Can I share with you some of the things I learned through reading his books?
You say he did this for scientists to share a common ground, but there is a more practical reason too. He's a practicing psychiatrist who has written books to help the general population with their mental health and relationships.
That is how I found him - through exploring attachment theory, of which he discusses a great deal.
What does this have to do with the idea of the mind as a self-emerging process, or a healthy mind as integrated?
It's this idea that is leveraged in his books to help teach people how to develop their mental health. It gives them a clear and concrete path to follow. The idea of integration is not just for intellectual beauty - it is a teaching tool.
He used an analogy of a choir to teach attachment theory. Anxious attachment: multiple people singing the same, prolonged, single note - connected, not differentiated. Avoidant attachment: everyone singing a different song - differentiated, not connected. A choir of people singing the same song, connected, and in harmony with a variety of pitches, differentiated, represents secure attachment and integration.
There is a visceral experience of something wonderful emerging when you hear the secure choir vs insecure, and likewise the well-being and health that comes from a secure attachment relationship (or an integrated mind) is viscerally wonderful too.
If you are happy to look at his ideas for their teaching applications, I encourage further investigation of his books and talks. They have been an anchor for my healing from trauma and I am deeply thankful.
If you have read his books, is this a suitable description of his definition of mind:
"After much discussion, they decided that a key component of the mind is: βthe emergent self-organizing process, both embodied and relational, that regulates energy and information flow within and among us.β"
Just between you and me, I don't think that is very spectacular. But it's been years since I kept up with readings in the theory of mind.
Yes, in a similar way to saying 'I am a human being' is a description of me. :)
What I mean is that a brief, minimal description can be accurate but missing the joy, wonder and nuanced intimacy that comes from a deeper relationship.
For example, there is a wheel of awareness practice where you develop your ability to 'regulate energy and information flow'. You practice directing your consciousness to different points of awareness, one by one, and linking them together. Awareness of awareness itself is part of this practice too.
An exercise like this is when the definition above can come to life in your personal, subjective experience, and you get to observe how it looks and feels to you. You feel whether these ideas resonate with you, not just from assessing its logic, but from your felt experience. This is the spectacular part for me, the movement from abstract ideas to taking actions in the world that help improve my ability to thrive.
The emergent self-organizing part... think of a flock of birds in the sky and the shape it creates. No-one told the birds to make that specific shape. Likewise, no-one is telling me to speak these exact words to you. They have emerged from a combination of many processes coming together, culminating in an orchestra that somehow is coordinated well enough to let these ideas flow coherently from me to you. I can find this meaningful in many ways, some of them are: a sense of wonder, gratitude, trust, understanding how rigidity and chaos affects the shapes I make, looking at relationships and observing the emerging flow we make together and how it changes over time and what influences us.
This is my current understanding, but I am no expert. I can say that exploring a personal relationship with these ideas, developing my own hypotheses and observations and comparing them, and looking to observe these concepts in the world around me, has been deeply fulfilling.
Can I share with you some of the things I learned through reading his books?
You say he did this for scientists to share a common ground, but there is a more practical reason too. He's a practicing psychiatrist who has written books to help the general population with their mental health and relationships.
That is how I found him - through exploring attachment theory, of which he discusses a great deal.
What does this have to do with the idea of the mind as a self-emerging process, or a healthy mind as integrated?
It's this idea that is leveraged in his books to help teach people how to develop their mental health. It gives them a clear and concrete path to follow. The idea of integration is not just for intellectual beauty - it is a teaching tool.
He used an analogy of a choir to teach attachment theory. Anxious attachment: multiple people singing the same, prolonged, single note - connected, not differentiated. Avoidant attachment: everyone singing a different song - differentiated, not connected. A choir of people singing the same song, connected, and in harmony with a variety of pitches, differentiated, represents secure attachment and integration.
There is a visceral experience of something wonderful emerging when you hear the secure choir vs insecure, and likewise the well-being and health that comes from a secure attachment relationship (or an integrated mind) is viscerally wonderful too.
If you are happy to look at his ideas for their teaching applications, I encourage further investigation of his books and talks. They have been an anchor for my healing from trauma and I am deeply thankful.