Living as an imaginal bridge, rather than on one

Living as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds (Part #11)

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Living on a bridge: Potentially more challenging is any psychological process which might be framed as "living on a bridge", as implied by the traders living above their shops on the Ponte Vecchio. This recalls those who lived at trading hubs at the points of intersection of traditional trade routes -- the caravanserai. The apparently simple network geometry, in which such a nexus is embedded, obscures the psychosocial "knots" associated with functioning in these modes.

The internalization of these cognitive knots is recognized to a degree in the topological explorations from a psychiatric perspective of Jacques Lacan (Of Structure as the Inmixing of an Otherness Prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever, 1966) and R. D. Laing (Knots, 1970) . As is to be expected such concerns invite criticism and controversy, most notably by those who have little concern for the issues addressed -- and having little insight to offer to those challenged by them. Of relevance are the arguments formulated by Alan Sokal (Beyond the Hoax: science, philosophy, and culture, 2008).

This ambiguous condition derives from the anguish of the common existential experience described metaphorically as getting from "here" to "there" -- typically with respect to a sense of progress in any initiative, developmental project or improvement of a personal condition. This can be central to a sense of identity and its lifelong frustrations, especially -- as is common -- when there is little sense of movement or "growth". Daily life, in "going nowhere", is then readily felt to be a nexus of frustrations -- a form of reprise of the traditional trading hub.

The choices it is then necessary to make again recall the existential regret associated with the Bridge of Sighs, a brief vision of frustrated potential, tainted by the sense of subsequent entrapment it implies. On a global scale, this is consistent with the persisting challenges of a continuing round of crises and the sense of an imminent crisis of crises (Web resources on "breaking the cycle", 2002). Development may then be experienced as a process of getting from "bad" to "worse", as explored from a contrarian perspective (Veloping: the art of sustaining significance, 1997).

Living as a bridge: The internalization could however be taken a stage further through exploring cognitive processes of "living as an imaginal bridge", irrespective of any externalities by which they may be reinforced to some degree. The concern is then the coherence and viability of that bridging process when the bridge is understood not so much as a device for getting from "here" to "there". Rather it calls into question the meaning of any "side" on which one might be -- the choice of "which side one is on" in terms of any "us and them" polarization.

Also called into question however is the nature of the "here and now" as a viable cognitive space for living -- especially under the pressures for progress and growth. This is a theme most recently popularized by Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now, 1999).

Exemplifying conventional resistance: Appropriately resistance to consideration of such possibilities is well-reflected in the essentially sterile controversy over the explorations of Lacan and deconstructionists, as in the Sokal Affair, for example. Its relation to the challenge of "betwixt and between" is well-identified in an encyclopedia entry on deconstruction as contrasted with logical positivism (GeoDZ: Earth Encyclopedia):

All meaningful scientific statements were either empirical (or synthetic), and could be verified against the facts of the world, or were analytical, that is, true by definition such as logic and formal mathematical theorems. Statements that were neither empirical nor analytical were metaphysical, and simply meaningless. Here, then, is a classic case of asserting the presence of one side of the binary, the part representing facts and logic, over its subordinate, the part which is absent and which represents values and metaphysics. An immediate criticism of logical positivism, though, was the justification of the empirical-analytical distinction that defined the limits of meaningful scientific statements. It was itself neither a strictly empirical statement, nor an analytical one. But it wasn't a metaphysical statement either because it would then be meaningless, whereas its purpose is precisely one of delimiting the meaningful from the meaningless. In short, it lies betwixt and between the binary of facts and values, between science and metaphysics, thereby rendering that very distinction problematic. [emphasis added]

Living through an inner bridge: Potentially even more intriguing is the sense in which any locus of personal identity in the brain could be associated with the "bridge" between the various cognitive modules (or "brains")  rather than in any one of them -- or in shifting between them. Antonio de Nicolas focuses on the biocultural implications of the five brains of humans: reptilian, limbic, right and left hemispheres, and the "interpreter module" (Neurobiology, Communities, Religion: a bio-cultural study, 1998). These brains function either independently or in harmony, either as dictators or as balanced multiplicity, either as a democracy or as victims, and thus there is still room for further human development. They develop progressively and successively through childhood, although the development of any of them be inhibited and stunted.

Such brains may be understood as corresponding to a degree to both the theory of multiple intelligences (spatial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic and existential) and articulations of strategic beyond the conventional "vision" metaphor (Strategic Challenge of Polysensorial Knowledge: bringing the "elephant" into "focus", 2008).

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