The First Three Stages of Life

Each Of The Stages Of Life (In The human Context) Is Associated With A Unique Form Of human Adaptation and Growth. And Each Form Of Adaptation Is Associated With a specific human organ (or Structural Pattern).

The First Three Stages Of Life Occur Within The Context Of the lower organ functions Of human Adaptation, and, In That Context, human Development Is Associated With individuation, socialization, and integration Of The psycho-physical Patterns Of the frontal personality.

The First Stage Of Life Is The Process Of psycho-physical (and thus also emotional) individuation, Based On Identification With the Separate and personal gross physical body in the waking state. The First Stage Of Life Is Also Associated With the oral (or nutritive) function. At birth, the infant Is Separated From The Situation Of Unity With the human mother, and This Begins A Struggle With The Fact Of individual Existence. This Struggle Is Displayed In The Context Of oral Dependence On the mother as a Separate body (and Dependence On food that Must Be Acquired outside If individual bodily Existence Is To Continue). Whatever Occurs In The Drama Of breast-feeding and The Transition To food sources apart from the mother’s body, human beings Tend To Develop A Fundamental Reactive Habit (or Presumption Of Un-Happiness) At This Stage.

Un-Happy (or egoic) individuation Tends To Be Associated With A Feeling Of Separation (Separateness and Separativeness) and, Thus, Only A Partial Willingness To Relinquish (or Even To Accept) The Feeling Of Dependency On the mother (or On others In General). This Feeling Of Separation Ultimately (or Primarily) Involves The Sense Of Disconnection From The Ultimate Source Of Support and Love (Which Is The Living Divine), and It Also Becomes A General Doubt or Anxiety About other human beings On whom one Depends For Love. Sex-Differentiation (Whereby sexual self-identity and the sexual identification of others Become Basic To Every Situation Of Relationship) Begins Even At This Stage, but all relationships are experienced from the viewpoint Of Dependency and Reluctance To Accept The Situation Of individuated Existence.

The Second Stage Of Life Is The Process Of socialization (or relationalization of the individual), Based On The Development Of emotional (or emotional-sexual) Sensitivity To the psycho-physical self, To others, and To the Natural world (including the Natural etheric energies associated with the psycho-physical self, with others, and with the entire Natural world). The Second Stage Of Life Is Also Associated With the anal (or eliminative) function and The Conflict Between Privacy (or self-Acceptance) and The Search For social Visibility (or Acceptance By others).

The anal function Begins To Develop Coincident With the oral function, but socialization itself Truly Begins Only After The Basic Struggle With individuation Has Reached A Workable (Even Though Un-Happy, or self-Contracted) Settlement. (Thus, It Can Be Said That, As A General Rule, The First Stage Of Life Involves the first seven years after birth, and The Second Stage Of Life Involves the second seven years, or The Period From early childhood Until puberty.)

Character Motivations That Are Rooted In the biology and psychology Of sex-Differentiation Are, In The Second Stage Of Life, Extended and Developed In An Expanded social Context, and individuation (Including A Partial but Significantly Defined Sense Of sexual self-identity), Rather Than Ambiguously Differentiated Dependency, Becomes A Catalyst Toward social Exploration.

When individuation Has Become A Workable egoic Settlement, the individual Begins To Struggle, As an individual, With relationships (First On the intimate scale, and Then In an ever larger social sphere). The Second Stage individual Tends To Continue To function In The Context Of Dependency, but With A More Fully Developed Sense Of Separate self, Independence, and Mobility. Likewise, There Is A Gradual Discovery That There Are many kinds of relationships, and all of them Carry A Test, A Demand, and An Obstacle That Offends The Want To Be Dependent. The anal Phase Of Development Represents An Early Stage Of self-Awareness, In Which the individual’s self-Esteem (Desirability or Lovableness) Is Apparently At Stake. Thus, Doubt Of the ego-self and Doubt Of The Love In others Appears. And So, The Second Stage Of Life Tends To Develop Only To The Degree Of A Tentative (or ego-Based and Ultimately Unsatisfactory) Resolution Of the relational and social character. Whereas The Feeling Of Separation (and Separativeness) Characterizes The First Stage Reaction (or egoic Presumption), The Feeling Of Being Rejected (and The Felt Need To Reject or Punish others For Un-Love) Characterizes The Second Stage Reaction (or egoic and Necessarily Un-Happy Presumption).

The Third Stage Of Life Is The Process Of integration Of The psychophysical Patterns (Both individual And relational) Of the frontal personality, By Means Of The Development and Application Of the functions of mind, discriminative intelligence, and the will. And This Process Is Also Associated With The genital Phase Of human Development. Genital Development and sex-Differentiation Begin Even In infancy, and The emotional Trial Of The Second Stage Of Life Relates To the sexually Defined character, but The Great Struggle Of integration and self-Presentation (As a Fully Differentiated and Defined sexual and social character) Takes Place Only After puberty.

The Third Stage Of Life Tends To Be Wasted (or Made Un-Happy) By Indulgence In Patterns That May Be Called adolescent. That Is To Say, The Third Stage Of Life Does Not Tend Toward Full (and Happy) Resolution, Because The First Two Stages Of Life (Which Are The Basis For Growth In The Third) Tend To Be Unresolved (or Patterned By Un-Happiness). As A Result, The Third Stage Of Life Becomes A Fruitless Drama Of Conflict Between Two Alternating and Contrary Impulses, The One Toward infantile and childish (or Passive and Weak-minded) Dependence, and The Other Toward willful and Rebellious (or self-Destructive and other-Destructive) Independence. The Life-Process Is Disturbed By This Un-Happy and Irresponsible Drama, and the mental faculties and the integrating function of the will Are Thus Impaired or Retarded In their Ability To Develop the True adult character, which character Is Characterized By Basic human Equanimity, Discriminative Intelligence, Responsive Heart-Feeling, and The Active Impulse (or Counter-egoic Will) To Always Continue To Grow (By self-Transcendence, and, Necessarily, By Entering Into The Devotional and, Eventually, Spiritual Context Of The Fourth Stage Of Life).

The Seven Stages of Life