Glossary: O
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Object Constancy
The separation-individuation process leads ultimately to the development of the ego as a structure. Its final phase is that of object constancy, when the ego is formed and established as a permanent existence, separate from the environment (mother), and other people are seen to have separate existences. Finally, the ego... more »
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Object Relations
According to Kernberg an object relation consists of three parts: a self-representation, an object-representation, and an affect (a certain emotional content) linking the two. A representation of self or object means an image, partial or total, of the self or object. This image is not necessarily always the visual or... more »
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Objective Consciousness
It is the aspect of objective consciousness. Its function is objective perception and understanding, functioning primarily through the integration of analysis and synthesis. It is the guidance for the realization and development of the Personal Essence. So one of its main issues is father's guidance in one's process of separation... more »
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Objective Perception
Objective perception means perceiving reality, all that confronts our awareness, as it is. It is a matter of seeing things as they are, rather than seeing them from a certain point of view or position. So by objective we do not mean the scientific positivist sense, in which objective means... more »
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Objective Reality
We are using the term objective reality in contrast to subjective reality, which is reality seen through our inner mental filters that are shaped by our past conditioning. Objective reality is how things really are. Although it is possible to perceive objectively, we cannot take in the totality of reality... more »
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Obstacles
The work we do has many different components. We work on understanding and realization, generating experiences, penetrating obstacles, and resolving issues. We work on doing and development, living what we understand. We continue to refine the work we do and to introduce new elements to balance the development of the... more »
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Oedipal Narcissism
We discriminate this form of narcissism because it involves alienation from the essential Presence that arises at the oedipal stage, which is different from the quality of Personal Essence that dominates in the rapprochement phase of the separation-individuation process, and which is related to individuation narcissism. more »
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Oedipal Self
The oedipal self is not only assertively affectionate and competitive. It is a sexy self, in the sense that the affection it experiences has a primary pleasurable, sensuous, and erotic quality to it. It is true; there is sweetness and softness, the appreciative affection of love. The assertiveness, however, manifests... more »
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Oneness
Oneness is not experienced as a something, an object of perception. It is known by being it, directly, without subject and object duality. One is aware of one's body as part of all appearance, of all the perceived universe. All appearance that one can perceive through the senses is perceived... more »
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Ontological
It is possible to arrive at a place where we can experience ourselves as the actual phenomenon, the actual ontological presence that we are, rather than as ideas and feelings about ourselves. more »
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Openness
Openness is one of the main ways we experience the inherent mystery of our nature, the essence of true nature. The free, spacious, infinite, unencumbered lightness of our nature appears in the experience of the soul as an openness. The experience is literally a lightness, a spaciousness, a freedom, but... more »
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Optimizing Force
All of our experiences, all of our perceptions, are basically due to the dynamism of our Being. And all of them reflect the optimizing force functioning in either a straightforward manner or a distorted manner. There are, in other words, no accidental experiences, no chance inner states. Whatever arises is... more »
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Oral Narcissism
In terms of our consideration of self-realization, oral narcissism results from disturbance of the original equilibrium of the self, which we have termed primary self-realization. This corresponds to the initial phases of early development coinciding with Mahler's autistic and symbiotic stages, or Freud's oral stage of psychosexual development. We have... more »
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Organs of Perception
The human organism has in it many capacities for perception. The physical senses are the capacities available to ordinary humanity. However, there are many other organs or capacities for perception that are subtle and, in a sense, invisible. There are capacities for inner seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and so... more »
