Benjamin Saubolle-Camacho > Recent Status Updates

Thoroughly enjoying the book’s genealogy of ideas, and tracing how these ideas are still present in our science and philosophy today. Inspired me to look closer at the philosophy of science as it impacts psychology research.

Accessible scholarship is my favorite type of reading. Harvey is masterful in interspersing context (translation, historical fact, philosophical jargon) with common-sense prose. It’s easy to underestimate the difficulty of creating a coherent narrative for such a massive religion as Buddhism. Very much enjoying this read.

I skipped ahead to the Bramavihara chapter—one of the most practical treatments I’ve read. I love her direct, concise style of teaching. Very excited to follow her direction down the road of jhana practice.

Each chapter reads more like an essay on a topic rather than an integrated whole. I actually quite like that style, as each chapter digs deeply into the philosophy of science behind his critiques. He often appeals to his work on cognitive science and phenomenology to make his points. Thompson does this in a way so as to try to lead you through the argument, but often these are very complex and hard for me to follow.

Some great passages, and others that are a bit to absolutist or cringey—cancer cured with attention? Or maybe I just read incorrectly.

Why am I still reading? Good question, I’m giving it 100 pages. I usually stay reading these books because they inspire consistency in my own practice.

One very unexpected turn was to conceptualize deep work as a form of participatory sacredness. This book is reading as a solid, contemporary non-fiction book (I.e., short pithy statements, very decontextualized research, etc.). Engaging so far, somewhat insightful.

Cal Newport's TED talk was part of the reason I got off social media. Although this is a book primarily about Deep Work, his premise of blocking off chunks of time has implications for how I work (in a busy, always-need-to-be-available office setting). Very excited for this book.

Taking time off from this to explore other research avenues. Haven’t read since Jan/Feb 2021?

Starting to more critically engage with this book. I see many signs of Buddhist exceptionalism throughout.

Yikes, this book seems way above my pay grade. The definitions for concepts like “development” or “structural transformation” are stacked, meaning that these definitions are highly technical and reference other theorists in the human development field. Going to give it an honest try…

Finished the overview of all the stages (4 of 5) presented in this book. Very philosophical, will take time to integrate. But there is a promise of respect that it offers: As a counselor, if I am to really help someone, I should truly understand their subjective experience of the world. That includes how they make meaning—which is the essence of Kegan’s developmental model. Last chapter is on therapy.

In the midst of reading about Stage 3, the Interpersonal Self. I sometimes think the book’s organization gets messy. Each chapter in part 2 is dedicated to the “Growth and Loss” of each development stage (except the final one). Each stage is constantly compared with the others, which makes it difficult to pin down the distinctive qualities of the stage he’s discussing. It feels a bit nebulous.

A new important term defines the second part of this book so far: “embeddedness culture.” This term captures the environmental factors in our development, but it’s more than that: it is the way the person’s development is scaffolded by others, including the necessary differentiation from that culture. To me, culture here seems to indicate all of the levels of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems.

Part 1 is a synthesis of Piaget & Freud, along with Kohlberg in the tradition of Piaget. There are other stage theorists mentioned (especially Erickson). It’s quite dense at points, especially when drawing the distinctions between his latter stages. Disembedding; subject-object orientation; all evolution/development as a meaning-constitutive activity—there are loads of terms that have technical meanings.

Chodron’s style is incredibly lucid. She can somehow speak to 10,000 different situations of collapse at once; yet as the reader you feel she is speaking directly to you. I’ve been using one of her breathing meditations — light focus on the out breath with a wide open awareness — to tune into the feeling of “groundlessness” that she talks so much about. Helpful companion in tough times.

So far, Keegan is providing a map of Piaget & Kohlberg’s stages of development with mention of “meaning making” & “making the subject an object” as the driving force behind both. Compelling anecdotes. Sometimes feel over my head with the developmental psyche terminology, but he’s pretty good at explanations.