You are a Dividual

It’s funny how we can use a word seemingly forever without noticing that is a compound on some level. People are “Individuals”, in the sense that can’t be divided (much anyway, without dire consequences). While reading A Listening Society, by Hanzi Freinacht (pseudonym for Daniel Görtz and Emil Friis) they used them “Dividual” to mean we all are in fact part of one another and affect one another.

But, it struck me as well that it could refer to each of our internal processes as well. As Marvin Minskey proposed in his Society of Mind we are in some sense the collective constructed meta-agent of a multitude of sub-agents that likely evolved semi-independently to meet differing adaptive needs, evolutionarily. This is probably part of why we can be of split mind or have cognitive dissonance within ourselves.

What does this mean, and why is it important? I find this framing attractive because, according to the first description it highlights our interdependence; and my own interpretation to allow us grace for ourselves and others for why we may at times think or act in apparently contradictory ways. With that grace and space, we can use the internal mismatch as an opportunity to learn more about ourselves, and perhaps each other, to take alterative perspectives more easily.