life and Work.

So, Living System Psychology is an Advantage.

Living System Psychology - Why Does It Appear Strange?

Living System Psychology is based upon Living System science that results from the Stage A' human psyche. The psychologies of earlier Human Psyche System stages are based upon non-living system sciences. Therefore, they are discontinuously different from Living System Psychology - They are inconsistent with it.

One example illustrates this psyche stage difference. The well known Freudian approach to psychology is based upon and consistent with Linear System science (Stage E science). While the still lesser known Jungian approach to psychology is based on the emerging Living System science (Stage A' science).

Linear System science and Living System science are qualitatively discontinuous. From the mindset of Linear System Science, anything consistent with Living System science will appear to be Strange. From the mindset of Living System science, anything consistent with Linear System science will appear to a limited special case of Living System science where the "living" characteristics are reduced to zero.

The first, Linear System science, is the science of independent mutually exclusive events on the conscious plane of reality. Linear System science statistical distributions are peaked, like the well known Gaussian, or Bell Curve, distributions. The logic of Linear System Science is Either-Or, not both simultaneously. It is uni-polar. This Linear System Science is what is generally known as "science" and therefore is not Strange to most.

The second, Living System science, is the science of inter-dependent complementary bi-polar events on both the conscious surface plane of reality and the unconscious underlying plane of reality - With the unconscious plane of reality being the primary guiding influence. This is called the "Morphic Field", or underlying guiding field. Living System science statistical disributions have no most probable peaks. They follow a Power Law distribution, commonly refered to as the "Long Tail". The logic Living System science is Both-And. It is bi-polar. This Living System science is not yet generally known as "science" and therefore does appear Strange to many.

Therefore, from a Living System mindset, Living System Psychology is Not Strange at all - But from a Linear System mindset it is Strange.

John Clayton Caris

Three Concepts Underlying Living System Psychology - Part 3

The Third Concept -
Transcendence in Human Psyche System Evolution

The Third Concept concerning Transcendence goes like this: At certain critical transformation periods and locations in mankind's history there first appear isolated persons, and later small groups, functioning in a new human psyche stage pattern that is evolved to a stage beyond the collectives in which they are embedded.

The new individual human psyche stage transcends the patterns of other contemporary individuals and collectives. After these transcendent individuals set their own lives in new directions, they initiate a transcendent transformation in the collectives in which they are embedded. This ultimately recasts those collectives in the psychic image and likeness of their new individual stage.

The Concept of Transcendence means that individuals are Not blocked from evolving beyond their collectives. According to the Concept of Recapitulation individuals Cannot evolve beyond their collectives. Transcendence places individuals in the primary role of change and transformation in their own lives and in the world.

Thus a new and completely different type of leader/entrepreneur can emerge into the world, in all areas of life and work – Not just business. This new stage of leading-edge person is the driving force, during a period of chaos and decay, to begin building a new, more advanced epoch of local and world history. Now we have the Living System Psychology tool to understand what is happening in our current World Human Transformation to the emerging pattern of Living System Life and Work.

Let's discuss several manifestations of the Third Concept. Transcendent persons tend to emerge in significant numbers when the then dominant human psyche stage patterns and their existing human collectives and culture face major problems - Problems that its then dominant leader/manager class and organizations can no longer handle. That is what is happening today. And its “Tipping Point” was reached in mid-August 2007.

Of course, many conventional leader/managers are unaware consciously of their perilous situation. And those who are aware focus their energy on trying to fix-up the problems of their existing situation using conventional solutions within their limited ability to perceive the transformed reality around them.

This situation triggered by Transcendent individuals lead a build-up to their culture's transformation to its next stage. Recall that both individuals and collectives evolve through the same sequence of stage-by-stage psyche transformations - But not usually simultaneously. Individual Recapitulation to a given stage always comes after collective transformation to the same stage – But Individual Transcendence always comes before collective transformation to the new stage.

The Third Concept means that transcendent transformation for individuals and smaller groups always leads the later transformation of larger collectives (even whole cultures or civilizations) to the same more evolved stage. Thus, leading-edge persons and groups emerging at critical times in history become the catalysts and driving force for the eventual collective transformation into a new era of human history – An era that is discontinuously different from the preceding era.

That is exactly what is happening today for the seventh time in human history. That is exactly why transcendent forms for the leadership/management profession, organizational structure, operations process and entrepreneurship are critically needed. We believe that today’s transcendent forms must be consistent with the Stage A’ psyche stage patterns.

It is useful to consider what it can mean for you to transcend beyond the psyche stage pattern of your environment. It is a traumatic and bitter/sweet experience. First of all, you can expect to be in a lonely position. Your personal relationships with your collectives are sure to be different from what is then considered to be Normal. You may no longer receive understanding or validation from the collectives you are embedded in. You are commonly considered to be a cynic, a destructionist, or at least weird. This experience often extends as well to your personal relationships in addition to organization relationships. You may no longer receive understanding or assistance from your previous sources of support. You must learn to supply these things to yourself from within yourself.

This is why qualitatively new forms of personal understanding, of leadership/management and of entrepreneurship need to be learned and practiced. This is what the Isis Group Network was created – To give you, as an emerging leader, the transcendent learning and training to enable you to re-create yourself, to create new relationships, to create new organizations and to enable you to collaborate with other individuals and organizations to do the same.

Gradually you will meet other persons who are making similar discoveries about themselves and their work. You may even find a facilitator who enables you to discover what is happening to you. That is what my associates and I offer to you. We hope you will learn how to contribute to same way to others.

You need to realize that transcendence has exciting, liberating characteristics. For example - You need not be a pawn controlled by current collectives. In fact, you find yourself unable to be a pawn – a victim. If you can use your more evolved psyche stage patterns to achieve practical results in your life, and then in collective life, you will become a highly productive catalytic leader for the new era in your chosen areas of interest and in the world.

The Third Concept of Transcendence can be summarized as follows. At certain times in the lives of some persons, and at critical periods and locations in mankind's history, they undergo a transcendent stage of human psyche that emerges from within themselves. They are then enabled to set their own lives and at least their local region of the world in new directions. This is accomplished through their new understanding of life and new patterns for becoming a practical, more highly productive person in their chosen areas of work.

Because major collective transformations are always traumatic times in history, and because the world transformation now in process promises to be the most profound one in human history, we must not fear that the world will end. The old paradigm for life and work and its results are coming to an end, but the new one is being born. Our time is an example of the myth of the Phoenix in action in human affairs. For those who understand what is coming and act accordingly, this traumatic period can be the best of times.

After the dust settles from each of man's transcendent transformations, a new historical era enfolds and irreversibly modifies the prior ones. It re-interprets and re-directs the previously dominant parts of us into more productive channels. Our previous psyche stages remain within our psyche system, but their previous forms are transmuted from the effects of the new stage.

Our time is not to be feared. It is to be celebrated. It is to be approached with excitement because it gives us unusual opportunities for using our new Living System leadership/management, organizational form, operations process and entrepreneurship.

John Clayton Caris

Links to other Posts of this series:

Three Concepts Underlying Human System Psychology - Part 1
Three Concepts Underlying Human System Psychology - Part 2

Three Concepts Underlying Living System Psychology - Part 2

The Second Concept –
Recapitulation in Human Psyche System Evolution

The Second Concept concerning Recapitulation goes like this: Each individual through a lifetime retraces, or Recapitulates, in his own psyche system evolution the prior stages of mankind's collective psyche evolution process up to the then dominant stage institutionalized in the collective cultures in which he is embedded. An individual's stage-by-stage Recapitulation process continues through a lifetime unless it is blocked by physical body problems or psychosocial environment. Physical body blockage can come from inadequate nervous system or brain development or their malfunction. Environmental blockage can result from parents, other family or peer groups, work and social organizations, professional and political organizations and overall society.

Gerald Heard also wrote in The Five Ages of Man about the psychological use of the Recapitulation concept from biology. He applied Recapitulation psychosocial evolution. He wrote in this regard:

"And so it can now be done with the cultural evolution of man and the evolution of consciousness that precipitates those cultural sequences. As Stanley Hall, Cyril Burt, ... Arnold Gesell and many other child psychologists (like Piaget) have established, the individual infant, child, and adolescent are recapitulating in their individual growth phases, the past epochs of man's psychosocial evolution."

Heard went on:

"This (Recapitulation) is, of course, an extension into human history of the biological principle that has helped in elucidating biological evolution: The principle that ontogeny, the history of the individual's development growth, is an epitome (or model) of phylogeny, the history of the race's development."

Here, I believe, Heard correctly recognizes that individual psyche system evolution precedes cultural evolution and that Recapitulation is involved in our individual lives. However, his comments might be confusing by themselves without the third concept underlying Living System Psychology. That is the concept involving Transcendence that I discuss in the next part. It explains how some persons can evolve in their individual lives beyond the most evolved psyche stage of their surrounding collective environment. Before discussing Transcendence, let’s first complete our discussion of Recapitulation.

The concept of Recapitulation has been around in biology and in child development for a long time. I find that it also applies beyond childhood - In fact throughout adult life. Living System Psychology demonstrates that human psyche stage evolution continues beyond infancy, through childhood and adolescent years and for the whole of a lifetime. The idea of continuing Recapitulation through an individual's whole lifetime has been realized only in recent years. It is essential for understanding what is happening to you and to mankind now, how you got to where you are now, how mankind got to where it is now and where you as individuals and collectives are going now.

Conventional thinking about human development still focuses almost exclusively on childhood and adolescence. This pattern of thinking began to break up in the 1960's. Dr. Arnold Gesell and co-workers published in 1956 their book Youth: The Years from Ten to Sixteen. Its viewpoint on human development began to broaden prior thought. In more recent years there have been researchers, such as Harvey, Hunt, and Schroeder who showed in their book, Conceptual Systems and Personality Organization, powerful evidence for continued psyche development in both young adulthood and mature adulthood. The pioneering works of Gerald Heard, Clare Graves and Ken Wilber gave me foundations for a lifelong sequence in human psyche evolution. I used this knowledge for starting to develop Living system Psychology living system applications to leadership/management, organization form, operations process and entrepreneurship.

I will not discuss here several more works that support the concept of structural stage evolution of the human psyche and its extension into and through an individual's adult years. I will give a list of references in Part 4 of this discussion.

The conclusions we can come to now are:

1) There are numerous works on human development that are consistent with and can be explained by Living System Psychology, and

2) The individual human psyche stage transitions causing today's leading-edge personal transformations and emerging world collective transformation are those of middle to late adulthood.

The Second Concept summarized is:

That individual human psyche stage evolution recapitulates prior stages of mankind's collective evolution up through the dominant stage then institutionalized in a person's overall culture and specific local collectives. Individual recapitulation continues throughout life unless the person's development is prevented by physical body infirmity or blocked by human environment limits or coercion.

There is a valid and important implication within what we have developed so far. It is that both individuals through a lifetime and collectives through history evolve along the same sequence of structural stages of human psyche system evolution. Thus, Living System Psychology defines a structural stage, psychosocial evolution process of mankind, both individual and collective.

The first two concepts (Part 1 and Part 2) carry us a long way. However, with them alone we can't fully develop Living System Psychology. To do so we must leap beyond just Recapitulation. Explaining why leads us to the Third Concept.

With only the First and Second Concepts we are led directly to the view that we as individuals are formed by our psychosocial environments and external circumstances. Recapitulation means that individual psyche stage evolution must follow collective psyche stage evolution. There is no way for individual psyche stage evolution to lead collective evolution. This is the conventional psychological viewpoint. It is very convenient for those who are driven to control us as individuals.

Such thinking seems to me to be a base for the behavior modification psychology of B.F. Skinner, the well-known American psychologist. His view is for me a very limited one. I believe it is a dangerous and ineffective one to use today to understand more highly evolved persons and collectives. Living System Psychology shows it applies to only less evolved stages of the human being up through Stage D psyche patterns.

To understand that a non-Recapitulation part of human evolution exists, we need the Third Concept. That is the concept of Transcendence. It is the concept that enables us to complete the formulation of Living System Psychology. It enables us the understand that individual human psyche system evolution can, and does, advance beyond that of the collective so the collective can be transformed by more advanced individuals. This is an exciting concept. It enables us to explain what can now happen to you and to the world today, and to tell you where you and mankind are going. This is what I discuss in Part 3.

John Clayton Caris

Links to other Posts in this series:

Three Concepts Underlying Living System Psychology - Part 1
Three Concepts Underlying Living System Psychology - Part 3

Three Concepts Underlying Living System Psychology - Part 1

This discussion outlines three concepts underlying Living System Psychology, the emerging science of the Human Psyche System. They differ from concepts commonly used by psychologists. They are part of psychological base that leading-edge persons naturally use in their lives and work.

The First Concept –
Human Psyche Evolution Is the Story of Man and History

The First Concept goes like this: Our human psyche system is the base for everything in our life. The history of man is the eternal psychological process of the evolution of the human psyche, whether it is the individual’s story through a lifetime or mankind's collective story through history.

Therefore, everything that manifests in life and work is a result of an individual’s or a collective’s psyche stage profile, especially its dominant stage, for those who exist at a given time and location. This is a remarkable concept at the core of Living System Psychology.

It means that the Human Psyche System is the World’s most fundamental living system. Human psyche stage patterns are the underlying “Morphic Fields” for all human life and affairs – Individual and collective. Thus, all that happens in human actions are psyche stage results. They are the real cause of events in our lives and work.

It is important to emphasize that the Human Psyche System is not the brain. The brain is the biophysical instrument through which the psyche operates in our life on Earth. The human psyche is a non-physical energy field system that is the totality of all conscious and unconscious processes. The psyche is not only what is thought of as the conscious mind. It also includes the vast human unconscious. We believe the most advanced scientific understanding of the psyche should be based upon the emerging science of Living Systems that organize as open nodal networks. The Human Psyche System organizes this way.

There is much evidence consistent with this concept. I limit myself here ourselves here to only one one outstanding reference. Gerald Heard used the following words to introduce his book The Five Ages of Man:

"This (book) is also an interpretation of history in psychological terms…Man’s story is specifically the winning of an increasing awareness, purpose, intention, and objective. In short, man's history is the record of how he gained in the intensification of consciousness, of self-understanding. It is a psychological story. For the spiral of the evolution of the psyche is the theme of the human venture."

I turn to a second quotation from Heard’s book. He refers to the common failure of scholars to see history as a grand process or the story of human psyche evolution. I believe Heard was writing from the viewpoint of an early Stage A’ psyche pattern person and those of whom he writes were not yet evolved to that point. He wrote:

"This continued refusal to look at the huge design now exposed to our view is so unreasonable to suspect an unconscious prejudice."

He is right, but it goes beyond what he says. The refusal he mentions is both conscious and unconscious. What he sees as a prejudice is the prevailing dominant Stage E human psyche pattern in action – The linear, machine-like, conscious, objective, physical world focus of many historians, particularly in the West. Their psyche function is strongly in the Stage E – Linear 1st Renaissance paradigm.

Going on, Heard wrote:

"An unfriendly reception was given by most professional historians to Arnold Toynbee’s attractive and inspiring study of history."

Toynbee broke away from the prevailing scholarship of his time to see history as a vast, integrated process from which the specific patterns can be derived and related. His seminal work, A Study of History, is for me another example of early Stage A’ human psyche pattern in action. Yet, even Toynbee did not start his work from the viewpoint of evolution in human history. Gerald Heard wrote about Toynbee in the following words:

"Also that compendious historian (Toynbee) refused to start his interpretation with the basic platform of human history. He traced only (the results of that platform). He (Toynbee) started at the archeological level of history, not at its palentological base."

That is, Toynbee did not start with the human being's inner psychological evolution as the primary formative force of history, but started in the conventional pattern with the external world’s physical record of man. Possibly because he felt he was on firmer "scientific" ground. Certainly no structural stage human psyche evolution model like Living System Psychology was then available for him to use.

Further, Heard wrote:

"These two facts seem to me to be evidence of a deep unwillingness to face the possibility of a psychological interpretation of history in which the clue to man's historia is the evolution of his consciousness."

Again we believe Heard is right, as far as he goes. The appropriate clue to man's history is for me the story of the sequential evolution of man's psyche according to the process of Living System Psychology. Although man's conscious awareness is very important, it is only part of the human psyche’s story and probably not the most important part. I believe the human unconscious is even more important.

Finally Heard wrote:

"...though the historian as a rule seems anxiously desirous of denying any process in the history of this unique creature that strives toward goals (Mankind), the anthropologist is certain now that sequence can be detected ...and though it is still described in economic terms…this sequence… can hardly fail to be recognized by any open mind as being symptomatic of an alteration and evolution of ideas."

I highly recommend Gerald Heard's book, The Five Ages of Man. His work is consistent with Living System Psychology, but it does not include all of its psyche stages and seems not aware of its living system science foundation. Therefore, Heard’s book is incomplete for our purposes.

His treatment begins with what is the second stage of the Human Psyche system’s evolution process – the Stage B – Mystical Tribal human. His detailed discussion of the ages of man ends at what is the fifth stage of the human evolution process – the Stage E - Linear System – 1st Renaissance human. He only partly recognizes as the sixth stage – the Stage F – Relativistic Collectivist human. He does not recognize or discuss the emerging seventh human psyche stage – the Stage A' – Living System 2nd Renaissance human. However, his treatment of the middle stages of human psychological evolution (Stages B, C, D and E) is excellent.

In summary, the First Concept says that all human history, including what is happening today and what lies ahead of us, is the story of mankind's psychological evolution through a sequence of Human Psyche System stages. Psyche stage evolution is an eternal, universal process in creation, along which all individuals and collectives are distributed.

I wish to mention one development in recent years that may seem to be progress toward understanding human nature in psychological terms but, in my judgment, leads into a blind alley. That blind alley approach is called Psychohistory. It is the attempt to merge Freudian psychology and its psychiatry with the historical interpretation of persons and events. This field of study does recognize that history is psychologically based. But there, I believe, its validity ends for two reasons.

- First, it is based upon Freudian psychology, and thus has its inherent limitations of being strongly correlated with Stage E human psyche patterns. These limitations make it of doubtful use for persons evolved beyond the Stage E – Linear System 1st Renaissance human.

- Second, it is not consistent with the properties of living systems. Therefore it does not have the capacity to deal with the essential transcendent pole of the evolutionary process underlying human nature that is the cornerstone of Living System Psychology.

Jung’s work is the foundation I use for Living System Psychology and its Human Psyche System evolution process. His work can be extended to solve the two problems with Freudian based Psychohistory. I mention these things about Psychohistory because it is possible you may read or hear some direct or indirect reference to it. Without being aware of its inconsistency with Living System Psychology you could be misled to believe they are directly related and consistent. They are Not.

I discuss the Second Concept and the Third Concept next. They are extensions of the First Concept. They state the central roles played in human psyche evolution by what are called Recapitulation and Transcendence, respectively.

John Clayton Caris

Links to other Posts of this series:

Three Concepts Underlying Living System Psychology - Part 2
Three Concepts Underlying Living System Psychology - Part 3