Preview via the Unfolding Duality

Principles

Unfolding dualities are found in principal typologies and structural hierarchies. Some are rather easy to determine and contain perennial dichotomies: mental stabilization (PH'4uD), for example, with its body-mind polarity; and political life (PH'6CsHuD) with principles vs pragmatism at the base.

Generally speaking, the unfolding duality is characterized by a sustaining ground state that is essential and unavoidable, and an opposing force that harbours potential for development. These are respectively the thesis and antithesis, which can fuse to generate a synthesis at the next higher level. That synthesis is then a new thesis evoking its antithesis and so on with the system being cyclic so that the synthesis at G7 appears as the thesis at G1.

Application to Looking out for Yourself

For looking out for yourself, the generic ground state is taken to be self-assertion because without asserting your self it is not possible to look out for yourself. However, self-assertion is socially destabilizing and so there is an opposing force within a person that can be generically labeled psychosocial realism.

Note the oscillation (identified previously) between assertion that is sporadic or episodic (odd Groupings) and assertion that is routine and persistent (even Groupings)

G1: Benefiting that requires Self-interest

The ground state for self-assertion at G1 is self-affirmation. On an episodic basis, it is necessary and perfectly acceptable to affirm who you are and seek what you want and need.

But this occurs in a competitive environment and, if taken too far or too persistently, others will react and object. At the extreme, they will combine to negating and undermine your current and future efforts. To avoid this you need to be realistic and exert discretion in dealings where self-affirmation is appropriate.

G2: Commitment that requires Risk-taking

The tension between self-affirmation and discretion at G1 is resolved by confidence, which emerges through a natural fusion of these two poles. A confident person unhesitatingly asserts himself in an appropriate discrete way at all times. Confidence needs to be routine but this G2ground state can get out of hand leading to over-confidence and excessive or inappropriate risk-taking.

Confidence needs to be balanced by a realism that is experienced psychologically as humility. With humility, risks can be confidently taken with a degree of safety and assurance that they are reasonable and manageable.

G3: Contests that require Exposure

Combining confidence and a humility allows for positioning which becomes the new G3ground state. Exposure of yourself and your position involves sporadic self-assertion, which, even if it carries its own risks, is unavoidable.

Exposure is naturally episodic and needs to be titrated: not too much or you make yourself a target and not too little or no-one knows were you stand and you can become isolated. Positioning can be realistically allowed if a need for balance is operating as a countervailing force.

G4: Interactions that require Gains

The tension between a positioning and balance at G3 can be resolved by fusion into a recognizable presence, which is the G4 ground of self-assertion.

Gains come from exchanges with others and it is impossible to interact for benefit and get the gain you are seeking without asserting your presence on a routine basis. However psychosocial realism demands that you are aware of your own limitations when you deal with others.

G5: Initiative that requires Choices

The synthesis your presence and limitations at G4 emerges at G5 in the form of the psychosocial weight that you possess. People vary greatly. However whether you are perceived as a light-weight or a heavy-weight, it is essential is that you assert that weight from time to time.

It is important however not to throw your weight around routinely or you will be avoided, excluded or even ejected from the field. Psychosocial realism demands that you restrain yourself even if that means not influencing choices in ways that you believe would be of benefit to you and perhaps others too.

G6: Success that requires Dynamism

The tension between a weight and restraint at G5 is resolved by synthesis as a state of defiance. This G6 ground state asserts a continuing personal readiness to confront emerging situations and refuse to be beaten. Defiance mobilizes your personal energies on a continuous basis, allowing you to deal with the harsh reality that the world is not organized for your benefit.

However, another harsh reality is that the world is far more powerful than you are, which means that you can be easily crushed. Realism demands that you confront defiance with countervailing urges for self-preservation.

G7: Expectancy that requires Vigilance

Defiance and self-preservation are fused in a sensitivity to what is going on about you that is expressed as responsiveness. Vigilance operates on the expectation that you will be sporadically faced with potential warnings or openings affecting your well-being or economic security.

However, it is necessary to be careful as to when you respond and when you note what is occurring but simply let matters pass. In the psychosocial realm, timing is everything.

The fusion of responsivenss and timing emerges as self-affirmation which is assertion at G1.

ClosedSee another diagram of the same duality progression.

Originally posted: 30-Jun-2025.