Several important points emerge from this contextualist perspective. First, powerful interpersonal relationships produce strong emotional reactions that, in turn, strongly influence the nature and quality of these relationships. For instance, some research findings suggest that both therapist and patient “light up” as lovers when engaged in psychotherapy, whereas the counsellor and client “light up” as friends when engaged in career counseling. Polystasis is alive and well!
Second, the semantic differential categorization that I introduced in the first essay might also be alive and well in our psyche when we are anticipating what is about to occur. Our amygdala might be sorting out the threatening and non-threatening elements to anticipate in our immediate environment. In our role as coach, we can be of great value in helping our client identify their own Amygdala-driven anticipations and finding ways to address these strong anticipations.
Linda Brothers (2001) has taken the social neurobiological perspective a step further, suggesting that we create reality in our relationship with other people and that our mind is actually embedded in a collective enterprise with the people with whom we relate. Much as Harry Stack Sullivan (1953) suggested that our personality is dependent on our relationship with another specific person (rather than being an enduring, unchanging character trait), our mind, according to Brothers, is dependent on interpersonal context. We think in connection with other people, much as we create our values and guide our behavior in connection with other people (Gilligan, 1982; Gilligan, 2023).
If Brothers is correct, then, as noted by Rock and Page (2009, p. 15), “a coaching mind-set represents a shift from an individualistic to a contextual and social understanding that supports social cognitive neuroscience.” Brothers’ findings also suggest that both the emotional and cognitive elements of the anticipation process are critical—and that both are strongly dependent on the specific relationship in which we are engaged with other people.
Even when anticipating an event or anticipating a relationship without the engagement of other people, we are likely to be projecting specific attributes on this event or relationship. We create reality on behalf of emotions and thoughts that exist in our own mind, and the projected emotions and thoughts to be found in the projected mind we have created.
Without the input of other people, our near future is an “ink blot” that we choose to “interpret” on behalf of our own hopes, fears, and needs. We refuse to live in the present and are determined to anticipate the near future, even if this means fabricating elements of this future in our own mind. As a coach, we can become that connecting mind that alleviates the need for a fabricated and projection-based mind. This might, quite simply, be the primary function we serve as a professional coach. Rock and Page, 2009, p. 428).
The Neurobiology of Polystasis
The recent upsurge of findings from the field of neurobiology provides us not only with new insights in the Emotional element of the polystatic anticipation process, but also with insights regarding other important aspects of the polystatic process. Several years ago, I joined with my colleague, Linda Page, to identify some of the important findings from neurobiology that hold implications for professional coaches. In each instance, findings hold implications for our understanding of Polystasis. I combine and sort through the list Linda Page prepared, add other findings to the list, and offer in each instance some of the polystatic implications and implications for professional coaching.
Download Article
