The bankruptcy of the theory and practice of psychology may best be exemplified in the recent publication of the DSMV which belabors the significance of every possible expression of human behavior that its authors could identify. Here we were supposed to find the splintered stamps of every psychical expression the busy minds of its respected authors could grace with a name – a virtual genome of the psychical matter that delivers to man the quality of being human – a perfect DNA sequence, as it were, of all mental phenomena. As such, if there exists a single system in the psyche of man…a system central to absolutely everything inherently human in a man and one that lends itself to measurement…a system that establishes the ceiling of every man’s possibilities in every area of human life…a system responsible for every man’s gravitation to autonomy and independence…a system that addresses and fine-tunes intelligence and motor functions…a system in the psyche that triggers the executive functions in a man and can bring ambition to effect…a system that decidedly and unconditionally differentiates between any and all men without reference to race or color…and a system that receives no mention whatsoever on the hundreds of pages of this tome, what, pray tell, can possibly be the value of this wasteful sacrifice of a forest? Indeed, what, pray tell, can its authors possibly know of the human condition inasmuch as they have invested a virtual lifetime in its study?
In the late thirties, Knoph in the United States published Otto Rank’s seminal work Will Therapy. Here for the very first (and last) time we come upon a recognition of the very central and altogether defining role that will has in the psychological mapping of every human being. It was a huge leap beyond anything hitherto introduced in the mountain of papers issuing from the Freudian camp at that time. Indeed it remains a huge leap forward even today, almost seventy-five years later, considering all the volumes that fill the shelves of every university library devoted to the behavioral sciences. But even here Rank confessed that he had no idea what will is – no idea pertaining to the psychical organization from which will arises. He describes it as a deus-ex-machina, the implication being that its appearance and contributions were manifestly inexplicable and unrelated to any other recognizable dimension in personality.
At this time, however, we can describe precisely what will is and from where it originates. We can take its exact measure and describe in detail all that it contributes to the global program that is the human being. And consider this: without the investment of this system in the psyche of a man there would be no psyche and no man. There would be more sophistication in a squawking chicken than in the mess of bone and protoplasm that might otherwise have been a man.
I write all this, in this vein, knowing full well the accuracy of Schopenhauer’s dictum. “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” It could not be otherwise, and I mention this because it so accurately describes the forty years since Psychodiagnostic Chirology (PDC) was first introduced to the community of behavioral specialists. But let us proceed.
Imagine a monkey born in a jungle, living its full life in this jungle, and eventually dying there. At this time the jungle remains quite as it was when the monkey was first introduced to it. However, if we follow the life of a man finding himself in this very same environment we might find him hewing trees, leveling a stretch of land, building homes there and later growing corn. With his demise it would be fair to say that the jungle was not as it once was. The essential difference between the man and the monkey was that whereas the latter was organized to adapt the man was oriented to the taking of initiatives. The monkey adapted to its physical environment, and to its social environment. It was adept at adapting. The man, however, was organized from his early years to exercise his will in deliberate fashion.
More than the capacity to differentiate between man and monkey, the dimension of will sets clear divisions between one man and another. Inasmuch as statements of this order rankle the sensibilities of those committed blindly to political correctness, the reader will shortly find that this inherent order natural to every living organism crosses no lines with regard to race, color or religious creed.
Where the dimension of will is particularly weak the impulse to will is weak, and this individual would demonstrate what largely described the monkey’s orientation to its environment. Here we may find an unskilled laborer employed in a factory. This laborer adapts comfortably to the terms and conditions and expectations of those who had hired him. He identifies comfortably with his union membership, and he adapts equally to whatever his wages permit.
When the dimension of will is stronger the impulse to will is stronger. Here we would find those taking such initiatives as would have them acquire skills and trades. Their wages and work conditions may offer considerable improvement over the first instance, but these people too would accept the authority of their managers and bosses.
The infant comes into the world with no impulse to will. This changes soon enough. It does not take long before this young person begins slowly to distance himself from those formulas that had earlier secured its well-being with dependency arrangements. The child becomes increasingly self-reliant, ever testing its readiness to be independent. The dimension of will here is blossoming, and a vital impulse to will has now become the vehicle that will, in the years ahead, deliver this young person’s life to its natural stations.
It is inherent in the system of will, which delivers the impulse to will, to deliver every individual from the original state of total dependence upon others to the final station of absolute autonomy and independence. It is the only dimension in the comprehensive organization of the psyche that is geared to so perform. The degree to which this dimension of will is invested in personality is wholly deterministic and entirely consistent with the levels of autonomy and independence ultimately realized. Put another way, given that capacity to ultimately realize absolute autonomy and true independence, there is no way under the sun that these people might accommodate the authority of managers and bosses. There is no way they can accommodate a reality which has a fixed salary determine the ceiling of their financial possibilities. To a man, these people must and do demonstrate an unfettered loyalty to all that their traits and talents permit.
If, in fact, we find this program particularly well entrenched in personality, with the dimension of will investing the personality with an intellectual vitality along with sophisticated academic interests such as law, economics, medicine and the like, the impulse to will promises to carry this individual to the highest stations of leadership in his or her chosen field. The truth is that the specific field or interest hardly matters. If one such individual opened a dry cleaning establishment, for example, this person would have the company expand the number of its branches to where it would become the largest dry cleaning concern in the city, and perhaps in the country. These people aspire to accomplish. They forever endeavor to reach the highest stations of whatever their respective professions permitted.
As just noted, when the infant comes into the world it is without will. This makes handling it a relatively comfortable chore for the mother who can do much as she pleases with it. She can decide what it should wear, where they should go, who they shall see, when to bathe it and what to feed it. Not every mother will accept these sentiments, I know, not when she feels that her infant has quite overtaken her life. But almost imperceptibly the germ of will takes root. By the time the infant reaches the age of two – the terrible twos to many mothers – the largely passive infant becomes a fixture of the past. Everything the mother now suggests, requests, or demands is met with a defiant “NO!” “Eat this.” NO!” Put this on, it’s cold.” “NO!” “Come to the table.” “NO!” “Let’s go visit Grandma.” “NO!”
This mother should heave a sigh of relief. She delivered and is raising a healthy child. This emphatic “NO!” that greeted whatever she asked of her infant carries the unmistakable signature of the wondrous seedling that has emerged to meet the sun. Here is will fixing a firm anchor in that child’s psyche. We know the child is not yet at a level where it can enlist this will to effect considered decisions, but by the very act of saying “NO!” to its mother it is, in fact, saying “YES!” to itself as a being with an existence separate from her own. Its impulse to will is now moved to create a reality different from whatever the mother had intended. It still has no idea what it really wants or does not want, but it finds enormous profit in taking these first steps to create a reality that comes about entirely by its own design.
We can also explain what will is. Freud introduced us to the life, sex and death instincts which immediately fueled the creative imagination of many who endeavored to explain their purpose and singular expressions. In PDC we remained loyal to Freud’s listing but permitted ourselves considerable relabeling. It was very clear that all the instincts were stationed in the subconscious dimension and their function could only be to sensitize the individual to any threat to his or her physical or emotional well-being. As they had no access to conscious awareness they could only respond to the stimuli received. Each of the instincts had its own repertoire of responses, and in this context we explain how the life instinct is oriented to confront aggressively that which threatens the individual. The sex instinct would neutralize the threat by identifying, or bonding, with it, in a sense. The most poignant example of this would be the behavior of passengers on a hijacked airline. Even in less extreme instances, however, the sex instinct would never inspire an aggressive response. Contrary to what is suggested by the term “death instinct”, here too we find a program geared to securing the continued well-being of the individual. Indeed, we would find the individual insulating himself, or herself, from threatening circumstances by retreating from them.
Will is also an instinct. Unlike the others, however, its natural station is in that dimension that enjoys a full conscious awareness of the world external to the person. With this awareness the dimension of will is exposed to real world circumstances and would be alert to all the possibilities this world affords. Thus the drive to will, or the impulse to will, can move the executive functions to the taking of initiatives. Without exception, each such initiative would perfectly mirror the orientation of the other instincts to secure the well-being of the individual. Add to this the very singular trigger response of this drive in the wake of this awareness which fires the impulse to will to promote the interests, actualize the capabilities and altogether enhance the life of that person.
Although not essential to the theme and temper of these notes I would mention that the many possible morphological constructions of the thumb translate into the range of the manifest expressions of will. These constructions are described at length in the PDC textbook – The Illustrated Textbook of Psychodiagnostic Chirology in Analysis and Therapy.