The 12 Phases™ Perspective on Damasio
Leading neuroscientist Antonio Damasio is my go-to, as far as understanding the whole person is concerned.
Damasio’s book, The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures, is my favorite book. It is a comprehensive summation of his authoritative understanding of neuroscience and neuropsychology - a complete map of the body and mind processes that make us human.
Against the background of research papers, Damasio’s books are refreshing and eloquent, simultaneously straightforward and complex.
I use the writings of Antonio Damasio because he describes the complete conscious human being in the paths of neurons, the nervous system, the body, the brain, and the mind.
Damasio also indicates that creativity is a response to the biological compulsion to maintain homeostasis. Homeostasis is the organism’s compulsion to fix problems.
In other words, humanity progresses because of homeostasis: we solve the problems of discomfort and destructions of all kinds in our lives.
Why we need this word …
Damasio says that homeostasis is a biological imperative that it is non-negotiable in living organisms like us.
Homeostasis is the state of harmonious well-being - not merely surviving, but also moving upward.
The difference between you as a conscious self-concept and your organism is the difference between deliberate choice and unconscious self-regulating operations that sustain your life.
The “strange order” Damasio refers to is the fact that the brain and conscious choice are not the origin of human innovation; rather, the origin is in biological homeostasis.
Life supplies variety in particular circumstances to which you must respond. Only in retrospect do we see how our unplanned responses to life events actually move according to the unseen agenda of homeostasis.
Damasio makes thorough explanations of how this occurs in neurological communications between body, brain, and mind.
Your body and brain are working together for your autonomous agenda. You are not aware of the process. You only feel an instant message from body to brain to mind that identifies the exact nature of unease.
Damasio says that the brain receives messages from the body directly, through advanced, sheathed neurons, and also through the more primitive, unsheathed neurons floating freely in the body's "soup."
The brain, in various sorting and communicating processes, sends information to the mind in the form of images. Damasio says that these images are not only visuals familiar to your eyes, but may also be images of pain, or locations in the body.
Your mind receives all this information and translates it into energy that has one objective, to solve the problem and return to homeostasis.
Similarities in the 12 Phases™ sequence
In studying the path of recovery in twelve distinct phases, I reached a similar conclusion. I observe the instant unconscious physiological reaction to an unexpected event that protects you when your mind is temporarily stunned.
Disruption triggers an immediate response to protect you. This is the first phase of twelve responses that fluidly move forward to restore order.
The process is simple to the 'mindless' organism: just move in a positive direction. The "positive" is led by the power of individual will, what I call autonomous motivation.
I see a place between the exacting descriptions of body, brain, and mind as Professor Damasio explains them and ultimate creative solutions that advance society.
In that gap, the twelve phases of natural development may identify the creative problem-solving process as it occurs in one individual. I believe that the 12 Phases™ system is your organism's response to recover homeostasis in specific, logical, and sequential steps.
In the 12 Phases™ sequence, there are levels in the internal experience.
Our perception of a problem begins with a feeling of discomfort, a disruption to your normal state. Physical impulses snap electrically in the moment of disruption to protect autonomous motivation.
With each of the twelve progressive phases, your organism moves steadily away from trauma/disruption toward regaining self-control. Each movement is solely autonomous: your organism is working back to stability.
In a lifelong process, you continually advance. You change, becoming increasingly more capable with every new challenge. If those rewards also make you happy, your organism has achieved homeostasis.
The 12 Phases™ system primarily shows how deep life experiences bring forth distinct personhood. To understand how we create as individuals will expand our ability to live meaningful lives.
Creativity
Creativity, in its true sense, comes from imagination, and imagination can be pinpointed in a single person.
Human progress in innovation, the arts, and sciences as a general term does not specifically attribute creativity to individuals...
Creativity can be defined as making something that did not previously exist. But creativity is often discussed in terms of the achievement or product, rather than to examine the creative process.
At its root, creativity is the way one person solves a problem presented to their mind. A solo individual creates by pushing their imagination beyond reality. This seems a natural follow to the way Damasio says the brain presents images to the mind.
Creativity begins in intuition, your organism's access to deep unconscious knowledge.
The bio-psychological system in the 12 Phases™ might explain how the origins of creativity begin in the body, how a compulsion toward solutions arises slowly in the individual. A sense of well-being is a uniquely personal perception.
Since your condition is often in flux, fluctuations in life are actually the way you increase your well-being in stages of personal growth. Stages of increased well-being and establishing personal authority in autonomy are described in the twelve naturally-occurring phases.
As a unique creature finding your way in the world, you are solving your own unique problems.
The bridge between your organism and society at large is built in how you create solutions for your own peace of mind.
The discovery of the twelve phases can dispel common misunderstandings about personal failure because, in the sequence, your history shows that the "downs" often build the structure for the "ups" to occur in your life.
Being moved (motivation) toward what is important only to your (autonomous) heart's satisfaction is a natural occurrence.
Writing about the 12 Phases™ gives me the opportunity to attract the interest of science-minded people, to get deeper into the scientific basis for my theory while not as yet having a protocol for the rigors of research.
Notes on Autonomy
We don't share our private thoughts, for one very good reason: Individuals are autonomous first, before we connect to others.
True direction is in your heart’s mind, which is the all-encompassing information your life generates and retains. Your heart’s mind is knowledge at the heart of your heart.
All that is contained in your organism, the entire process, body and mind, that becomes summations in the mind.
Summations in the mind are solitary and personal; they are autonomous.
Autonomy sometimes provokes argument; some feel that no one is an island, so therefore, there's no such thing as autonomy.
While it is true that life is a network of interpersonal connections, you cannot participate wholeheartedly without identifying the unconscious priorities that guide your life.
Natural commitment arises from contributing from your abilities and desires as an individual. As a parent, an advisor, or a supervisor, leadership skills are critical. This is based on autonomy - who are you and where are you leading others?
Ultimately, we do things to survive, yes, but also to make ourselves happy.
The way you pursue privately held goals unconsciously is your signature on your life. One side of you flows in time, while another part of you takes the lead, creatively, for your own satisfaction.
Happiness is an autonomous feeling because you are the sole judge of your experience, and you alone are capable of a successful pursuit of happiness.
At the Brain & Creativity Institute (BCI) at the University of Southern California, Antonio Damasio and his wife Hanna Damasio continue to pioneer studies of the brain. Hanna Damasio adds technical depth through her developments in brain imaging (fMRI).
A BCI project of interest to me is “studies on how the brain organizes narratives.” I use narratives to map people’s life path against the 12 Phases™. At this point, experience by individuals is not considered reliable scientific data. The real-world applications at the Brain & Creativity Institute gives hope that subjective experience may gain credibility in research in the near future.
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Referenced in this blog:
Damasio books:
1989 Lesion Analysis in Neuropsychology, Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio
1984 Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
1999 The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness
2002 How the Brain Creates the Mind
2003 Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain
2010 Self Comes to Mind
2017 The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures
2021 Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious
The Brain & Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California.
This introduction on the BCI homepage captured my interest.
“Under the direction of Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio, current research at the Brain and Creativity Institute includes, among others, projects on (1) the effects of music processing on the developing brain, (2) studies on how the brain organizes narratives, and (3) the investigation of feeling and consciousness in humans and machines. Results from the Institute’s ongoing work have applications in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders, child development, and education. They are all relevant to the elucidation of the human condition.”
Mapping Memories by Life Cycle Phases™, a research tool created by Elizabeth Diane Martin.