Metaxis and Recovery: Towards a New Vision of Health
by Jeremiah D. McAuliffe, Jr. MA and Jeffrey C. Wilson MD PM
C 1989 Jeremiah D. McAuliffe, Jr. and Jeffrey C. Wilson






CHAPTER ONE: THE HUMAN SITUATION

The Complexity of Human Life

Basics of Our Situation Part I: Pain and Limits

Basics of Our Situation Part II: Denial of Death

Basics of Our Situation Part III: Culture and the Denial of Death

Basics of Our Situation Part IV: Today's Sacrificial Rituals

Compartmentalization

The Fullness of the Mundane

"Drive to Bar" Re-lived

Sham

Shamming Ourselves

The Hero

Life as Journey: The Hero, Survivor, Creator

The Willingness to Change

The Imaginative Hero: The Artist of Life

Excavating Meaning and Insight: The Role of Imagination.

The Rise of the Expert Class



CHAPTER TWO: THE FIELD MODEL.

Science and Paradigms

The Story of Flatland.

Our Current Scientific World Views

The Need for a New Paradigm

The New Physics and Paradigm Shift

A New View of the Human

The New Map of Health-Towards Field Thinking

The Ecological Field

The Structure of the Field: A Four Pole Model

	Natural

	Social

	Subjective

	Divine

How the Mystery Appears or is Known

The Realm Within Our Boundaries and Limits

Synchronicity: The Door to Field Thinking

Field Thinking

Field Thinking and the Role of Assessment

Guide for Assessment: Congeniality

Guide for Assessment: Compassion

Guide for Assessment: Compatibility

The Goal of Assessment: Metaxis

Some Implications of the Field Approach



CHAPTER THREE: FOUNDATIONS OF THE FIELD MODEL

Beginning of the Field Approach: Martin Heidegger

Basic Dynamics of the Human-As-Field: Robert Lifton

The Pervasiveness of Symbols

Examples of Symbolization

Three Functions of Symbols

Lifton: Failed Adaptation and Numbness to Symbolic Meaning

Dynamics of the Human: Summary

Constructing the Field Part I: Adrian van Kaam

Constructing the Field Part II: William Thompson

Progress in Symbolization: Eric Voegelin

Foundations of the Field Model: Summary

The End Result of the Human-as-Field: Metaxis



CHAPTER FOUR: THE NATURAL POLE.

Complexity and Simplicity

Cartesian Simplicity and Field Complexity

The Natural Pole

The Body-As-Machine: Its Strengths and Weaknesses

Medicine as Interpretation and Ideology

Towards the Field Understanding of Disease

The Field Approach and Disease

Illness

Adaptation

Examples of Disease, Illness and Adaptation

Idealism and Holistic Fads

Need for Balance and an Integrated Vision of Health

Towards a New Vision of Health From Within the Field Approach

Spirit and Body

Human Spirituality and the Mystery

Human Spirituality and Medicine

Movement: Symbolic Growth as an Aid to Healing

Illness, Survival, and Recovery

Other Concerns of the Natural Pole

The Environment: Interweaving of Social and Natural Regions

Addiction: Interweaving of Spiritual and Natural Concerns.



CHAPTER FIVE: THE DIVINE POLE

The Divine Pole.

Symbols and the Mystery

Symbolic Behaviors

Religion and Spirituality

Buddha's Story

Generic Religion

Religion and Superstition

The Wisdom of the Atheist: From Superstition to Spirituality

Is Religion Always Neurotic?

Dogma and Mysticism

Fundamentalism and Gnosticism

Spirituality and Recovery

Positive Abandonment: Our Relation to the Mystery

Conclusion on Religion

Soul Making, Tradition and Recovery

Soul Making and Boundary

Other Aspects of the Divine Pole



CHAPTER SIX: THE SOCIAL POLE

The Stranger

William James' Response to Freedom

The Social Pole

Social Systems: The Family

Importance of the Divine Pole: Transcending Social Determination

Social Systems: Culture

Historical Considerations: The Rise of the American Myth

The Primacy of American Functionalism

Functional Rituals

Egocentricity: The Disease of Social Conformity

Interweaving of the Social and Subjective Poles Part I

Society in Disarray

Self-Examination: Interweaving of the Subjective and Social Poles Part II

Recovery and Metaxis in the Social Pole



CHAPTER SEVEN: THE SUBJECTIVE POLE

Danger of Elevation of the Subjective Pole

The Self and the Field

The Ego and the Self

Psychology and the Destruction of Transcendence

The Subjective Pole and Psychology: The Example of Carl Jung

Otto Rank's Corrective to Psychology: The Heroic, Creative Artist

Creation of the Self: Movement, Connection, Integration.

Dynamic Cycles in the Creation of the Self

The Universality of Myth

The Mythic Hero

Constructing the Personal Myth: Tools for Growth

Reprise: The Denial of Death