

Excerpt #4: Environment, Identity and Transformation
Let's consider what we've covered so far and use it to learn more about how human
beings change and adapt to their circumstances.
First of all, leaving aside the
issue of a 'spiritual self', we've learned that, on top of a very basic set of temperamental
dispositions, sits the selfplex. This is a complex confluence of schemas which include
the concept of 'I, myself'.
The selfplex, which may mutate and change according
to the memes of the Environment it finds itself in, forms the Neurological Levels
of Identities and Values & Beliefs appropriate to the Environment.
Fig 20: Nominal Level Adaptation

Fig 20: Deeper Level Adaptation
Let's call this 'Nominal Level Adaptation' -
Things can very easily go wrong at this Nominal Level -
Spiral Dynamics enables us to take a view I call 'Deeper Level Adaptation' -
Let's consider the example of the man and his partner from Chapter 4. Let's say he's managed to adapt his Identities successfully to his Environments. At work, he's a Manager; with his partner, he's a Lover. Nominal Level Adaptation appears to be successful.
However, successful Nominal Level Adaptation depends on what is happening at the
Deeper Level which can be much more complex.
If the man's partner is loving and
caring -
However, if the partner
is concerned with getting her own way and dominating him -
Such a RED-
The Values & Beliefs of the man's RED fighting with his partner
over her attempts to dominate him will be quite different to the Values & Beliefs
PURPLE would have had. This may start to compromise the Identity of Lover, depending
on what his prior beliefs about a
about a lover's role were. Behaviour, of course,
is most likely to reflect the Values & Beliefs
and may not be what one would normally associate with a Lover. This may further compromise that Identity.
In the RED-