The History of Psychology
“Psychology was originally the science of the soul.
First, it lost its soul-presumably in the 18th century.
Then it lost its mind, at the hand of the 19th century associationists.
Early in the 20th century it lost consciousness, because of the Freudians and the behaviorists...
...We have now disposed of the brain and replaced it by a computing machine.”
...Is the computer a tool? A liberator? A creator? A master? A monster?
Adapted from Robert B. Macleod (1963, p. 177). Note: Macleod attributed this quote to Woodworth whom he said had condensed the history of psychology into a few concise statements, which he then recounted as outlined above.
The use, misuse, abuse, and nonuse of data, information, and knowledge is fundamen- tally a psychological and social phenomenon. Therefore, we look to psychology and related disciplines for insight and answers to the increasing number of challenges engendered by these phenomena at the individual, organizational, and societal levels.
According to Robert Kegan, Harvard Professor of Education, “Ken Wilber is a national treasure. No one is working at the integration of Eastern and Western wisdom literature with such depth or breadth of mind and heart as he” (Testimonial taken from the back cover of Integral Psychology by Ken Wilber, 2000). So, whether you agree with Kegan’s bold assertion or not, Ken Wilber is certainly a leading authority in the field. Wilber describes the evolution of wisdom as the highest level of human development from the perspective of consciousness, spirit, psychology, and therapy. This allows him to acknowledge the higher levels of spiritual development that are fundamental to under- standing and developing such a lofty virtue as wisdom. As he points out, the great problem with psychology as it has historically unfolded is that different schools of psychology have regularly taken one aspect of the extraordinarily rich and multifaceted phenomenon of consciousness and declared it to be the only aspect worth studying.
Wilber (2000) has provided a comprehensive definition of psychology as being the study of human consciousness and its manifestations in behavior. The functions of conscious- ness include perceiving, desiring, willing, and acting. The structures of consciousness, some facets of which can be unconscious, include body, mind, soul, and spirit. The states of consciousness include normal (e.g., waking, dreaming, sleeping) and altered (e.g., nonordinary and meditative). The modes of consciousness include aesthetic, moral, and scientific. The development of consciousness spans an entire spectrum from prepersonal to personal to transpersonal, subconscious to self-conscious to super-conscious, id to ego to spirit. The relational and behavioral aspects of consciousness refer to its mutual interaction with the objective, exterior world and the sociocultural world of shared values and perceptions (p. 1).
Thus, as Wilber (2000) explains, it is the goal of an integral psychology to endeavor to honor and embrace every legitimate aspect of human consciousness. With such an
expansive and inclusive conceptualization of psychology, understanding and develop- ing the highest stages of consciousness wherein wisdom resides is made much more likely. When comparing developmental stages of Eastern and Western forms of con- sciousness, Wilber found that orthodox Western psychological research begins to abandon us at the upper reaches of the spectrum of consciousness, and it becomes increasingly necessary to draw on the great sages and contemplatives of East, West, North and South (p. 10). Therefore, while we may learn from traditional psychological studies concerning the development of wisdom, we also need to consult other sources in our search for such metaphors of wisdom as the elusive thousand-petaled lotus aspired to in Buddhism.
In the West, the works of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan have influenced nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences and provide some insight into Western intellectualism. In his major text, Ecrits: A Selection, Lacan (1969, 2002) provides a vehicle by which readers can exercise their perspicacity, one of the many facets of wisdom. As Palmier (1972) explains, it is through the spoken word that Lacan restores to us fragments of a teaching or of a truth, always in waiting or in retreat, always to come or withdrawn. According to John Muller and William Richardson in their reader’s guide to Ecrits, the experience of reading Lacan is “infuriating” and “extraordinarily painful.” In fact, Muller and Richardson (1982) even concede that “Summary and critique must wait for another day, when we have greater familiarity…with the seminars (many still unpublished) on which most of the Ecrits are based (p. 18). Thus, only after all the seminars are published and understood can Ecrits be fully and finally read.
What we learn from this is reflective of the lessons of life by which we come to know.
Wisdom is a substantive and yet functional way of knowing and is attained to through a deep and abiding comprehension and appreciation of the whole and the parts that comprise it and how they all work together. Too often our need to know something is for the sake of imposing judgment or for appearing decisive, which reflects our simplistic and reductionistic predilection in the way we handle information and knowledge. All too often in our attempts to be efficient and to at least appear to make progress our judgments are based on incomplete information, misinterpretations, and unfounded assumptions.
Lacan would therefore have us learn the importance of examining our assumptions.
Examining our assumptions is one of the strategies of Churchman’s Hegelian inquiring system and, in turn, the synthesist inquiry mode outlined by Harrison and Bramson (1982). With its preoccupation with the intellect (cognition), it is a necessary but not sufficient condition for wisdom.
With this philosophical, historical, theological, and psychological foundation in mind, this inquiry will move to the more conventional psychological literature to see what psychology’s leading wisdom researchers can tell us about their understanding of the concept. Baltes and Staudinger (2000) characterize wisdom as a cognitive and metaheuristic (pragmatic) that organizes and orchestrates knowledge toward human excellence in mind and virtue, both individually and collectively. Paul Baltes and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany are major contributors to the psychological research on the study of wisdom, using a largely empirical approach. The Berlin Wisdom Paradigm, informed by a cultural-historical analysis, has defined wisdom as “an expert knowledge system concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life. These include knowledge and judgement about the meaning and conduct of life and the
orchestration of human development toward excellence while attending conjointly to personal and collective well-being” (p. 136).
Birren and Fisher (1990) summarized the psychological literature on the nature, origins, and development of wisdom as follows:
“Wisdom is an emergent property of an individual’s inward and external response to life experiences. A wise person has learned to balance the opposing valences of the three aspects of behavior: cognition, affect and volition. A wise person weighs the knowns and unknowns, resists overwhelming emotion while maintaining interest, and carefully chooses when and where to take action.” (p. 331)
Thus, they propose that we attain wisdom through the development, balancing, and integration of the cognitive, affective, and conative elements of mind, and there is also a cognitive style component which is yet undefined.
By drawing on Churchman’s five inquiring systems to provide the cognitive style component for our attainment of wisdom, we find a place to begin our quest for inspiring wise action in Singerian inquiring organizations. Furthermore, Harrison, Bramson, Parlette, and Bramson (1997) have designed an instrument, the Inquiry Mode Question- naire (InQ), that measures our relative preference for Churchman’s five inquiring systems. This instrument can be used at the individual level to help people within organizations to, as Socrates admonished us, know thyself. It could also be paired with measures of personal development, based on those outlined in Wilber’s (2000) cognitive, affective, social, and spiritual developmental charts. For example, Daniel Goleman’s (1998) Emotional Competence Framework would serve well for emotional intelligence, as would some of Assagioli’s (1973) (or his disciple’s more recent works) for measuring and developing conative (willing/striving) propensity. Most recently, Malhotra and Galletta (2003) have elaborated the thinking on knowledge management systems that result in effective business performance to include such intervening variables as attention, motivation, commitment, creativity, and innovation. Conation (willing and striving) is closely linked to the more commonly used concepts of motivation and commitment. It is particularly pertinent and relevant here to point out that these two variables were measured through the development of a theoretical framework for measuring these constructs in knowledge management systems. Malhotra and Galletta (2003) also propose further research within diverse implementation contexts of KMS and organiza- tional knowledge management programs, which will advance the theoretical and empiri- cal development of the proposed framework.
Together, these instruments could provide a point of departure for beginning to measure progress in the evolution toward wise action in Singerian inquiring organizations.
Furthermore, Dalla Costa (1995) has developed a Wisdom Index that could also be integrated into such an assessment battery. It includes an audit of ten dimensions of wisdom within four main categories, each having ten questions that can be answered as yes or no, which determine development within each aspect of wisdom for an organization or an individual within an organization. The questions provide a mirror for an organization to look frankly at the longer term issues that are vital to wise action and decision making.
They form part of Dalla Costa’s leadership model and include (Perspective) timelessness, clarity and focus; (Values) compassionate detachment, truth and honesty, justice;
(Action) unity and integration, intellectual and emotional harmony, equanimity; and (Support) substantial subjectivity and mentorship.
Another psychological approach to understanding wisdom, which is among those worthy of recommendation by Wilber (2000), comes from renowned psychoanalyst Erik Erikson (1963, 1982) who identified eight stages of psychosocial development with their attendant crises which, when successfully passed through, lead to the development of wisdom.
This framework could be adapted as a starting point for a framework for developing wise leaders. Building trust is essential for knowledge sharing, and as the first of Erikson’s developmental crises, once resolved and established, can lay the foundation for hope in the quest for moving from knowledge management to wisdom. The second stage is characterized by the need for autonomy. With muscular maturation, the child experiments with knowing when to hold on and when to let go. If the crisis is not resolved satisfactorily, it can lead to feelings of shame and doubt, resulting in a compulsive personality. Successful resolution, however, enables self-control and willpower to function autonomously. (Willpower is conation—one of the elements of wisdom referred to above by Birren and Fisher, 1990.) Similarly, for the third stage of initiative versus guilt, one of the key prerequisites of the wise leader is a clear sense of purpose. A sense of purpose is developed where the inner struggle over the desire to take initiative and follow one’s inner direction can be thwarted by being reprimanded or discouraged from following one’s wishes. This leads to feelings of guilt, and if not satisfactorily resolved, can result in a person lacking any real purpose in life. The fourth stage involves the education of the person to sublimate the normal necessity to become mama and papa in a hurry and, instead, to win recognition by producing things and mastering skills and tasks. In so doing, the person develops a sense of industry wherein that person gradually replaces the wish to play with the desire to bring a productive project to completion. This is a most decisive stage, as it involves doing things beside and with others, and it provides a first sense of division of labor and differential opportunity so fundamental to the technological ethos of a culture. With adolescence comes the need to establish an identity. With the attendant physiological revolution that they must also contend with, adolescents are now primarily concerned with what they appear to be in the eyes of others, compared to what they, themselves, feel they are (peer pressure). They are also concerned with how to connect the roles and skills they have developed with the occupations available to them in the future. This integration takes place in the form of ego identity and involves more than the sum of the childhood identifications. This learning is provided by teachers, other adults in the community, and especially by older children. With successful resolution of the crises between achieving industry and thereby avoiding feelings of inferiority, the adolescent becomes competent and avoids inertia. The fifth stage is where the young adult must establish an identity or suffer role confusion. Strong doubt of one’s sexual identity can lead to delinquent and outright psychotic episodes. In most cases, the inability to decide on an occupational identity is most disturbing to young people. Successful resolution of this stage results in fidelity and devotion, rather than repudiation. They have a clear, strong, and positive notion of
Stage Characterized By How Stage is Resolved Or Consequent Behavior 1. Infancy: Basic Trust vs. Basic Mistrust Hope or Withdrawal
2. Early childhood: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Will or Compulsion
3. Play age: Initiative vs. Guilt Purpose or Inhibition
4. School age: Industry vs. Inferiority Competence or Inertia
5. Adolescence: Identity vs. Identity Confusion Fidelity or Repudiation
6. Young adulthood: Intimacy vs. Isolation Love or Exclusivity
7. Adulthood: Generativity vs. Stagnation Care or Rejectivity
8. Old age: Integrity vs. Despair Wisdom or Disdain Table 1. Erikson Psychosocial Development
Adapted from Erickson (1963, pp. 247-274)
who they will be, if not who they are (know thyself). They are then ready to move on to the adult stages.
The sixth stage sees young adults eager to fuse their identity with that of others. It is time for intimacy and committing themselves to concrete affiliations and partnerships, which require the ethical strength to abide by such commitments with their inherent sacrifices and compromises. Failure to successfully resolve this stage can lead to isolation and the avoidance of relationships that lead to intimacy. Generativity is the seventh stage that must be successfully resolved to avoid stagnation or personal impoverishment in adulthood. This occurs through establishing and guiding the next generation, whether it be through one’s own offspring or other forms of productivity and creativity. Successful resolution to this stage results in caring for the creatures of our world, rather than rejectivity. The eighth and final stage Erikson identifies is that of ego integrity versus despair. The fruits of the former seven stages are realized in those who have taken care of things and people and adapted themselves to the triumphs and
disappointments of being the originator of others and/or the generator of products and ideas. Wisdom, as the highest virtue, is thereby attained after the successful resolution of the seven prerequisite virtues: hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, and care (Erikson, 1963, pp. 247-274).
These eight stages with their attendant crises were included in Wilber’s (2000) develop- mental charts and have the potential for application at the organizational level. They could be used as a beginning point for an organizational development program that aims at bringing the whole organization to a level of integrity for operating wisely. Once this level is achieved, Wilber’s (2000) seminal work on the higher stages of consciousness can provide direction for attaining higher levels of enlightenment.
In defining wisdom, Wilber (2000) states that “wisdom means the best that any era has to offer, and sensitive scholars have found that the perennial philosophers—from Plotinius to Shankara to Fa-tsang to Lady Tsogyal—are a storehouse of extraordinary wisdom” (p. 9). Wilber goes on to point out that:
“Reaching out to them is more than an embrace of some important truths. It is a way to affirm our continuity with the wisdom of the ages; a way to acknowledge our own ancestors; a way to transcend and include that which went before us, and thus flow with the current of the Kosmos; and most of all, a way to remind ourselves that even if we are standing on the shoulders of giants, we are standing on the shoulders of GIANTS, and we would do well to remember that.” (p. 10)