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Burning Desire to Change the World - Part I
Posted by Joseph Riggio on Saturday, September 02, 2006Sometimes a little “understanding” can go a long way ... beginning to “get” how people are organized in relation to what drives the to act the way they do can open up an whole new world of possibilities ... especially when you are that “someone” ...
Good Morning ...
For a few days in sequence now I've been sharing my thoughts on values sets and specifically those coming out of the Graves Model ... and I've even introduced Dr. Clelland's model of "Power - Achievement - Affiliation" - overlaying it with the transitions in the Graves Model evolution through the levels.
One of the things I believe about Dr. Graves' model has consistently been that we in the most developed countries in the world ... e.g.: most of Europe, U.S.A., Canada, Japan ... live extremely privileged lives that propel us into the later levels of the Graves Model ... specifically, what Dr. Graves refers to as Fives and Sixes. Remember these are values sets that represent clusters of beliefs ... and they remain highly mutable, especially with regard to regression to the earlier clusters of beliefs in the evolutionary structure of values described by Dr. Graves.
Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of folks around who are centered in the Graves Model as Fours and even Threes in our midst, and more so in less developed countries in the world. But, I'd say that the majority of folks living in the developed, modern societies we share are operating from the Five or Six levels of the Graves Model, or possibly transitioning somewhere between the two.
For instance, thinking about the world and the events in it as a fundamental set of rules connected to a "higher order" or "higher power" would be clearly associated with Fours in the Graves Model. This position can be associated with fundamentalist religions, law enforcement, and most political forms we are used to seeing - and people who tend to think about the world through these filters, e.g.: right and wrong/black and white/liberal and conservative.
By comparison thinking about the world and the events in it as a place to express your "individuality" in the service of "progress" ... what has come be be referred to as the way of the Western World would be a classic Five position in the Graves Model. Grave's Fives tend to align themselves with the developments of science and commerce, areas where the individual can excel and stand out from the crowd.
Sixes in the meantime think about the world and the events in it as more interconnected and affecting the group, the community, the society or even the world at large. They seek ways to "collaborate," "connect" and "network" all to the "greater good" - especially the group(s) to which they and others like themselves belong. A good example of this thinking could be the whole New Age movement.
Dr. Graves makes an obvious and critical distinction within the Graves Model ... this model describes a way people tend to "think about things" based on the "values" they hold - not a system to type people.
This clearly distinguishes the Graves Model from other models which are actually "typologies." As opposed to a "typology" Dr. Graves presented a model of values sets which people could operate from within that would cause them to perceive the world and the events in it in particular ways ... giving rise to particular meanings about the world and the events in it for them.
Essentially, we could say that people who operate from the center of the Five values set will perceive the world and the events in it as opportunities to excel and succeed as individuals first and foremost. Those operating from a Six values set will perceive the world and the events in it as opportunities to collaborate and build community for the greater good based on how they believe things should be.
I've pointed out how this shows up in varying ways ... as well as the consequences of holding specific value sets, both good and bad ... in my various posts here on BlogNostra. I've specifically addressed some of the consequences of operating from the Five, Five/Six and Six value sets positions. Yet there are additional levels that Dr. Graves described in his model. He gave rather complete descriptions of what Sevens and Eights might be like.
However among the things I always keep in mind when I'm thinking about the Graves Model includes the idea that this model describes "an evolution of values" NOT a "typology of personality." This means that we evolve through the levels not skip or jump levels. Taken further it also means we are moving through this model from one stage of evolution to another and this includes transitory movement between levels.
Following this logic we can assume there are points in the process of evolution which would be best described as a Five/Six or Six/Seven position, rather than a Five, Six or Seven position. Most of my clients are actually experiencing a movement between value sets, which give rise to challenges of letting go of their old "cherished beliefs" to make room for new beliefs giving rise to new values.
Only when the old beliefs are loosened, and not seen as absolute, does space become available in the individual to incorporate new beliefs that give rise to new forms of thinking ... ultimately this gives rise to a new way of being ... a new "onotology."
From this premise I consider my work to be operating from within an ontological model. I work with my clients on helping them in letting go of old beliefs that have become for them limiting, establishing and stabilizing a new set of beliefs that allows them to evolve and transform, and working with them to integrate the new beliefs they now hold into the way they function and create outcome on their own and with others ... building a more integral way of being and operating in the world.
When you've found a way to let go of old limiting beliefs what had before been impossible suddenly becomes not only possible it also and more significantly becomes available to you ... and through you to those around you as well.
[NOTE: Tomorrow ... the transition from Graves Six to Graves Seven ...]
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Princeton, NJ
PS - Are you interested in coming to know yourself beyond the things you do - and as a result become wildly better at doing those things as well?
Sometimes the most challenging thing we must learn to transcend can be our long-term "success strategies" ... the way we've always gone about being successful and generating our outcomes. Of course these strategies have gotten us this far ... and maybe they are no longer appropriate for where we are ... or more importantly for where we want to be going.
Think about it this way - these strategies have gotten you this far ... and cannot get you any further ... they're just not designed to take you all the way. The challenge for most folks has two aspects:
One thing you want to know: YOU CAN BE EXPECTED TO KNOW WHAT YOUR LIMITING STRATEGIES ARE ... YOU'VE NEVER BEEN SPECIFICALLY TAUGHT HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM ... OR WHAT TO DO IN RELATION TO THEM ONCE YOU HAVE!
But ... you can learn exactly how to identify both the strategies that serve you well and the one's that limit you. Then you can learn how to eliminate those that limit you AND build new strategies that will serve you much, much better!
I urge you to consider the MythoSelf Process Advanced Program I'm running in Princeton, NJ this October. This program has consistently been one of our most well received programs by virtually everyone who's ever attended it:
" ... this program literally changed my life in three days ... the way I'll interact with people will be totally different from now on!" - Rita Koike, NY, NY.
Go ahead and take a look at the program description and get the details at: MythoSelf Process Advanced Program then go ahead and send in an application, if you still have any additional questions after you've read this drop me a line directly and I'll do my best to answer them: jsriggio@josephriggio ... (if you have any other questions for me personally go ahead and use this address to send me those as well).
You can consider this a personal invitation from me ... I look forward to seeing you in NJ ...
PPS - BTW don't worry about the word "Advanced" in the title of this program ... this program will be accessible and appropriate for everyone ... so far I've worked with pre-teens as young as twelve-years old and post-teens in their late 70's ... so come on along!.
(2) Comments • (1) Trackbacks • Permalink
Joseph,
First, thank you very much for this series of blogs, that keep us fascinated on a daily basis, and I can’t wait for tomorrow’s one!
My question is: how is the Graves Typology useful. I understand that it can be intellectually and scientifically intresting to study the evolution of values. (and again, I feel the fundamental bi - poles of values are constant through time, their expression changes through cultural shifts, bi polars like: individuality - community, altruism - greed, etc). So, how are the Graves levels to be used in encounters with life, with clients, etc. Why revert to these numbers when the total ontology of the person, in all its subtlety, complexity and fullness, is there available to me, any moment I want a wholeform, adumbrative experience of the person. And most especially so, with all the exquisite tools of the Mythogenic Self Process and Soma Semantics.
Agnes
Agnes,
OY! ... what a comment!
First, thank you for kind words ... as I’ve said, always a pleasure to get confirmation that someone else reads what I’m writing besides myself when I proof (very lightly) the text before hitting the “Send” button.
Reading my post of today I will give you a glimpse of where I think the “cultural evolution” we are currently experiencing is going. Essentially a movement out of Graves Six to a Graves Seven position. So I’ll leave that for later.
I’m going to answer the beginning of your question cursorily and address the question of the whole-form more specifically.
Why I perceive the Graves Model as significant has to do with how it describes the movement of culture. Cultural is the context that surrounds us ... it is the sea in which we swim ... and it is largely unknown to us, like water is to a fish in the sea. Anything that exposes this context ... creating some contrast which allows us to perceive it has value as far as I’m concerned.
I think the question you ask has more to do with how Dr. Graves’ model could be perceived as a typology of personality than as a descriptor of culture and the cultural lens we apply to the world. I actually spend most of my time in my most recent edition of my audio newsletter, UnconventionalAdvice, on the value of the Graves Model and how specifically to apply it. That took me forty-five minutes of speaking so I couldn’t possibly do it justice in the short reply to you here.
The next part of your question, about the “total ontology of the person” for me in no way conflicts with my interest in, valuing or using the Graves Model. You may have heard me quote Dr. Graves saying, “Damnit! ... Let people be!” in regard to what he said he thought of trying to evolve people. This model provides another filter to perceive the values that people hold ... and in my opinion, the likely responses and behaviors that will flow from holding that postion.
Of course the individual being who they are - their essential self rises about any particular value set they may be operating from - and that doesn’t dismiss the value of having tools available to “catch” the value set in play. The tools of the Mythogenic Self Process are for another use ... not specifically for calibrating, tracking and/or adumbrating the values people or entire societies operate from. Yet, within the overall model of the Mythogenic Self Process there is room for this tool set as well.
On two related notes ...
1. Getting how we are either master of or victims to the values we hold, as well as subject to the influence and affect of the values that others hold, gives learning more about this model of Dr. Graves great significance.
2. I would strongly recommend that anyone who has the kind of interest you are expressing here in learning more about the Graves Model in action take me up on my offer of a three-month trial subscription to my audio newsletter UnconventionalAdvice.
Finally, as you’ve probably already picked-up on my take of the Graves Model comes from a particularly unique perspective and maybe that’s the rub ... not “is it valuable” but “what would have to be true for this to be valuable” ... the question I constantly seek to answer about all the tools I include in my work.
Thanks for the comments and questions.
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
