TODAY’S CONSIDERATIONS
The next source of instability and insanity to be discussed is a condition which always accompanies the assignment and / or assumption of personality identifications, namely, psychic disintegration.
Psychic disintegration occurs especially during times of stress when an ego-state feels as if it is being attacked or threatened. Take, for example, the Enneagram Personality Type Two.
A Type Two's primary desire in life is to be loved - by many - in order to make up for having received too little love during the early years (especially from the father who may have been absent because of death or divorce or who was present but "emotionally unavailable" - that is, detached and unable to feel and unable to express love as a result of his own trauma or deprivation or parental coldness during his own upbringing or even later in life).
Yet note the connecting lines in the enneagram pictograph
and see that the 2 can connect to the 4 if psychically healthy and if developing authenticity; however, note also that if 2's become stressed (because their helping and saving and rescuing and people pleasing efforts are not being rewarded with love) then they will psychically disintegrate to the worst traits of a Type 8 and become biting and mean and controlling and hateful and raging or even dangerous.
The discussion of psychic disintegration will continue via excerpts from the book Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot Address):
Twenty-seven years ago, the sharing of some basic Advaitin understandings began. The talks back then dealt especially with the effects of acculturation which must be transitioned if stability and sanity are to return and if coldness and detachment are to be replaced with kindness and warmth and an understanding of Real Love.
[The two non-duality novels offered here, "Necklace" and "Wars," were written to offer an awareness of acculturation's effects and to expose the primary sources of dualistic thinking - namely, organized religion, big government, and big business - as well as to provide some alternatives to their influence.]
Along with the effects of acculturation, the effects of domestication, programming, conditioning, brainwashing and indoctrination were shared also during those days, and persons were invited to see the consequences and to take all of the necessary steps to un-do those non-productive influences. Those topics continue to be addressed in talks or writings to this day.
Furthermore, for twenty-seven years, the ramifications of assuming personalities have been discussed and seekers have also been invited to take all of the necessary steps to cast off all false roles; all false personas;
all false identities; and all false ego-states in order to be free, in order to avoid being driven blindly, in order to avoid being driven by unconscious motivators, in order to avoid being robbed of the ability to choose, and in order to be free of unwarranted fears and the frustration of unmet desires.
Next, again, via this discussion of some of the other effects of personality assumption, that same invitation is extended and should appeal to all who would be stable. Thus, to the discussion of "psychic disintegration" which can rob persons of stability and which can even lead to insanity.
Mental health professionals define psychic disintegration as "the disorganization or disruption of mental processes" which can result in personality disorders and, in the more extreme cases, mental illness; or, "the disruption of the integration functions of the personality in mental illness."
What triggers psychic disintegration?
For one, stress.
For two, a sense of separation.
For three, judgmentalism and a sense of different-from-ment leading to a sense of better-than-ment (so research has shown that those who have assumed the role of "A Super Religious Person" or "A Spiritual Giant" often exhibit the same signs of disintegration as one who is stressed because those roles also inspire judgmentalism and a sense of different-from-ment and a sense of better-than-ment).
The disintegration being addressed here is rooted in personality / personalities. Personality forms early on as a result of familial dysfunctionalism.
A child - trying to adapt and survive in an often threatening and / or senseless and / or insane environment - develops an ego ideal and a basic personality type (or several ego-states) in order to try to accommodate the people who seem to have her / his fate in their hands.
As a result, a child - usually by the age of six - is being driven by a primary personality type which has been adopted subconsciously. With personality comes fears and desires and an inability to choose. Why?
Because the personality controls all thoughts and words and deeds.
Of course, all personality is rooted in duality because every personality type will have "good traits and bad traits" or "assets and liabilities." Non-duality moves the discussion beyond those limiting classifications.
The "Advaitin teacher" would have every seeker abandon all false ego-states as identities, removing that which drives persons blindly; that which generates fears and desires; and that which subconsciously controls thoughts and words and deeds, always to the detriment of the person, eventually.
Some counselors, who are unaware that such an option is a possibility via the Advaita teachings, would prefer to assist their clients in "integrating." Fine, for a time. Their reasoning is that if persons are going to display the traits of a variety of the nine basic personality types, why not at least try to integrate - adopt and internalize - some of the better traits of other types?
What might such integration look like? Here's an example:
A Type One ("The Perfectionist") can be rigid and anal and overly-serious, embroiled in judging and trying to change others or reform "the world." If a One "grows psychically" (i.e., "integrates") then a One can "integrate" some of the more "positive" traits of the Seven [note the line in the pictograph above which connects the 1 and 7] and can relax, take it easy, have fun, enjoy the existence, and give up on trying to change "the world."
In the case of "disintegration," persons regress into what is called dualistically, the "worst of the negative traits or liabilities" of another type and will display those traits. For example, the Type Two Helper mentioned in the opening can experience some of the triggers mentioned earlier and then disintegrate into "the worst of" a Type Eight.
In the Two mode, the Helper appears to be loving and kind and giving (though that is not really about being altruistic but is about trying to gain love);
if the Two disintegrates to the Type Eight, then the "negative traits" of an Eight will manifest, including, raging; being controlling; being insensitive; being domineering; being aggressive; being demanding; being arrogant; being combative; being possessive and jealous; being uncompromising; being hyper-critical; and even being violent.
[NOTE: Recall the pointer from earlier, however: psychic disintegration cannot occur in the absence of personality / personalities, but it can be exacerbated by acculturation if a child is raised in a home where the parents are cold and unavailable, showing no affection or warmth.]
In some cases where instability and certain degrees of insanity have been induced by psychic disintegration, the Advaita teachings can address this personality-based condition, depending on the degree to which disintegration has occurred.
By guiding the seeker to a state where no personas are being assumed, then there will be no subconscious drivers or motivators. There will not be integration or disintegration.
There will be the no-concept, no-belief, no-identity, non-dual Reality, and that will result in . . .
. . . freedom from shifting between the traits of one personality type and another,
. . . freedom from shifting from the positive traits of one's type to the negative traits, and
. . . freedom from disintegrating into the "worst" of another type (or types).
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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