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The Evolving Self. Part 1. Why the Hierarchy Within Can Heal the Hierarchy Without.
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Robert Kegan
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Robert Kegan is a founding member of Integral Institute and the author of the critically acclaimed books The Evolving
Self, In Over Our Heads, and How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work.
Bob is the first-ever Meehan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education. As the holder of this endowed chair, Bob has the official support of HGSE to pursue developmental studies
for the rest of his career.
This is significant. For the past several decades developmental studies have fallen upon some hard times in academia.
For many, to have a developmental view is to be hierarchical—and to be hierarchical is to be oppressive,
regressive, patriarchal, and a direct contributor to the suffering of untold millions. The fact the HGSE has decided to
so clearly support Bob's work is a welcome sign that the winds may be shifting.
It's important to note that there are (at least) two significantly different ways that "hierarchy" can be understood: as
it exists in the exterior structure of a society and as it exists in the interior structure of an individual.
Historically, enormous abuses of power have occurred by those at the top of a societal hierarchy—but those who
would do so are by definition not at the higher stages of the interior, developmental hierarchy.
Psychologically, people grow through stages of increasing competence, care, and concern. Each stage transcends
and includes the function of what came before, but excludes an exclusive identity with that function.
In Bob's work he outlines Five Orders of Consciousness:
First Order: Impulsive—Perceives and responds by emotion.
Second Order: Imperial—Motivated solely by one's desires.
Third Order: Interpersonal—Defined by the group.
Fourth Order: Institutional—Self directed, self authoring.
Fifth Order: Interindividual—Interpenetration of self systems.
Loosely, one can think of the first and second orders as egocentric (me), the third order as ethnocentric
(us), and the fourth and fifth orders as worldcentric (all of us). If one grows from egocentric to
ethnocentric, one doesn't stop caring about oneself, but that care and concern is now extended to one's family,
community, nation, and so on. Likewise with the growth from ethnocentric to worldcentric, that care is now extended to
all people regardless of race, class, creed, gender, etc.
A person at the top of this interior hierarchy, i.e. worldcentric, would categorically never use any power given to them
by a social hierarchy for less than worldcentric reasons. Needless to say, Hitler was not a worldcentric individual.
As Bob points out, one of the most complete ways to illustrate how levels of developmental complexity exist in the
subjective, intersubjective, objective, and interobjective aspects of reality is the following diagram of Ken's:
Figure 12-2 from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality
The Five Orders of Consciousness exist in the intentional (I) quadrant, but their influence permeates the behavioral
(it), cultural (we), and social (its) quadrants. Likewise, those domains can influence the speed at which one does or
does not evolve through the Five Orders.
We invite you to listen in on a dialogue that is as intellectually rigorous as it is personable, with one of the world's
leading developmental thinkers....
| Did you know you can burn an audio CD of this dialogue and listen to it in your car or anywhere using a standard CD player, or—an increasingly popular move—listen on your iPod. Too cool! |
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transmission time: 28 minutes |
Boston Red Sox, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Meehan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development, Boomeritis, The Evolving Self, In Over Our Heads, How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work, interior developmental hierarchies, exterior social hierarchies, the Five Orders of Consciousness (Impulsive, Imperial, Interpersonal, Institutional, Interindividual), Piaget, Einstein,
Carl Rogers, the Four Quadrants (I/We/It/Its), "What Is Integral?," mean-green meme, "What Is Spiral Dynamics
Integral?," Clare Graves, Jane Loevinger, Habermas, Karl-Otto Apel, Jacques Derrida, Foucault, Plotinus, self authoring, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, A
Theory of Everything.
--->
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most memorable moment: "Hey, you can talk about hierarchies without being a Nazi...." |
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