Hi this is such an insightful and amazing blog. Not type related but about ego development For people that are stuck at the lower levels of ego development (levels 1-3), what are some recommendations that you have for them to be able to reach the higher levels of ego development (levels 5-7)? In your opinion, what are some indicators that someone has reached high levels of ego development (level 5-7)? How do these people tend to communicate and behave?
Most of this is already covered in the Type Development Guide, please read it. Different theorists have emphasized somewhat different aspects of ego development in their studies, e.g., some focus on the cognitive component, the emotional component, or the moral component. IMO, ego development is mainly about the degree to which you know who you really are. The lower the ego dev level, the more distorted the self-concept; the higher the level, the deeper the self-insight you are capable of. Thus, what differentiates people at different levels is how much self-awareness they’ve nurtured. I’ve already mentioned in the supplementary notes that moving from level to level requires learning important lessons, as brought about by your personal challenges in life.
People who are stuck at lower levels are primarily motivated by fear, in one form or another. Fears are often aligned with personality type, especially with respect to the cognitive functions that remain very poorly developed. Whatever form your fear happens to take, 1) the first step is to become aware of the fear and be honest in acknowledging how it holds you back in life, and then 2) you need to find a way to face up to it and overcome it.
Most people remain stuck because the act of defending against that which they fear brings a sense of control, safety, and/or familiarity, whereas confronting fear involves taking risks and encountering setbacks/failures, thus, it always seems more “rational” to side with fear as you convince yourself that growth is unnecessary. This mindset of clinging to the psychological known and avoiding the unknown disincentivizes growth, since most, if not all, of your mental energy is spent on constantly countering perceived “threats”. In essence, most people are not aware of living in a state of constant fear because it is their “normal” or “default” mode, and irrational defensiveness is the behavioral manifestation. Defense mechanisms are the windows into your unconscious fears.
Once a person starts to become aware of deep-seated fears, they may try to push them away, which easily leads to chronic denial and even self-violence. Some people approach personal “development” in a violent way, trying to “slay their demons” so to speak. Perhaps they hate being afraid, hate themselves for being weak, or even hate others for making them feel bad. This negative, critical, or accusatory mindset actually indicates that they are fully in the grip of their fear - they now compound the problem by fearing their fear - and everything they do merely feeds into an endless cycle of fear and loathing. Every time they try to slay the fear, it comes roaring back worse than before.
You cannot overcome fear by trying to eliminate it. Negative emotions are meant to motivate self-protective behavior, i.e., they serve a vital psychological purpose. People who have no awareness of their negative emotions always succumb to them immediately, i.e., they blindly “obey” the emotion and automatically activate defensive behavioral patterns (aka survival mode). People who have some awareness of negative emotions but try to deny or “eliminate” them are disrupting the emotional system from doing its job of self-protection, which forces the emotions to try harder, hence, they end up feeling worse and worse over time. To distance from emotional life is to gradually LOSE self-awareness, which is directly counter-productive to ego development.
To overcome fear, you cannot just reflexively obey it or deny it, rather, you must LISTEN mindfully and understand where it is coming from - this attentiveness opens up the capacity for self-compassion. Just as you would soothe a child who is frightened by an unforgettable nightmare, you should attend to your fears with acceptance and kindness. When you are capable of feeling compassion for your own fear and fragility, you open up mental space to CHOOSE whether to obey the fear (when you see that self-protection is actually needed) or put it aside (when you see that fear is actually unwarranted) - having this depth of self-awareness allows for genuinely rational decision making.
Attention is love. Once you are able to give yourself the attention that you deserve, you learn to look upon yourself with love and care, then there is no need to project your fears out into the world at large, and you can finally drop the defensive, egocentric mindset. Imagine how much mental energy you’d have then. And why wouldn’t you use that energy for positive growth, since the negative is no longer influencing your every move?
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