Great conversation here with another of my Integral Brothers, Keith Witt. Keith is a Central Casting Integralist, a California surfer as a young man, accomplished martial artist, father of two, married to the same woman for 30+ years … and an integral psychotherapist extraordinaire.
Photo: Barbara Katz
Keith has, to use Malcolm Gladwell’s criteria, “achieved mastery” in his profession, having worked for many tens of thousands of hours as a full-time psychotherapist in Santa Barbara. He explicitly uses Ken Wilber integral maps to illuminate his work, and to illuminate the people he is working with — and of course to illuminate himself in the process.
He’s written several integrally-informed books, including Waking Up: Psychotherapy as Art, Spirituality and Science, and his latest: 100 Reasons Not to Have a Secret Affair. We’re featuring Keith at the What Next Conference over New Year’s, where he’s going to share his view of what’s next in the evolution of human consciousness, particularly at the cutting edge.
Check out this segment, it’s just 12 minutes. A fuller conversation will be posted soon at the Daily Evolver channel on Integral Life.
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“Obama was a peak experience of the culture.”
This was hilariously on-point. Thanks Jeff & Keith. 🙂
Makes me think of what the effects are for being raised in the *modern* suburban/urban Western environment.
Intuitively, I am drawing a connection with the internet age – the age of immediacy and “all-at-onceness” – we are folded back upon ourselves, to borrow a Teilhard term, and have the space to develop more self-awareness because we are living without much struggle as far as survival is concerned. Not everybody of course, but I’ve met so many interesting folks in my own generation that seem so different than previous generations. So fascinating.
Also interesting about the whole notion that enlightenment was a moment; is it because the young folks, 20-25 years old, are more cynical that we don’t believe that? Or maybe just more fluid. “Yes, we know that, but we’re interested in deep, long-term changes. And that takes work.”
Reminds me of Jeremy Rifkin’s book “Empathic Civilization.” He says that older generations have different forms of identities. Young kids have a more performative identity (different masks, different personas for contextual situations). We are aware of psychology and the unconscious and play it often into our jokes (notice how so many commercials are funny when they play off of someone’s neurosis). Whereas our grandparents generation really can’t grasp that and may get insulted around that whole idea. Really interesting stuff.
Thanks for sharing Jeff, made me think!
-Jer