The key to nonaddiction is maturity. Winick’s discovery that heroin addiction is often an artificial extension of adolescence, an evasion of adult responsibility, offers us a sound insight about addiction of all kinds.
Stanton Peele. Love and Addiction (p. 243). Broadrow Publications.
Viewing addiction as merely a function of molecular chemistry on the human nervous system is extremely limiting. This perspective exists at the physical/structural level and ignores the psychological and spiritual perspectives. In the previous chapter we explored the physiological/functional divide between mid and forebrains and the role of language as a tool for integrating these attributes into a holistic view of the self. This chapter builds on this concept and introduces a holarchic model which describes the eight levels of human central nervous system development. Rather than dividing the brain into different functional units which perform discrete tasks this approach explores the changes that transpire from neural growth, cell migration, myelination, synapse formation and learning. These occur progressively throughout the developing brain from the day we are born until the day we die.
Research has shown that the development of the human consciousness unfolds through several phases extending from the sensory-motor states of infant-hood to a condition of maturity that includes and enfolds all previous phases. The mature individual exhibits features from each of these developmental phases and, in fact, cannot exist in isolation from the synthesis of all preceding stages. The simplicity afforded by the limbic/pre-frontal dichotomy in its role in regulating behaviour is part of this, but in the context of addiction we need to move beyond this and consider the phases of developmental psychology. The limbic brain contributes attributes such as pleasure-seeking behaviour, aggression and fear to the human condition, but this is its function in all humans. My goal in this book is to identify why this process goes off the rails for some of us and not others.
Describing these phases of development is simplified using Arthur Koestler’s concept of the holon. A holon, simply put, is something that is both a whole and a part. Clear examples of this idea can be found in the field of molecular physics. An atom is composed of a nucleus and an electron cloud. The nucleus is formed from a balanced distribution of neutrons and protons. The nucleus is a discrete entity but it is built using several sub-components. Each of these, in turn, are formed from quarks. The quark, proton, neutron, nucleus and electron clouds are components that constitute an atom. The atom is a thing which includes and enfolds all of these underlying components. If the nucleus ceased to exist so would the atom. If the proton ceased to exist so would the nucleus and the atom. If the quark should disappear so would proton, neutron, electron and atom. Physiologically speaking we could extend this holarchy upward through the molecule, cell and member to form an entire human body. The body could not exist without the concept of a member. It’s true that some members can be removed without affecting the body’s existence, but if the concept of the member ceased to exist the body would disappear.
This holarchy concept can be applied to any ordered system. At each level we find a measure of strength, utility or influence on the resulting whole that increases as the levels progress. Take the rope for example:
The rope is a holon with four levels. At the most basic level is the fibre. These are grouped together into treads with a diameter of approximately two millimetres. Threads are twisted around each other to form strands, with a diameter of roughly ten millimetres, and strands combine to form the rope. From the strength/influence perspective the fibre has very little intrinsic value. You might be able to lift a few grams of material with it before it brakes. The thread contains many fibres and inherits the combined strength of each one allowing you to lift several hundred grams. The rope, however, might support and object weighing a tonne. The fibre has very little contribution to make to the task of lifting weight, but it has enormous extrinsic value. If the concept of the fibre ceased to exist so would the rope. This is an integral view of the rope concept – each level in its anatomy includes and transcends the previous levels. So it is with the levels of conscious existence – the strength of the individual as a conscious entity depends on the extent to which the previous levels have been integrated into the whole.
In the previous chapter we considered the limitations of denying what might be considered the more base attributes of consciousness. We also identified the strength that comes from naming these attributes and including them as foundation principles for the development of a healthy psyche. In contrast to this, in his book “A Brief History of Everything” Ken Wilbur describes an eight-level ladder of consciousness development that starts with the sensory-physical infant dimension and progresses to the level of spiritual transcendence. While this is based on the same concept of shadow integration presented in the previous chapter it embodies a perspective with a much higher resolution. Using Wilbur’s model we are no longer limited to a dark/light (monochrome) view of consciousness, but one that exhibits various hues.
In the early part of the 20th century two great minds featured prominently in this discussion – Sigmund Freud and his protégé Karl Jung. These individuals believed that the key to understanding the pathologies of the present lay in the experiences of the past. Some (most notably Czech Psychologist Stanislav Grof) drew on Christian tradition in the construction of their hypotheses. In Matthew 18:2-4 Jesus spoke these words:
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
While I take this as an exhortation to acknowledge our complete child-like dependence on God and the humility and surrender that such a perspective affords, others see it as an indicator that true spirituality and healthy psychological functioning can only be attained by returning to the depths of our nascent existence. This space includes three components – the perinatal, the personal and the transpersonal, the transpersonal (which correlates roughly with Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious) being the deepest. This depth psychology approach underpins the work of Freud, Jung and Grof. Grof’s model described in “Realms of the Human Unconscious” focuses largely on the perinatal where he believes that memories from before and after birth, and especially the birth experience itself, hold the key to healthy spiritual development. From this perspective spirituality takes root before birth and progresses through the personal before making a U-turn back to the transpersonal. While returning to the vertex of the U corresponding to the transpersonal (which inhabits the same psychological space as the perinatal) could be construed as indicating a complete regression, Grof represents the U as a spiral, the transpersonal vertex being higher than the perinatal, indicating a more mature perspective. From this higher vantage point the attributes of consciousness that were implicit shortly before and after birth can be reassessed through the lens of life experience.
While largely adhering to the views of Jung, Wilbur identifies in these ideas what he labels the pre-trans fallacy. To Wilbur spiritual development is progressive rather than regressive. We move ever upward from the perinatal to the transpersonal. Wilbur represents this process as a ladder with eight rungs, but admits it could also be portrayed as the progressive layers of an onion, or the segments of a Russian doll where each layer envelops and includes the previous ones. This height psychology approach is gaining increased acceptance in the scientific community.
One integral technology that draws on, and extends, all of these ideas is Spiral Dynamic Theory (SDT). Rather than viewing neural development as a simple U-shaped spiral that begins and ends at the same conceptual space SDT combines Wilbur’s idea of the ladder with the spiral. In SDT terms we are constantly advancing in our development and understanding of ourselves, the social and cultural environment in which we exist and how the self relates to these environments. Our conscious development consists of a series of curves in the spiral, first progressing to new territory and then curving back to view our old stomping grounds from a higher perspective. The upward curve into new territory provides the developmental fodder our minds crave. We chew on it and ingest it but we cannot digest it without curving back and integrating it into the self through a process of re-assessment. This is the process of maturation or growing up.
Don Beck developed the ideas underlying SDT, expanding on the work of Clare Graves, during the last quarter of the 20th century. He introduced the colour coding system shown in figure ? to better facilitate communication, allowing the complex collections of attributes associated with each phase to be condensed, labelled and discussed as a single colour. Far from being merely theoretical in nature, SDT found its first major practical application in averting the civil war brewing in South Africa in the early 1990’s. During this period Beck traveled to South Africa from Texas 64 times, meeting with power brokers from all sides. He bore the message that to avert conflict within any society, or between societies, there needs to be an acceptance (integration) of all previous levels in the development of consciousness. This view corresponds with the Integrator-Systemic or yellow level, which embraces the role that all preceding levels play in constructing the bio-psycho-social edifice. As with the atom’s reliance on the Quark and sub-atomic particle for its existence so the yellow cannot exist without an integration of all preceding colours. Beck’s work in South Africa brought an end to Apartheid in 1994.
The role of this integrative process is as important to the individual as it is to the nation-state, and the conflict that exists between the competing value systems within the individual often predisposes them to addiction. On the societal level Beck addressed this in his doctoral dissertation which explored the conditions leading up to the American Civil War. During that period American society as a whole was addicted to the way of life afforded by a vassal class. As the North had abandoned this narcissistic view, which put the needs of the self before the needs of others, so conflict arose with the south. The result is a subject for the history books, but the addict experiences a similar type of warfare every day. It might be hard to see how a single person can play the role of both parties in such a conflict but, according to Wilbur, traumatic events at any step in our development can carve off parts of our consciousness. These parts continue to exist at the level of development where the trauma occurred and become little “subjects” – separate streams of consciousness that share our own instinct for self-preservation. These subjects don’t want to die, but it’s hard for us to move ahead with our lives while they still maintain their separateness.
The existence of these subjects is an energy drain. If we view the amount of developmental energy we are allotted at birth as a collection of 100 units it’s possible that something may occur at the red level which prevents its full integration. This will carve off a conscious subject that potentially consumes 10 units of developmental energy on a continual basis until it is integrated back into the self. If such a situation persists, the individual retains only 90 units with which to power the remainder of the climb. The subject which continues to drain energy is, as it were, connected to the self by a bungee cord. The forward motion of the self is restrained by this elastic effect so that progression to each successive level in the spiral is retarded.
Add to this the fact that movement from one level to the succeeding level is analogous to a state change in physical matter and another problem becomes evident. Large amounts of heat energy are required to change water from a liquid to a gas (steam). Likewise, a subset of our units of developmental energy are consumed when progressing between successive levels of the spiral. If 10 of those units are tied up by a subject at the red level only 90 units of energy remain to power the remainder of the climb. This energy can only be released if the red-level subject is integrated back into the self at which time it becomes available, once again, to power upward motion.