VIDEO:
Robert Kegan, Meehan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education
Robert Kegan's theory of adult meaning-making has influenced theory and practice internationally across multiple disciplines. In a special RSA event, he considers: is it really possible to grow beyond the psychological independence of the "self-authoring mind," so often seen as the zenith of adult development?
I am turning this over in my mind. Offhand though I have a conflict with the conclusion. Looking back on history, it has generally been young adults who are vibrant and creative and who make ingenious discoveries and inventions. I can see that an older population with this claimed higher level of development might lend stability and purpose to humanity. I don’t see though how the older generations can do much to solve any dire problems that threaten us. The worst of the problems have been brought about by overpopulation itself, and longer lives contribute to overpopulation.
Maybe someday when I mature I’ll understand it better.
Thanks much for posting this encouraging video. He spoke of three general phases of adult self-development throughout a lifetime: self-socialization, the self-authoring mind, and the self-transforming mind. One's awareness of meaning deepens in terms of how one's one's actions transforms one's life, and of how oneself and others can cooperate to build meaning and purpose. He made me remember reading Ken Wilbur's Up From Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution during my quest to make sense of why people have relied on religion for eons, while religion has destroyed so much human potential. That book really helped me to see historically how and why all religions became so powerful. Robert Kegan mentions Wilbur several times in another video interview called Robert Kegan: The Evolution of the Self. I generally understand his theory of adult developmental stages, and can say I agree we develop and evolve (if we wish to) throughout our entire lives.