Page 97 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

74 Communication and Evolution of Society

structible pattern of development. This concept of a developmental
logic has been worked out especially by Piaget, but there are also cer-
tain correspondences in the other two theoretical traditions.®
3. The formative process is not only discontinuous but as a rule is
crisis-ridden. The resolution of stage-specific developmental problems
is preceded by a phase of destructuration and, in part, by regression.
The experience of the productive resolution of a crisis, that is, of
overcoming the dangers of pathological paths of development, is a
condition for mastering later crises.1° The concept of a maturational
crisis has been worked out especially in psychoanalysis, but in connec-
tion with the adolescent phase it also has a meaning for the other two
theoretical traditions.11
4. The developmental direction of the formative process is charac-
terized by increasing autonomy. By that I mean the independence that
the ego acquires through successful problemsolving, and through grow-
ing capabilities for problemsolving, in dealing with—
a) The reality of external nature and of a society that can be con-
trolled from strategic points of view;
b) The nonobjectified symbolic structure of a partly internalized
culture and society; and
c) The internal nature of culturally interpreted needs, of drives
that are not amenable to communication, and of the body.1?
5. The identity of the ego signifies the competence of a speaking
and acting subject to satisfy certain consistency requirements. A pro-
visional formulation by Erikson runs as follows: ‘The feeling of ego
identity is the accumulated confidence that corresponding to the unity
and continuity which one has in the eyes of others, there is an ability
to sustain an inner unity and continuity.’’ 13 Naturally ego identity is
dependent on certain cognitive presuppositions; but it is not a deter-
mination of the epistemic ego. It consists rather in a competence that
is formed in social interactions. Identity is produced through soczal7za-
tzon, that is, through the fact that the growing child first of all inte-
grates itself into a specific social system by appropriating symbolic
generalities; it is later secured and developed through zndzviduation,
that is, precisely through a growing independence in relation to social
systems.
6. The transposition of external structures into internal structures
is an important learning mechanism. Piaget speaks of interiorization
when schemata of action, that is, rules for the manipulative mastery
of objects, are internally transposed and transformed into schemata of
apprehension and of thought. Psychoanalysis and interactionism assert