7 - The Idealist

Adaptation Instinct · Domain of Position and Authority

The Adaptation Instinct's fundamental concern is doing and orientation, expressed as "Where am I?" - a preoccupation with Thoughts of right or wrong rooted in the head/mental center. The three Fixations of the Doing Group approach reality from this perspective, manifesting in patterns connected to the child's experience with siblings or others. The Idealist is fixated in the Domain of Position and Authority; the realm of hierarchies, status, and leadership structures. They internalize their work and doing, compensating for perceived inferiorization by siblings through elaborate planning, fantasies of improvement, and an air of superiority. This fixation obscures the Divine Principle of No Position (Wisdom), resulting in a personality preoccupied with status, ambitious planning, and self-importance while experiencing deep-seated fear of inadequacy and actual ineffectiveness in accomplishment.

Initial Trauma
The initial trauma comes from the child’s projection that their doing has been frustrated, inferiorized and overpowered by siblings or others. The child represses spontaneous activity and resorts to making subjective plans, projecting these onto reality. Idealists are constantly reforming reality and planning it again, imagining a better, more ideal plan. They fantasize about work and are acutely aware of hierarchical structures, increasing sensitivity to situations of superiority/inferiority.

Ego-Projections

• Idealized Self: Like to think of themselves as capable and insightful, clever organizers and planners, with an optimistic approach.

• Projected Reality: Recognizable by ego-projections of an impractical dreamer preoccupied with hierarchies, status and being superior, who can be gluttonous, immature and foolish.

Ego-Position
Self-importance. Because perceived trauma affected their spontaneous ability to get things done, Thoughts of being unimportant and overpowered make them acutely sensitive about their own Self-importance and superiority. This can develop into an inflated personality. They do not take direction easily, impose their plans/opinions on everyone, trying to obtain a superior role.

Domain
The Domain of Position and Authority. This is the Domain of hierarchies, position, status, credentials, titles, and individual identification in the structural organization of society. It is the Domain for positions of leadership in government and the private sector.

Dichotomy
The two poles of the ego in this Domain:

• Superiority Ego: The arrogant peacock with exaggerated self-esteem and self-importance, who believes they are destined for greatness.

• Inferiority Ego: The underachieving loser with poor self-esteem and a low opinion of themselves. They think they have been left out and demand constant recognition.

• Corrective Purpose: To balance self-perception between inflation and deflation.

Idealists swing between these extremes.

Ego-Balancers

• For the Superiority side: Respectful (to cultivate humility and regard for others).

• For the Inferiority side: Confident (to build genuine self-worth and capability).

Ego-Insecurity

Rivalries. The ego-insecurity stemming from their Dichotomy of superior grandiosity versus inferior inadequacy fuels constant Rivalries; a competitive preoccupation with status, hierarchy, and being better than or defeated by others.

Main Characteristic

Planning and Dreaming. Their main characteristic is being Planners and Dreamers who constantly fantasize, elaborating plans about making everything better and more ideal from their self-important superior point of view, often at the expense of action.

Analysis Across the Five Centers of Attention

1. Sexual Drive: Endlessly plan their sexual relations. Makes them flirtatious and promiscuous with a proclivity toward concupiscence and an ongoing change of partners.

2. Motivational: Acquire a sense of self by imposing their own way of doing things. Internally motivated by immeasurable ambitions, they expect others to listen.

3. Behavioral: Look for approval and the applause of an attentive audience to satisfy their exaggerated, ego-motivated superiority. Can behave with superiority in inappropriate moments to cover up their sense of inferiority.

4. Cognitive: Find reality to be poorly conceived and in urgent need of their instructions for improvement. This makes them fall into charlatanism, with constant elaboration of plans that replace the achievement of actual goals.

5. Individuation: Superior values give them capacity for organizing and obtaining an advantage. The higher evaluation of their superego in respect to who they are and how they are behaving becomes the ideal that directs their life, giving a sense of the Divine across ethical values.

Passion
Gluttony. Because they believe they have been inferiorized by siblings/others, causing them to think they have been subjugated and reduced, they develop excessive cravings and desire for enormous success, grasping at what is beyond their ability.

Immoral Force
Ambivalence. When disintegrated, they project Ambivalence toward others and their own decisions, becoming manipulative and shrewd with conflicting Thoughts and self-induced stress. This makes them dysfunctional and unmotivated.

Door of Compensation
When stressed, they compensate for their lack of doing with excessive indulgence in different forms of Debauchery. They use debauchery to establish/validate their presence. Material pleasures compensate for stress and fears of being seen in an inferior position.

Primary Defense Mechanism
Displacement. They redirect desires/impulses from the original object to a more acceptable substitute (e.g., taking out anger at their boss by shouting at a family member).

Secondary Defense Mechanism
Disassociation. Disturbing Thoughts and upsetting memories are disassociated or negated. They disconnect from the real world and live in their own subjective world, which can be as extreme as assuming a different body and life.

Personality Disorder
Schizotypal Personality Disorder. Characterized by peculiarities of ideation and deficient interpersonal relations/behavior. Experience extreme discomfort about being left out of gatherings/groups. Have odd beliefs or magical thinking, unusual perceptions of forces/persons not present. Talk to themselves; speech can become inappropriately abstract. Suffer from constricted affect, tend to be aloof, silly, unable to reciprocate normal expressions/gestures. Lack close friends/confidants. Constant planning keeps them busy and self-centered.

Trap
Idealism. Their compulsion toward elaborating altruistic plans for improvement can lead them into planning their own life with an idealism that produces an objective understanding of their Fixation, giving a grasp of Transcendental Reality.

Virtue
Prudence. To accomplish the Trap, they need to embody the Transcendental Virtue of Prudence. This means evaluating reality with wisdom gained from experience instead of the grandiosity and superiority of the fixated state.

Ethical State
Perseverance. The Virtue of Prudence emanates ethically as Perseverance. They recognize the futility of constant change to new plans. With Perseverance, they experience this Ethical State in their life, planning, and work.

Way
Presence. The Trap of Idealism, the Virtue of Prudence, and the Ethical State of Perseverance transform the Fixation into the Way of Presence. They find that the Divine emanates from within and is in everything. This experience of Divine Presence becomes the Way to stabilize the State of the Absolute Mind through ‘Mind-only’ practice.

Divine Form (Mind Catalyzer)
Wisdom. When they understand and embody the Form of Wisdom from an Absolute point of view, the Divine Mind becomes stabilized and Divine Wisdom is actualized as a constant and Transcendental Presence.

Divine Principles of Consciousness

The Virtue of Prudence and Ethical State of Perseverance open the Way of Presence through the Form of Divine Wisdom. This Form has its source in the Divine Principle of No Position, in which no attachments exist. The Fixation is transformed through understanding and embodying this Principle.

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