Analysis of Uniqueness (AoU) is a foundation and the first step in the transformation of one’s uniqueness and related psychopathology (treatment). It involves (i) identification (cataloging, mapping) of one’s internal / interpersonal states (i-states) including (a) typical and / or desired ones; (b) relevant non-pathological disruptions and (c) pathological disruptions (p-i-states); (ii) analysis of relative perspectival positionality of all i-states (subjective, interpersonal, academic), (iii) deconstructive analysis of conscious / non-conscious composite and basic i-states and (iv) analysis of their reciprocal spatiotemporal / causal co-construction. Particular attention is given to analysis of the formation / positionality of the “I” (insight, mode, spatiotemporal positionality, form), homeostatic regulation (arousal / constraint, NVS / PVS, dissociation, psychoticism), interpersonal relatedness (ipsocentricity, agency / autonomy, alterity, intimacy, love / care) and their inherent intersubjective relationality[1].
Analysis of Uniqueness renders a model (map) of typical, disruptive and pathological i-states and their hierarchical, spatiotemporal / causal (developmental) configurations within the four registers and fifteen regions of one’s uniqueness. The model identifies which and how specific p-i-states can be transformed and informs recommendations for lifestyle changes and trajectories of possible treatment. Basic and initial recommendations for lifestyle modifications often involve suggestions for increase in daily physical exercise (competitive team sports in particular), nutritional changes (organic, low calories vegan / vegetarian diet), exploration of ancient transformative traditions (Yoga, Buddhism, traditional medicine), insight / introspection / academic study (psychology, philosophy, psychoanalysis in particular), literature / art / music and new relational / interpersonal explorations and experiences.
Recommendations for treatment typically include (i) psychological approaches (individual / group psychotherapy, psychoanalysis) focused on homeostatic regulation, intersubjective relatedness and the formation / positionality of the “I” and (ii) biological approaches (psychotropic medications, direct interventions in the nervous system and the brain) focused on homeostatic regulation.
Lifestyle and treatment based changes of i-states are particularly transformative (inclusive of all registers and regions of uniqueness) when they are embedded in an agentic (volitional) and multidimensional exploration of new relational events and experiences with and among others, including dyadic and group process of psychotherapy, psychodynamics of the transference-countertransference matrix and intersubjectivity of intimacy (love / care, aggression / anger) and desiring (to be with / to have / to be like an other).
Perspectival positionality
Uniqueness and psychopathology are perspectival and their transformations (treatment) involve enhancing one’s capacity to adopt and integrate the subjective, interpersonal and academic points of view of one’s symptoms, signs, markers and of one’s own “health” in general.
In referring to any of the four registers and fifteen regions of one’s uniqueness, the subjective perspective is typically manifested by the use of “I / me / my”, the interpersonal one by “you / yours” and the academic by “she / he / they” (“her / his / theirs”). Similarly, the “I” refers to one’s immediate (subjective) experience here-now, the “Self” to an aggregated relational (interpersonal, societal) representation of oneself (one’s self) among others (image, schema, narrative, comparison, position) and “personality” (temperament) to one’s distinct and typical neurocognitive biophysical participation (engagement, behavior) across spatiotemporal locations and semiotic contexts.
Perspectival positionality of consciousness
Individual consciousness arises at the intersection of one’s biophysicality (BODY), the sensory / semiotic space-horizon (LOCATION) and the intersubjectivity of being with others (PERSON) as representation (re-flection), interpretation (ideation) and understanding (meaning).
It is a reaction (re-action) of the body, nervous systems and the brain in particular, to selected events within one’s sensory / semiotic / interpersonal space, including the body itself (interoception). The body’s sensory organs attend to (attention), focus on and convert the (energy / attributes of) sensory input (events) into sensations identified (re-cognized) in awareness and then represented (re-presented), interpreted and understood in one’s ideation. Selected representations are encoded as memory traces and available for future use (re-call) as the memory system supporting most of the ideational activities of one’s consciousness involved in knowing and remembering (re-member, re-mind-ful)[2]
Consciousness is inherently subjectively perspectival and represents a unique vantage point (position) of one’s perception, experience and related behavior.
Perspectival positionality of consciousness determines which and how specific aspects of one’s body, location and interpersonal / societal milieu are attended to, reflected, interpreted and understood in the co-construction of one’s “reality” of the here-and-now.
Changes of the perspectival positionality of consciousness are essential in transformations of uniqueness and psychopathology and can involve lifestyle adjustments and psychological, educational, systemic and biological interventions (treatment) described in earlier posts.
Ontological health, participation and the “here-and-now”
Ontological health (wellbeing, resilience) is a state of optimal adaptation, actualization and realization manifested by capacity for the most healthy and relevant participation in the here-now, where (i) participation, a natural aspect of life necessary for biological and interpersonal / societal survival, is a continuous sequence of biophysical and relational i-states (transactions, acts) within the four registers and fifteen regions of uniqueness and (ii) the “here-now” is one’s spatiotemporal sensory / semiotic horizon (“here”) within a singular (distinct, discrete) moment of time (“now”)[3]. “Health”, “relevance”, “participation” and “here-now” are perspectival and their perception (experience), definition (construction, interpretation) and understanding (meaning) may vary among the subjective, interpersonal and academic points of view.
Participation and the here-now can be (i) ipsocentric (individual survival, actualization); (ii) interpersonally mutual (“golden rule” – treat others the way you want to be treated yourself, “win-win”); (iii) allocentric / prosocial (“categorical imperative” – act the way you want everyone else to act)[4] or (iv) transcendent / absolute (congruent with natural (ordinary) order of events)[5].
Ipsocentric participation and the here-now are inherently subjective and focused on singular spatiotemporality of one’s own adaptation and actualization. Mutual participation (mutuality) in the here-now are interpersonal and harmonize multiple spatiotemporalities of all involved. Allocentric / prosocial participation and here-now reflect the academic perspective and address a larger societal / global spatiotemporality of humanity.
Transcendent participation
In contrast to the ipsocentric, mutual and allocentric participation which have evolved in the course of human evolution in the service of survival and adaptation on the surface of the Earth, transcendent participation voids (nullifies) the relativity of the subjective, interpersonal and academic perspectival / spatiotemporal positionality. Acknowledging that the limited complexity of human brain and mind do not match and cannot grasp fully the infinite complexity of the Universe, transcendent participation
directs itself to and embodies that which is unknown, inexplicable or ineffable. It is congruent with a natural (actual, ordinary, absolute) order (flow, sequence) of events as they unfold beyond one’s and others’ ability to influence (stop, change) them. Uniqueness (body, consciousness, location and the person) become embedded in spatiotemporal transsubjective interdependence of the “I”, the “others” and all events and relations of the known and unknown material world. Transcendent participation becomes a key aspect of and movement towards ontological health (adaptation, actualization, transcendence) and realization (insight) of one’s fundamental interconnectedness with all beings.[6]
In treatment, transformations of participation in the here-now typically involve a movement away from ipsocentricity towards relational intersubjective mutuality, prosocial allocentricity and, sometimes, beyond, towards transcendence (wisdom, generativity, compassion). For some, the transformative movement may involve insights into the non-local spatiotemporality of the human Unconscious and the unknown mysteries of (mystical) realities of the beginningless space-time of the multiverse.
In Zen based transformation, the formation of the “I” moves towards the L (LOCATION) vertex of the tetrahedron and, eventually, in the moment of a breakthrough / liberation (kensho), merges with and is experienced in one’s consciousness as the here-now of one’s location. One’s sensory and semiotic location (L) becomes one’s new (phenomenal) “I” (“True Nature”). Correspondingly, the location, with all its events, relations and entities occurring within one’s phenomenal field (experience) is then recognized and acknowledged as one’s “True I / Self”.
In time, as one’s practice deepens and evolves, the “I” as the here-now of location expands spatiotemporally and becomes all space-time (of all past and future locations, events, relations and entities). In birth, the “I”, as one’s body, emerges (individuates) from, creates and becomes (claims) coordinates of location, in death, it “returns” to and “reunites” with all current and future entities of the location.
Participation, dis-association and ipsocentricity
Participation is one’s engagement (relation) with the material world and with others. Dis-association is participation incongruent (i) with the relevant aspects of the here-now or (ii) among its own constituents (fragmentation). Ipsocentricity is participation focused predominantly on one’s own body, consciousness, person and / or location.
Participation and dis-association are regulated by (i) salience of the events within one’s sensory / semiotic location (2) allocation of attention and (iii) focus of one’s awareness and ideation and are mutually exclusive and complementary – participation in A involves dis-association from non-A and, correspondingly, dis-association from A typically involves participation in non-A.
Dis-association (neurocognitive, behavioral) and ipsocentricity (interpersonal, relational, intersubjective) are two key vulnerabilities of the epigenetic associative integration spectrum of one’ maturation and development (attachment, engagement, separation / individuation) resulting, as their cause / mechanism (process), in disruptions of participation in the here-now and formation of psychopathology.[7]
[1] Pain of pleasure and pleasure of pain (jouissance). Mutuality of pleasure / pain, fear / aggression, alterity / desiring, intimacy / anger / love.
[2] Re-memorārī, (memor “mindful”)
[3] Time, in observer’s consciousness, between awareness of the previous and the following i-state)
[4]Immanuel Kant (1785) Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals)
[5] “Natural” sequence of events means how events do or might unfold in one’s absence. It does not imply “right” or “desirable”, it is a flow of events, including behavior (acts) of others, that one cannot stop or change in one’s absence (the absence of one’s presence).
[6] Also Diamond Net of Indra – a metaphor used to illustrate the concepts of Śūnyatā (emptiness), pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination), and interpenetration in Buddhist philosophy.
[7] see Sections 1.1.1 and 1.2.2 above for analysis of dis-association, ipsocentricity and ipsocentric acts above)