The Evolving Self

Rating:
Summary: Ego Development (a la Piaget) from Infancy through adulthood
Review: A challenging comprehensive look at human development through the lense of "meaning making" which Kegan asserts is the fundamental human activity. Not interested in developing the five (six if you count the birth stage) stages so much as describing the dynamic of forming (and dissolving) the negotiated "truces" between the need for inclusion (assimilation) and the need for differentiation. On this point, Kegan includes the feminist concern that most developmental research has been done on male subjects (who tend to test out on the differentiation end of what Kegan believes is a continuum) and includes the notion of assimilation in his dynamic helix (the paperback cover drawing is enormously descriptive of the text inside). Kegan is interested in the person who is doing the meaning making and his theory has enormous applicability in the therapeutic project: we are helping a human person whose ability to make meaning of their lives is temporarily in crisis (often because of the very proces of meaning making itself). One should expect this type of crisis because meaning making by its very nature is a process in evolution: various "made meanings" contain within themselves the components of an as yet unrevealed meaning that will come about in the future. When it begins to emerge the human experience will be one of loss of meaning in the service of the new meaning that is to be made. Wonderful, reverential treatment of the subject as meaning maker. Challenging to therapists to maintain their human touch and not pathologize the client by thinking that the present crisis is regression; rather the present crisis is an instance of the attempt to make meaning. Book is difficult to read because the thought is so condensed and well worked out and because the vision of the author challenges the reader's own made meaning. Tod S. Laverty, OFM, MS. [e-mail] for further thoughts on this or author's other book In Over Our Heads (reviewed elsewhere on the web).

Rating:
Summary: a student of counseling
Review: A challenging comprehensive look at human development through the lense of "meaning making" which Kegan asserts is the fundamental human activity. Not interested in developing the five (six if you count the birth stage) stages so much as describing the dynamic of forming (and dissolving) the negotiated "truces" between the need for inclusion (assimilation) and the need for differentiation. On this point, Kegan includes the feminist concern that most developmental research has been done on male subjects (who tend to test out on the differentiation end of what Kegan believes is a continuum) and includes the notion of assimilation in his dynamic helix (the paperback cover drawing is enormously descriptive of the text inside). Kegan is interested in the person who is doing the meaning making and his theory has enormous applicability in the therapeutic project: we are helping a human person whose ability to make meaning of their lives is temporarily in crisis (often because of the very proces of meaning making itself). One should expect this type of crisis because meaning making by its very nature is a process in evolution: various "made meanings" contain within themselves the components of an as yet unrevealed meaning that will come about in the future. When it begins to emerge the human experience will be one of loss of meaning in the service of the new meaning that is to be made. Wonderful, reverential treatment of the subject as meaning maker. Challenging to therapists to maintain their human touch and not pathologize the client by thinking that the present crisis is regression; rather the present crisis is an instance of the attempt to make meaning. Book is difficult to read because the thought is so condensed and well worked out and because the vision of the author challenges the reader's own made meaning. Tod S. Laverty, OFM, MS. [e-mail] for further thoughts on this or author's other book In Over Our Heads (reviewed elsewhere on the web).

Rating:
Summary: Ego Development (a la Piaget) from Infancy through adulthood
Review: A challenging comprehensive look at human development through the lense of "meaning making" which Kegan asserts is the fundamental human activity. Not interested in developing the five (six if you count the birth stage) stages so much as describing the dynamic of forming (and dissolving) the negotiated "truces" between the need for inclusion (assimilation) and the need for differentiation. On this point, Kegan includes the feminist concern that most developmental research has been done on male subjects (who tend to test out on the differentiation end of what Kegan believes is a continuum) and includes the notion of assimilation in his dynamic helix (the paperback cover drawing is enormously descriptive of the text inside). Kegan is interested in the person who is doing the meaning making and his theory has enormous applicability in the therapeutic project: we are helping a human person whose ability to make meaning of their lives is temporarily in crisis (often because of the very proces of meaning making itself). One should expect this type of crisis because meaning making by its very nature is a process in evolution: various "made meanings" contain within themselves the components of an as yet unrevealed meaning that will come about in the future. When it begins to emerge the human experience will be one of loss of meaning in the service of the new meaning that is to be made. Wonderful, reverential treatment of the subject as meaning maker. Challenging to therapists to maintain their human touch and not pathologize the client by thinking that the present crisis is regression; rather the present crisis is an instance of the attempt to make meaning. Book is difficult to read because the thought is so condensed and well worked out and because the vision of the author challenges the reader's own made meaning. Tod S. Laverty, OFM, MS. [e-mail] for further thoughts on this or author's other book In Over Our Heads (reviewed elsewhere on the web).

Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE ABSOLUTE BESTS EVER
Review: Comprehensive, Brilliant, highly Creative and introduces a vocabulary for human development that plugs into so many important theoretical and practictical domains. A year before this book came out, Ken Wibler wrote "The Atman Project" which articulates a very similiar vision from a slightly different angel.

Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE ABSOLUTE BESTS EVER
Review: Comprehensive, Brilliant, highly Creative and introduces a vocabulary for human development that plugs into so many important theoretical and practictical domains. A year before this book came out, Ken Wibler wrote "The Atman Project" which articulates a very similiar vision from a slightly different angel.

Rating:
Summary: A Developmental Masterpiece
Review: The Evolving Self is one of the best books that I have ever read. Kegan's eloquent presentation of the dynamic process of human consciousness evolution is incredible. Kegan presents the very best of developmental theory, while at the same time acknowledging and avoiding the trappings that such a perspective tends to fall into. Developmental theory can often lead to a very compartmentalized view of people, but Kegan's emphasis on the person as a meaning-making process sidesteps these tendencies. Throughout his writings, I felt an incredible empathy with the undercurrent of evolution sliding under all personality. Rather than using his model to categorize myself and those around me (as I have an unfortunate inclination to do with developmental theory) I instead found myself identifying with the universal forces that run through all human beings which express themselves in and as the developmental stages. This might perhaps seem like an unimportant semantic shift, but in actuality it discloses a monumental difference between these two stances. This is true precisely because my ability to help another is proportional to the degree to which I can identify with them and their struggles. The warmth of this genuinely empathetic approach to psychological development is refreshing and liberating.

Rating:
Summary: A Developmental Masterpiece
Review: The Evolving Self is one of the best books that I have ever read. Kegan's eloquent presentation of the dynamic process of human consciousness evolution is incredible. Kegan presents the very best of developmental theory, while at the same time acknowledging and avoiding the trappings that such a perspective tends to fall into. Developmental theory can often lead to a very compartmentalized view of people, but Kegan's emphasis on the person as a meaning-making process sidesteps these tendencies. Throughout his writings, I felt an incredible empathy with the undercurrent of evolution sliding under all personality. Rather than using his model to categorize myself and those around me (as I have an unfortunate inclination to do with developmental theory) I instead found myself identifying with the universal forces that run through all human beings which express themselves in and as the developmental stages. This might perhaps seem like an unimportant semantic shift, but in actuality it discloses a monumental difference between these two stances. This is true precisely because my ability to help another is proportional to the degree to which I can identify with them and their struggles. The warmth of this genuinely empathetic approach to psychological development is refreshing and liberating.

Rating:
Summary: a student of counseling
Review: this is one of the very best books i've read on the topic of human developement. after reading keegan i strongly recomend reading ken wilber