The process whereby the psychological structures from which human identity emerge is the same at each and every stage of development. Once again the process is the same, and only the structures change in order to deal with each new context as they arise. This section sets out the five main stages of the process that the human identity intiffegrates through on its way to full
maturity / differentiation. The intiffegrated emergence of human identity set out below suggests that the development of the human psyche is a process of differentiation of mind itself, something no other organism has yet achieved. Each level of identification represents a level of growth that the Jungians would describe as 'the self–defining, self-differentiation process [of] individuation' (Peck, 1993:22-3).
0. Undifferentiated: From Attachment Theory developed by John Bowlby
(1907–1990), we know that from conception to about six months of age the developing infant has no sense of its own identity as a separate being. During this period the infant has not yet differentiated itself in its own mind from that which it is undifferentiated from - the mother, or after birth, its main carer. During this period, and especially in the first three months, the baby will respond in pretty much the same way to anybody.
1. Differentiation: Between three to six months of age the baby will narrow
the mother but it can be the father or the main caregiver (Bowlby, 1982:306-316). By about six months of age the baby will cry out if the mother leaves the room, clearly signalling that it is now aware that it is a separate being completely dependent on the care of a significant other. This foundational psychological structure building phase is represented by what I refer to (see Appendix 6:77) as the separation of self from other. This phase fixes the initial conditions, just like the elementary particle phase in chapter 2, of the deep structure of the human psychology and is believed to be worked out between the boundaries of trust on one side and mistrust on the other from which the virtues of hope / hopelessness emerge.
The conditions present in this first context enfold with the infant's own physiology, to form the primary way humans relate to the world:
For the first component of a healthy personality I nominate a sense of basic trust, which I think is an attitude toward oneself and the world derived from the first year of life (Erikson, 1959, 1994:57).
Therefore establishing basic trust with their initial context or
environment is the first level of differentiation in the emergence of the human identity. Importantly, the infant is not yet able to discriminate good from bad caring and will attach systonically to a deficit caregiver (context) equally as much as a positive one.
2. Connectivity: As the infant identifies with its primary caregiver, it
connects with them on the very deepest levels of the emerging psyche. Lorenz (1952 in Berk, 1994:24) called this phenomenon ‘imprinting’. Such imprinting during critical periods has been found to be
unchangeable later on because the organism works to preserve its deep structure whatever that may be.
3. Emergence: Through the first two steps of differentiation and
connection, a separate identity begins to emerge. The emerging identity may share many of the basic constituents of the parents; however, the
context it finds itself in may vary greatly from that of each of the parents at similar stages.
4. Reintegration: The growing baby is by this stage reintegrating itself
with its HSC and with its emerging context as a separate identity.
5. Reiteration: This process then repeats through the five main levels
outlined below.
Five Phases of Identification
Other theories of the staged process of differentiation or identification, such as Erickson’s ‘radius of significant relationships' (1982:31), has ten levels or phases of development. In contrast, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (1989) Ecological Systems Theory has only four phases. The version set out below consists of five main phases of identity formation (see diagram 3.3 below), that I have found very useful in my work as a change agent (see appendix 6:76-77).
1. SELF (the first structure)
During this phase, which takes place between conception to about six months of age, the infant is psychologically undifferentiated from its mother, or mothering one, and has no awareness that it is a separate organism or identity. Therefore trust and mistrust are learned bodily, subconsciously, before self-conscious awareness and before the
emergence of any psychological structure.
2. OTHER (the first power relationship - boss)
From about six months to two years the baby begins developing an ever- increasing awareness of its separateness not only from its mother but eventually from all others. The infant’s psychological differentiation from its mother represents the first major stage of differentiation and is the foundation structure of the individual identity. Differentiation from a significant other takes place within the wider context of a family.
The third major phase of individuation begins during the second phase, but does not really become important until we are about two years of age, and continues as the main focus of development until school age, about seven years old. During this phase the child develops an
awareness of, and an increasing identification with, other family members and family friends that link them to the wider world. This family stage gradually takes over from the mother as the primary focus of
identification sometime throughout the years two to seven and remains the dominant factor through to about school age. The intiffegrated nature of development means that, somewhat paradoxically, as the child
identifies with other members of the family it lets go and enfolds its identification with its family into the recesses of its emerging
subconscious mind.
4. WORLD (the bigger picture)
The fourth phase begins at about age seven and is marked by the replacement of the family as the main focus for the emerging identity with the ever increasing development of a wider social context of friends and peers as the child enters the world through school. During this phase the child begins to reach out into the world to find its own identity, in relation to who it is not, and eventually find their own mate and start their own family. Once again the intiffegrated nature of development means that as the child systonically identifies with some people and dystonically with others in the world, it lets go and enfolds its
identification with its family into the recesses of its emerging subconscious mind – back into the body’s stored memory.
5. SPIRITUAL (Observing ego - bigger still?)
There is a fifth phase of development, known to psychologists as the 'observing ego' that 'the majority of people fail to further develop … once they enter adulthood' (Peck, 1993:24). I call this level the spiritual, as it is the ultimate context that emerges from the human identity. This is the context from which the maturing adult increasingly looks to derive
death becomes the final issue. It is not necessarily religious as some people use science, whilst others amass wealth and prestige for the same purposes.