Stages of Ego Development Susanne Cook Greuter S2S Podcast #12

Dr. Susanne Cook-Greuter is internationally known as the leading expert in ego development and self-actualization. She is an independent scholar recognized for her ground-breaking work in ego development theory and the function of language in meaning-making. She received her doctorate in human development and psychology from Harvard University.

To provide a brief summary of Susanne’s work, after she studied the work of developmental psychologists, she figured out a way to measure the psychological development of a test subject by making him or her complete sentences. Susanne gave out and analysed tens of thousands of sentence-completion tests. What she found was that people not only show different degrees of psychological development, but that there are discreet stages of development, each with very specific characteristics. These stages are the same for all of us and we all move through them in the same order. Susanne’s research all culminated in her influential paper, which is as full of scientific rigour as it is of general life-wisdom.

Here, Susanne and I discuss the lessons she’s learned from her decades-worth of work on the human spirit. Susanne also recalls experiences she’s had with highly actualized individuals, such as Ram Dass and Amma, the Hugging Saint.

We also touch upon topics as diverse as the nature of language, psychedelics, the necessity for having different people at different stages of development, the interconnectedness of life…

First uploaded on Feb 06 2022:

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[faatje_ghj]

What a beautiful conversation. I really enjoyed watching it. Thank you for sharing.

[katherinedamico]

Thank you for this very grounding and awesome questions interview! It is joyful to hear, see and feel all of the possible realities, and perspectives here. It feels freeing to not know what reality really is.

[DUST]

Such an interesting topic, and enlightened lady

[DamienWalter]

I love this framework, very interested to hear this.

[kentClimber]

good job with your interviews, don't go with psychedelics route, I feel that you are thinking about it, I thought about it in the past, but not anymore.