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 A Sense of Communion
William Line
"I think a piece that really highlights the deficit in psychopathy is the definition of the word communion. We don't hear about that much, about a sense of communion, but Bill Line says it here in a few lines. The quiet place where we all wish we could rest at the end of the day, at one with those around us. Not just accepted by them -- because that implies that we could be rejected, but just at one with others. And I think that's really where we ought to aim, and that's really at the opposite pole of psychopathy."
By "Sense of Communion" is meant essentially the feeling of ease, comfort and at-homeness with other people. It implies all that is comprised by the time-honoured term "empathy" in its positive aspects, without any taint of stress, anxiety or tension communicated from one person to another. It is interpersonal in its reference, and reflects the joy and satisfaction of "shared-experience."
Many of the words and phrases which reflect the core-values of society and of culture are in reality based upon true communion, words like "family", "home", "hearth", for example. The French word "foyer" is artistic in this regard, and therefore untranslatable. It means more than a mere sense of belonging, since "belonging" may be experienced as "being accepted" -- for reasons of social obligation only, paternalism or custom. It means more than "being acceptable" -- for reasons that imply acceptability to an established group, with the further implication that while we might not have met the standards for that group, somehow or other we have...
Communion is a felt partnership, despite all social symbols of prestige, such as age, professional or other status, or "authority"...
The principle of communion is basic, without reference to any age, racial or other differential.
Think about the degree, now, of an individual's sensitivity to communion, and of the degree to which any social situation (such as your work arrangements), takes this important aspect of society into consideration.
In terms of the development of human beings, according to their own needs as persons, I would put this first-stated need as first. Without a sensitivity to communion, the human being is not.
Various members of your entourage will show differing degrees of interest in communion. You must expect this. An honest interest in fostering Communion, as first requisite of decent progressive human relationships, is basic to any organization of people, whether it be family, school, community, factory or office; in any society...
William Line: Professor of Psychology, member of the Senate of the University of Toronto, Consultant to the Canadian Mental Health Association, Consultant to the World Health Organization and to the United Nations secretariat on personnel policies, Consultant to the International Institute of Child Study established by UNESCO, President of the World Federation for Mental Health and President of the Canadian Psychological Association. His main psychological studies are to be found in the learned journals of Canada, the United States, England, France and Germany. |
