Tension in Obeying

If you imagine yourself in the act of obeying any of the Primal Injunctions, you will notice yourself being pulled or pushed in two opposite directions by two different milieus (environments, contexts). This is the dynamic duality that is an invariable component of Tree frameworks.

The duality that seems to be relevant here is whether obedience is focused on:

  • Personal milieu: including your preferences, perspectives, temperament, capabilities &c. that cannot be wholly ignored if you are to keep functioning authentically and effectively;

    or

  • Social milieu: including other people's interests, cultural demands, social pressures, current circumstances, community values &c. that are part of the wider environment within which you live and so cannot be wholly ignored.

The dynamic dualities are often difficult to name definitively because their quality alters slightly at each Level. So other names for the two poles are shown below:

  Personal
milieu
Social
milieu
  Private Public
  Individual Group
  Internal-inner External-outer
  Unique Common
  Owned Shared
  Psyche Milieu
  Psychological Environmental

In the relevant THEE formulae:

  • subscript P is used for Centres generated by your Personal milieu
  • subscript S is used for Centres generated by your Social milieu
  • subscript B (for Balanced) is used if both sets of influences are operative and have to be fused within the Centre.

Where there are two Centres operative within one Level, the more dominant Centre is placed on the right in diagrams, by convention.


Originally posted: 31-Jan-2013