Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - Critical Self-Consciousness

Mark Lapierre · 11-14-2007, 02:12 AM

I don't think it's a bunch of baloney, but I do think that any suggestion to focus on any particular area, will lead to less focus on other important areas of influence, even if those other areas are mentioned.

So I would include an acknowledgement of the influences of everything outside the self in that bold paragraph about critical self-consciousness. Critical self-consciousness is only part of the story. But it's also one of the stages of development mentioned by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Flow, which I wrote about on my blog. Basically it's the stage at which we realise that the group influences are stronger than we thought, and that the egoic influences are not as stable as we believed.

But there's at least one other stage after that one, during which we focus again on others around us, integrating ourselves more completely into society, without disturbing the results of the previous stage's introspection. Also bear in mind that the stages aren't so clearly delineated in reality, and we can be in different stages at once, or jump back and forth.

So I think that building a better society has to involve both individual development through critical introspection, but also through integration into society. Our tragedies are also the result of an inability (or unwillingness) to see other people as humans, fundamentally like ourselves. Self-consciousness alone won't change that, no matter how critical.

11-14-2007, 02:12 AM	#2 (permalink)
Mark Lapierre Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 1,061	I don't think it's a bunch of baloney, but I do think that any suggestion to focus on any particular area, will lead to less focus on other important areas of influence, even if those other areas are mentioned. So I would include an acknowledgement of the influences of everything outside the self in that bold paragraph about critical self-consciousness. Critical self-consciousness is only part of the story. But it's also one of the stages of development mentioned by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Flow, which I wrote about on my blog. Basically it's the stage at which we realise that the group influences are stronger than we thought, and that the egoic influences are not as stable as we believed. But there's at least one other stage after that one, during which we focus again on others around us, integrating ourselves more completely into society, without disturbing the results of the previous stage's introspection. Also bear in mind that the stages aren't so clearly delineated in reality, and we can be in different stages at once, or jump back and forth. So I think that building a better society has to involve both individual development through critical introspection, but also through integration into society. Our tragedies are also the result of an inability (or unwillingness) to see other people as humans, fundamentally like ourselves. Self-consciousness alone won't change that, no matter how critical. __________________ Take a stroll down The Winding Path and let me know what you think of the scenery.