DGB Multi-Bi-Polar 'Sun-Planet Theory' and Sixteen Mythological Idols (Gods, Archetypes) of Personality Extremism

1. Introduction

This is brand new DGB Philosophy-Psychology (effective Sept. 11, 2008, updated November 16th, and November 30th, 2008) although the ideas have been perculating in my head for a while now...It is kind of a DGB integation of 1. Sir Francis Bacon; 2. Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy; 3. Carl Jung's mythological influence; and 4. the principle of 'homeostatic balance' which has a long Western and Eastern history -- Heraclitus; the Han Philosophers -- 'yin/yang'; Hegel's thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis; Nietzsche's early integration between Apollo and Dionysus; Freud's superego, ego, and id; Jung's personna and shadow; and Cannon's principle of homeostatic balance (added Nov. 30th/08).

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Think of the sun with the planets revolving around it; the earth needs to be just situated rightly -- not too far from the sun and not close to the sun -- which comes back to the main principle of the creation and/or evolution of life in the universe and on earth: the principle of 'homeostatic balance'.

Once you get this image in your mind -- of the sun and planets model and the principle of homestatic balance -- you are starting to get a picture of my latest perculating model of the human psyche -- a model that borrows from philosophy, psychology, biology, chemistry, and physics, and mythology. There is some Freud in it (projecting and introjecting), some Jung in it (archetypes and Greek Gods), lots of philosophy in it (such as the different 'eras' or 'periods' of philosophy), and running right through the middle of this model are the priniciples of: 1. 'multi-dialectic exchange, interchange, negotiation, power and control maneuvers'; and 2. 'homeostatic (or multi-dialectic) balance.

I remember reading a book a long time ago -- perhaps when I was in university (1974-1979) called, 'Man The Manipulator'. I will research the book and come back to you with the author shortly. I believe the author(s) had some training in both Gestalt Therapy and Jungian Psychology.

Anyways, my present model here reminds me somewhat of what the author(s)in that book were also trying to get at which was basically that (and I will paraphrase in my own words here and now): any 'particualar style of interconnected thought, feeling, impulse, restraint and/or behavior' or what Jung would call a 'complex' or Alfred Adler would call a person's 'lifestyle' has a combination of both positive and negative attributes attached to it (strengths and weaknesses). It's like perhaps the most important statement that Hegel ever made (and again I am both paraphrasing and extending his thought): Every thought, impulse, characteristic, restraint, theory, perspective, lifestyle...carries with it the seeds of its own self-destruction...Or worded otherwise, anything taken too far, will eventually explode, implode, self-destruct, poison, and/or take you off the deep end with it...Any form of extremism will eventually lead to your self-desruction...

Which brings us back to the principle of 'homeostatic -- and/or dialectical -- balance'. Here is my post-Hegelian-extension of Hegel's famous formula: The life cycle follows the pattern of: 1. thesis; 2. anti-thesis; and 3 synthesis (which -- my DGB extension -- pulls man and all of evolutionary life back to the 'central position of homeostatic-dialectic-democratic balance'. 'Not too strong (eg. The Republicans), not too weak (eg. The Democrats) but just right...'The Republican-Democrats or the Democratic-Republicans'. This is the post-Hegelian, bi-polarity synthesizing goal of DGB Philosophy.

Here is my extension of the famous Hegelian formula:

Thesis plus anti-thesis or counter-thesis creatively negotiated together equals homeostatic and/or dialectical balance which in turn provides a compensatory form of psycho- and/or philosophical and/or bio-chemical therapy for all different forms of philosophical and psychological and bio-chemical extremism.

I don't have the technical capability within this blogsite to create the type of model I wish to create with a 'sun' or 'planet' in the centre with all of its revolving planets or moons. So you will have to imagine this.

I have already written a number of different papers that can be found below this essay on 'Gods, Myths, Archetypes, and Self-Energy Centres...' This essay only becomes the essay that starts to pull them all together into one model of the personality.

At centre stage is the 'main energy centre in the personality' -- The Central Mediating Ego' (psychological model) which can also be called the 'Hegelian Ego' (philosophical model: thesis plus counter-thesis equal synthesis and homeostatic-dialectic-democratic balance) or Zeus (mythological model) or 'The Sun' (planetary model).


Here are some of the 'revolving planets in similar and/or different human lifestyles, complexes, and/or personalities'...


2. The DGB Sixteen Idols of 'Lifestyle and Personality Extremism'


1. Idols of The Tribe or The Crowd: (Crowd Pleasers, victims of peer pressure...)Don't get caught up and lost in the ideas and behaviors of the crowd or the 'herd' as Nietcsche would put it -- like lemmings you can be taken over a cliff. Think and feel and act independently -- this is your therapy;

2. Idols of The Cave (Hermits, Loners, Thinkers, Philosophers, Introverts, Shy People, Self-Infatuated People...): Don't get caught up and lost within yourself. You will suffocate there. If or when you do, come back out of yourself, and reach out to a person and/or people. This is your therapy;

3. Idols of The Sky (The Greek God, Uranus) (Idealists, Visionaries, Entepreneurs, Architects, pilots, astronauts, skydivers...): Come back to earth young man or woman, come back to earth and re-ground yourself. Your therapy consists of 'touching earth again and feeling the soil beneath your feet, the ground and trees all around you);

4. Idols of The Earth (in Greek mythology, the godesses Gaea): (Empiricists, people who are afraid to take a risk, people who need security above all else in their lives). Being solidly grounded is a good thing but take a risk young man or woman, take a risk! This is your therapy. Fly high into the sky and see how high you can soar;

5. Idols of The Theatre (The Magician, The Sophist, The Actor, The Fraud...: Don't be fooled by others using sophistry, illusion, smoke and mirrors; and similarily, don't fool others using sophistry, illusion, smoke and mirrors. Be congruent, be honest, be yourself. Your therapy consists of re-finding your self and who you really are;

6. Idols of Zeus (Authority, Power, Title): Don't be fooled by, or fool others, using a mantle of exploitive authority, power, and/or title. The best leaders can both talk with wisdom and charisma while listening to the wisdom of others. The worst leaders have a self-inflated opinion of themselves and can talk, even act with power and/or violence but they can't listen, and they don't care about others. They are strictly for themselves. Your therapy here consists of 100 hours of community work to try to help cure your self-inflated narcissism. Helping others -- altruism -- is what you are aiming to learn here, and truly caring about others;

7. Idols of The Word: Don't be fooled or fool others using a web of words that don't mean what they claim to mean, or you claim them to mean. If your words don't fit your meaning, then perhaps its time to go back to Grade 1, go back to 'the pointing game', or 'the fitting game', show that your words reflect your actions, and your actions reflect your words. To the extent that they don't -- your words are fraudulent and the more you use them this way, the more of a fraud your whole person becomes. Your therapy consists of going back to square one and making your actions fit your words and visa versa;

8. Idols of Apollo: Don't spend your whole life following the God of Righteousness -- i.e., Apollo -- because it will create for you a very one-sided life. You need to show tolerance and non-jugment at times also. This is your therapy -- to practise being 'non-righteous'. Or perhaps to spend time chasing and/or being the God you may be most afraid of - 'Dionysus' and/or 'Narcissus';

9. Idols of Dionysus: Don't get lost in the pursuit of hedonism, narcissism, pleasure, sex, alcohol, drugs, gambling, partying, the fast life Your therapy -- may be to practise Budhism or abstinence for a while, see what it is like to live without your addiction -- what are you scared of?, and how else can you overcome whatever you are scared of? Are you scared of aging? Of being bored?, Of having nothing of substance within you to sustain you without the 'addiction(s)'?;

10. Idols of Aphrodite: Don't get lost in -- or consumed by -- love. It will throw everything else in your life out of balance and leave you weak and vulnerable to loss, betrayal, abandonment, rejection -- especially, if you fall in love too easily, and 'idolize' the person who is going to create a self-fulling prophecy and become your worst nightmare by walking away from you when you are most vulnerable and dependant. You need to stay grounded, develop your own strengths and not 'project Gods' onto everyone you meet. Your therapy is to imagine that you yourself are the God for a while at least, and not always the 'underdog' looking up at other people's imagined or projected strengths, while lamenting your own real or imagined weaknesses and missing theirs;

11. Idols of War (The Greek God, Aries): Don't get caught up in -- and consumed by war. It will eat you up and destroy you. You think that you can destroy your enemies but for every new person who you kill, you are probably 'multiplying' new enemies -- all the friends and family of the person you destroyed. Your therapy lies in developing 'creative ways of negotiating towards win-win solutions'; not seeing everyone as your potential enemy -- and treating them like it, making your world a much more dangerous place than it needs to be;

12. Idols of Hades (God of The Underworld): Don't get caught up and lost in illicit and/or illegal activities. It will bring on your self-destruction perhaps faster than anything else, particularly if you are nurturing hate, power, revenge, and violence. What goes around will eventually come around. You will get yours in the end...What was that Martin Luther King quote that Obama liked so much -- something like...'The cosmic arc is long but bends towards justice'.;

13. Idols of Speed (The Greek God, Hermes): Don't get caught up in, and consumed by speed. Live in the fast lane, die in the fast lane. Fast is exciting in small doses but don't lose control of your 'gas pedal' and your 'brakes of proper restraint';

14. Idols of Athena (Goddess of Patriotism): Patriotism can be a dangerous thing if you get too caught up, and consumed by it. It breeds righteousness and intolerance -- 'It's my country's way or the highway'. You will eventually get caught up in 'group-think', and be subsumed by more powerful groups than you that tell you, you are not 'patriotic' if you do not think the way they do'. You will lose your independence of thought. This is very 'Republican-Authoritarian', and at worst, 'Nazi-German' in its method of getting everybody to 'tow the party line';

15. Idols of Hera (Goddess and Protector of Marriage): Marriage can be a beautiful thing but it can also be a strifeful thing. Don't completely lose yourself -- and your identity -- in marriage. Be the person you always were. Develop your own talents and potential even as the two of you seek to evolve together in your relationship. Flexibility and tolerance are important -- and not 'locking each other up in tight boxes that you both suffocate in' (or one person suffocates in by submitting to the other's domination). Win-win negotiations in marriage are essential;

16. Idols of Narcissus (God of Self-Idolation): Don't become so absorbed in yourself that you can't see the people around you and their own trials and tribulations. In the myth of Narcissus, Narcissus looked into a pool of water, saw his reflection, and fell in love with himself. Be sensitive to the needs, wants, feelings, thoughts, and problems of others. This is your therapy.

These are the 'idols of personality extremism' and DGB Post-Hegelian Dialectic-Democratic Philosophy-Psychology seeks to pull every one away from their 'planet of extremism' and back into their 'Central Mediating Ego', back to the life-balancing energy of the sun. The planets always need to come back to the energy of the sun.

And so it is with 'personality' and 'lifestyle' extremes.

Come back young man or woman, come back, to the warmth and mediating energy of the sun. You need to be not too close to the sun but not too far away from the sun either. The Earth is a good place to be (preferrably without global warming and global raining that is disturbing our 'ecological balance' and our 'homeostatic balance' within this ecological balance.

'Health' is generally the half-way point between bi-polar forms of psychopathology, physio-pathology, philosophical pathology, and ecological pathology that can be found at the life (and death) extremes.

-- dgb, Sept. 11th, 2008, modified and updated Nov. 16th, 30th, 2008.