Western and Westernized cultures (now widely understood to be not only adolescent but also pathological and growing increasingly so),12 most people seem to function more often by way of their subpersonalities than by way of their Selves. Western conversations often sound like two or more subpersonalities comparing notes about life from their wounded or fragmented perspectives. Subpersonality-identified Egos seem to be the most common protagonists in contemporary relationships, politics, news, arts, and entertainment, and the subject matter of most advice columns and pop psychologies. See if you agree as you read the following descriptions.
Subpersonalities might be immature and wounded, but they’re doing their best to help us. All four categories of subpersonalities, as we’ll see, are attempting to keep us safe (physically, psychologically, socially, and economically) by using the unripe strategies available to them.
Here’s an introduction to the four categories of subpersonalities and my names for them:13
NORTH: LOYAL SOLDIERS try to keep us safe by inciting us to act small (either beneath our potential or one-dimensionally) in order to secure a place of belonging in the world. They achieve this by avoiding risk, by rendering us nonthreatening, useful, or pleasing to others, or by urging us into positions of immature power over others (dominator power). Versions include Rescuers, Codependents, Enablers, Pleasers, and Giving Trees; Inner Critics and Inner Flatterers (the kind of flattery that motivates us to be useful and nonthreatening to others); Tyrants and Robber Barons; and Critics and Flatterers of others.
SOUTH: WOUNDED CHILDREN try to keep us safe by attempting to get our basic needs met, using the immature, emotion-fueled strategies available to them. They do this by appearing to be in need of rescue (Victims); being harmless and socially acceptable (Conformists); being coercive or aggressive (Rebels); or being arrogant or condescending (Princes or Princesses).
EAST: ESCAPISTS AND ADDICTS try to keep us safe through evasion — rising above traumatic emotions and circumstances and sidestepping distressing challenges and responsibilities. They do this through strategies such as addictions, obsessions, dissociations, vanishing acts, and delinquency. Versions include the puer aeternus and puella aeternus (Latin for “eternal boy” and “eternal girl”), Blissheads, and Spiritual Materialists.
WEST: THE SHADOW AND SHADOW SELVES try to keep us safe through the repression (making unconscious) of our characteristics and desires that are unacceptable or inconceivable to our Ego. Shadow characteristics can be either “negative” (what the Ego would consider morally “beneath” it) or “positive” (what the Ego would consider “above” it and out of reach). The Shadow is not what we know about ourselves and don’t like (or like but keep hidden) but rather what we don’t know about ourselves and, if accused of it, would adamantly and sincerely deny. Our Shadow Selves attempt to maintain psychological stability by briefly acting out Shadow characteristics and doing so flamboyantly or scandalously, but without our being conscious of what we’re doing — letting off steam as the only available alternative to complete self-destruction.
While the Self, with its four facets, is a single, integral feature of the psyche, the subpersonalities, in contrast, each function as separate and discrete versions of ourselves — as isolated voices. They are multifarious, fragmented elements of the psyche. This seems to be the case even when the subperson- alities join forces for the shared purpose of self-protection. For example, a frightened Wounded Child might plead that you not accept a promotion to the highly visible (socially risky) public role you’ve aspired to for years; a Loyal Soldier might chime in to say that, if you accept, you’ll end up humiliating yourself because you don’t have what it takes to succeed … or even be taken seriously; and an Escapist might suggest that the life of a hermit, ski bum, or drunk would be a much more enjoyable choice, anyway.
In the second half of the book, we’ll see that each subpersonality represents a wounded or immature version of the facet of the Self associated with the same cardinal direction.
It seems we never eliminate or finally grow out of our subpersonalities; we can only learn to embrace them from the perspective of the Self and in this way gradually heal our wounds and integrate our subpersonalities into the functioning of our 3-D Ego. Although our subs never disappear, we can mature to the point that we seldom get hijacked by them and instead live most often from our 3-D Ego consciousness as Self, Soul, and Spirit.
On pages 22–23, you can see the horizontal dimension of the Nature-Based Map of the Psyche, which is to say the four facets of the Self and the four categories of subpersonalities. The vertical dimension of the Map — consisting of Spirit and Soul — is not shown here, and you can think of the Ego as being at the center. In order to make it easier to take in, I’ve divided this horizontal dimension of the map into two parts, which I refer to as map 1 and map 2. Map 1 shows the intrapersonal features of the facets and the subs, indicating how we experience within our psyches our Self and our subs, with the facets of the Self arrayed around the outer circle and the categories of subs around the inner circle. So far in this book, it’s this intrapersonal dimension I’ve introduced you to. Map 2 shows the interpersonal features of the facets and the subs — the ways others tend to see us when we’re embodying these aspects of ourselves. In chapters 2 through 9, we’ll explore in some detail both the intrapersonal and interpersonal features of the Self and the subs.
THREE CORE MESSAGES OF THIS BOOK
Now that I’ve introduced you to the central concepts of the Nature-Based Map of the Psyche, I can state, in one sentence, a core message of this book: The key to healing and to growing whole is not suppressing symptoms, eliminating wounds, or eradicating subpersonalities but, rather, cultivating our wholeness — the horizontal wholeness of the Self as well as the vertical wholeness afforded by our relationships with Soul and Spirit.
The second core message of the book is that there’s a vital and synergistic relationship between cultivating personal wholeness and building life-enhancing cultures. Cultivating human wholeness can never be a matter of tending solely or even primarily to the individual human self, as if that self were an isolated entity somehow existing independently of the world of which we are a part. Ultimately, we cannot become fully human without healthy, mature cultures. And such cultures are not possible without healthy, mature humans — and without a healthy Earth community to be part of. Conversely, creating healthy cultures requires more than structural changes in politics, education, economies, religions, food production, energy generation, and environmental protection. It’s also essential to tend to human development.
The third core message is this: There are three imperatives of any healthy, mature culture. First is to protect and nurture the vitality and diversity of its environment.14 Second is to provide adequate numbers of true adults and elders to nurture, educate, and initiate the next generations and to create or revitalize cultural practices for the well-being and fulfillment of its people — economically, socially, aesthetically, and spiritually. And third is to protect and foster the wholeness of the culture’s individual members (which is to say the Self of each person and his or her relationships with Soul and Spirit).
