ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses how developmental dynamics and states of consciousness are involved in both human nature and the process of psychotherapy. Consciousness is the emptiness, the openness, the clearing in which phenomena arise, and if those phenomena develop in stages, they constitute a developmental line. The more phenomena that can arise in consciousness, the higher the level in that line. Ego development is inextricably involved with meaning-making, and, as R. Kegan notes, nothing we do as humans is more fundamental than make meaning from our experience: The activity of being a person is the activity of meaning-making. Ego development represents a developmental characterology of psychological maturation beginning in childhood and extending throughout adult life. One of the most consistent and pronounced themes to emerge from Marquis and A. Elliot was the prominent role of patients' states and "state work" within psychotherapy.
