Posted by alexandra_k on February 16, 2005, at 19:14:43
In reply to Re: thanks for the link (nm) » Dr. Bob, posted by alexandra_k on February 16, 2005, at 15:22:04
An attempted translation:
When people have been traumatised (which is a kind of boundary violation) then there can be a fear of annihilation. To deal with that people can vaccilate between narrowing their boundaries (by externalising to protect ones individual identity being lost in a merger) and enlarging their boundaries (by internalising so as to feel part of something greater). On the individual level this can lead to vacillation between pushing people away for fear of becoming merged with them and losing ones own identity, and clinging for fear of abandonment, of losing something that is perceived to be ‘part of oneself’. This same process can be acted out on the group level and is referred to as aggregation (narrowing of boundaries) and massification (enlarging of boundaries) respectively.
So (gee, I hope this counts as ‘fair use’):
‘People who have been traumatised, have experienced the fear of annihilation, and who have developed protective encapsulations are highly likely to create processes of Incohesion [ie to partake in the above described vacillation], and to be vulnerable to the constraints of roles associated with Incohesion. People who have developed contact-shunning, crustacean protections [narrowing of boundaries] are likely to personify states of aggregation, and those who have developed merger-hungry, amoeboid protections [enlargement of boundaries] are likely to personify states of massification… There are mixtures of types of personification, and there are mixtures and rapid shifts between states of aggregation and massification. Moreover, the processes of large complex social systems are often personified by more than one person, and during phases of rapid oscillation both crustacean and amoeboid styles of personification may be found’.
Sometimes people withdraw from Babble…
Sometimes people take an affront to Babble as an affront to themselves personally…
Or see the division of Babble as losing part of oneself…
This can be described as aggregation and massification respectively.
Individuals can vacillate over time.
And the group as a whole can have a different flavour at different times depending on the most vocal members of the group.Something to think about (gee, I hope this counts as ‘fair use’ as well…)
‘In order to protect against the difficulties and anxieties associated with massification, a social system shifts back towards the state of aggregation, and the original anxieties and difficulties re-emerge. And the entire process repeats itself. In the same way that traumatised people who are overwhelmed by their fear of annihilation are caught in incessant motion, without possibilities of resolution, incohesive social systems oscillate incessantly between states of aggregation and states of massification. These oscillations manifest motion and process, but no dynamic, dialectical movement. An incohesive social system is in a state of social paralysis’.
Hmm. So round and round we go…
Just my take (for what it is worth….)
poster:alexandra_k
thread:458017
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050128/msgs/458995.html