Integration and Adaptation, Subjects and Objects
| Integration with one's context, as distinguished from adaptation, is a distinctively human activity. Integration results from the capacity to adapt oneself to reality, plus the critical capacity to make choices and transform that reality. To the extent that man loses his ability to make choices and is subjected to the choices of others, to the extent that his decisions are no longer his own because they result from external prescriptions, he is no longer integrated. Rather, he has adapted. He has "adjusted." The integrated person is person as Subject. In contrast, the adaptive person is person as object, adaptation representing at most a weak form of self-defense. If man is incapable of changing reality, he adjusts himself instead. Adaptation is behavior characteristic of the animal sphere; exhibited by man, it is symptomatic of his dehumanization. Throughout history men have attempted to overcome the factors which make them accommodate or adjust, in a struggle -- constantly threatened by oppression -- to attain their full humanity. |
| Education as the Practice of Freedom, Paulo Freire, 1965 |
I first encountered these when I was in college, almost thirty-five years ago. They were unexpectedly rekindled when I happened upon The 8th Habit (see previous posts).
The struggle for wholeness and integration continues, now also in places from which prescriptions poured when Freire wrote. We must move, as he wrote "into dialogue with others whose historical "vocation" is to become transforming agents of their social reality."
Posted by David Eggleton at 3/4/2010 11:37 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: human prescribe reality object choice dehumanize transform animal critical adapt adjust subject integrate
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: human prescribe reality object choice dehumanize transform animal critical adapt adjust subject integrate
Perhaps we are own enemy in a sense that we have attracted the present situation which we need to adapt till we have learned the lessons which make us able to integrate. I believe the verb "to integrate" has much to do with integrity. We need much integrity to be able to integrate. History is the witness that people with much integrity has been to integrate and cause much positive change. Corruption in all sense weakens us in put us in a state of adaptation while integrity empowers us and help us to integrate our society. What I said has much to do with the type of action that we have done, that is KARMA.
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David- I saw a recent comment by you on Chris Martenson's site. Have you run across the Great Transition Initiative? I've been involved with researching sustainable development on and off for almost 16 years and so far it's the best theory I've come across. They discuss the push and pull of a New Paradigm. I must admit that I am attracted by the pull of a more sane world and have spent most of my time attempting to design an organization that can help build a more sustainable system. I would be interested in your response to the Great Transition Initiative. Matt
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Appreaciate for the work you have put into this post, this helps clear up some questions I had.
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