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John
Shea OSA professor of Pastoral Psychology, points out in his writings
that: “Spirituality is a developmental reality and it comes
into its fullness in adulthood.” In this he refers not simply
to the attainment of years lived, but to the actuality of adult
living. “Spirituality can be defined as: that which gives
meaning to life and allows us to participate in the larger
whole…..in all of this it depends on adult functioning.” No
matter how lofty its focus, spirituality is not something
“other” than the human or “transcending” the human, or
“added on” to the human. It is a fully human phenomenon.
Erik
Erikson’s theory of development gives us a helpful framework
to understand some aspects of what human and spiritual
development looks like. For what Erikson is saying about human
development is also applicable in regard to ones relationship
with God. Erikson emphasises that the self evolves through
stages. The first five stages help us to come to some sense of
personal identity , the last three are about the flowering of
that identity. As one negotiates through these stages, the
personality develops capacities necessary for the next phase of
growth.
Stage
1 (Trust v Mistrust)
Trust
is at the centre of our relationship with God and it is also our
earliest human experience. The experience of the infant with
their parent or care-giver is the symbol of that relationship of
trust….everything depends on it….life itself is linked to
it. The trust is seen to develop when the child lets the mother
out of sight without undue anxiety or rage, because now she has
become an inner certainty as well as an outer predictability. When we observe the child gazing into the eyes of a parent
there is something of a “hallowed presence” in it. This
caring presence has something of the God relationship about it.
Stage
2 (Autonomy v Shame)
We
believe that God greatly respects individual freedom. If
autonomy means we learn to develop our own “I am”
then its our own “I am” that relates to the “I
am” of God. It is
based on trust but also freedom
If this freedom and trust are experienced within the
relationship with the parents…. where they don’t overwhelm
but respect the emerging person, then this too reflects
something of our sacred relationship with God. On the other hand
too much shaming does not lead to genuine propriety but to a
secret determination to try to get away with things.
A
God who waits and respects is reflected in the ebb and flow of a
healthy relationship between child and parent.
Stage
3 (Initiative v Guilt)
Erickson
writes about this stage: “There is in every child at every
stage a new miracle of vigorous unfolding…….the child
suddenly seems to “grow together” both in his person and in
his body. He is in free possession of a surplus of energy which
permits him to forget failures quickly and to approach what
seems desirable. The child develops the ability to take simple
initiatives and is less focused on acts of
self-will and defiance.
On
the other hand the images of God are typically “superego”
images….so it’s often a God of guilt. Erikson calls it the
psychopathology of Religion, it’s the sick religion….and it
stays for a long long time…with excessive punishing, rule
making, enforcing. For many people they never get beyond it.
Many people today who reject Religion are rejecting the Superego
version of God.
The
adolescing self is in a state of dependency on the experiencing
of others until such time as it can fully rely on its own
experiencing. Part of this dependency lies in the fact that
fixed or “prearranged”
understandings of reality come from those whom the
adolescing self loves and from whom it needs love in return, and
part of this dependency lies also in the fact that this self’s
own judgement and reflective capacities are still coming to
maturity. Of course there is always the danger that we can get
stuck at this stage and continue through the life cycle in a
state of dependency which becomes more and more inappropriate as
the years go on.
Stage
4 (Industry v Inferiority)
This
inner stage seems all set for “entrance into life,” except
that life must first be school life, whether school is field or
jungle or classroom. The child must forget past hopes and
wishes, while his exuberant imagination is tamed and harnessed
to the laws of impersonal things. He now learns to win
recognition by producing things.
Thus
the fundamentals of technology are developed as the child
becomes ready to handle the utensils , the tools and the weapons
used by the big people.
Alongside
all this learning for life we learn about the God of Religion.
We learn all the things the culture says about God. This is the
time for Religious education. It’s also time to learn about
the cultural superego.
Stage
5 (Identity v Role Confusion)
The
growing and developing youth faced with the revolution happening
to their body and mind and with tangible adult tasks ahead of
them are now primarily concerned with what they appear to be in
the eyes of others as compared with what they feel they are.
The
religious task is to find my God. It has to be a God in harmony with the self. It needs to
have mutuality. In a sense we all have a need to have a
different God….this speaks to us of the “vastness of God.”
Maybe it has something to do with the personal God having
a different personality to each individual. Much in the same way
we experience our parents. We experience the same parents in
different ways…equally we experience God differently. All have
something of the truth yet each is unique for each person.
Stage
6 (Intimacy v Isolation)
Based
on ‘fidelity’ to our identified values and self image is the
emerging adult capacity for practical ‘commitment.’ The
level of satisfaction we find in our work is a fair measure of
correspondence to our achieved identity and values. Thus we may
enjoy achieving order and efficiency in administration,
perceiving benefit to our clients in caring, education and
service occupations, nurturing growth in plants or animals, or
using our physical strength and mechanical skills to produce
tangible and concrete satisfactions in building, manufacturing
and maintenance industries.
Alternatively,
we may have identified with values of personal power, money and
material comfort and status, in which case we might commit
ourselves to achieving a position of power, or the highest bank
balance we can in the shortest possible time, by whatever means
we find available and acceptable to us.
Emotional
residues from earlier stages may have shaped a self image
characterized by withdrawal, compulsion, inhibition or
inferiority and these can lead to isolation and a shrinking from
intimacy. Our
initial sense of separateness and worthwileness, and a capacity
to relate co-operatively may have to be reworked before progress
toward a favourable ratio of intimacy and isolation can begin.
Stage
7 (Generativity v Stagnation)
Somewhere
around the mid or later twenties we progress into what Erikson
describes as ‘Adulthood.’ Our effectiveness and
responsibilities increase. Our capacity to balance our
inclinations for intimacy and isolation will have shaped our
relationships.
We
will now look at how the ‘love’ of young
adulthood becomes the ‘care’ of adulthood.
Whether
or not we have our own children as part of our generativity, we
form what Erikson called the’ generational link’, passing on
to the next generation our accomplishments, our failures and our
example. He points out that as we try to fulfil this
responsibility, we need every one of the strengths arising from
our development in earlier stages: hope and will, purpose and
skill, fidelity and love.
However
where generativity becomes inactivated a sense of stagnation
either provides respite for renewal of inspiration and energy,
or may overwhelm those whose generative outlets are frustrated
or non-functional. Pathology creeps in when our perception
becomes bent in the service of justifying our refusal to take
care, and our attitudes harden into rejection, even aggression.
We are then in a position to condemn their differences from
ourselves and to ignore their human potential for development
and independent generative living.
In
summary: ‘care is
an enduring concern for what has been generated by
love’………this becomes a sound pastoral mission statement.
There is no reason to justify the person who needs care ….we
just care because the person needs the care.
Stage
8 (Integrity v Despair)
In
this final stage Erikson discussed the task of ego development
as that of forming a favourable ratio between ’integrity’
and ‘despair’, forging out of our experience the quality of
‘wisdom’, and defeating the pathologies of too much
‘disgust’ and ‘disdain’.
This
is a time to accept life as it is. This is what it is and in a
sense this is what it had to be…..that is acceptance. In this
there is a lot of forgiveness that has to happen, of self and
others
As
middle years become later years, Erikson said, we have an
increasing need for a philosophy that can encompass losses and
despair, and maintain for us the qualities of hope, trust and
faith in the face of bereavement and our own now apparent
mortality and approaching death.
Erikson
writes: Only in him who in some way has taken care of things and
people and has adapted himself to the triumphs and
disappointments adherent to being, the originator of others or
the generator of products and ideas-only in him may gradually
ripen the fruit of these seven stages. I know no better word for
it than ego integrity.
Through
our reflection on Erikson’s stages we can see something of the
challenges and invitations that confront us at each stage of the
life cycle. In the spiritual journey toward self knowledge each
of us is challenged to grow into a full human being…the
responsibility for this of course is ours not anyone else’s. This
journey can be seen as a sacred quest, since we are sacred
beings. The quest moves away from the notion that our relating
to God is somewhat static, instead it is seen as developing as
we ourselves develop and mature. It invites us to recognise the
tremendous power of the “Superego God” and invites us to
grow out of that, and experience the liberation of the God of
Life. This image or experience of God is “unfettered”
unbound and no longer embedded in elements of fantasy, and
distortion. This “unfettered” imaging of God and reality
according to O’Shea is always unique fully authored and owned
by the adult self.
I’ll
finish this brief reflection with the words of Michael Downey
American editor of Spirituality and editor of the New Dictionary
of Catholic Spirituality.
“Since
Christian Spirituality is not just a dimension of the Christian
Life , but is the Christian Life itself lived in and through the
presence and power of the Holy Spirit. It concerns absolutely
every dimension of life, mind and body, intimacy and sexuality,
work and leisure, economic accountability and political
responsibility, domestic life and civic duty, the rising costs
of health care and the plight of the poor and wounded both at
home and abroad. Absolutely every dimension of life is to be
integrated and transformed by the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit.
Sources
for this paper include:
Erikson
E. H. (1964) Insight and
responsibility. New York: Norton.
Erikson
E. H. (1968) Identity
Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton.
Shea
J. (2004) Adulthood a
missing perspective. American Journal of Pastoral
Counselling
Shea
J. (1995) The Superego God
Pastoral Psychology Vol. 43 No. 5.
Shea
J. (2003) The Adult Self:
Process and Paradox Journal of Adult Development Vol. 10,
No. 1.
Shea
J. (1995) The God Beyond
Pastoral Psychology. Vol. 43, No. 6.
Downey
M. (1997) Understanding
Christian Spirituality New York. Paulist Press
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