Update 1.12 — the changeability of strong self-esteem state and soft self-esteem state

In the previous update (1.11), I introduced double lines connecting particular psychological states. These lines symbolize the flow of psychic energy in two directions.

I think, thanks to this change, I may present in more details the ways how psychic energy flow between psychological states. Above all, it is better to illustrate the influence of strong and soft self-esteem states on the psyche of the individual types of characters.

The influence of strong and soft self-esteem state is fascinating. During the development of the Mandala of Characters analyzing these states continually brings something new. And I still have the impression that there is a lot to investigate yet.

I took the idea of the strong and soft self-esteem states from the Enneagram. It the Enneagram there is an idea about stress and relax states. Besides, there is a typical state for a given Enneagram type. In a sense, the given Enneagram type during the stress and relax moves to other Enneagram types. That is, this given Enneagram type during stress or relax takes on the characteristics of other's types.

In the Mandala of Characters instead of Enneagramic stress or relax, I used the concept:

• Strong Self-Esteem State (or Power State) and
• Soft Self-Esteem State (or Vulnerable State).

I was inspired here by terms “high self-esteem” or “low self-esteem”. But instead of the words “high” and “low”, I think, is better to use “strong” and “soft”. Or I like also to use the words “power” and “vulnerable”.

Strong and Soft Self-Esteem States (or Power and Vulnerable States) are more general concepts than relax and stress that we have in the Enneagram. I think, that relax, and stress are too narrow concepts, they show only part of behavior that can have the given type of character.

Concepts of the Strong and Soft Self-Esteem States, have this advantage that they have many meanings, and they are opposed to each other. The opposition of these two states shows that they act oppositely on our psyche. And at the same time, they are complementary to each other. Besides, Strong and Soft Self-Esteem States are better suited to two other psychological states. It means Conscious and Unconscious States. So, in total, in the Mandala of Characters, there are four main psychological states, which form two pairs of opposites, that is:

• Consciousness—Unconsciousness, and
• Strong Self-Esteem—Soft Self-Esteem (or Power—Vulnerability)

The psychological states and pairs of opposites that they create have interesting properties.

The psychological states, among others, have the property that:
— on the one hand, they can be in a given place on the Mandala of Characters,
— and on the other hand, they can move or swap between themselves.

It means:

• Conscious State can change its place with Unconscious State.
• Strong Self-Esteem State can change its place with Soft Self-Esteem State.

In the first case (that is, in the case of the pair of Conscious and Unconscious States), they usually rarely change between themselves. They rarely change their places. And usually, the Conscious State clearly dominates Unconscious State. However, Unconscious State can very often contact with Conscious State. Therefore, Unconscious State can often act in the background of Conscious State, and in this way can influence it frequently.

In the second case (that is, in case of the pair Soft and Strong Self-Esteem States), they can change between themselves quite often. These states can also be equal, or they can dominate one above the other. Therefore, the Soft and Strong Self-Esteem States are more dynamic than the Conscious and Unconscious States. It means, Soft and Strong Self-Esteem States are quite visible when they appear. For example, we can often see, or we can sense that someone has Soft or Strong Self-Esteem. Whether someone feels Powerful or Vulnerable? Also, if we analyze our own behavior, we can consciously recognize whether we are in Soft or Strong Self-Esteem State?

In the diagram above, I distinguished connections between Soft and Strong Self-Esteem States. Above the area where these connections are located, we can see the label—“Connections between Strong and Soft Self-Esteem States”. These connections are:

• two connections (lines) that are part of the Conscious Triangle,
• and two connections that are part of the Unconscious Triangle.

We have here separate connections for the Conscious and Unconscious Triangles because both triangles have their own connections. So, the movement between Soft and Strong Self-Esteem States can take place both under the influence of Consciousness and Unconsciousness.

In the above diagram, we can also see descriptions in the speech balloons, which are as follows:

• “Strong or Soft Self-Esteem State”, and
• “Soft or Strong Self-Esteem State”.

Such descriptions show that states of Strong and Soft Self-Esteem can exchange places.

As I mentioned above, the Conscious and Unconscious States can also swap their places. However, such changes are quite rare. That is why in the diagram above, in the speech balloons at the top and at the bottom, we can see single descriptions. These descriptions are telling us only about one psychological state. It means:

• Conscious State, and
• Unconscious State,

In this way, I show that two above psychological states usually keep their positions.

In conclusion, we can say that Soft and Strong Self-Esteem States can be in two places. That is:

• in a place where there is Strong Self-Esteem State, there may also be Soft Self-Esteem State.
• in a place where there is Soft Self-Esteem State, there may also be Strong Self-Esteem State.

Apart from the fact that Soft and Strong Self-Esteem States can exchange places, they also have the feature that they can occur in one place more often than in the other.

The appearance of Strong Self-Esteem State at a higher or lower frequency in one or the other place I schematically show in the diagram below.

If the Strong Self-Esteem State more often appears in one place, then it impacts the flow of psychic energy along Conscious and Unconscious Triangles. It means, psychic energy flow more in one direction than the other. To illustrate this, in the above diagram, I used thicker and thinner arrows. It means the arrows presenting the flow of energy in one direction are thicker than those that are pointed out in the opposite direction.

On the following diagram, I schematically present the situation when Soft Self-Esteem State appears more often in one place than in the other.

If we frequently stay in Soft Self-Esteem State, it affects the flow of psychic energy through the Conscious and Unconscious Triangles. That is, psychic energy also flows to a greater extent in one of the directions. As in the previous diagram, I illustrated this with the help of different thickness of arrows running in opposite directions.