Communicating hope with one breath

Philosophy

http://www.hts.org.za Original Research DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i2.901 Communicating hope with one breath Author: Stephen D. Edwards1 Affiliation: 1 Department of Psychology, University of Zululand, South Africa Correspondence to: Stephan Edwards email: firstname.lastname@example.com Postal address: 3 Antigua, 32 Chartwell Drive, Umhlanga Rocks 4320, South Africa Dates: Received: 25 June 2010 Accepted: 11 Oct. 2010 Published: [to be released] How to cite this article: Edwards, S.D., 2011, 'Communicating hope with one breath', HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 67(2), Art. #901, 7 pages. DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i2.901 © 2011. The Authors. Licensee: OpenJournals Publishing. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. The central thesis of this article was that the phenomenon of hope involves states and stages of consciousness development, which can be enhanced through breath control, meditation, prayer and related practices that have formed the essence of various spiritual healing traditions for millennia. In particular, it was argued that breath control can provide a vital foundation for consciousness transformation and the development of hope. Whilst breath control alone may lead to a state of pure, transcendent and/or cosmic consciousness, the practical theological implications are that its effect of enhancing states and stages of consciousness may be anchored and amplified. This process can take place through further contemplative and intercessory meditation, prayer and related behaviour and will differ between people, groups, contexts, religious and/or spiritual traditions. A particular method of breath control called One Breath, which is associated with pure consciousness and the experience of hope was described. Such an experience typically leads to further spiritual practice, healing and transformation. It was concluded that such ongoing spiritual practice is crucial for improving consciousness development, healing and hope for individuals, societies, planet Earth and the cosmos. Introduction In spite of (some might say because of) extensive developments in technology, the natural sciences, modern biomedicine and many other fields, contemporary existence on planet Earth remains plagued by human suffering, illness (particularly the HIV and AIDS pandemic), violence (international terrorism for example), crime, overpopulation, ecological crises and a host of other problems. Some of these problems seem to have changed very little over the centuries. Many give up in the face of what may seem insurmountable obstacles. Is there any hope? The rather provocative title was deliberately chosen to highlight the various practical theological intentions of this article, which can be unpacked as follows: • It is concerned with the communication of hope and related states of consciousness and experiences such as trust, faith, integrity and love. • It reflects the faith that such experiences are most meaningfully grounded in and directed by spiritual practice. • A form of breath-based spiritual healing called One Breath will be discussed. • On the basis of such practice, evidence will show that the state of consciousness called hope may be enhanced through one particular form of breath. In practical terms this is experienced as one, long, slow, relaxed and/or apneustic breath whereby hope is enhanced through the feeling of being at one with the eternally infinite present here and now. • There is specific focus on the communication of hope through breath, meditation, prayer and related experiences such as pure consciousness, faith and love. In order to realise these intentions, the article explores the phenomenology of hope within the context of various ancient and modern spiritual and psychological healing traditions. These traditions include ancestor reverence, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam as well as psychotherapeutic systems such as psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioural therapy and family therapy. All of these systems converge in the recognition, validation and provision of evidence for insight, consciousness, peak experiences and therapeutic moments as being valuable precipitants in effecting healing changes (Corsini 1989; Ivey, Andrea, Ivey & Simek Morgan 2002; Wilber 1977, 2000, 2007). In addition to its bias in terms of the author's African, Christianorientated background, occupation as psychologist, lifelong interest in human spirituality and ongoing personal, spiritual practice, this article is particularly informed by the work of Ken Wilber, who is receiving increasing recognition in the field of practical theological literature (Ferreira 2010:1–8). By definition, practical theology refers to that descriptive, empirical, pragmatic, interpretive and normative field where religious traditions meet contemporary experience in transformative Page 1 of 7 http://www.hts.org.za Original Research DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i1.2.901 Page 2 of 7 activity (Osmer 2008:34; Woodward & Patterson 2000:1–22). This article is concerned with a practical theological, spiritual and psychological exploration into the phenomenology, communication and improvement of that special state of consciousness experienced as hope. It is psychological in the sense conveyed by the original broad meaning of the term as the study and use of the breath, soul or spirit of life that leaves a person at death and continues in some other form. The great chain or nest of being and/or consciousness ranges from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit and vice versa, depending upon whether this chain is being viewed from an evolutionary or involutionary perspective. In terms of this chain of being, this article is particularly concerned with phenomena arising at the level of soul and spirit. Here, soul is defined as an individual, incarnated expression of spirit and spirit as the universal expression of soul (Hergenhahn 2001:1–80; Judith 2004:13; Wilber 2000:106–108). Hope as a state of consciousness The phenomenon of hope has long been of interest to psychologists. For Erikson (1963:247–250), the experience of hope marked the successful resolution of the first stage of ontogenetic development with its accompanying psychosocial crisis of trust versus mistrust. More recently, hope has formed a conceptual pillar of the positive psychology movement away from the so-called pathogenic model to a more salutogenic or fortigenic focus on human resilience, strengths, resourcefulness and life skills. This is evidenced in the design and evaluation of hope programmes (Pretorius, Venter, Temane & Wissing 2008:301–310). Whilst most research typically views hope from a dynamic, intra-psychic perspective as an intra-personal phenomenon, or at the level of individual soul, if we examine hope from a transpersonal, spiritual perspective, a further, bigger picture emerges. Writing from this perspective, Wilber (1977:105–141) has noted four typical human dualisms: subject-object (personworld), being-nonbeing (life-death), body-mind and egoshadow. All of these require integration before a state of pure consciousness can be fully realised. If we view hope as a state and/or stage of consciousness, it implies both correlational and inferential relationships. That is to say, states and/or stages of pure, pre-reflective, transcendent, cosmic, unitary and/or non-dual consciousness will be both associated with, as well as lead to further, optimal experiences of hope. Such a state of pure consciousness has been variously described in the spiritual wisdom traditions as reflecting the source, context, ground and goal of all Being, Tao, Brahmin, God, Allah and so on. Wilber (1977:37–69, 2000:8, 2007:68–69) has referred to this as that which is always already arising, moment to moment, in non-dual union of emptiness and form, which follows earlier experiential stages of nature, deity and formless mysticism. In Christian terms, for example, this non-dual consciousness may be described as a feeling of being with that which was in the beginning, is now and will be forever; a mystical, contemplative Christian experience of oneness with Christ, the Trinity and/or the Godhead. This is made possible through the life and death of the Christ. In Wilber's basic integral framework of psychology and spirituality, such a state of consciousness will become a more enduring, stable stage, to the extent that it is realised from various perspectives. This includes subjective, intersubjective and objective dimensions or first, second and third person terms. Alternatively, spirituality may become unbalanced through the over-emphasis on any perspective to the exclusion of others. For example, Spirit in the first person has been described as the great I or Witness of every moment, as great radiant You, Thou or We immediately revealed in sacred communion in the second person and in the third person as the Great It, Isness, Thusness and Suchness of every context. Wilber (2007:158–161) notes that the theistic traditions that typically espouse second person experiences have tended to become very uncomfortable with first person experiences, resulting for example in the crucifixion of Jesus. Similarly, contemporary New Age spiritual movements may tend to neglect first or second person spirituality if third person, Gaia, Web of Life or ecosystemic views are too exclusively extolled. Whilst such a state of pure consciousness, alluded to by various spiritual, wisdom and healing traditions, is ultimately indescribable in language, logic or numbers, the enhanced consciousness aspects of the experience are neatly captured in Travis and Pearson's (2000) research into its phenomenological and physiological correlates. The phenomenological experience has been described by experienced meditators as a peaceful, unbounded state, characterised by an absence of time, space or body sense. Physiological correlates converge in terms of periods of relaxation and breath suspension, either in the form of breath retention or apneustic breathing, characterised by long slow in-breaths of more than 10 seconds duration. Practical Theological implications of breath control Whilst breath control alone can lead to a state of pure, transcendent and/or cosmic consciousness, the practical theological implications are that its effect of enhancing states and stages of consciousness may be anchored and amplified further. This takes place through contemplative and intercessory meditation, prayer and related behaviour and will differ between people, groups, contexts, religious and/or spiritual traditions. In depth investigations into transformations of consciousness associated with major spiritual traditions have indicated common developmental stages. For example, in Christianity such stages are referred to as: image (any persons God given, natural reality), metanoia [conversion], apatheia [purification or conversion], light [illumination and insight] and theosis [union with God/ Godhead] (Wilber 2000:210–211, 2007:79–81; Wilber, Engler & Brown 1985:300–301). The practical theological mission and message of this article is one of transformation of consciousness through breath control, meditation and prayer in order to provide hope and healing for humanity, society and cosmos. The article is a sequel to an earlier contribution, which explicated practical theological, psychological, http://www.hts.org.za Original Research DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i2.901 Page 3 of 7 phenomenological, contextual and empirical perspectives on a breath-based apprehension of the Holy Spirit (Edwards 2009). One Breath as a form of breath-based spiritual healing A primary ethical obligation for all healing is to make whole, to transform from illness to health, to bring together and renew that which was fractured, broken or disordered and to integrate disparate parts. The phrase 'One Breath' has been used by Joy Manne (1999), in her excellent article on Buddhist breath work and the nature of consciousness. As used in this article, it has further additional meanings related to the experience of pure consciousness in relation to the primordial Spirit, characterised by immaterial emptiness, luminous awareness and infinite energy (Reid 1998:256). During meditation, the breath becomes increasingly slow, soft and stilled until there is the experience of being breathed by one original breath. This is an integrating and healing experience. Healing One Breath practice will be described in detail in the section that follows. The fundamental role of the breath in healing has timehonoured traditions. Over many centuries, indigenous healers in Africa, India, China and other areas of planet Earth have practised various forms of breath-based spirituality. Healing traditions variously extol a form of breath-energy called Ra and Ka (Ancient Egypt), N/um (San), Umoya (Zulu), Elima (Congolese), Ruach Ha Kodesh (Hebrew), Prana (Hindi), Nafas Ruh (Moslem), Baraka (Sufi), Spiritus Sanctus (Latin), Pneuma (Greek), Chi (Chinese), Mana (Figian), Ni (Sioux), Manitu (Alonquin), Chindi (Navajo) (Myers 1993:24; Elinwood 2004:23; Reid 1998:90–94; Taub-Bynum 1984:55–56). This healing energy is typically experienced through what Jung (1957:46) has referred to as the 'breath-body' or 'spirit body.' Sitting still, standing and moving forms of breath co-ordinated behaviour may be viewed as providing a foundation for all forms of healing and transcendence as exemplified in alpha conditioning, biofeedback, transcendental meditation, !Kung healing dance and Tai chi (Edwards 2008:142; Reid 1998:181– 199). Healthy breathing experiences that have been bodily re-experienced as anchors, provide a phenomenological foundation for various forms of imagery: • light, sound, colour, touch and movement used in breathwork • expressive therapy • progressive relaxation • systematic desensitisation • crisis intervention • other forms of holistic psychological caring • counselling • psychotherapy • illness prevention • health promotion • ultimate spiritual healing (Edwards 2008:152; Ivey, D'Andrea, Ivey & Simek-Morgan 2002:129−152). The power of such breath-based healing becomes amplified in the context of any spiritual tradition as exemplified in Christian Hesychasm breathing practices or Buddhist breathing techniques. For example, contemporary indigenous Zulu healing is based on the spiritual energy of the ancestors. This energy takes different forms as reflected in ukububula/ nokubhonga kwedlozi, the religious, spirit-power and supernatural force of the ancestors breathing through the Zulu divine-healer [isangoma]. Ancestors are experienced as the living-dead, continuing to care for descendents in an extended link going back to the First Cosmic Breath of Creation. During her (or, in rare cases, his) spiritual calling the Zulu divine healer is breathed by recently departed ancestors appearing to her in dreams, calling her to become a diviner and accompanying her through a spiritual rebirth experience until completion of her apprenticeship under a qualified diviner in a macro-process called ukuthwasa. Thereafter she experiences being breathed by the ancestors during the divine healing process. Spiritual healing power [umoya] is mobilised in African Indigenous Churches (AIC) as members dance around in a circle chanting 'woza umoya, woza umoya' [come spirit come]. More formal meetings are held in churches, community halls or private homes. Here, faith healers [abathandazi] or prophets [abaprofethi] may close windows and doors to keep out distractions and amplify spiritual breath energy for a time of intense individual, family or community healing and spiritual purification [ukuhlambulula]. This takes place in a religious ceremony that includes rituals, music, drama and dance. Faith healers typically require their clients to breathe the Holy Spirit [Umoya oNgcwele] and to drink and pray over holy water [isiwasho] (Oosthuizen, Wessels, Edwards & Hexam 1989:119–181). Similar spiritual themes occur in various major spiritual traditions. From the Judaic perspective, Genesis 2:7 reads 'The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being'. In Hindu Yogic and Taoist Chigung traditions, pranayama and chi-gung respectively refer to various forms of breath-energy skills. One particular branch of Buddhism, Zen, places great emphasis on the lifebreath. In Zen breathing techniques, special emphasis is on breathing as a grounding and meditation technique, through life-breath stored in the energetic, intestinal area of the belly. This is referred to in India as the third chakra or manipura, in China as the lower tantien and in Japan as the hara. Another Buddhist breathing technique is to walk barefoot on the grass, in grateful consciousness of all previous ancestral beings beneath one's feet. In Christianity, John 20:21 reads: Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'. Various stages and levels of spirituality are outlined in the Islamic mystical tradition of Sufism. The term nafs refers to a process involving the breath, essence, self and nature of the incarnated soul in its quest to return to the realm of spirit through ultimately perfected nafs bringing the realisation that individuality and separateness are illusions and that only God exits (Edwards 2008:139; Reid 1998:160–180) http://www.hts.org.za Original Research DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i1.2.901 Page 4 of 7 A famous founding father of phenomenological, behavioural and functionalist schools of thought in psychology, lauded for his work on philosophy and the varieties of religious experience, William James once remarked that the stream of consciousness was only a careless name for what, when scrutinised, revealed itself to consist chiefly in the stream of his own breathing (James 1890:239). As implied in all the spiritual healing traditions mentioned above, with practice, this individual, introspective insight becomes infinitely amplified in the ultimate experience of being breathed by pure Cosmic Consciousness as connoted in the phrase 'One Breath.' This personal and transpersonal, integrating and healing experience provides infinite energy for all healers in their commitment to care for people and contexts requiring healing. One Breath practice The basic form of One Breath practice involves sustained focus on relaxed breathing. Keeping on observing the breath and monitoring bodily experiences, one continually lets go all feelings and thoughts with deeper and deeper relaxation. After a while the breath becomes increasingly slow, still, silent, smooth, soft and stable. Sustained focus on deepening this state of relaxed breathing, continually letting all else go and witnessing whatever arises in moment to moment awareness will eventually lead to the experience of being breathed, rather than breathing. One Breath fundamentally refers to this simple, momentary experience of being breathed. Whilst it may not initially be easy to block out personal contexts of suffering, care, pain, crisis or other related circumstances, such an experience is available to everyone and deepens with practice. If one creates time, the easiest way to begin practice is immediately after waking up in the morning. A fundamental form of practice is to focus consciousness on belly breathing. Keeping still, one should relax and observe the movement of the belly just below the navel. This may be very difficult initially, but becomes easier with practice. It may help to place one hand on the belly just below the navel. Various sensations, feelings, thoughts and experiences will initially drift in and out of consciousness. These will become less distracting with continual returning of focused consciousness to belly breathing and after a while there will be pure consciousness. One Breath cannot be forced, but simply happens. This particular practice forms the foundation for various methods of relaxation, meditation and prayer, which focuses on breathing through the belly area, also known respectively in Yogic, Taoist and Zen traditions as manipura, tan tien and hara. Training typically focuses on the reflection of converging consciousness through one point awareness. Practice contexts vary depending upon the particular spiritual tradition, as in the following examples that have produced healing effects in the author's professional occupation as teacher, researcher and psychologist offering breath psychotherapeutic workshops (Edwards 2008:157–161, 2009:255). At all levels of practice the emphasis is on remaining with the natural breathing pattern and it is extremely important that practitioners say within their individual comfort zones, especially with regard to their health status and particular religious and/or spiritual inclination and/or persuasion. One particular valuable form of a Christian-orientated One Breath contemplative prayer, which follows a centring period of silence and relaxed breathing, is for people to tune into their heart rates during each cycle of breathing in and breathing out. Once a comfortable, relaxed rhythm is established, the breathing pattern can be complemented with any images, words, phrase or sentences. For example, the sentence 'I am with I AM when we are with Jesus Christ', with the phrase 'I am with I AM when we are' may be repeated in synchrony with an eight heartbeat out-breath and 'with Jesus Christ' in-breath pattern respectively, with an ever deepening state of consciousness. Keating (2009:11–160) provides in depth instruction on such contemplative practice. Previous empirical research indicated highly significant quantitative and qualitative improvements in spirituality perceptions and experiences of 59 participants following Christian-orientated African breath-based psychotherapeutic workshops as compared with a waiting list control group of 41 people (Edwards 2009:81–98). In Yogic traditions, further One breath practice may be based on conscious experience related to the in-breath, outbreath and breath retention, respectively known in yoga as puraka, recaka, antara kumbhaka and bahya kumbhaka. From a physiological perspective, every out-breath is associated with the relaxing parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system and every in-breath to the stimulating sympathetic division. Therefore, longer out-breaths increase relaxation and longer in-breaths stimulation. This is extremely valuable experiential knowledge in regulating one's arousal and energy levels. Another example in the Transcendental Meditation tradition relates to apneustic breathing. Again, this is preceded by relaxed abdominal respiration. Although it can be done in any posture, again the best, initial way is to relax fully whilst lying on one's back (savasana) and focusing consciousness on diaphragmatic belly breathing until this becomes even and regular. Breath is the bridge between body and mind. Once the breath becomes stable and stilled, a calm state of mind is induced and it becomes possible to count heart beats in order to monitor length of inand out-breaths. Breathing rate is approximately one quarter that of heart rate. For enhanced relaxation, a good rule is to double the length of the outbreath in relation to the in-breath, whilst gradually slowing the breathing rate. After about 10 breath cycles at this rate, the pattern becomes automatic. Physiologically, this change is associated with decreasing central nervous and reticular arousal system activity as consciousness descends to the medullar region of the brain stem responsible for respiration, heart-rate and blood pressure. This increased relaxation associated with decreased respiration, heart rate and blood pressure is a valuable precursor for any form of meditation or prayer. http://www.hts.org.za Original Research DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i2.901 Page 5 of 7 Increasingly stressful human life-styles associated with contemporary existence on planet Earth will benefit greatly through daily 15 minute practice of such a breathing pattern, whether or not this is enhanced by further formal meditation or prayer. From this base, it becomes easy to practice the apneustic breath by simply slowing down the breathing further to 10 to 15 heart beats for both inand out-breaths, with or without very brief periods of breath retention and witnessing whatever arises in the consciousness. With increasing practice, the whole breathing, consciousness and experiential pattern will become automatic and deeper and more meaningful levels of consciousness will accrue. Extensive research with experienced meditators has conclusively established the health benefits of long term meditation (Wilber 2001, 2007). The value of even one long slow, silent, smooth breath is the basis of everyday popular wisdom as reflected in the Zulu phrase 'ukhukhokh umoya' ['take a deep breath' or 'take a breather']. It is important to make the distinction between an over-breath and the relaxed diaphragmatic breath. The former is associated with hyperventilation that can occur through stressful clavicular and thoracic breathing and the latter with what research has established as the relaxation response (Benson, Beary, & Carol 1974:37). Practicing in long, slow apneustic breathing will bring the associated deep, meaningful levels of conscious experience and realisation of states and stages of pure consciousness termed One Breath. One Breath is always available in infinite, eternal presence. Further, life-long practice in both still and moving forms may lead to its constant consciousness. For example, a still sitting form could include a transcendental meditation in siddhasana posture repeating a One Breath 'aum' mantra or a One Breath energy circulating microcosmic orbit meditation. One Breath practice is enhanced through various yogic or chi-gung standing postures. Moving practice may involve the cultivation of One Breath stillness in pure consciousness during the sun salutation (surya namaskar), Eight Brocades or Tai Chi. Finally, One breath extends beyond meditation and prayer in its ultimate reality. Communicating hope Examples of communicating hope abound in literature on breathing, meditation, prayer and healing. The seven quotations that follow have been chosen for their practical facility to respectively communicate healing, breath, meditation, pure consciousness, oneness, hope and love in any practical theology curriculum. They reflect various spiritual, wisdom and or religious traditions. Quotation 1 'Woza moya, woza moya' (African Indigenous Church (AIC) circular healing dance chant of 'come spirit, come spirit'). This quotation will be familiar to any AIC member as well as observers of AIC meetings wherever these are held: on mountains, at the sea or river. It is instructive in its revelation of ancestral consciousness with special reference to the Holy Spirit (Edwards 2009:81–98). Quotation 2 We give many names to God even though He is One. The same is true of energy. There is nuclear energy, electrical energy, muscular energy and mental energy. All these are vital energy or life energy, called in Sanskrit, pranic energy or simply, prana. Prana is called Chi in China and Ki in Japan. Some suggest that the nearest traditional concept of prana in the West is the Holy Spirit of Christianity, a sacred power that is both immanent and transcendent ... Prana is usually translated as breath, yet this is only one of its many manifestations. According to the Upanishads, it is the principle of life and consciousness. It is equated with the soul (Atman). It is the breath of life of all beings in the universe. They are born through it and live by it, and when they die their individual breath dissolves into the cosmic breath. It is the most essential, real and present feature of every moment of our lives and yet it remains the most mysterious. It is Yoga's job, and especially pranayama's, to enter onto the heart of this mystery. Prana in the form of breath is the starting point ... (Iyengar 2005:65–66) The value of this quotation lies in its clarity of interpretation with regard to both the physical energising effect of breath as a primary form of nourishment and relationship with the environment as well as a key to more subtle dimensions involved in meditative breathing as recognised in Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other traditions. Quotation 3 I do a breathing technique, alternate nostril breathing, pranayama prior to meditation. When meditating I don't think about breathing at all – it actually stops in fact or settles to such an extent that sometimes you wonder if you are breathing. The breath is so fine. It is not a conscious effort to arrive at that state – its just a by product of relaxation. I like to meditate at least once a day. Meditation means a state of non-conditional peace. It is not linked to any particular doctrine experiences– by that I mean one loses a sense of boundaries– then after the meditation one feels very relaxed, positive and in tune with life. I started with a Transcendental Meditation group, was initiated by a teacher into the technique, who said it was free of religion and philosophy– the founder is a Hindu, so perceptions in the teaching of this technique are related to this world view. As your breath becomes finer – consciousness transcends itself. You slip beyond conscious thinking into 'eternity' or unity with the 'absolute'. That is the basis of the philosophythat there is an absolute reservoir of creativity and intelligence underlying material life. You only know that you have experienced it and cannot verbalise it – simply know that you have been 'there' a period has passed that you cannot count; it's an experience of bliss and sometimes it's only for a fraction of a second that you have dipped into it. You can't force it, it comes when you least expect it. You cannot anticipate its coming, but even if it does not happen, the type of psychic rest you obtain is quite extra-ordinary. It's been demonstrated here at university – for weeks when I don't meditate I get depressed. One just needs to meditate once and suddenly one's take on life improves. (University colleague, personal communication) This quotation by a university colleague succinctly communicates the value of a Hindu pranayama technique in eliciting psychological and spiritual transformations of consciousness. http://www.hts.org.za Original Research DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i1.2.901 Page 6 of 7 Quotation 4 that blessed mood In which the burthen of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight, Of all this unintelligible world Is lightened:that serene and blessed mood, In which the affections gently lead us on Until the breath of this corporeal frame And even the motion of our human blood Almost suspended, we are laid asleep In body and become a living soul; While with an eye made quite by the power Of harmony and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things... And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply infused Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns And the round ocean and the living air And the blue sky and in the mind of man A motion and a spirit that impels all thinking things All objects of all thought And rolls through all things (Wordsworth's 'Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour') Wordsworth's poem in this quotation are often used as examples of pure consciousness in the transcendental meditative traditions, as well as a form of nature mysticism that may facilitate deity, causal and non-dual consciousness transformations (Travis & Pearson 2000:77–89; Wilber 2000:14, 2007:93). Quotation 5 I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (Jn 17:20) This quotation from St John's gospel immediately conveys Jesus' apprehension of and union with God, the Father, through original Christian contemplative and intercessory prayer. Quotation 6 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rm 15:13) Paul's letters in this and the following quotations are often used in Christian circles for their practical facility to directly reveal the communication of hope and related states of consciousness and experiences such as trust, faith, integrity and love. Quotation 7 'And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love' (1 Cor 13:13). Conclusion The intention and vision of this article is an ancient one, as implied in all the time-honoured spiritual wisdom and healing traditions. The practical theological mission and message is one of personal and transpersonal transformation of consciousness through breath control, meditation and prayer in order to transform and heal society and cosmos. The ensuing communication of hope is an essential foundation for such transformation. Hope is defined as a state of consciousness, which implies that the most favourable states of consciousness realise optimal experiences of hope and create the most advantageous conditions for its communication. The aim was that the text reflexively communicates and the reader apprehends, the vast theoretical scope and direct experiential value of including some form of breath based meditative, contemplative and/or intercessory praxis in the curricula of practical theology. During deep relaxation, breath control, meditation and prayer, the breath becomes increasingly slow, soft, silent, smooth, stilled and stable until there is the experience of being breathed by one original Breath. Although ultimately beyond language, logic or numbers, this non-dual experience is one of pure, transcendent, cosmic and/or unity consciousness, profound relaxation, unbounded awareness and empty, luminous energy of the primordial Spirit as revealed in the various examples given above. Whilst it is recognised that such experience may simply refer to a transitory state of consciousness, the evidence from various spiritual healing and psychotherapeutic traditions is that one authentic glimpse of pure consciousness can lead to profound healing effects. It also typically leads to ongoing spiritual practice and further, deeper, more meaningful stages of hope through personal, social and cosmic transformation and healing. Although breath control alone can achieve wonders, the effect is amplified through further contemplative and intercessory meditation, prayer and related healing action which will differ between people, groups and contexts. For example, ancestral breathing may include memorial to family members in an extended link going back to the First Cosmic Breath of Creation. People of Muslim faith might focus on nafs progression and Allah. Christian breathing might include the Trinity of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, accompanied by images of Light, Love and Life. Buddhist breathing could involve meditation in clearing the mind to pure emptiness and beyond, possibly followed by a Lovingkindness meditation. People of Taoist persuasion could focus on the Way of harmonising the powers of heaven, earth and humanity. In addition to the generation of such experiences as hope and love, conscious One Breath practice typically leads to helpful http://www.hts.org.za Original Research DOI: 10.4102/hts.v67i2.901 actions on behalf of other people and the environment at large. Such practice inevitably leads to hope for all sentient beings on planet Earth and the cosmos for the foreseeable future, because knowledge becomes conscious that each breath is a link to what has been called many names: God, the Absolute, Brahmin, Tao, Allah; of that reality which was, is and will be for ever. This One Breath is infinitely available. References Benson, H., Beary, J.F. & Carol, M.P., 1974, 'The relaxation response', Psychiatry, Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes 37(1), 37−46. Corsini, R.J., 1989, Current psychotherapies, F.E. Peacock, Itasca, IL. Edwards, S.D., 2008, 'Breath psychology: fundamentals and applications', Psychology and Developing Societies 20(2), 131−164. Edwards, S.D., 2009, 'A breath-based apprehension of the Holy Spirit: practical theological, psychological, phenomenological and contextual perspectives', Practical Theology 24 (2), 81−98. Elinwood, E., 2004, Qigong basics, Tuttle, Boston. Erikson, E.H., 1963, Childhood and society, WW Norton and Co., New York. Ferreira, I.W., 2010, 'Die ontwikkeling van die menslike bewussyn: Ken Wilber se AQAL – teorie', HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 66(1), 1−8. Iyengar, B.K.S., 2005, Light on life, Rodale, London. Ivey, A.E., D' Andrea, M., Ivey, M.B. & Simek Morgan, L., 2002, Theories of counselling and psychotherapy: a multicultural perspective, Allyn and Bacon, Boston. James, W., 1890, Principles of psychology, Henry Holt, New York. Judith, A., 2004, Eastern body, western mind, Celestial Arts, Berkeley. Jung, C.G., 1957, 'Commentary on "The secret of the golden flower"', in Sir H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler (eds.), transl. R. Hull, Executive Editor, W. McGuire, Collected Works of Jung, C.G., vol. 13, pp. 1−56, Bollingen Series XX, 20 volumes, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1953–1979. Hergenhahn, B.R., 2001, An introduction to the history of psychology, Wadsworth Thomson Learning, Belmont. Keating, T., 2009, Intimacy with God: An introduction to Cantering Prayer, Crossroads Publishing, New York. Manne, J., 1999, 'Only one breath. Buddhist breathwork and the nature of consciousness', The Healing Breath 1 (1), 22−46. Myers, L., 1993, Understanding an Afrocentric world view: introduction to an optimal psychology, Dubuque, Kendal Hunt. Oosthuizen, G.C., Edwards, S.D., Wessels, W.H. & Hexam, I., 1989, Afro-Christian religion and healing in Southern Africa, Edwin Mellin, Lewiston. Osmer, R., 2008, Practical theology: an introduction, Wm. B. Eerdmans, Michigan. Pretorius, C., Venter, C., Temane, T & Wissing, M., 2008, 'The design and evaluation of a hope enhancement programme for Adults', Journal of Psychology in Africa 18(2), 301−310. Reid, D., 1998, Chi-Gung. Harnessing the power of the universe, Simon and Schuster, London. Travis, F. & Pearson, C., 2000, 'Pure consciousness: distinct phenomenological and physiological correlates of consciousness itself', International Journal of Neuroscience 100, 77−89. Taub-Bynum, E.B., 1984, The family unconscious, Quest Books, Wheaton. Wilber, K., 1977, The spectrum of consciousness, Quest, London. Wilber, K., 2000, Integral psychology, Shambhala, Boston. Wilber, K., 2001, The Eye of Spirit, Shambhala, Boston. Wilber, K., 2007, Integral spirituality, Integral Books, Boston. Wilber, K., Engler, J. & Brown, D.P. (1985), Transformations of Consciousness: conventional and contemplative perspectives on development, New Science Library Shambhala, Boston. Woodward, J. & Patterson, S., 2000, The Blackwell reader in pastoral and practical theology, Blackwell, Oxford. Page 7 of


Philosophy

| The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity Jason Russell Abstract The new narcissist is haunted not by guilt but by anxiety. He seeks not to inflict his own certainties on others but to find a meaning in life. Liberated from the superstitions of the past, he doubts even the reality of his own existence. Superficially relaxed and tolerant, he finds little use for dogmas of racial and ethnic purity but at the same time forfeits the security of group loyalties and regards everyone as a rival for the favors conferred by a paternalistic state. His sexual attitudes are permissive rather than puritanical, even though his emancipation from ancient taboos brings him no sexual peace. Fiercely competitive in his demand for approval and acclaim, he distrusts competition because he associates it unconsciously with an unbridled urge to destroy. Hence he repudiates the competitive ideologies that flourished at an earlier stage of capitalist development and distrusts even their limited expression in sports and games. He extols cooperation and teamwork while harboring deeply antisocial impulses. He praises respect for rules and regulations in the secret belief that they do not apply to himself. Acquisitive in the sense that his cravings have no limits, he does not accumulate goods and provisions against the future, in the manner of the acquisitive individualist of nineteenth-century political economy, but demands immediate gratification and lives in a state of restless, perpetually unsatisfied desire. Keyword: The Culture of Narcissism; Language; Identity; Social Science; Introduction "A characteristic of our times is the predominance, even in groups traditionally selective, of the mass and the vulgar. Thus, in intellectual life, which of its essence requires and presupposes qualification, one can note the progressive triumph of the pseudo-intellectual, unqualified, unqualifiable..." (Wildavsky, 2018). Can Science be passionate? This question seems to sum up the life of Christopher Lasch, erstwhile a historian of culture later transmogrified into 2 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity an ersatz prophet of doom and consolation, a latter day Jeremiah. Judging by his (prolific and eloquent) output, the answer is a resounding no. There is no single Lasch. This chronicler of culture, did so mainly by chronicling his inner turmoil, conflicting ideas and ideologies, emotional upheavals, and intellectual vicissitudes. In this sense, of (courageous) self-documentation, Mr. Lasch epitomized Narcissism, was the quintessential Narcissist, the better positioned to criticize the phenomenon. Some "scientific" disciplines (e.g., the history of culture and History in general) are closer to art than to the rigorous (a.k.a. "exact" or "natural" or "physical" sciences). Lasch borrowed heavily from other, more established branches of knowledge without paying tribute to the original, strict meaning of concepts and terms. Such was the use that he made of "Narcissism". "Narcissism" is a relatively well-defined psychological term. I expound upon it elsewhere ("Malignant self Love Narcissism Re-Visited"). The Narcissistic Personality Disorder the acute form of pathological Narcissism is the name given to a group of 9 symptoms (see: DSM-4). They include: a grandiose Self (illusions of grandeur coupled with an inflated, unrealistic sense of the Self), inability to empathize with the Other, the tendency to exploit and manipulate others, idealization of other people (in cycles of idealization and devaluation), rage attacks and so on. Narcissism, therefore, has a clear clinical definition, etiology and prognosis. The use that Lasch makes of this word has nothing to do with its usage in psychopathology. True, Lasch did his best to sound "medicinal". He spoke of "(national) malaise" and accused the American society of lack of self-awareness. But choice of words does not a coherence make. Findings and Discussion Analytic Summary of Kimball Lasch was a member, by conviction, of an imaginary "Pure Left". This turned out to be a code for an odd mixture of Marxism, religious fundamentalism, populism, Freudian analysis, conservatism and any other -ism that Lasch happened to come across. Intellectual consistency was not Lasch's strong point, but this is excusable, even commendable in the search for Truth. What is not excusable is the passion and conviction with which Lasch imbued the advocacy of each of these consecutive and mutually exclusive ideas. 3 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity "The Culture of Narcissism American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations" was published in the last year of the unhappy presidency of Jimmy Carter (1979). The latter endorsed the book publicly (in his famous "national malaise" speech). The main thesis of the book is that the Americans have created a self-absorbed (though not self aware), greedy and frivolous society which depended on consumerism, demographic studies, opinion polls and Government to know and to define itself. What is the solution? Lasch proposed a "return to basics": self-reliance, the family, nature, the community, and the Protestant work ethic. To those who adhere, he promised an elimination of their feelings of alienation and despair. The apparent radicalism (the pursuit of social justice and equality) was only that: apparent. The New Left was morally self-indulgent. In an Orwellian manner, liberation became tyranny and transcendence irresponsibility. The "democratization" of education: "...has neither improved popular understanding of modern society, raised the quality of popular culture, nor reduced the gap between wealth and poverty, which remains as wide as ever. On the other hand, it has contributed to the decline of critical thought and the erosion of intellectual standards, forcing us to consider the possibility that mass education, as conservatives have argued all along, is intrinsically incompatible with the maintenance of educational standards". Lasch derided capitalism, consumerism and corporate America as much as he loathed the mass media, the government and even the welfare system (intended to deprive its clients of their moral responsibility and indoctrinate them as victims of social circumstance). These always remained the villains. But to this classically leftist list he added the New Left. He bundled the two viable alternatives in American life and discarded them both. Anyhow, capitalism's days were numbered, a contradictory system as it was, resting on "imperialism, racism, elitism, and inhuman acts of technological destruction". What was left except God and the Family? Lasch was deeply anti-capitalist. He rounded up the usual suspects with the prime suspect being multinationals. To him, it wasn't only a question of exploitation of the working masses. Capitalism acted as acid on the social and moral fabrics and made them disintegrate. Lasch adopted, at times, a theological perception of capitalism as an evil, demonic entity. Zeal usually leads to inconsistency of argumentation: Lasch claimed, for instance, that capitalism negated 4 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity social and moral traditions while pandering to the lowest common denominator. There is a contradiction here: social mores and traditions are, in many cases, THE lowest common denominator. Lasch displayed a total lack of understanding of market mechanisms and the history of markets. True, markets start out as mass-oriented and entrepreneurs tend to massproduce to cater to the needs of the newfound consumers. However, as markets evolve they fragment. Individual nuances of tastes and preferences tend to transform the mature market from a cohesive, homogenous entity to a loose coalition of niches. Computer aided design and production, targeted advertising, custom made products, personal services are all the outcomes of the maturation of markets. It is where capitalism is absent that uniform mass production of goods of shoddy quality takes over. This may have been Lasch's biggest fault: that he persistently and wrong-headedly ignored reality when it did not serve his pet theorizing. He made up his mind and did not wish to be confused by the facts. The facts are that all the alternatives to the known four models of capitalism (the Anglo-Saxon, the European, the Japanese and the Chinese) have failed miserably and have led to the very consequences that Lasch warned against... in capitalism. It is in the countries of the former Soviet Bloc, that social solidarity has evaporated, that traditions were trampled upon, that religion was brutally suppressed, that pandering to the lowest common denominator was official policy, that poverty material, intellectual and spiritual became all pervasive, that people lost all self reliance and communities disintegrated. There is nothing to excuse Lasch: the Wall fell in 1989. An inexpensive trip would have confronted him with the results of the alternatives to capitalism. That he failed to acknowledge his life-long misconceptions and compile the Lasch errata cum mea culpa is the sign of deepseated intellectual dishonesty. The man was not interested in the truth. In many respects, he was a propagandist. Worse, he combined an amateurish understanding of the Economic Sciences with the fervor of a fundamentalist preacher to produce an absolutely non-scientific discourse. Let us analyze what he regarded as the basic weakness of capitalism (in "The True and Only Heaven", 1991): its need to increase capacity and production ad infinitum in order to sustain itself. Such a feature would have been destructive if capitalism were to operate in a closed system. The finiteness of the economic sphere would have brought capitalism to ruin. But the world is NOT a closed economic system. 80,000,000 new consumers are added 5 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity annually, markets globalize, trade barriers are falling, international trade is growing three times faster than the world's GDP and still accounts for less than 15% of it, not to mention space exploration which is at its inception. The horizon is, for all practical purposes, unlimited. The economic system is, therefore, open. Capitalism will never be defeated because it has an infinite number of consumers and markets to colonize. That is not to say that capitalism will not have its crises, even crises of over-capacity. But such crises are a part of the business cycle not of the underlying market mechanism. They are adjustment pains, the noises of growing up not the last gasps of dying. To claim otherwise is either to deceive or to be spectacularly ignorant not only of economic fundamentals but of what is happening in the world. It is as intellectually rigorous as the "New Paradigm" which says, in effect, that the business cycle and inflation are both dead and buried. Lasch's argument: capitalism must forever expand if it is to exist (debatable) hence the idea of "progress", an ideological corollary of the drive to expand progress transforms people into insatiable consumers (apparently, a term of abuse). But this is to ignore the fact that people create economic doctrines (and reality, according to Marx) not the reverse. In other words, the consumers created capitalism to help them maximize their consumption. History is littered with the remains of economic theories, which did not match the psychological makeup of the human race. There is Marxism, for instance. The best theorized, most intellectually rich and well-substantiated theory must be put to the cruel test of public opinion and of the real conditions of existence. Barbarous amounts of force and coercion need to be applied to keep people functioning under contra-human-nature ideologies such as communism. A horde of what Althusser calls Ideological State Apparatuses must be put to work to preserve the dominion of a religion, ideology, or intellectual theory which do not amply respond to the needs of the individuals that comprise society. The Socialist (more so the Marxist and the malignant version, the Communist) prescriptions were eradicated because they did not correspond to the OBJECTIVE conditions of the world. They were hermetically detached, and existed only in their mythical, contradiction-free realm (to borrow again from Althusser). Lasch commits the double intellectual crime of disposing of the messenger AND ignoring the message: people are consumers and there is nothing we can do about it but try to present to them as wide an array as possible of goods and services. High brow and low brow have their 6 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity place in capitalism because of the preservation of the principle of choice, which Lasch abhors. He presents a false predicament: he who elects progress elects meaninglessness and hopelessness. Is it better asks Lasch sanctimoniously to consume and live in these psychological conditions of misery and emptiness? The answer is self evident, according to him. Lasch patronizingly prefers the working class undertones commonly found in the petite bourgeois: "its moral realism, its understanding that everything has its price, its respect for limits, its skepticism about progress... sense of unlimited power conferred by science the intoxicating prospect of man's conquest of the natural world". The limits that Lasch is talking about are metaphysical, theological. Man's rebellion against God is in question. This, in Lasch's view, is a punishable offence. Both capitalism and science are pushing the limits, infused with the kind of hubris which the mythological Gods always chose to penalize (remember Prometheus?). What more can be said about a man that postulated that "the secret of happiness lies in renouncing the right to be happy". Some matters are better left to psychiatrists than to philosophers. There is megalomania, too: Lasch cannot grasp how could people continue to attach importance to money and other worldly goods and pursuits after his seminal works were published, denouncing materialism for what it was a hollow illusion? The conclusion: people are ill informed, egotistical, stupid (because they succumb to the lure of consumerism offered to them by politicians and corporations). America is in an "age of diminishing expectations" (Lasch's). Happy people are either weak or hypocritical. Lasch envisioned a communitarian society, one where men are self made and the State is gradually made redundant. This is a worthy vision and a vision worthy of some other era. Lasch never woke up to the realities of the late 20th century: mass populations concentrated in sprawling metropolitan areas, market failures in the provision of public goods, the gigantic tasks of introducing literacy and good health to vast swathes of the planet, an ever increasing demand for evermore goods and services. Small, self-help communities are not efficient enough to survive though the ethical aspect is praiseworthy: "Democracy works best when men and women do things for themselves, with the help of their friends and neighbors, instead of depending on the state." - "A misplaced compassion degrades both the victims, who are reduced to objects of pity, and their would-be benefactors, who find it easier to pity their fellow citizens than to hold them up to impersonal standards, 7 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity attainment of which would entitle them to respect. Unfortunately, such statements do not tell the whole." No wonder that Lasch has been compared to Mathew Arnold who wrote: "(culture) does not try to teach down to the level of inferior classes; ...It seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere... the men of culture are the true apostles of equality. The great men of culture are those who have had a passion for diffusing, for making prevail, for carrying from one end of society to the other, the best knowledge, the best ideas of their time." Culture and Anarchy a Quite Elitist View Unfortunately, Lasch, most of the time, was no more original or observant than the average columnist: "The mounting evidence of widespread inefficiency and corruption, the decline of American productivity, the pursuit of speculative profits at the expense of manufacturing, the deterioration of our country's material infrastructure, the squalid conditions in our crime-ridden cities, the alarming and disgraceful growth of poverty, and the widening disparity between poverty and wealth ... growing contempt for manual labor... growing gulf between wealth and poverty... the growing insularity of the elites... growing impatience with the constraints imposed by long-term responsibilities and commitments." Paradoxically, Lasch was an elitist. The very person who attacked the "talking classes" (the "symbolic analysts" in Robert Reich's less successful rendition) freely railed against the "lowest common denominator". True, Lasch tried to reconcile this apparent contradiction by saying that diversity does not entail low standards or selective application of criteria. This, however, tends to undermine his arguments against capitalism. In his typical, anachronistic, language: 8 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity "The latest variation on this familiar theme, its reductio ad absurdum, is that a respect for cultural diversity forbids us to impose the standards of privileged groups on the victims of oppression." This leads to "universal incompetence" and a weakness of the spirit: "Impersonal virtues like fortitude, workmanship, moral courage, honesty, and respect for adversaries (are rejected by the champions of diversity)... Unless we are prepared to make demands on one another, we can enjoy only the most rudimentary kind of common life... (agreed standards) are absolutely indispensable to a democratic society (because) double standards mean second-class citizenship." This is almost plagiarism. Allan Bloom ("The Closing of the American Mind"): "(openness became trivial) ...Openness used to be the virtue that permitted us to seek the good by using reason. It now means accepting everything and denying reason's power. The unrestrained and thoughtless pursuit of openness ... has rendered openness meaningless." Lasch: "...moral paralysis of those who value 'openness' above all (democracy is more than) openness and toleration... In the absence of common standards... tolerance becomes indifference." "Open Mind" becomes: "Empty Mind". Lasch observed that America has become a culture of excuses (for self and the "disadvantaged"), of protected judicial turf conquered through litigation (a.k.a. "rights"), of neglect of responsibilities. Free speech is restricted by fear of offending potential audiences. We confuse respect (which must be earned) with toleration and appreciation, discriminating judgement with indiscriminate acceptance, and turning the blind eye. Fair and well. Political correctness has indeed degenerated into moral incorrectness and plain numbness. 9 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity But why is the proper exercise of democracy dependent upon the devaluation of money and markets? Why is luxury "morally repugnant" and how can this be PROVEN rigorously, formal logically? Lasch does not opine he informs. What he says has immediate truth-value, is non-debatable, and intolerant. Consider this passage, which came out of the pen of an intellectual tyrant: "...the difficulty of limiting the influence of wealth suggests that wealth itself needs to be limited... a democratic society cannot allow unlimited accumulation... a moral condemnation of great wealth... backed up with effective political action... at least a rough approximation of economic equality... in the old days (Americans agreed that people should not have) far in excess of their needs." Lasch failed to realize that democracy and wealth formation are two sides of the SAME coin. That democracy is not likely to spring forth, nor is it likely to survive poverty or total economic equality. The confusion of the two ideas (material equality and political equality) is common: it is the result of centuries of plutocracy (only wealthy people had the right to vote, universal suffrage is very recent). The great achievement of democracy in the 20th century was to separate these two aspects: to combine egalitarian political access with an unequal distribution of wealth. Still, the existence of wealth no matter how distributed is a precondition. Without it there will never be real democracy. Wealth generates the leisure needed to obtain education and to participate in community matters. Put differently, when one is hungry one is less prone to read Mr. Lasch, less inclined to think about civil rights, let alone exercise them. Mr. Lasch is authoritarian and patronizing, even when he is strongly trying to convince us otherwise. The use of the phrase: "far in excess of their needs" rings of destructive envy. Worse, it rings of a dictatorship, a negation of individualism, a restriction of civil liberties, an infringement on human rights, anti-liberalism at its worst. Who is to decide what is wealth, how much of it constitutes excess, how much is "far in excess" and, above all, what are the needs of the person deemed to be in excess? Which state commissariat will do the job? Would Mr. Lasch have volunteered to phrase the guidelines and if so, which criteria would he have applied? Eighty percent (80%) of the population of the world would have considered Mr. Lasch's wealth 10 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity to be far in excess of his needs. Mr. Lasch is prone to inaccuracies. Read Alexis de Tocqueville (1835): "I know of no country where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men and where a profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of property... the passions that agitate the Americans most deeply are not their political but their commercial passions... They prefer the good sense which amasses large fortunes to that enterprising genius which frequently dissipates them." In his book: "The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy" (published posthumously in 1996) Lasch bemoans a divided society, a degraded public discourse, a social and political crisis, that is really a spiritual crisis. The book's title is modeled after Jose Ortega y Gasset's "Revolt of the Masses" in which he described the forthcoming political domination of the masses as a major cultural catastrophe. The old ruling elites were the storehouses of all that's good, including all civic virtues, he explained. The masses warned Ortega y Gasset, prophetically will act directly and even outside the law in what he called a hyperdemocracy. They will impose themselves on the other classes. The masses harbored a feeling of omnipotence: they had unlimited rights, history was on their side (they were "the spoiled child of human history" in his language), they were exempt from submission to superiors because they regarded themselves as the source of all authority. They faced an unlimited horizon of possibilities and they were entitled to everything at any time. Their whims, wishes and desires constituted the new law of the earth. Lasch just ingeniously reversed the argument. The same characteristics, he said, are to be found in today's elites, "those who control the international flow of money and information, preside over philanthropic foundations and institutions of higher learning, manage the instruments of cultural production and thus set the terms of public debate". But they are self appointed, they represent none but themselves. The lower middle classes were much more conservative and stable than their "self appointed spokesmen and would-be liberators". They know the limits and that there are limits, they have sound political instincts: "...favor limits on abortion, cling to the two-parent family as a source of stability in a turbulent world, resist experiments with 11 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity 'alternative lifestyles', and harbor deep reservations about affirmative action and other ventures in largescale social engineering." And who purports to represent them? The mysterious "elite" which, as we find out, is nothing but a code word for the likes of Lasch. In Lasch's world Armageddon is unleashed between the people and this specific elite. What about the political, military, industrial, business and other elites? Yok. What about conservative intellectuals who support what the middle classes do and "have deep reservations about affirmative action" (to quote him)? Aren't they part of the elite? No answer. So why call it "elite" and not "liberal intellectuals"? A matter of (lack) of integrity. The members of this fake elite are hypochondriacs, obsessed with death, narcissistic and weaklings. A scientific description based on thorough research, no doubt. Even if such a horror-movie elite did exist what would have been its role? Did he suggest an elite-less pluralistic, modern, technology-driven, essentially (for better or for worse) capitalistic democratic society? Others have dealt with this question seriously and sincerely: Arnold, T.S. Elliot ("Notes towards the Definition of Culture"). Reading Lasch is an absolute waste of time when compared to their studies. The man is so devoid of self-awareness (no pun intended) that he calls himself "a stern critic of nostalgia". If there is one word with which it is possible to summarize his life's work it is nostalgia (to a world which never existed: a world of national and local loyalties, almost no materialism, savage nobleness, communal responsibility for the Other). In short, to an Utopia compared to the dystopia that is America. The pursuit of a career and of specialized, narrow, expertise, he called a "cult" and "the antithesis of democracy". Yet, he was a member of the "elite" which he so chastised and the publication of his tirades enlisted the work of hundreds of careerists and experts. He extolled self-reliance but ignored the fact that it was often employed in the service of wealth formation and material accumulation. Were there two kinds of self-reliance one to be condemned because of its results? Was there any human activity devoid of a dimension of wealth creation? Therefore, are all human activities (except those required for survival) to cease? Lasch identified emerging elites of professionals and managers, a cognitive elite, manipulators of symbols, a threat to "real" democracy. Reich described them as trafficking in 12 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity information, manipulating words and numbers for a living. They live in an abstract world in which information and expertise are valuable commodities in an international market. No wonder the privileged classes are more interested in the fate of the global system than in their neighborhood, country, or region. They are estranged, they "remove themselves from common life". They are heavily invested in social mobility. The new meritocracy made professional advancement and the freedom to make money "the overriding goal of social policy". They are fixated on finding opportunities and they democratize competence. This, said Lasch, betrayed the American dream!?: "The reign of specialized expertise is the antithesis of democracy as it was understood by those who saw this country as 'The last best hope of Earth'." For Lasch citizenship did not mean equal access to economic competition. It meant a shared participation in a common political dialogue (in a common life). The goal of escaping the "laboring classes" was deplorable. The real aim should be to ground the values and institutions of democracy in the inventiveness, industry, self-reliance and self-respect of workers. The "talking classes" brought the public discourse into decline. Instead of intelligently debating issues, they engaged in ideological battles, dogmatic quarrels, name-calling. The debate grew less public, more esoteric and insular. There are no "third places", civic institutions which "promote general conversation across class lines". So, social classes are forced to "speak to themselves in a dialect... inaccessible to outsiders". The media establishment is more committed to "a misguided ideal of objectivity" than to context and continuity, which underlie any meaningful public discourse. The spiritual crisis was another matter altogether. This was simply the result of oversecularization. The secular worldview is devoid of doubts and insecurities, explained Lasch. Thus, single-handedly, he eliminated modern science, which is driven by constant doubts, insecurities and questioning and by an utter lack of respect for authority, transcendental as it may be. With amazing gall, Lasch says that it was religion which provided a home for spiritual uncertainties!!! Religion writes Lasch was a source of higher meaning, a repository of practical moral wisdom. Minor matters such as the suspension of curiosity, doubt and disbelief entailed by religious practice and the blood-saturated history of all religions these are not mentioned. Why spoil a good argument? 13 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity The new elites disdain religion and are hostile to it: "The culture of criticism is understood to rule out religious commitments... (religion) was something useful for weddings and funerals but otherwise dispensable." Without the benefit of a higher ethic provided by religion (for which the price of suppression of free thought is paid SV) the knowledge elites resort to cynicism and revert to irreverence. "The collapse of religion, its replacement by the remorselessly critical sensibility exemplified by psychoanalysis and the degeneration of the 'analytic attitude' into an all out assault on ideals of every kind have left our culture in a sorry state." Lasch was a fanatic religious man. He would have rejected this title with vehemence. But he was the worst type: unable to commit himself to the practice while advocating its employment by others. If you asked him why was religion good, he would have waxed on concerning its good RESULTS. He said nothing about the inherent nature of religion, its tenets, its view of Mankind's destiny, or anything else of substance. Lasch was a social engineer of the derided Marxist type: if it works, if it molds the masses, if it keeps them "in limits", subservient use it. Religion worked wonders in this respect. But Lasch himself was above his own laws he even made it a point not to write God with a capital "G", an act of outstanding "courage". Schiller wrote about the "disenchantment of the world", the disillusionment which accompanies secularism a real sign of true courage, according to Nietzsche. Religion is a powerful weapon in the arsenal of those who want to make people feel good about themselves, their lives and the world, in general. Not so Lasch: "...the spiritual discipline against self-righteousness is the very essence of religion... (anyone with) a proper understanding of religion... (would not regard it as) a source of intellectual and emotional security (but as) ...a challenge to complacency and pride." There is no hope or consolation even in religion. It is good only for the purposes of social engineering. 14 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity The New Radicalism in America In this particular respect, Lasch has undergone a major transformation. In "The New Radicalism in America" (1965), he decried religion as a source of obfuscation. "The religious roots of the progressive doctrine" he wrote were the source of "its main weakness". These roots fostered an antiintellectual willingness to use education "as a means of social control" rather than as a basis for enlightenment. The solution was to blend Marxism and the analytic method of Psychoanalysis (very much as Herbert Marcuse has done q.v. "Eros and Civilization" and "One Dimensional Man"). In an earlier work ("American Liberals and the Russian Revolution", 1962) he criticized liberalism for seeking "painless progress towards the celestial city of consumerism". He questioned the assumption that "men and women wish only to enjoy life with minimum effort". The liberal illusions about the Revolution were based on a theological misconception. Communism remained irresistible for "as long as they clung to the dream of an earthly paradise from which doubt was forever banished". In 1973, a mere decade later, the tone is different ("The World of Nations", 1973). The assimilation of the Mormons, he says, was "achieved by sacrificing whatever features of their doctrine or ritual were demanding or difficult... (like) the conception of a secular community organized in accordance with religious principles". The wheel turned a full cycle in 1991 ("The True and Only Heaven: Progress and its Critics"). The petite bourgeois at least are "unlikely to mistake the promised land of progress for the true and only heaven". In "Heaven in a Heartless world" (1977) Lasch criticized the "substitution of medical and psychiatric authority for the authority of parents, priests and lawgivers". The Progressives, he complained, identify social control with freedom. It is the traditional family not the socialist revolution which provides the best hope to arrest "new forms of domination". There is latent strength in the family and in its "old fashioned middle class morality". Thus, the decline of the family institution meant the decline of romantic love (!?) and of "transcendent ideas in general", a typical Laschian leap of logic. 15 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity Even art and religion ("The Culture of Narcissism", 1979), "historically the great emancipators from the prison of the Self... even sex... (lost) the power to provide an imaginative release". It was Schopenhauer who wrote that art is a liberating force, delivering us from our miserable, decrepit, dilapidated Selves and transforming our conditions of existence. Lasch forever a melancholy adopted this view enthusiastically. He supported the suicidal pessimism of Schopenhauer. But he was also wrong. Never before was there an art form more liberating than the cinema, THE art of illusion. The Internet introduced a transcendental dimension into the lives of all its users. Why is it that transcendental entities must be white-bearded, paternal and authoritarian? What is less transcendental in the Global Village, in the Information Highway or, for that matter, in Steven Spielberg? The Left, thundered Lasch, had "chosen the wrong side in the cultural warfare between 'Middle America' and the educated or half educated classes, which have absorbed avant-garde ideas only to put them at the service of consumer capitalism". In "The Minimal Self" (1984) the insights of traditional religion remained vital as opposed to the waning moral and intellectual authority of Marx, Freud and the like. The meaningfulness of mere survival is questioned: "Self affirmation remains a possibility precisely to the degree that an older conception of personality, rooted in Judeo-Christian traditions, has persisted alongside a behavioral or therapeutic conception". "Democratic Renewal" will be made possible through this mode of selfaffirmation. The world was rendered meaningless by experiences such as Auschwitz, a "survival ethic" was the unwelcome result. But, to Lasch, Auschwitz offered "the need for a renewal of religious faith... for collective commitment to decent social conditions... (the survivors) found strength in the revealed word of an absolute, objective and omnipotent creator... not in personal 'values' meaningful only to themselves". One can't help being fascinated by the total disregard for facts displayed by Lasch, flying in the face of logotherapy and the writings of Victor Frankel, the Auschwitz survivor. "In the history of civilization... vindictive gods give way to gods who show mercy as well and uphold the morality of loving your enemy. Such a morality has never achieved anything like general popularity, but it lives on, even in our own, enlightened age, as a reminder both of our fallen state and of our surprising capacity 16 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity for gratitude, remorse and forgiveness by means of which we now and then transcend it." He goes on to criticize the kind of "progress" whose culmination is a "vision of men and women released from outward constraints". Endorsing the legacies of Jonathan Edwards, Orestes Brownson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Carlyle, William James, Reinhold Niebuhr and, above all, Martin Luther King, he postulated an alternative tradition, "The Heroic Conception of Life" (an admixture of Brownson's Catholic Radicalism and early republican lore): "...a suspicion that life was not worth living unless it was lived with ardour, energy and devotion". A truly democratic society will incorporate diversity and a shared commitment to it but not as a goal unto itself. Rather as means to a "demanding, morally elevating standard of conduct". In sum: "Political pressure for a more equitable distribution of wealth can come only from movements fired with religious purpose and a lofty conception of life". The alternative, progressive optimism, cannot withstand adversity: "The disposition properly described as hope, trust or wonder... three names for the same state of heart and mind asserts the goodness of life in the face of its limits. It cannot be deflated by adversity". This disposition is brought about by religious ideas (which the Progressives discarded): "The power and majesty of the sovereign creator of life, the inescapability of evil in the form of natural limits on human freedom, the sinfulness of man's rebellion against those limits; the moral value of work which once signifies man's submission to necessity and enables him to transcend it..." Martin Luther King was a great man because "(He) also spoke the language of his own people (in addition to addressing the whole nation SV), which incorporated their experience of hardship and exploitation, yet affirmed the rightness of a world full of unmerited hardship... (he drew strength from) a popular religious tradition whose mixture of hope and fatalism was quite alien to liberalism". Lasch said that this was the First deadly Sin of the civil rights movement. It insisted that racial issues be tackled "with arguments drawn from modern sociology and from the scientific refutation of social porejudice" and not on moral (read: religious) grounds. 17 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity So, what is left to provide us with guidance? Opinion polls. Lasch failed to explain to us why he demonized this particular phenomenon. Polls are mirrors and the conduct of polls is an indication that the public (whose opinion is polled) is trying to get to know itself better. Polls are an attempt at quantified, statistical self-awareness (nor are they a modern phenomenon). Lasch should have been happy: at last proof that Americans adopted his views and decided to know themselves. To have criticized this particular instrument of "know thyself" implied that Lasch believed that he had privileged access to more information of superior quality or that he believed that his observations tower over the opinions of thousands of respondents and carry more weight. A trained observer would never have succumbed to such vanity. There is a fine line between vanity and oppression, fanaticism and the grief that is inflicted upon those that are subjected to it. Conclusion This is Lasch's greatest error: there is an abyss between narcissism and self love, being interested in oneself and being obsessively preoccupied with oneself. Lasch confuses the two. The price of progress is growing self-awareness and with it growing pains and the pains of growing up. It is not a loss of meaning and hope it is just that pain has a tendency to push everything to the background. Those are constructive pains, signs of adjustment and adaptation, of evolution. America has no inflated, megalomaniac, grandiose ego. It never built an overseas empire, it is made of dozens of ethnic immigrant groups, it strives to learn, to emulate. Americans do not lack empathy they are the foremost nation of volunteers and also professes the biggest number of (tax deductible) donation makers. Americans are not exploitative they are hard workers, fair players, Adam Smith-ian egoists. They believe in Live and Let Live. They are individualists and they believe that the individual is the source of all authority and the universal yardstick and benchmark. This is a positive philosophy. Granted, it led to inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth. But then other ideologies had much worse outcomes. Luckily, they were defeated by the human spirit, the best manifestation of which is still democratic capitalism. The clinical term "Narcissism" was abused by Lasch in his books. It joined other words mistreated by this social preacher. The respect that this man gained in his lifetime (as a social scientist and historian of culture) makes one wonder whether he was right in criticizing the shallowness and lack of intellectual rigor of American society and of its elites. References 18 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity Bloom, A. (2008). Closing of the American mind. Simon and Schuster. BRADY, J. (2019). CHAPTER THREE ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF BEING IN LA MUJER LOCA BY JUAN JOSÉ MILLÁS: HOW LANGUAGE SEEKS TO NORMALIZE ILIVING AT THE LIMITS. Disability in Spanish-speaking and US Chicano Contexts: Critical and Artistic Perspectives, 46. Braun, J. (2019). The Present Relevance of Christopher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism for Studying the Sociology of Morality. The American Sociologist, 1-16. Dewi, E. W., Nurkamto, J., & Drajati, N. A. (2019). EXPLORING PEER-ASSESSMENT PRACTICE IN GRADUATE STUDENTS'ACADEMIC WRITING. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 22(1), 58-65. Dickhaus, J., Brown, K. A., Ferrucci, P., & Anderson, M. L. (2019). AND THE AWARD GOES TO: EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF THE" TROPHY CULTURE" ON MILLENNIALS. Journal of Contemporary Athletics, 13(1), 39-51. Habibi, H. (2018). PROTECTING NATIONAL IDENTITY BASED ON THE VALUE OF NATION LOCAL WISDOM. International Journal of Malay-Nusantara Studies, 1(2), 24-40. Hall, S. (1985). Signification, representation, ideology: Althusser and the post‐structuralist debates. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 2(2), 91-114. Jackson, J. (2019). Sociality and Magical Language. Language and Psychoanalysis, 8(1), 83-97. King, M. L. (2014). The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume VII: To Save the Soul of America, January 1961 August 1962 (Vol. 7). Univ of California Press. Lasch, C. (1980). The culture of narcissism. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 44(5), 426. Lasch, C. (2018). The culture of narcissism: American life in an age of diminishing expectations. WW Norton & Company. Lasch, C. (1996). The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy. WW Norton & Company. Lasch, C. (1991). The True and Only Heaven (New York and London. Lasch, C. (1985). The minimal self: Psychic survival in troubled times. WW Norton & Company. Lasch, C. (1997). The new radicalism in America, 1889-1963: The intellectual as a social type. WW Norton & Company. SETYABUDI, S. S. P. (2019). NARCISSISTIC TRAITS AS PORTRAYED IN THE CHARACTER OF RAVENNA IN SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (Doctoral dissertation, Diponegoro University). Vaknin, S. (2019). Narcissism, Shame, Happiness. EC Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 242-245. Wildavsky, A. (2018). The revolt against the masses: And other essays on politics and public policy. Routledge. 19 | The Culture of Narcissism: Cultural Dilemmas, Language Confusion and The Formation of Social Identity y Gasset, J. O., & Marías, J. (1983). La rebelión de las masas. Orbis.