Paradoxical Man

The Cause and Cure of Human Struggle

Transforming Levels of Maturity

This level is typified by young children who know very little about the world and rely on adults to teach them much of what they need to know. “Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) believed that children naturally try to make sense of their world and that in their efforts to comprehend their world, they act like scientists to create theories.[1] The Vortex Model would agree with Piaget on that point but would say, in contradiction to Freud, Ericson and Piaget, that this process does not end with the achievement of psychosexual stages, adolescent stages or psychosocial stages of development, but rather never ceases until death. The scientific pursuit of trying to understand one's life never ends until life does. The Projective Level is also indicative of adults who are intellectually impaired or who generally know very little about a particular subject and rely on the knowledge, skills and expertise of others. For example, most all of us could be considered neophytes when it comes to rocket science.

Someone with greater insight and knowledge of rockets could easily convince us what to believe about how they operate or how to build one. If infants have navigated well Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Development paradoxical stage of Basic Trust vs. Mistrust, then they are likely open to assimilating what other people tell them is true. Why? Because they have learned that people can be trusted to give them correct information. This is why children after they accomplish the paradox of Communicate versus Remain Silent (which means that they have learned to talk), ask all kinds of questions. Indeed, research has found that “Infants in an unfamiliar or ambiguous environment often look at their mother or father, as if searching for cues to help them interpret the situation, a phenomenon known as social referencing.” [2]

Until people develop congruence, whereby new experiences match with what the person might be able to predict will happen, most people will usually have multiple opportunities to revise faulty beliefs. From Erikson’s simplistic perspective, there are only a few issues that face us in life, and we periodically return to them in order to reach higher resolutions of them. Consequently, we revise our beliefs based on newer and better information that has become available to us. [3]

From this perspective, it becomes imperative then, that parents should make sure that what they teach their children is correct so that trust will not be broken, so that later when the child’s beliefs and the parent's word gets tested, the child will still be able to look to others for insight. What parents teach should be found to be accurate otherwise children may feel deceived thus harming the relationship. In the same way, counselors must be trustworthy to provide accurate information as well. There is a danger in remaining in the Projective Level however. It could lead to dependency on others.

Never leaving this level of development might cause a person to trust others too much; rely on them for understanding and remain easily impressionable, or even gullible as an adult. The Scriptures tell us, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6 — NIV. 

Because most people look to respected individuals for enlightenment, there is another inherent danger attached. People can develop dogmas and believe things to be true apart from discovering it to be true on their own. When beliefs are projected onto people, there is the potential for deception through fine sounding arguments. The Apostle Paul warns all of us, “They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 3:6-7 — NIV. People who remain in this stage of development can be gullible or naïve in nature and subject to believing myths, superstitions and engage in “magical thinking.” As an example, the history of the church includes those who have held incorrect theologies and have believed fallacies and heresies of how God truly interacts with humans based on man made doctrines. 

In one such example, the debate over the heliocentric (sun-centered) model of the solar system offers two high-profile instances of the Church’s unfortunate misinterpretation of Scripture, thus causing them to land on the wrong side of truth. The first instance involved Copernicus who was among the first scientists to suggest that the earth revolved around the sun. Upon hearing this new idea, Martin Luther denounced his theory assertively. He stated, “This would be as if somebody were riding on a cart or in a ship and imagined that he was standing still while the Earth and the trees were moving.”[4]

In a second instance, it was Galileo who was persecuted for his insistence that, once again, it was the sun, not the earth, that was the celestial body which occupied the center the universe. Galileo was twice hauled before the Roman Catholic Inquisition to explain his theory. Although he wasn’t executed or tortured by the Inquisition, he was ordered not to teach his heliocentric model of the solar system as fact; thus, his science was suppressed by the church if not outright denied by it.[5] Who knows how many individuals have been labeled heretics, imprisoned, tortured, killed or burned at the stake for being “correct” but in opposition to what church leaders wanted to believe? While a healthy skepticism is good to have, dogmatism and naivety hold inherent dangers as well. It is good to determine wherever possible, where the truth lies. 

Pastor Daniel J. Lepley in his book On Our Origins writes, “Ever since Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, there has been an uneasy tension between the church and the scientific community.”[6] He goes on to observe that whenever we demonize either faith or science, we are held back from achieving a fuller understanding of either.[7]

According to the Law of Diffusion of Innovation, about 13.5% of people are Early Adopters, who seem willing to quickly accept the ideas of others.[8] Does that mean that they are super intelligent and can discern truth easily, or are they overly trusting individuals?

The second level of Vortex development is the Skeptic Level. At this level of maturity, people have learned that everything they hear and read may not be true. Finding out later that the information told them was incorrect, may cause them to develop skepticism, thus forcing them to revisit and modify their beliefs of whether, either certain people, or people in general, can be trusted or not. Furthermore, as people repeatedly experience the same or similar paradoxes, they continuously revise their beliefs for ever more sophisticated interpretations of their world, or else, cement more solidly, their previously held beliefs. Many psychologists agree that “As with real scientific theories, when the predicted event does occur, a child’s theory grows stronger. When the predicted event does not occur, doubt enters the mind and the child must revise its theory.”[9] Once presented with a paradox, the mind automatically goes into action so that life can become more predictable, thereby alleviating fears of the unknown.

Using the example of belief in Santa, if a young child witnesses’ mom and dad placing presents under the tree on behalf of Santa, and combines that experience with the comments of friends and siblings who deny the existence of Santa, this often creates a doubt in the child’s mind about whether or not Santa is actually real. Researchers LeMare and Rubin have discovered that as children have more experiences with friends and peers, who assert their own perspectives of the world, children come to realize that their view is not the only one. [10]

Since contradiction comes at unpredictable times in a person’s life, which means that a child’s belief in Santa for example, may be extinguished early in life as a toddler, or perhaps not until school age. This indicates that development is dependent upon biological and social cues for prompting, which makes the speed of development variable for everyone. At whatever point contradiction comes, it then helps a person to create more sophisticated beliefs. 

Piaget also believed that as children experience these critical points in development, that they begin to construct knowledge in new ways. For example, transitioning from a projective stance to a more skeptical approach, causes children to revise their theories of how to process the information they receive in a radically new way. He further thought that sometimes these changes are so profound that the revised theory is, in many respects, a brand-new theory. Piaget claimed that these changes occurred three times in development: once at about age 2 years, a second time at about age 7, and a third time just before adolescence. This would indicate that children go through four distinct stages in their cognitive development.[11] As a child emerges from Piaget’s Concrete-Operational Period of thinking (where it often confuses appearances with reality), and then enters into it’s Formal-Operational Period (at about age 11), the child becomes able to think more abstractly. [12] Consequently, the growing child then becomes able to accommodate belief in a fictional Santa who exists in their imagination only.

Furthermore, in regard to when a child is presented with the abstractness of imaginary characters like Santa, children without the ability to think abstractly but only concretely, may come to think they are being duped. Concrete thinking relies on experience and a preponderance of evidence to form belief, which can come to outweigh the trustworthiness of parents and their ability to project truth into the child. Events like this in a child’s life may become important to the child’s capability of distancing itself from parents, and eventually pressing toward autonomy and independence.

Transformational Levels Page

Mikel Kelly, MA, LMHC

Introducing:

The Vortex Model 

Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 

1Corinthians 13:9-12—NIV

Vortex Model of Development

MAP:

Vortex Model Home

Mental Health and the Church

Paradox Defined

Transformational Levels

Milestones of Development

Theo-PsychoNeurology

Values Formation

Mankind's Sin-Nature

The Root of Pathology:

The Root of Spiritual Pathology

The Root of Cosmological Pathology

The Root of Physiological Pathology

The Root of Relational Pathology

THE Universal Paradox

Wounded Spirit Syndrome

Solving Paradoxes

Redeeming Paradoxical Man

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Heading Quote:

[1] Human Development: A Lifespan View, 2nd edition, Robert V. Kail & John C. Cavanaugh, 2000, United States, Wadsworth. (p. 18).