Sensory Existence-L'1: Reformulation
The current formulation of this method differs significantly from the former published account, which is available below.
Preoccupation | To keep in regular contact with others. |
Stabilizer | Stimulation — hence correspondence with |
Commitment | To membership of social circles and networks. |
Emphasis | Instigating and supporting unequivocally positive interactions. |
Sustenance | Via attention and sensory pleasures. |
The relevant environment is socio-physical, i.e. not just physical, and the function is «to keep in regular contact with others». In this process, there is social engagement and repeated positive interactions, but without the necessity for deep personal involvement.
Inter-personal interactions are typically affirmative, well-wishing or congratulatory. Sometimes they involve requesting and providing practical help, but without imposing obligations.
To support this method, a person develops a large, even very large, number of friends and acquaintances in various circles or networks available in the neighbourhood or community. It may seem as if all that is required is a basic commonality or shared interest, and a willingness to give due attention. But there is invariably a degree of genuine commitment and time, which those not identified with this method will resent making.
Recently, social media technologies have provided an easy vehicle for such relationships. The power and reach of social media may well be an indicator that this method of mental stabilization is widespread, possibly the norm.
That, in turn, might partly explain why solitary confinement is akin to torture. However, the practice appears too pernicious for all to be just about this method.
More.
The search for stimulation (the primary stabilizer) and sensual pleasures are two features that reveal the primacy of the corresponding element: . Group activities commonly centre around such things as: eating, drinking, watching sport, festivals of all sorts, listening to music, visiting museums or galleries, sight-seeing, touring, photography, saunas and turkish baths, wine-tastings &c.
Opportunities are found to celebrate, to dress up and to give presents or awards, because this allows people to see and be seen, hear and be heard: all in complete safety. When under stress, a person using this method seeks for solace in some sensory pleasure in suitable company.
It is noteworthy that there is no social class where this sensory method is not visible: it is used by academics, politicians, businessmen, criminals, housewives. So it is not a function of intelligence or education; nor is it a matter of wealth or poverty.
Breakdown here may be a disintegration (as originally proposed) and possibly confirmed by solitary confinement studies. However, it may also be evidenced by addiction, which offers a dysfunctional soothing (e.g. morphine, alcohol) or (e.g. amphetamine, gambling).
Superscripts refer to Notes provided in the book, but not reproduced here. Note that formulae are represented slightly differently. Italics in the text are shown in maroon italic here.
At the most concrete identity level, experiential primacy is assigned to sensations (L-I); and, as a result, the dominant reality is sensory. Identity as a sensory being means that one is embedded in a material world, that is to say, in the physical environment. Identity here is organized around physical sensations like colour, shape, warmth, touch, sound and smell. The identity drive is to reach and maintain a state of internal equilibrium. The essential supplies which sustain the self are stimuli. Maintaining equilibrium and a sense of stability involves the regulation of inner tensions generated by impinging stimuli, whether in the form of sensations, images, emotions or ideas.
Satisfaction for a sensory being involves physical (i.e. sensory) contact — like touching and being touched, making and hearing sounds, looking and being looked at. Attractive things and animal pets can be particularly gratifying. Satisfaction is most likely if stimulation is varied and interesting. But even painful stimuli are better than nothing. As stimulating contact intensifies, excitement develops until over-stimulation becomes painful and disabling. The other typical threats to well-being are neglect and boredom. Self-expression depends on maintaining a state of (sensory) awareness and generating arousal in oneself and others. Arousal informs others who are expected to be aware. Making a noise or wearing a particular hat, for example, may be a statement about oneself. To function well in this system is to be integrated and able to tolerate stimulating input: colloquially referred to as feeling together. Dysfunction is about feeling over-whelmed and unable to handle more stimuli. Further deterioration leads to disintegration. Psychological dysfunction is signalled by the sensation of pain — like a headache, cramp, sore eye, or skin irritation — which is meaningful in the context of the person’s current life-stresses.
There is an identity disorder associated with an inability to attribute meaning or feeling to body states which has been called ‘psychosomatic personality’. Such people seem to be fixed in sensory being, cannot properly use image to develop themselves, and lack access to higher level identity development.4
Adherence to fashions, addiction to television, down-market tabloid newspapers, rituals of dining, desires for colour, enjoyment of wines, use of make-up and perfume, muzak, desultory conversation — all these testify to the importance of stimulation and sensory being in interpersonal relations and communal life. Many vocations, like cooking, entertaining, furniture design, decorating, handicrafts, fashion modelling depend on sensory sensitivity, stimulating others and generating coherent interesting patterns. Not surprisingly, sensory psychotherapies are popular. They include: therapeutic massage, aromatherapy (massage with aromatic oils), flotation therapy (in a tank of salt water), and reflexology (massage of the sole of the foot in places claimed to map on to the rest of the body). It is just possible that acupuncture works in this way.
Sensory being potentially promotes a materialistic orientation to life. At times, it gives the impression of being depersonalized — much like the criticism that was levelled at the rationalist approach to ethical choice. A link with the rationalist aspiration — to find solutions — comes from the stimulating and disturbing nature of problems. Their removal reduces tension and so supports the identity drive of sensory being. Those institutions, like etiquette and ceremony, which exist to support sensory being, also have an impersonal and surface quality.
The duality faced in sensory being is receptivity (or passivity) and activity. Sensory being is at core a state of passive receptivity, while tension regulation demands a degree of activity. Activity is essential to stimulate others and to optimize the quantity and quality of stimulation received: that is to say, it is growth-promoting.
Psychologists still argue whether sensation is a matter of passive direct reception or is generated by an active process in the brain, often concluding that sensation is ultimately part of the mystery of consciousness. Certainly, without some minimal activity, habituation occurs and sensation ceases. But complete absence of sensation is impossible: in sensory deprivation experiments auto-stimulation is provided by hallucinations.5
At the next level, the outer-directedness and diffusion of sensory being give way to an internal and well-defined identity based on bodily functions.
- See the remaining Methods: .
Originally posted: 14-Oct-2014. Last updated: 12-Dec-2014.