Our Need for Mastery

Comparing Mastery of our Two Worlds

If we accept, as humanity’s greatest thinkers have done and still do, that we live in two distinct worlds, one physical and the other psychosocial, then the challenge of mastery applies to both.

Success in mastering the physical-impersonal world has led to astounding achievements—think of heart transplants, high-speed trains and aeroplanes, skyscrapers, air-conditioning, computing technologies, and much more.

By comparison, we have had only limited success in mastering the psychosocial world. We feel helpless, guilty and ashamed about much that occurs today. Aspects of relationships and social life hardly differ from what they were hundreds or even thousands of years ago.

There has certainly been progress.Closed Violence in public seems to have diminished in recent centuries. Evils like slavery or child trafficking were previously assumed as the way of the world, and they still occur, but now many speak out against such barbarism. Workplace relationships can still be abusive and demeaning, but laws now offer some protection against mistreatment. Governments behave tyrannically today much as they did in the past, but there are outposts of sanity. Family life can be painful and demeaning for women and children in many societies, but efforts to alter this are quite common. Only war and ever more destructive armaments still seem unstoppable.

It is a reasonable conjecture that sustained, disciplined inquiry into how the psychosocial world works, could lead to genuine progress in personal and social life, and even improve international relations.

ClosedMajor difficulties exist …

The demand for reflective awareness, autonomy and responsibility requires us to discard baggage that we use to comfort ourselves, to become aware of temptations, and to recognize masks that people use to manipulate and delude themselves and others. Becoming aware is not new. But doing so in a systematic way, as our inner evolved Taxonomy encourages us to expect, is much harder.

ClosedScience must contribute ...

Mastery must be Personal and Social

Although felt experience and thoughts can be private and subjective, activities and achievements are shareable and objective. Covert psychological processes—the psycho- in psychosocial reality—find counterparts in overt social processes and forms—the -social in psychosocial reality.

Inquiry to enable mastery therefore demands:

  • objectification of the subjective
    (e.g. how can I explain this new project of mine to a friend?)

    &

  • subjectification of the objective
    (e.g. the room was left unlocked: does anyone feel responsible?)

Experiential inner states are only known with certainty by the person who has them, so that is where mastery must commence. But private experiences have no significance in the wider world without some public correlate—shaping what we say or do—so social mastery is also required. Social mastery is dependent on personal mastery.

THEE is ultimately a tool for change.

Given that we create our social realities, why is change in social settings so hard? It seems to be due to people: you and me.

All achievement has a rational component, but good technical solutions rarely get implemented as effectively or efficiently as planned. Many taxonomic discoveries emerged from investigating stalled organizations where the cause was typically being traced back to people. Frustration, disappointment and blaming were in evidence.

We identified issues like:

  ● Distorted perceptions ● Dulled motivation
  ● Minimal creativity ● Political deadlock
  ● Passive conformity ● Poor communication
  ● Resistance to new ideas ● General confusion
  ● Divergent outlooks ● Unrealistic attitudes
  ● Personal limitations ● Unwillingness to learn
  ● Hopelessness and helplessness ● Negativity and blaming
  ● Power games ● Maverick tendencies

Despite this list of woes, the human element in endeavour is not the problem. The human element with its many strengths and capabilities is the essence and sine qua non of all achievement. Focusing on systems, information, physical resources, finance, quantitative analyses, training, computer technologies &c, however essential, is never enough for great success. All achievement depends on people. Everyone knows that!

Within people, achievement depends on specific psychosocial realities that are in operation. Few know that!

For each person, reality emerges distinctively—from an indefinable, intangible human essence with its intuitions and its counter-intuitive judgements, its hopes and hobby horses, its beliefs and anxieties, its pleasure in achievement and its destructive demons, and much more.

  • Personal mastery depends on individual characteristics shaped by both heredity and environment. Fortunately the Taxonomy takes our individuality and unique identity into account.
    Read more.

Originally posted: May 2010; Last amended: 7-Nov-2026