From an Amorphous “I” to a Reliable “We”

– And what is our real “I”?

– Our real “I” is completely amorphous. It does not have any image.

– It is integral?

– No. Integrality forces us to be in some kind of roles or images all the time. But our original desire does not have any form.

– In pedagogy there is a technique called “the mask of aggression” where an adult pretends to be angry, but in reality he is treating the child kindly. Should a child really experience a certain feeling, for example, anger, or should he learn to act out these feelings?

– This depends on the children’s age. Of course, before 11 or 12, or maybe before age 13, they cannot be in different inner and external images simultaneously. At this age a person is not that multi-faceted yet. But then again, a lot depends on practice. If the children constantly try to express themselves in new forms, they will be able to do it at an earlier age as well. And there’s no doubt that in adolescence they can already be in several multi-layered roles, and change these masks very quickly.

– Shouldn’t they identify themselves with these states?

– This act is not self-deceit. They don’t lie to other people by doing it. A person conforms himself to the work of the common mechanism, society, in order to bring it to harmony.

What’s the point of thinking, “I was created this way and that’s all. I don’t change; let everyone conform to me; let others break themselves”? In the end, this won’t give a person anything. So what kind of communication would result from that? How would a person be able to feel and experience his real, higher self? He wouldn’t.

– So that means that we are nevertheless teaching a child to be in several states simultaneously?

– We are teaching the children to “dress up” in different forms, as if they are transfiguring. Every child will accumulate these roles within him, will be able to work with them, understand what he experiences, and see that nothing is positive or negative, but everything is relative. The “I” exists only in order to connect with others.

Thus, on the inside, every person accumulates roles, abilities, understanding, and most important, a new level of communication.

– In every transfiguration, any role, an actor stays in control of himself. During the act he always keeps a certain sensation that he is looking at himself from above, so to say. Is this correct? Or should he try to give himself over to the role completely and lose his self-control, trying to come out of himself to the maximum?

– I don’t think we can demand everything from the children all at once. At first we should give them just one assignment. Gradually, as they get used to playing various roles, place secondary and tertiary tasks before them. For example, first you have to enter someone’s character and continue being in control of yourself, playing a dual role.

Within the mechanism we are discussing, a person has to communicate with all the other people in the world. For that he has to feel them so strongly that through them he will feel a third and a fourth plane.

I act you out, “dressing” into you. And to do that I study your personality and your qualities. This way, by internally experiencing your character, I imagine how you relate to your children, for example. And that is already a third plane. And so on.

– Different children have different talents, and their abilities to act are not the same. This kind of transfiguration is easy for one person but difficult for another. Should we make the children equal or separate them? For example, should the especially gifted children study in one group and the ones who find acting more difficult be placed in another?

– A group has to be a group, and its progress has to be cohesive. A child should become accustomed to it. Gradually, the children will change, become accustomed to one another, and learn to understand each other. That’s how they will grow—together.

This kind of development is programmed in all of humanity. We should not change this or create some sort of universal or artificial groups. All of this scares a child very much, depriving him of confidence and the chance to develop.

– What should we do if one child finds it pleasant and easy to enter another character, while another is embarrassed and has difficultly overcoming that feeling?

– A child will learn by being next to the able friends. The entire process has to be aimed toward his friends drawing him into the act and helping him. This depends on the educator. And it doesn’t matter if the child starts out by playing secondary roles. As he learns, he will advance.

I don’t think the group should be divided into those who are better and those who are worse. When children conjoin into larger groups (groups of 20, 30, or more, instead of 10), they will become sort of a mini-society that includes diverse people of different personalities.