How many people came to the mediation? Probably many more than you can see in the room

The idea that we carry many people within our personas is not new. As examples, I recently blogged about subpersonalities and in that post mentioned Bonnie Badenoch's aligned concept of the inner community. Now this notion of an inner multitude has just been addressed by Professor Paul Bloom in November's Atlantic in an article with an apt title: "First Person Plural."

Bloom brings the brain into his discussion of multiple selves right away. An excerpt from his look at the brain:

Some scholars argue that although the brain might contain neural subsystems, or modules, specialized for tasks like recognizing faces and understanding language, it also contains a part that constitutes a person, a self: the chief executive of all the subsystems. As the philosopher Jerry Fodor once put it, “If, in short, there is a community of computers living in my head, there had also better be somebody who is in charge; and, by God, it had better be me.”

He goes on to list some of the things we lose if the brain with its squabbling selves is in control.

More-radical scholars insist that an inherent clash exists between science and our long-held conceptions about consciousness and moral agency: if you accept that our brains are a myriad of smaller components, you must reject such notions as character, praise, blame, and free will. ...

The question of whether we are governed by our brains or have a mind, a master self-mediator that can mediate between our sometimes unruly and competing brain patterns, is not just for scholars. For conflict resolution professionals, that question is also very important. Your role and goal in the conflict is going to be largely determined by how that question is answered. Are you mediating at the brain level or facilitating the self-mediator in each party? The number of parties in the room, their resolution, their ability to craft a solution, will vary widely according to your answer. How do you answer the question?

Comments

[Trina]

Your post today takes me back years to when I was studying and working with Assagioli's psychosynthesis material. It is a model I still work with today. I like the way you posed the question, and I would say that yes, you are mediating with the self-mediator IF that master is in charge. If a subpersonality is running the show, you may be mediating with a partial person. Whether one calls it consciousness, emotional intelligence, emotional bandwidth, conscious competence... the more aware all parties in the room are that multiple aspects of "self" are actually in the mediation, the more the self-mediator will facilitate a positive outcome.

The more we can expand our emotional bandwidth, especially when in an emotionally charged situation, the more whole and peaceful our lives will be. I can't speak to how the brain functioning fits with this, though. I leave that to you and Jeff Schwartz as my gurus on that piece of it.

Thanks for the provocative question, Stephanie! Trina

[Stephanie]

Thanks for your comments, Trina. I am not sure exactly what emotional bandwidth means so may be off here. In my way of seeing things, we would not want to increase the bandwidth of the brain but maybe of the mind.

Assagioli's work endures through time, doesn't it? He was so perceptive.