Re-entry: Empathy

ClosedReminder of the strengthening process trajectory:

Completion

The strengthening of the self has gone as far as it possibly can at Stage-7. Because of the values and attitudes developed during Cycle-2, the handling of feelings in the Emotional Mode-φ1 shifts even further down towards the lower right of the ellipse.

Emotional life can be very comfortably managed because minimal attention needs to be given to handling mental states, and there is an ability and readiness to handle others. So, where the Spiral Trajectory re-enters the ellipse, sensitivity and containment become transformed into empathy.

A person now senses their self as solid and capable of resisting the turbulence of life. It becomes much easier to function whatever the occasion and even outside the usual «comfort zones».

The initial values of the Emotional Mode-φ1 were shifted after Cycle-1, and now undergo a further significant adjustment through the inputs from Modes μ5, μ6 and μ7 in Cycle-2.

  • Sensitivity is non-defensive and used for others as well as for yourself.
  • Approval by others is expected to be based on your personal realities.
  • Confidantes are now your close friends rather than parental substitutes.
  • Ventilation becomes controlled expression and is about sharing.
  • Complementary pairing becomes far more flexible and non-exploitative.
  • Likes and dislikes, while more subtle and complex, lose their power over you.
  • Genuiness is strengthened still further by discipline, openness and trust.

Recap of Cycle-2

Cycle-2 has been about self-actualization. This process ensures that the sense of self and responses to pressures for well-being are meaningful in personal terms and also significant in a wider social sense.

Growth commences from a foundation of self-containment dependent on staying in comfort zones, and ends in empathic handling of a personal presence in new and challenging situations.

Self-actualization requires a far more active exploration and development of potentials of the self than is permitted in Cycle-1.

ClosedRecap how self-actualization develops:

■  Vital Stage-5 involves getting energized by engaging in something personally challenging and meaningful.

■ Transpersonal Stage-6 involves becoming serene by activating ultimate values and ensuring humane functioning in daily life.

■ Relational Stage-7 involves cultivating a few close friendships in which your self and the other are perceived as especially meaningful.

This then leads spontaneously to a return to the Emotional Mode-1, but at the far lower right extreme of the ellipse where emotionality takes the form of empathy.

  • Now review the strengthening of a sense of self.

Originally drafted:  7-Jan-2016. Last amended: 23-Jun-2016.