Abstract
The capacity to establish and maintain dialectical balance between polar lifeworld meanings forms the heart of the dialectical movement toward integration. Mature balance modulates the tension between polar meaning movements. Erik Erikson’s linear, stage-based model of human development is dialectically reformulated whereby balance is sought by modulating the polar meanings of trust-in-relation-to caution, independence-in-relation-to-dependence, initiative-taking-in-relation-to-maintenance-of-steadiness, industriousness-in-relation-to-leisure, identity-integration-in-relation-to-identity-de-integration, intimacy-in-relation-to-separateness, and other-care-in-relation-to-self-care. Mature balance, then, delicately maintains the polar tension between seemingly opposite meaning movements (e.g., moving between what it means for me to trust-and-to-be-cautious) in their optimal di-stance (the stance I take) relative to each polar meaning. It is a meaning movement from (potential) disintegrative conflict to (potential) integrative harmony.
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Hannush, M.J. (2021). Balance: The Capacity to Establish and Maintain a Dialectical Balance Between Polar Lifeworld Meanings. In: Markers of Psychosocial Maturation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74315-4_5
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