Self-Splitting Psychology and the Power of Purpose
Herman A. Gill, Ph.D.
The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
Residential Program in Clinical Psychology
Palo Alto, California
Fall, 2004
Postmodern culture has replaced scientifically derived “reality” with a broader and more
compelling quantum perspective in which meaning is found in the future (Johnson, 2001;
Shawver, 1966). In this context, “future” is literally thought to be rendered from the
matrix of the person, with the changing fluctuations of consciousness, interpretation, and
experience.
In commenting on the global popularity of Harry Potter, Bloom (2001) suggests that the
book reflects a postmodern hunger for unreality, a time when the foundations of
“identity” are determined by an externalized fabrication of authentic experience. The
concern here is not simply with biological drives and wishes stemming from childhood,
but the hunger for what is false.
Freud (1911) knew nothing of Osama Bin Laden- 911, when he published his original
study of self-splitting in the case of Dr. Schreber, a physician who suffered from
unreality symptoms. This case was actually Freud’s first formulation of self-splitting,
which revealed the importance of power in the parent-child relationship. For Freud, the
postmodern phenomenon of globalization and the events of terrorism (a period in “nonhistory” characterized by self-splitting and the fragmenting of consciousness), and the
libido of global power, had not yet appeared on the stage of civilization. While Freud
(1964) emphasized the importance of “inner reality”, the archetypal links to language,
metaphor, movement, sound, and other modalities of consciousness could not have been
integrated into a complete meta-psychology (Gill, 1975; Gill, 1984).
Most of us would agree that the teleology of “purpose” necessitates “future”, but few of
us would venture to guess how one goes about rendering reality. What could be the
nature of future events that do not yet exist? Hawking (1988) provides a glimpse of some
possible answers to an impossible question. He tells us that while the universe of
quantum physics is becoming increasingly disordered, there are, at the same time,
unexplainable (“impossible”) “pockets of order and coherence”. Like other postmoderns,
he tells us that linear concepts of time (and therefore history) should be discarded. He
also tells us something about the nature of the impossible in our cosmos as well as in
ourselves.
Although their domain of expertise has been the cosmos, quantum physicists have had
much to say about the unconscious and the power and purpose of self (Wilber, 1984), and
numerous popular works have appeared on the topic (Zukav, 1979; Capra, 1991). In this
context, I have come to understand the term “quantum singularity” to refer to an
unconscious inner power of purpose, which renders a creative reality, out of
Page 2.
impossibility. This postmodern principle suggests that reality comprises a world in which
the “future” may literally be remembered, and the past may never have existed!
Postmoderns suffer from the self-splitting malaise of “false mirroring”-a form of
unreality, which stems from individuals having been “incorrectly” or having “not been
seen” as a child (Lieberman, 2000). These false realities (unrealities) are forms of selfsplitting which consists of “false implants” and “false cognitive maps” caused by the
effects of false mirroring. While these constructs, formed by “traumatizing quantum
events” occur at any time in the human life cycle, they occur most readily throughout
childhood, due to the vulnerability of early childhood development. In fact, the capacity
for creative thinking may be destroyed permanently, when sufficient fracturing enters the
developmental scene prior to adolescence (Erickson, 1950; Lloyd & Rossi, 1992). The
cumulative effects of these traumatizing events engender a libido for what is false.
In the politics of globalization, power and purpose have become inversely equated with
self-splitting and “hyper-vulnerability”, in the workplace (Gill, 1989; Gill, 1991; Gill
1992) as well as in communities as even nations presume themselves to have no borders.
The result clinically, is a hybrid postmodern personality consisting of two seemingly
contradictory aspects. The first, (relational) can be characterized as a seeking of purpose
inversely, in joining with the disavowed aspects of “Other”, rather than the authenticity
of “Other”. These “shared” disavowed aspects of self (“excluded self-objects”),
externalized in the form of false and destructive relationships, originate from an inner
hunger for what is transpersonally false (Lopez-Corvo, 1995). The second, (internal)
characterized as, “object as virtual evil”, refers to the postmodern attachment to the
“non-reality” of evil and destruction. Some authors suggest that postmoderns lack any
capacity for discernment of evil or its transparency (Baudrillard, 1996). Among other
things, virtual evil refers to the global depiction of violence in a Kafka-like way, so as to
dissociate the experience from its actual horror. Popularized politically as “superpredation” (Bush, 1999), hyper-vulneralbility reflects a disavowal of the relational and
internal power to render reality purposeful.
Unreality, and the hunger for what is false, may operate at biological levels, in the
quantum events thought to manufacture false molecular space and time in the body. Bion
(1957; 1959; 1963; 1967), tells us that self-splitting events at the molecular level (caused
by a traumatized nervous system), constitute “high speed particles”, or “beta elements”
that cannot be metabolized or used as material for consciousness and creativity, but can
only be acted-out or expelled from the unconscious system in ways that are counter to the
power and purpose of the living organism. These lifeless, self-splitting mechanisms are
believed to manufacture false space and time, and the eventual destruction of the
organism.
At this point, one might view the entire question of purposeful human events as hopeless.
And this might be true, were it not for the integrative place of creativity, intentionality,
and authenticity, in the human condition (Gill, 2004). Creativity holds a prominent place
Page 3.
in the cosmos and in relation to power and purpose of self because it is antithetical to
many of the causes and damaging results of self-splitting and false mirroring: (1)
Creativity represents an “expansive” spatial form, inner movement, and the capacity for
cognitive permutation, (2) Creativity re-centers and re-integrates consciousness, and (3)
Creativity re-connects the human organism with a transcendent memory of origin- the
power and purpose of future.
How then, does one render “purpose”? We consciously render purposeful moments, and
observe their accomplishments, when we intentionally and authentically create them, the
way an artist passionately renders a true painting or sculpture. At the risk of over-stating
aesthetics, purposeful events are rendered as blossoms in the wind, every moment as
breathlessly important as the next! Blossoms are those meaningful events between
meaningful spaces.
Often, the overwhelming presence of one or more traumatizing events of history (and
their fragmenting effects) may seem to necessitate the impossibility of a future. Yet we
each possess an inner “pocket of order”, a “quantum singularity”, from which we literally
render quantum realities with the power of creativity, intentionality, and authenticity. We
are at those moments, more than the result of the impossible situations that seek to deny a
power of purpose.
This has much to do with spatial boundaries. When we are elevated emotionally and
spiritually by someone, it is invariably based on these character attributes. It is what
renders purposeful movement in us by an “Other”. It is also how we move others
purposefully. These purposeful quantum events may seldom be seen because they are
seldom noticed. Few of us would have difficulty in recognizing inner power and purpose
in Washington’s enduring the impossibility of a winter at Valley Forge, and the
accomplishments of his “pocket of order”. Yet every day countless ordinary individuals
reach into their spiritual depth to render a creative reality out of their personal
impossibility.
One who purposes dignity to the spatial boundary between one’s personal power and the
personal power of “Other”, defines purpose of self, no less than a nation defines itself. It
renders a quantum “pocket of order”, and the capacity for shared higher purposes. In this
status, individuals or entire nations succeed or fail in rendering a purposeful future.
What is the role of “intention” or “will” in the psyche’s purposeful rendering of reality?
The American psychologist, James (1899), defined will as attention and effort. He
believed intention could over-ride objective reality. Other scholars have also noted the
importance of intention in purposeful goals (Adler, 1929; Maslow, 1971), underscoring
the importance of the preservation of will and its freedom. An intention, void of
authenticity must be void of true purpose. Authenticity connects person to nature, with
recognition of emotional integrity.
Page 4.
If we do begin life with an elevated spirit, a “power of purpose”, what is it that “splits”
such a poetic light of consciousness? And in the context of postmodernism, what is it that
replaces this light of consciousness with a mimic of itself; a fabricated design, which will
“recognize” only false realities within the self, granting them a codified reality, as though
they were true realities? The trickster may be history itself, which binds us to a past and
obscures the purpose of our future. Those limited to learn only from history, may be
doomed to its repetition.
The poet John Keats used the phrase “negative capability” to describe this inner “pocket
of order”, as a space of paradox, requiring restraint of libido, attention, and access to
inner, dystonic points of consciousness. The psychologist Silberer (1955) used the phrase
“aperceptive insufficiency”, which has always suggested to me, an inner emotional
precursor to creativity and the purpose to render our next moment. Here, the libido of
self-preservation, refers to preservation of self in the context of culture.
The term “neuroscience” has acquired increased postmodern usage, in a resurrection of
biochemical determinism, as we are tempted to reassure ourselves that the workings of
consciousness and purpose are after all, a three dimensional certainty. Yet our popular
search for inner codes of consciousness and meaning suggests a deeper hunger for an
understanding of purpose (Brown, 2003; Cox, 2004). However understood, postmodern
culture will undoubtedly play a dominant role in the formulation of new paradigms
concerning the creation and dissolution of consciousness, as culture determines
personality, as well as theories about personality.
In the global self-splitting of “culture”, one finds what has been previously implanted: (1)
An over-emphasis on the biological sources of human behavior (Horney, 1937), (2)
Pathogenic (unsafe) conditions of everyday living, (3) Thematic inconsistencies of peace
and national glory, (4) Edification of competitiveness, (5) The presumption of kindness
as weakness, and (6) Over-valuation of rationality. Global “culture” has replaced “human
purpose” with unequal and non-mutual power.
The postmodern hunger for false mirroring, serves a false cultural purpose of concealing
the destructiveness of national shadow (von Franz, 1975), while sustaining the alienating
experience of aloneness (Kohut, 1971; Lacan, 1977).
Disavowal of purpose, and its postmodern hybrid (hyper-vulnerability), denies a
transcendent, creative “Other”, while sustaining a false dialectic of cultural traumatizing
and re-traumatizing, as in the form of terrorism and counter-terrorism, representing the
tricksters’ false dharma- a collective attachment to the limits of history.
The “non-existent” inner space of purpose, which requires the personal rendering of
future, against all possible odds, assures us that creative consciousness (as an aspect of all
culture) may yet determine our personal and global future. It assumes a “quantum
singularity” beyond the determinant events of history. The quantum energy of singularity,
Page 5.
renders a purposeful future out of the temporal impossibility of our global and personal
reality.
Creativity and purpose require a non-mechanistic understanding and culture, and often
disturbing tolerance for a subjective enterprise that may defy “self-evidence”. The
temptation to confuse perseveration and intensity of feeling with true valuation and
emotional clarity can be persistent. The emulsifying bond between “Object
(representation) and “subject” (consciousness), always turns out to involve more than
casual discernment.
There are signs at the crossroads for the postmodern traveler. Whether in the status of
“deficiency” or “peak” (Maslow, 1968; 1970), “quantum singularity” and its “pocket of
order”, transcends (moment-to-moment), what appears to be an increasingly disordered
universe. Creative “acts” (“e-vents”, as I have come to refer to them in quantum terms),
form the true basis of the impossibility of human power and purpose. Quantum sparks
offer a glimpse of identity and purpose as it may have originally been factored into the
cosmos, requiring subjective synthesis in the character of person.
References
Adler, A. (1929). The practice and theory of individual psychology. London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul.
Bion, W.R. (1957). Differentiation of the psychotic from the non-psychotic personality.
In Second Thoughts: Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis. London: Heinemann,
1967, pp. 43-64.
Bion, W. R. (1959). Attacks on linking. In Second Thoughts: Selected Papers on
Psychoanalysis. London: Heinemann, 1967, pp. 93-109.
Bion, W. R. (1963). Elements of psychoanalysis. In Seven Serpants: Four Works
by Wilfred Bion, pp. 50-59. New York: Jason Aronson, 1977.
Bion, W. R. (1967). Second Thoughts: Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis.
London: Heinemann.
Bloom, H. (2000). In The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Baudrillard, J. (1996). The transparency of evil: essays on extreme phenomena. New
York: New Left Books.
Brown, D. (2003). The davinci Code. New York: Doubleday.
Bush, G. W. (1999). A Charge to keep (my journey to the white house). New
York: Harper Collins.
Capra, F. (1976). The tao of physics. Boston: Shambhala Publications.
Cox, S. 2004). Cracking the davinci code. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Erickson, E. (1963). Childhood and society (2d ed.). New York: Norton.
Freud, S. (1911). Psychoanalytic notes on an autobiographical account of a case of
paranoia (dementia paranoids). Standard Edition 12:1. London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1964). In J. Strachey (Ed. And Trans.), The Standard Edition of the complete
psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 23, p. 300). London: Hogarth Press.
Page 6.
Gill, H. (1975). The presence of archetypal dream content in the remembered dreams
of college students: a statistical investigation. Honolulu: Quantum Publications.
Gill, H. (1984). The clinical use of archetypal dream content in remembered dreams:
an applied-statistical approach. Honolulu: Quantum Publications.
Gill, H. (1989). Summary report and analysis of data of the santa clara county
transportation agency stress-management program. Honolulu: Quantum
Publications.
Gill, H. (1991). MacFarms of hawaii, organizational stress program. Honolulu:
Quantum Publications.
Gill, H. (1992). Organizational stress program: projects international, inc. Honolulu:
Quantum Publications.
Gill, H. (2004). Self-splitting in childhood: The integrative role of creativity in cognitivebehavioral play and art therapy. Honolulu: Quantum Publications.
Hawking, S. W. (1988). A brief history of time. New York: Bantam Books.
Horney, K. (1937). The neurotic personality of our times. New York: Norton.
James, W. (1899). Talks to teachers on psychology and to students on some of
life’s ideals. New York: Henry Holt. Unaltered republication, New York: Dover,
1962.
Johnson, C, (2001). Epistemology and work psychology: new agendas. Journal of
Occupational & Organizational Psychology, Vol. 74 Issue 2.
Kohut, H. (1971). The analysis of the self. New York: International Universities Press.
Lacan, J. (1977). Ecritis: a selection, trans. A. Sheridan. New York: W.W. Norton.
Lieberman, J. S., (2000). Body talk: looking and being looked at in psychotherapy.
Northvale: Jason Aronson Inc.
Lopez-Corvo, R.E. (1995). Self-envy (therapy and the dividediInner world. Northvale:
Jason Aronson Inc.
Lyoyd, D., 7 Rossi, E. (1992). Ultradian rhythms in life processes: A fundamental
inquiry into chronobiology and psychobiology. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Maslow, A. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (2d ed.). New York: Van Nostrand.
Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality (rev. ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
Maslow, A. (1971). The further reaches of human nature. New York: Viking Press.
Shawver, L. (1996). What postmodernism can do for psychoanalysis: a guide to the
postmodern vision. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 56 Issue 4.
Silberer, H. (1955). The dream. Psychoanalytic Review, Vol. 42. pp 361-387.
Von Franz, M. (1975). C. G. Jung: His myth in our time. New York: Putnam.
Wilber, K. (1977). The spectrum of consciousness. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical
Publishing.
Zukav, G. (1979). The dancing wu li masters. New York: Morrow.