Analysis and conjectures concerning the dynamics of Period #1 (Stages 1 to 6) of the Religious Crisis. (First draft)

1. The system dynamics work on alcoholism by Ulrich Goluke[1]
2. The work of Richard Lazarus and others[2] on stress, coping, adaptation, and emotion.
3. The work of Jay Haley on both family therapy and the psychiatric techniques of Milton Erickson [3].
4. The work of psychologist Richard C. Schwartz [4 and 5] on the internal family system (IFS).

Though Goluke's model analyzes the system dynamics of an alcoholic, it nevertheless gives insight into obsession and addiction in general and their relationship to disintegration and integration of moral character.

A system dynamics model of the disintegration and then integration of moral character is going to be the guts of the general theory of religion. I am conjecturing that at the core of the model there is a positive feedback loop that is capable of going from acting as a vicious loop to acting as a virtuous loop. My conjecture is that under certain condition, not clear at present, the virtuous loop then leads to purgation and eventually mystic union. This is illustrated by, An Engineer's Story, my narrative of the crisis. My conjecture is that this positive feedback loop will have some similarities to the positive feedback loop in models of corporate growth that cause the turn around of a company headed for bankrupcy.

My conjecture is that the general theory of religion will be an integration of this dynamics of moral character model with the present model of purgation. Once this combined model is established, one can then study under what conditions simulations of this combined model go into purgation behavior and eventually mystical union.

Around 1989 or 1990 I made a preliminary attempt at the moral character model, entitled System Dynamics of Obsession and Its Relationship to Religion. It was chapter 4 of my 1996 version of my book manuscript, A Meditation on Mystical Union Using System Dynamics. This model, while giving some insights, does not deal with the psychological and neurobiological aspects of obsession and addiction. I have been waiting since then until I can gain enough insights to make a more profound model of the disintegration and then integration of moral character.

References.

1. Ulrich Goluke. (1980). A comprehensive theory of the pathogenesis of alcoholism. DSD#251 & #252. Resource Policy Center, Dartmouth Univ. Hanover, N.H.; Goluke, U., R. Landeen, and Dennis Meadows. 'The Dynamics of Alcoholism.', in System Dynamics and the Analysis of Change, edited by B. Paulre, pp. 215-231, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1981.
2. Richard Lazarus. (1991). Emotion and Adaptation. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
3. Jay Haley. (1973). Uncommon Therapy. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
4. Richard C. Schwartz. (1995). The Internal Family System Therapy. NewYork: Guilford.
5. D. Breunlin and Richard C. Schwartz. (1992). Metaframeworks: Transcending the Models of Family Therapy. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Arlen Wolpert
Cambridge, MA
April 4,2000
http://world.std.com/~awolpert/gtr55.html

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