Let an older view inform the newer one
When a new insight seems to dismiss a gut feeling or a tradition, ask what the older view protects before deciding which one wins.
Why it works
Hampson paraphrases Gebser that components which are balanced, matured and mastered can effect an integration, and names insight, maturity and balance as the qualities Gebser requires (Hampson 2007, p. 122; scan p. 98). Gidley describes the integral as a re-integration in which earlier vitality is re-experienced and held at what she calls a higher resonance (Gidley 2007, p. 111). On this page’s reading, that means a fuller, more coherent form of the earlier vitality. The practice applies that stance to a single decision: keep both views in view and ask what each contributes. Whether this improves judgement has not been measured.
How to do it
- Name the newer insight, such as a plan built on the numbers, and the older view it conflicts with, such as a feeling about a person or a long-held tradition.
- Ask what the older view is protecting: safety, belonging, meaning, or a sense of the whole.
- Write the most important thing the older view knows that the new insight does not, then the reverse.
- Decide with both in view, and note which part of the older view you chose to carry forward.
Evidence
Gebser’s conditions for integration (insight, maturity, balance) are paraphrased by Hampson (p. 122; scan p. 98). Gidley’s account of re-integration is at p. 111. The application to a single decision is this page’s extension. (anecdotal)
Integration can be mistaken for averaging two positions, or for giving a gut feeling a veto. Gebser’s wording ties integration to mastery of each component, which may still mean choosing one option.
Sources
- Gidley, J. (2007). The evolution of consciousness as a planetary imperative: An integration of integral views. Integral Review, 5, 4–226.
- Hampson, G. P. (2007). Integral re-views postmodernism: The way out is through. Integral Review, 4.
- Gebser, J. (1985). The Ever-Present Origin (N. Barstad & A. Mickunas, Trans.). Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Common mistake
Calling a compromise integration. If the older view and the new insight are both diluted until neither keeps its core, the decision has been averaged, not integrated.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Jean Gebser’s Structures of Consciousness
- Tell a strength from its deficient form
Take one capacity you rely on most and check whether it still serves you or has hardened into the only way you will act.
- Name the older ways of knowing you still carry
Find the ritual, loyalty or belief-in-cause-and-effect that still shapes a reaction, and say what it holds together before you judge it.
- Notice clock time against lived time
Pick one activity and compare how long it took on the clock with how long it felt, to see how much of your day is only measured.
- Hold your view without needing it to be the only one
State a view you care about, then write what it sees clearly and what it cannot see, without giving the view up.
- Notice when a way of seeing has run its course
List the explanations that used to work and now give less, and look for the questions they have stopped answering.
- Bring a belief back to its origin in the present
Trace a belief you hold to where it first formed, then hold that origin as present rather than as a finished memory.
Related concepts
- Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory (AQAL), Made Practical
Five elements for catching what your view of a situation leaves out, held as a map rather than a truth
- States vs Stages of Consciousness: Wilber, Combs and O’Fallon
Why a powerful experience and a lasting change are different things, and how each one grows
- Spiral Dynamics, Made Practical
Understanding how value systems develop and how to navigate across them
- Terri O’Fallon’s STAGES Model, Made Practical
Twelve stages built from three repeating questions, and how to work with the one you are in
- Integral Methodological Pluralism: The Eight Zones of Inquiry
Eight angles on one question, how to sweep a problem through them, and where the framework is contested
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