Further Comments on Virtues and Social Relationships
The up/down (vertical) axis of the body has such connotations
as stand-alone agency, individuality, and responsibility. Grounding and
practicality are at its lower end; aspiration and spirituality at its higher
end. An extreme tendency to dwell at the lower end can signify depression
and self-condemnation, perhaps as a result of an expedient immersion in
the material, sensual, bodily and sexual aspects of life, without the grace
or compassion that comes from a Higher Self. By contrast, exclusive emphasis
on the upper end betrays a rejection of these aspects and a tendency toward
the abstract, the emptily spiritual and the naively ideal. In life, the
trick is, of course, to include both these parts of the self's axis, at
any moment finding the golden mean or proper stretch between them.
Further, this is the axis of building up and pulling down, construction
and destruction. Things at the bottom are more fundamental or foundational;
they support what is above. As things move up from one vertical level to
another while keeping and developmentally subsuming the properties of the
lower levels, they achieve a new integration.
An aside: Ken Wilber and Wolf Von Eckartsberg are proponents of using
this vertical axis for picturing development and evolution. Each higher
level of development negates the lower level but incorporates it and integrates
it. Depth for them is vertical. The MetaSelf model, however, shows that
the front/back axis can convey much the same ideas using the front/back
horizontal axis of the body, which is also an axis of depth. The box-frame,
representing the human self, is supported by the wall that, on large levels
of scale, represents physical nature and the ecosphere. Its backboard represents
the body, that is, the material, sensory and perceptual levels of the self.
But along this front/back horizontal axis of the body, the self creates
a figurative mental space in front, which represents the conscious mind,
and shadow space in back for the unconscious parts and potentials that
have been repressed. Literal space is built upon to create/imagine a self
that is greater than just the body. In front is the social space of the
room; behind and surrounding the room is the Big S Self or a transcendent
God "beyond" the room. The transcendent may be seen as being
"out there" only, creating a dualistic world view separating
God and self, the worldly and the other-worldly. But the self might integrate
and operate upon the body/mind: the MetaSelf model, in this case, becomes
a verbal/visual/kinesthetic way for the transcendent Spirit to enter the
self along the front/back axis to unify and encompass matter, body and
mind. The model thus becomes a step toward non-duality. Metaphorical depth
-- on a horizontal front/back axis -- is used to achieve integration. The
depth of development is measured on this axis by how much of the entire
length of the axis has been brought into the person's model of him- or
herself.
Extreme and persistent closeness to others, measured along the front/back
horizontal axis, can suggest enmeshment, dependency, identification or
loss of "objectivity." Great and persistent distance, by contrast,
suggests rejection or difference, extreme agency, detachment, or solitude.
The ability to find the right (and flexible) distance between these extremes
suggests intimacy, similarity, interdependence, respect, prudence, empathy,
compassion, and agency-in-communion.
The literal transparency of the box-frame's front plane suggests the
virtue of truth: what is inside the front of the box-frame can truly and
demonstrably reflect what is in the world. The figurative transparency
of the backboard suggests the virtues of truthfulness and sincerity, a
congruence between what is shown outside and the feelings, thoughts and
intentions "inside." Sharing these with others is what Carl Rogers
calls "transparency."
The angle of this front/back axis of connection (or conflict) with others
suggests directness (confrontation and courage, signified by the prepositions
"toward" and "through") or indirectness (avoidance
or cleverness, signified by "around").
The left/right axis has additional important meanings. As the axis of
width, it has connotations of narrowmindedness and broadmindedness, of
a narrow or wide range of knowledge. This is when we view this axis statically,
however. When we think of motion across the field of vision, we
instead get the idea of sequence, narrative, and development, as with artworks
hanging in a retrospective or the frames of a comic strip.
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