• Kegan's subject-object theory
• classical Buddhist psychology
• complex systems
• chaos theory
• Schön's "Reflective Practice"
• references and Do-It-Yourself

Introduction

I am primarily a pragmatist; I did not go looking for theory for its own sake. I developed comprehensive theory as I experienced the need to integrate my more than thirty years of diverse work, education, and experience. I generated an inclusive theoretical framework in order to contain many working models, and make room for new ones that I know will inevitably arise.

I have theory that includes teaching; business management and leadership; and the practice of psychotherapy, including its margins - dissociative disorders. This theory incorporates my background in natural sciences, forestry, and industry; and encompasses broader notions of "work" and the work of work, or "meta-work." This theory is congruent with the practice of mindfulness, classical Buddhist teachings and my own life.

"If you're going to have a theory, you may as well have a good one."
-anonymous

Theory is important. A theoretical perspective shapes what we see, how we see, and how we understand the world. But theory is not Truth; it is merely a window through which we view the world, for better or worse.

[The] argument proceeds by noting that facts exist independent of theories and to the extent that theories constrain our search for facts, particularly facts with which existing theories do not concur, then theories and methods built on these theories necessarily get in the way of learning about the world, and thus do not enhance our ability to know at all. (Goldberg p. 163.)

I am reminded of Robert Openheimer's statement, "The business of science is to prove itself wrong." Unfolding in front of me was meta-theory which necessarily welcomed wrongness. It is theory with the possibility of expansion, with the potential for change. It is theory which includes the Unknown. And, practically, it is theory that I apply in my work with individuals, groups, organizations, boards and communities. It is theory congruent with the practice of mindfulness.

My theoretical web applies across ecological, psychological, managerial, Buddhist, and personal realms. It consists of five topics, each of which contains aspects which appear in the others:

• Kegan's subject-object theory
• complex systems
• chaos theory (New Science)
• classical Buddhist psychology
• Schön's notion of "Reflective Practice"

The above mentioned web is also consistent with phenomenology, a sub-field of qualitative research. While phenomenology is not included as part of my theoretical web, it is nonetheless relevant as context. Qualitative research is the body of knowledge that addresses inquiry into the interior of human experience; it questions meaning, understanding, interpretation, uncertainty, context, construction and reflexivity. Phenomenology attempts to directly describe experience, without regard for its origins or cause. It seeks to get beyond "meaning," and articulate the pre-rational simplicity of the thing being studied. "What would we know about this thing if we didn't know anything about it?" Phenomenology is the West's version of mindfulness, with its roots in the existential philosophy of Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and Nietzsche (1844-1900).

Amadeo Giorgi turned phenomenology toward psychology and, in 1970, published an alternative approach which placed psychology as a human science rather than a natural science. He challenged how we come to knowledge:

As pointed out earlier, objective knowledge is a derived and secondary way of knowing the world which is dependent upon the way the world appears to us in a more practical and preobjective way. This is true even though, because of our education and training, it may be difficult to assume the attitude whereby we catch ourselves knowing the world in this more primordial or phenomenal way (p. 148)

In the miner metaphor knowledge is understood as buried metal...the knowledge is waiting in the subjects' interior to be uncovered, uncontaminated by the miner.... The alternative traveler metaphor understands the interviewer as a traveler on a journey that leads to a tale to be told upon returning home.... The journey may not only lead to new knowledge; the traveler might change as well (p.4).

Intuition, imagination, and creativity have been largely ignored by mainstream science. An example of such vision is the prophetic dream that came to Friedrich Kekulé in 1864 when he was confounded by a particular problem of atomic structure. He dozed while staring into the fireplace, and saw twisting pairs of snakes, one of which bit its own tail. From this he correctly discerned the shape of the benzene-ring.

Only recently has there been a shift from "natural science" to "human science." And from "natural science" to "New Science." Both of these evolutions expand the boundaries of what is known and how we know it. Expanded boundaries reveal surprises. And, in the words of Margaret Wheatley, "Surprise is the only route to discovery." Expanded boundaries lead us to new realms of thought. And, as Albert Einstein said, "The problems that we have created cannot be solved at the level of thinking that created them." These shifts of scientific thinking are consistent with mindfulness.

Giorgi, Amadeo. (1970). Psychology as a human science. New York: Harper and Row.

Denzin, Norman, and Yvonna Lincoln (eds). (1994). The handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.