By Brad Gilmore, MA, AMFT
The point of turning one’s gaze towards reality is not to just gawp at it like a bewildered tourist; it is to take reality in, be educated by it – Jonathan Lear
Prior to becoming a therapist, ancient philosophy spurred my love and appreciation of classical ideas. Among the treasures, the term “reality” – something I’d taken for granted as shared and measurable – appeared and reappeared in ways that gradually reshaped my thinking about that fundamental but elusive concept. Eric Voegelin, one of the most important post-war philosophers, guided me toward an unexpected definition.
Having barely escaped Germany after writing against Hitler’s regime and racial theories, Voegelin’s contact with reality was imminently visceral. He was forced to repeatedly confront bizarre, demonic realities created in self-serving, narcissistic vacuums – Third Reich Germany being only one example. From his experiences, Voegelin spent a lifetime attempting to restore a conscious order shattered and deformed by centuries of movements bent on selling utopian fantasies to the public. Voegelin boiled down the concept of reality to four universal essences. Despite numerous, often genocidal attempts to refute and redefine human existence, reality has been upheld through the ages by these four constant, unchangeable essences, listed in order below.
(1) The Finite Animal
Each of us comes to know and experience two problems with being human. First: our corporeal existence is finite. Born into a time period not of our choosing, we live, grow and eventually die, exiting the time period as we entered – without a say in the matter. Second: while alive in this bookended experience, we come to know ourselves as being “creaturely.” No matter how enlightened, we remain subject to our desires and appetites, as with any other animal.
(2) Tension of Existence
As time-limited animals, we feel tension and dissatisfaction with our condition. We are constantly reminded of our inability to alter reality, subject to pain and suffering as we are, and this bleak awareness creates an overriding existential tension. This tension persists regardless of how successfully we deny, avoid, or escape it. This tension of existence, as Voegelin calls it, is universal to all, an inescapable inheritance that misses no one.
(3) Intellect
Becoming aware of our limitations, we further realize that we possess an intellect – a thinking something, unlocatable and subjective, that allows us to reflect on our existential tension. This fascinating ability departs from our creaturely needs, adding a rational dimension. Much to our delight, it turns out we don’t act on animal-instinct alone. The intellect thus propels us beyond the brutishness of an otherwise finite, creaturely preoccupation with pain, suffering and satisfaction of base desires.
(4) Beyond
As intellect allows reflection on our animal limitations and rational capabilities, it also reaches out in various directions. We mentalize perspectives other than our own … the thoughts, ideas and actions of other men. In addition, intellect moves into the realm of ideas. Ideas of the good, the beautiful, the just, offer organization of our passions and energies, participating in a more substantial reality, with direction beyond ourselves toward orienting ideals. Our intellect, in this move, transcends.
Why Does This Matter?
In a recent training at the Saturday Center, we discussed our patients’ reality. Some exist in complete trust of a particular set of beliefs – a professed reality (i.e., political party, religion, set of defenses), which keeps one sheltered, developmentally stunted, incurious and resistant to treatment. In a similar way, some exist in complete fear of reality – the opposite of complete trust. At this pole, we often see greater disturbances in one’s ability to exist in society. In either case, whether one lives in complete trust, complete fear, or a mixture of both, existential danger arises when one’s chosen reality feels threatened.
This matters because awareness of someone else’s perspective is severely limited in such cases, and one tends to project one’s own fears and tensions onto the feared other (whether against the heretic or reality itself). This leaves one trapped in a narrow corner of fiercely protected safety as the intellect is cut off from its imaginative, transcendent capacities. The animal’s low, persistent growl freezes the intellect into submission.
As therapists, helping a patient develop trust in the midst of such fear seems paramount. Illuminating a shared ground of reality might be an important step in that direction. Beginning with what we inherit, we might remove obstacles to seeing the other and moving beyond ourselves.
