Searching for glimmers of light

The events of 2021 have shaken many of us from our metaphoric treadmills and made us reflect on the direction of our lives. Many new phrases have joined our vocabulary, including hybrid working, non-fungible tokens and vaccine efficacy. However, none are as fitting as Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year, perseverance - defined as a continued effort to do or achieve something, even when this is difficult. While many of us long for a glimpse of the new normal, The Economist has suggested that it has already arrived - we are now living in a ‘new era of predictable unpredictability’.

We have questioned the notion of ‘work’ and what this could mean in our reimagined future. This includes where and how we work and establishing a meaningful purpose. McKinsey recently highlighted that our greatest hopes for 2022 are a better work-life balance and more day-to-day flexibility whilst maintaining community and connection with each other. For some, this has created a strong desire for change which has triggered the beginning of the ‘great resignation’.

Digitisation and automation have accelerated changes within the job market, with rapid expansions and contractions happening simultaneously across different sectors. We have seen widespread redundancies in parallel with talent shortages. It has never been more apparent that a contemporary skill set will be needed to thrive in the future, with ‘softer’ social, emotional and advanced cognitive skills being most sought after.

More of us have reflected on our health and the importance of taking care of ourselves and each other. Our mental health has been brought into sharper focus and how this is entwined with our physical health. For some, this has been a catalyst for change, with over half of us purchasing (and using) home workout equipment during the pandemic - many who did not regularly exercise before. Conversely, one in three of us have increased our alcohol intake - primarily to support worsened mental health.

Sadly, many of us have lost loved ones this year or have supported others who have been impacted by grief. This has led to us asking big existential questions - about what is truly important and whether we are living fulfilling lives. We have been forced to face our own mortality and ensure we are making the best use of the precious time we have. For some, this has triggered a process of introspection.

On Christmas Day, the James Webb Space Telescope launched into orbit on its journey one million miles above us. It has the power to look into the darkest depths of the universe by detecting glimmers of light that were created over 13 billion years ago. This will effectively allow us to look back in time where we are hoping to unravel the mysteries of supermassive black holes, dark matter and whether there is life beyond our planet. Whilst this is fascinating, we have as many mysteries to unravel within the depths of our minds as we continue to learn more about our neurocognitive functioning - luckily, a $10 billion telescope isn’t required.

Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration

During my own journey of self-discovery, I have become fascinated with the works of an early 20th-century psychiatrist and psychologist called Kazimierz Dabrowski. Born in Poland, Dabrowski lived through times of significant instability, including both World Wars and the Spanish Flu pandemic. After being imprisoned by the Nazis and subjected to medical torture, he was one of few surviving psychiatrists in Poland after World War II. Through this period, Dabrowski witnessed the extremes of human behaviour - from the most courageous heroism to abject depravity. He was deeply affected by his experiences and questioned how people could be capable of such acts. He later developed his revolutionary Theory of Positive Disintegration as a philosophy of personal development.

Rather than development happening naturally throughout childhood and adolescence, Dabrowski suggested that personality can be shaped consciously and deliberately throughout our entire lives. Personal growth is created from searching for meaning within the world, seeking to understand others and challenging our values and beliefs. Dabrowski’s theory explains that we have the potential to move through various stages of personality development; however, progression is not inevitable.?

At the initial stages of development, our thoughts and behaviour are primarily driven by our ego or to gain the approval of others. As we are deeply concerned with what others think of us, we focus on building rapport by displaying commonality and conforming to popular opinion. We are therefore more accepting of the values that we inherit from our culture, society and peer groups. A change in peer-group can result in a change in views, as we conform with the new group, though personal growth is limited. We may experience feelings of dissatisfaction with ourselves and our situation, though we suffer from little internal conflict as we accept the way the world is.

Critical Thinking

Most of us believe that we are autonomous critical thinkers and hold a set of deep-rooted personal values. However, how do we feel when our views are markedly different from others around us? How readily do we adopt the opinions of our leaders and authority figures? How often do we challenge and revise our beliefs when they no longer serve us?

The late academic and humanitarian Hans Rosling famously wrote about Factfulness - ‘The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts’. This is an effective method of questioning our beliefs to understand why we hold them. However, critical thinking is hard work - it takes more effort to think for ourselves and, by doing so, we can expose conflicts between our values and behaviour. These conflicts create feelings of discomfort, known as cognitive dissonance, which can lead to us rejecting or avoiding new information.

The values of honesty and kindness may not always be fully compatible, so we may minimise the importance of kindness when justifying a ‘truthful’ comment we have made. We may know that our life choices are not always healthy and concede that ‘we could get hit by a bus tomorrow’ despite the probability of this being incredibly slim. We may enthusiastically consume a magazine article that highlights the negative environmental impacts of a plant-based diet so we can enjoy our chateaubriand with a clearer conscience.?

In these moments of conflict, we can engage in confirmation bias, when we more readily accept information that reinforces our existing beliefs. However, we also have a choice to challenge and even change our beliefs - bringing the potential for personal development and growth.

Destruction before construction

Dabrowski describes this process as positive disintegration - where we start to challenge our existing values and beliefs and replace them with a new higher-value set. When we remove the shackles of the way things should be, based on our inherited beliefs, and embrace the way things could be, based on new autonomous ideals, we begin a process of self-development.

If we view personality development using a simple analogy of home renovation, we can usually improve an existing building to some extent. However, after replacing the kitchen and extending over the garage, we will eventually need to knock it down to build something better in its footprint. By clearing the ground and putting in new foundations, we prepare to create a more impressive structure. Positive disintegration suggests that we must challenge and break down our existing values to create something better in their place.

Dabrowski suggests that the process of disintegration can be triggered within developmental stages of our lives, such as during adolescence or within a mid-life crisis, when we start to question ourselves and our place in the world. This catalyst for change can sometimes be satisfied by purchasing a new sports car or becoming a MAMIL (middle-aged man in Lycra). However, these superficial changes do not always satisfy us. Disintegration can also be triggered by traumatic events, such as a bereavement or relationship breakdown (and maybe a global pandemic?) These events can create a seismic shift in our lives and trigger a search for new meaning.

The process of challenging our deep-rooted values can be incredibly challenging and not for the faint of heart. Our values are entwined with our personality and, when they are challenged, we can start to question ourselves and the world around us. Many of our previous explanations are exposed as inadequate and can collapse under scrutiny, leaving us without answers to some of life’s most important questions. We can also reflect negatively on our past actions and behaviours which do not live up to our new ideals.?

As this process can be painful, we should resist the urge to retreat to the comfort of commonality and the ‘safety in numbers’. Harvard psychologist Susan David has spoken about this concept in her TED talk, indicating that ‘discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life’. In her book Emotional Agility, she suggests that we should lean into the discomfort of uncomfortable emotions and ‘use them as a source of inspiration and action’. Growth rarely occurs when we’re operating within our comfort zone.

Looking ahead to 2022

None of us know what 2022 will bring, though we are likely to enjoy some success and we are likely to contend with numerous challenges - this is the natural course of life. Regardless of what life serves up, we should continue questioning our current values, beliefs and behaviours. We should hold ourselves to higher standards and have the courage to act in line with them. The world is a more exciting place when we are unconstrained by groupthink and allow ourselves to become the autonomous visionaries we were born to be.?

As the James Webb Space Telescope begins its search of our universe, we are likely to find answers to some of mankind’s greatest questions about our universe. Though, by turning our telescope inwards to the depths of our minds, what other glimmers of light are we likely to find?