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            %UNARTICULATED IMPLICIT IDEALS & VALUES 870521

     Usually we think of ideals as being ideals only after
they have been articulated;  an ideal is not thought of an
ideal unless it has been stated in words.

     Ideals guide behavior.   Any pattern which serves  to
guide behavior is at least implicitly an ideal.   An ideal
role  model  may  guide behavior  profoundly  without  any
articulation.  Unarticulated fundamental assumptions about
the  proper nature of human relationships  guide  behavior
without  being  articulated.   The ways in  which  addicts
behave  are  expressions of unarticulated implicit  ideals
and  values which guide with great power.   The process of
recovering   from  the  diseases  of  addiction  and   co-
dependency is a process of shifting from one set of ideals
and values to a more integrative set of ideals and values.
The  process  may or may not involve overt articulation of
the  ideals  which play roles in the addictive,   the  co-
dependent and the recovery processes.  It may, however, be
helpful  to  regard all such behavior as being  guided  by
implicit  as well as explicit ideals and values which make
sense  and lead to integration,  or do not make sense  and
lead to disintegration.

     To  promote  personal and communal integrity  we  may
helpfully  seek  to  identify various  forms  of  implicit
ideals  and  values which play powerful roles  in  leading
people  to behave as they do:   role models,   traditions,
taboos, collusions, attitudes, assumptions, etc.  They can
all play  a tragic  part in helping to make disintegrative
behavior  appear  to  make sense and seem  appropriate  to
those engaged in the disintegrative behavior pattern.   It
is  futile to expect people to stop behaving in ways which
make sense to them.   It is helpful  to  try to understand
just how disintegrative behavior makes sense to the people
who are engaged in the disintegrative behavior.

     An inquiry of this sort may helpfully focus attention
upon  the contextual helpfulness (or lack of  helpfulness)
of:    control,  objectivity,   manipulation,    analysis,
dependency,     independency,    enabling,     attachment,
detachment,    vulnerability,   defensiveness,   intimacy,
openness, honesty, prediction.  Such elements play central
roles    in   the   dysfunctional   relationships    which
characterize interactions of addicts and co-dependents  as
they disintegrate in ways which make sense to them.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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