Managing inner turmoil - the conflict of self

The conscious mind is bequeathed with the onerous task of discriminating between safe and perhaps hazardous experiences. To the extent one is able to decipher real versus false cognition, humans make judgements based on the salience of deductive processes in juxtaposing new vs old data, familiar vs unfamiliar, safe vs harmful etc. 

In the same vein, man being a creature of habit, develops its zone of maximum potential by incremental learning, adding to its memory a schematic representation of its familiar world. This allows us to acquire neuroadaptive abilities from birth through adulthood to later life. The process of development traverses stages:

the neonate or new born; a helpless and totally dependent being who relies on sensory and later motor cues to respond to a potentially hazardous environment. Its survival depends on the competence of its parents and significant others. The psychologically undifferntiated newborn assumes the identity of its care-giver; it is at this time unaware of its 'self'. This duality of being gradually fades as it learns to understand its own bodily boundaries through contact with his mother. The reality of autonomy and self is reinforced with further growth and perceptive abilities. Though aware of the new post-natal space it finds itself, it remains confused but with blind faith, guided by sensory processes, tracks 'Objects' and in so doing creates a representation of its world, and feels some omnipotence in its ability to summon its object to meet its need.  Developmental psychologists in exploring this theory of Object relations argues its critical role in the child negotiating early stages of its growth prior to establishing object permanence.

The toddler years is a period of further autonomy and individuation. Successfully negotiating transition from infancy through early childhood is critical in the the internal representation of the world. Secure, avoidant,insecure or disorganised attachments are terms that attempt to describe the psychological states experienced by children in the early stages of their development. Absence of a healthy 'secure' environment where the care-giver provides a secure base, good-enough parenting and allow a healthy mental representation of a 'transitional object', creates and maintains anxiety. The conflict of ambivalence and the fear of abandonment of an insecure or disorganised attachment, may result in maladaptive defences including reliance on regressive sensory motivations to 'self-sooth', or vilify the self. There is a sense of guilt or self blame that may persist into later years maintain critical self view.

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development is a theory that highlights the phases of development. These stages in many ways generates biases and inadvertently might leave one feeling either successful or a sense of failing. Unfortunately society has many constructs around such templates, making it harder to ignore its relevance. A self evaluation of how one has managed these phases is important. However what is critical is the assumptions or paradigms we build based on these presets. 

Conflict of self if unresolved maintain a mindset that perenially predisposes to unhelpful defaults.

Core schema are a result of the sum total of experiences that shapes our sense of self vs others. Based on who we think we are and what we may have experienced, we view the world through prisms that may be predominantly biased, whether positively or negatively. Our basic rules or assumptions relate to those defaults that ensure our survival  in a relatively harsh or critical world. The extent we perceive the world as a threat or not, would modify our basic assumptions based on early experiences of care from significant attachement figures.

An ability to reflect on one's predominant thoughts, feelings and sensations is important. Mindfulness helps to develop these skills - being aware of our everyday routines,  'listening' to our inner experiences and not not rushing to making sweeping judgements based on these thoughts alone.

There are two critical aspects of our human psyche that needs to be actively managed. Our internal Locus of Control versus external influences.

... to be continued in part II