In 1941 a Hungarian émigré working in New York wrote an intriguing book entitled Foundations for a Science of Personality. His name was Andras Angyal. As far as I know his work has been largely ignored by psychologists. This may be due to the highly abstract nature of the theory or its great generality or the difficulty of deriving specific testable hypotheses from it which can be falsified. What he created was a model of personality which offers an understanding of personality in terms of the physical and psychological totality of the person. Not only this but his view of the personality encompasses the biosphere, by which he means all the relations, objects, interests, associations, participations and so forth which are pertinent to an individual. It is not an original idea that we do not exist in isolation but in Angyal's theory personality has no existence without participation. There is a spectrum along which we exist, a spectrum extending from the pole of individuality towards the pole of complete participation or submersion (what Angyal calls homonomy or self-surrender). We are at once individual organisms and part of larger wholes. The dynamic tension between these two polarities is what drives personality, it is what gives us psychological existence.
Generality of the theory lends itself to transcultural perspective. It also ties in with a systems way of thinking about larger wholes.
Autonomy displayed by Islam as a whole is in contrast (or dynamic equilibrium) with lack of individual autonomy for individual Muslims. Islam frustrates self-expression for individuals.
Homonomy displayed by liberal societies in relation to Islam. We seek to accommodate and fit in with what they demand. Individuals within liberal societies have a high degree of autonomy which contrasts with (or is in dynamic equilibrium with) homonomous tendencies of liberal societies at supra-individual level.
It seems that Islam (as autonomous oriented system) is complementary to Liberal society (as homonomous oriented system). It's like yin and yang.
Islam is the expression of Muhammad's autonomous drive. It is Muhammad's will-to-power writ large. It is effectively the extension of Muhammad's character and will through time and space; it has been given permanence and expression through the system code derived from the canonical texts of Islam.
Generality of the theory lends itself to transcultural perspective. It also ties in with a systems way of thinking about larger wholes.
Autonomy displayed by Islam as a whole is in contrast (or dynamic equilibrium) with lack of individual autonomy for individual Muslims. Islam frustrates self-expression for individuals.
Homonomy displayed by liberal societies in relation to Islam. We seek to accommodate and fit in with what they demand. Individuals within liberal societies have a high degree of autonomy which contrasts with (or is in dynamic equilibrium with) homonomous tendencies of liberal societies at supra-individual level.
It seems that Islam (as autonomous oriented system) is complementary to Liberal society (as homonomous oriented system). It's like yin and yang.
Islam is the expression of Muhammad's autonomous drive. It is Muhammad's will-to-power writ large. It is effectively the extension of Muhammad's character and will through time and space; it has been given permanence and expression through the system code derived from the canonical texts of Islam.
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