Here, I explore the potential and pitfalls of integral theory in addressing global challenges. I argues that while integral thinking offers valuable tools for understanding complex systems and human development, it often falls short in practice due to misapplication and ego-driven superiority complexes.

I propose a more nuanced approach: treating people as unique individuals, communicating integral ideas more skillfully, and focusing on practical applications rather than theoretical grandstanding.

What does DEI look like if we remove the politically loaded terms and ideas and focus on a developmental understanding instead? What might we see if we ourselves can take a broader and deeper view into this divisive and important cultural moment that is reshaping our world?

A postmodern view, one that has moved beyond the strict confines of rationality, is what has brought awareness of many of DEI’s principles and claims to the foreground of our culture. This developmental perspective can see things that pervious perspectives were blind to, and at its best, DEI shows us a world in which cultural assumptions, the social construction of the self, and the limitations of rationality and science can create powerfully unseen bias against certain groups.

What does this look like, from the mature DEI viewpoint? What can it really see, what are its own hidden assumptions, and why is it causing so much societal friction that is overheating everything from school board meetings to national politics?

In this talk, I question whether DEI initiatives are achieving their intended goals of increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Instead of moving in that direction, are they further perpetuating any number of unseen biases?

Hard-hitting and direct, I cite 7 places where DEI, while partially true, is moving into problematic application because of the places it’s also partially false – and seemingly blind to that.

(First 15 minutes of the talk, through the 1st Deadly Sin, is available.)

The 7 sins are:

1. Simplified Understanding of Privilege (included in the free preview)
2. Narrow Perspective on Diversity
3. Intolerance
4. Equal Outcomes Lead to Biased Policies
5. Excessive Focus on Oppression and Power
6. Tribalism
7. Anti-liberalism

What is a man? A social construct? A choice? A biological reality?

On the Left, more and more say a man is whatever you want it to be. A man, or a woman, is a form of self-identity, freed from any biological constraints. If you say you’re a man, it’s my job to accept it and society’s job to validate it. The trouble is that gender is indeed a social construct, as we’ll see, but sex is not. This had important implications.

Yet on the Right, they say that a man, or a woman, are constrained by their biology if not outright defined by it, and all of this talk of “identity” runs the range from irritating to an existential threat on traditional gender roles. But they ignore psychology and culture, which has implications, and problems, for their side.

Who should we believe?

From Integral Life

I host a monthly podcast on Integral Life, open to all.

Men today lack positive models of masculinity. We have cut-off and repressed archetypes on one side, and overly sensitive and ineffective ones on the other.

The cost of this is taking its toll on men’s health, longevity, and overall happiness.

Most men don’t know how to communicate in a way that gets them more of what they want. They posture to cover up their vulnerability or they collapse into it and wallow in being a victim.

One kind of man suffers silently, cut off, and only feels anger and disappointment. The other one whines about how nothing is his fault, and never accomplishes much of anything.

There is a way out.

If spiritual teachers are so “awake” and “enlightened”, why do so many of them get caught with their shadows hanging out?

With its emphasis on cultivating greater awareness of our own mind, shouldn’t our spiritual practice help us to more easily notice and dispel our various shadows, traumas, and attachments?

Well, not quite. It’s true that awareness is curative — but as Keith reminds us in this episode, “awareness cannot awaken what it cannot see.” And since our shadows are, by definition, aspects or fragments of self that remain hidden from us, it therefore requires a certain kind of effort to recognize and heal these wounds.

To read the entire article on this, go here.

Terri O'Fallon guides us through her STAGES model, which maps human development from infancy to the highest levels. Based on 1st through 7th perspectives, the model shows how differing fluency with these perspectives can lead to miscommunication.

The discussion also covers the importance of adult ego growth and why adult developmental psychology isn't more widely used. Terri explains how conflicts between stages contribute to culture wars and unpacks data on the mature Integral perspective, including its relation to the Wilber-Combs Lattice and Post-Modernity.