Stages

Where the model comes from

Stages stands in the tradition of ego development research. Jane Loevinger used a sentence completion test to study how people make meaning. Susanne Cook-Greuter refined the instrument and introduced the distinction between person perspectives. Terri O’Fallon developed a new scoring system from this, and Kim Barta contributed the shadow models.

The core idea: earlier models sorted observed patterns into categories. Stages asks about the parameters that give rise to development in the first place. A few features switch on and off in different combinations, similar to DNA, and each combination produces its own way of experiencing the world.

Three questions

Each stage is defined by three questions:

Twelve stages in one grid

Three tiers, each passing once through all four ways of learning: that makes twelve stages. The names are technical terms of the model, not judgments.

Because the pattern repeats, the same process returns on a new level: at 1.0 the contours of the body are discovered, at 3.0 the contours of thinking and feeling, at 5.0 those of one’s own awareness. Once you have understood a pattern, you recognize it again on every tier. A fourth tier is assumed only as a hypothesis, as long as research data is lacking.

On every tier, the same sequence of seeing also repeats: “I see me,” then “I see that you see me,” then “I see that you are like me.” Self-discovery and connectedness swing back and forth.

What each stage contributes

The following descriptions refer to the map, not to people. The early stages are usually passed through in childhood and remain available as capacities for a lifetime.

Each stage also has its typical challenge, such as the strong pull of the group at 2.0, or images of the future mistaken for reality at 3.5. The model’s recommendation is clear: don’t strive for “height,” but be healthy and clear wherever you are living right now.

States and stages

The two grow into each other, and O’Fallon sums this up in four guiding principles:

Development, then, is not a straight ascent, but a swinging, spiral process of experiencing and structuring.

Shadow according to Kim Barta

Shadow is simply the part of you that you don’t know. Barta uses a window with four panes for this:

Shadow includes not only what is painful, the dark shadow, but also wonderful things you don’t know about yourself, the golden shadow. It arises when a burden exceeds what the “cup of conscious capacities” can hold: it overflows into the unconscious and becomes a split-off part. It shows up, for example, when you sabotage a goal or suddenly react like a younger version of yourself.

Barta distinguishes three classes, each with its own direction of work:

The direction of work has to fit the kind of shadow: according to Barta, an adopted pattern that you try to integrate digs itself in deeper. And not everything is shadow. Biological issues, sadness after a loss, inexperience, and the restlessness of growing into a larger worldview are something else.

Common misunderstandings

Stages is not a ranking of people and not a label. The research is still evolving, and the later stages are less well established than the early ones. Shadow work doesn’t replace professional help: acute crises and illnesses belong in the hands of doctors or psychologists.